Creating Blue Oceans

Blue Ocean Strategy champion, Landslide Technologies, boosts well-oiled sales machine

It seems that Blue Ocean Strategy champion Landslide Technologies is receiving accolades and honorable mentions almost everywhere we turn.  Most recently, Landslide was mentioned in a BusinessWeek article discussing the boost it gave to V12, a provider of direct marketing services to businesses, to improving its sales machine. 

Berke also got the reps to use sales management software from Landslide Technologies. The system lets them track everything from the first contact with a potential client through the closing.  Then he outlined procedures for each step in the sales cycle.

The response was swift. "I just got e-mails from some sales managers saying: `We are dying [under all the new technology],' " says Berke. "But that's good—it means they are actually using it." The pace of deals slowed as reps got used to the software and tried to reach the more senior executives who could sign off on bigger deals. "Before, we were pounding the phones and cold-calling all day," says Adam House, V12's senior vice-president of strategic accounts. "Now it's definitely a longer [sales] process, and that's a huge change."

The new approach is paying off. As of early fall, the value of V12's     pipeline stood at $43.7 million. The company has 279 deals in the works, up from fewer than 100 before the overhaul. 

And, in addition to the boost V12 got from Landslide Technologies, the article also discusses ways in which the management at V12 is tapping into some Blue Ocean-like thinking itself -- both in defying conventional wisdom and via the first action of the Four Actions Framework:  Eliminate.

Landslide Technologies has drawn on Gabor’s expertise to enter an already crowded and very competitive sales force automation market.  In fact, Gabor has led two Blue Ocean Strategy Workshops for Landslide's senior management, in addition to being an Advisory Board member.  And through this, Gabor has helped the Landslide team redefine the CRM market and create its own Blue Ocean space.

[Image via Landslide Technologies.]

Defying Conventional Wisdom: The 388-meter dash

Blue Ocean Strategy is all about challenging conventional wisdom – questioning taken-for-granted assumptions, and overstepping industry boundaries. It’s a frame of mind of continuously questioning and searching for a different angle and fresh perspective. You can draw inspiration from everyday life, and train your mind by having a discerning view of the world around you. Consider the following bits of comic insight, as examples of challenging conventional wisdom:

The 388-meter dash
In all sporting events measured against time, such as running or swimming, the competition distances ought to be modified every couple of years. This would lead to much more frequent record settings, making the sports more exciting for both participants and spectators. For example, the 400-meter run could be changed to 425 meters, then down to 388, etc. And a similar variety can be introduced to other sports as well. Instead of a javelin all the time, why not see who could toss a limbo stick the furthest, or instead of a shot-put, why not hurl a watermelon at the next Olympics?

Wild Rice
How wild can wild rice get?

Super Glue
Why is it that even the strongest glues don’t stick to the inside of the tube that they come in?

Un océano de innovación

Blue Ocean Strategy makes waves in South America again -- most recently at the World Forum on Creativity and Innovation (Foro Mundial de Creatividad e Innovacion) in Caracas, Venezuela.

The event took place on October 15^th, organized by El Nacional, Venezuela’s leading daily newspaper, and attended by 800 local business leaders.

Gabor was one of the thee featured presenters, along with prominent creativity and innovation experts Roger Von Oeach and Robert Tucker.

For more information and event overview, you may visit the event website here.

[Image via Foroselnacional.com .]

UPS goes the extra blue mile — to serve its customers

In a recently-published entry entitled  ‘What can blue do for you?’ we touched on UPS’ shift towards Blue Ocean-like thinking as it aims to boost customer demand by offering an easier and more efficient way for small companies to finance their trade transactions with international suppliers.   We received follow-up emails from readers asking for other such examples from the logistics industry.  So today we share a news article which talks of UPS’ quest to reinvent itself from a transportation company to an ‘information technology company focusing on transportation.’ 

