Creating Blue Oceans

Netflix’s tough lesson in infatuation

Readers of Gabor’s new book Slingshot: Re-Imagine Your Business, Re-Imagine Your Life know that any company must understand the risk of upsetting its permanently infatuated consumers when looking to alter its offering. Certain offerings grab customers just the right way at the right time and help to keep them continuously infatuated. The interesting thing with such lasting infatuations is that consumers actually become very territorial about the offering and feel entitled to the permanence of their infatuation. Hence they demand that the offering stay unchanged.

Netflix learned this lesson the hard way recently. Take note of their misstep, via the New York Times:

Reed Hastings was soaking in a hot tub with a friend last month when he shared a secret: his company, Netflix, was about to announce a plan to divide its movie rental service into two — one offering streaming movies over the Internet, the other offering old-fashioned DVDs in the mail.

“That is awful,” the friend, who was also a Netflix subscriber, told him under a starry sky in the Bay Area, according to Mr. Hastings. “I don’t want to deal with two accounts.”

Mr. Hastings ignored the warning, believing that chief executives should generally discount what their friends say.

He has since regretted it. Subscribers revolted and many dropped the service. The plan further tarnished a once widely respected Internet service that had already been wounded by an unpopular price increase in the summer. Mr. Hastings was forced to reverse the planned split — but not the price increase — three weeks later and apologized. 

[Image via Flickr.]

Making ideas happen. Scott Belsky joins Gabor on Slingshot Living Radio

We’re delighted to have as Gabor’s guest Scott Belsky, author of the national best-selling book Making Ideas Happen and CEO of Behance. Scott recently noted in Fast Company that “to create what will be, you must remove yourself from the constant concern for what already is.” So if that gets your neurons firing, tune in to Gabor’s chat with Scott on Saturday 05 November and find out how Scott is helping oodles of creative professionals to work smarter and more successfully. 

While the countdown advances, why not grab a copy of Gabor’s new book Slingshot: Re-Imagine Your Business, Re-Imagine Your Life for inspiring, creative remedies for your business.

 

The “instinctive” Blue Ocean Strategist

There have been a lot of moving tributes to Steve Jobs. Perhaps President Obama summed it up best when he said, “there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”  Just this past summer, Professor Renée Mauborgne, the co-author of the international bestseller Blue Ocean Strategy was asked if she considered Steve Jobs a Blue Ocean Strategist, and why.

Here’s how Professor Mauborgne responded, from allAfrica: 

This question deserves a two-part response. First, yes, Steve Jobs is instinctively a blue ocean strategist. 

He does not aim to benchmark the competition, but like blue ocean strategy he aims to make the competition irrelevant by offering a leap in value to buyers that changes the contours of the market.

While Apple's businesses all involve technology, he does not aim to create a technology innovation rather he aims to create value innovation that makes the technology disappear from buyers' perspective….

Do you agree? In what other ways do you see Steve Jobs as an instinctive Blue