From the BusinessWeek list of 2007’s best performers: 

With its basic business of delivering packages turning into a mature business growing in the mid-single digits, Atlanta-based UPS conducted extensive customer research that revealed that many of its corporate shippers were looking to offload the chore of managing their supply chains, which would free them to focus on their core businesses. So UPS went on an investment binge that today enables it to do everything from managing warehouses for customers to helping run clients' entire global transportation network. For some customers, it even handles repairs:  If you own a Toshiba Corp. (TOSBF ) laptop that needs fixing, Toshiba provides an 800 number that's actually manned by UPS, which dispatches a UPS driver to pick up the broken laptop for shipping to a UPS warehouse in Louisville, where UPS-trained technicians fix it before shipping it back, via UPS, of course. That diversification has enabled Toshiba to focus on its core business of designing and building computers, and helped UPS boost its sales an average 13% over each of the past three years. "UPS is not just a transportation company anymore.  It’s an information technology company focusing on transportation,” says David Simchi-Levi, a professor and supply-chain expert at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "There is going to be a lot of demand for such services, and UPS is perfectly positioned to deliver them efficiently."

[Image via Techrepublic.com .]

King of search goes Android

We previously published an article about search giant Google, and its simple, straightforward homepage, which is core to its customer utility.   Now, Google is propelling itself into entirely new waters with the launch of its mobile telephone — Android.   Those waters, however, are already quite red and bloody — given a plethora of competition.   

But alas, Google has a plan for this, and, not surprisingly, it again involves some Blue Ocean Strategy-like thinking.  As PC Magazine elaborates:

Android's true target isn't the 19 percent of phones running OSs, like BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Mac OS. It's the other 81 percent of phones, which aren't smartphones and run operating systems you've never heard of like Nucleus and P2K. This large part of the market we call feature phones has become more and more powerful, hardware-wise, over the past few years. But these brawny handsets are still stuck with software stacks designed for the 20th century.

We will continue to follow Android’s journey, and its effort to create a marketspace which, until now, has been largely underserved.  

Defying Conventional Wisdom: Enterprising Snail

Blue Ocean Strategy is all about challenging conventional wisdom – questioning taken-for-granted assumptions, and overstepping industry boundaries. It’s a frame of mind of continuously questioning and searching for a different angle and fresh perspective. You can draw inspiration from everyday life, and train your mind to have a discerning view of the world around you. Consider the following bit of comic insight as an example of challenging conventional wisdom.

Snapshot from the animal kingdom:  As snails grow they abandon their shells and seek bigger empty shells to move into. Going through the process repeatedly, could it ever occur to an enterprising snail that there is a real business opportunity in this? It could collect a selection of various size shells and lease them to fellow snails in exchange for food or protection, thereby creating a primitive barter system.

[Image via Mangiwau.]

What can blue do for you?

Need to ship a package — or perhaps some financing to help your small business — or both?   From atop our mast we recently spotted an article about the freight and logistics industry, and, more specifically, UPS’ shift towards Blue Ocean-like thinking. UPS aims to boost customer demand by offering an easier and more efficient way for small companies to finance their trade transactions with international suppliers.   

From BusinessWeek:

Package delivery giants United Parcel Service and FedEx are making aggressive moves to pare back rising fuel costs. But UPS is also taking a more unusual step: trying to boost customer demand by loaning money to small businesses. On Sept. 9 the Atlanta company plans to unveil Cargo Finance, aimed at helping small customers that need funds to keep their product orders flowing. "We found that entrepreneurs would love to have someone provide them with working capital," says UPS Capital Senior Managing Director Chris Vukas.

One of its trial customers is Pedors, a US$2 million Marietta (Georgia, USA) importer of orthopedic shoes. Along with shipping Pedors products from Chinese factories to U.S. warehouses, UPS pays the Chinese supplier up front for the goods. Pedors wires UPS half the cost of the shipment once the shoes leave China and has 60 days to pay the balance, with interest. Pedors Chief Executive John O'Hare says working with UPS has helped his firm expand its product line. "This service cuts out all the middlemen in international trade," he says. Prior to the UPS deal, O'Hare relied on a bank credit line secured by his personal assets. With UPS, the collateral is the shipment itself.

More information is available via the UPS press release.

[Image via Creativity at Work.]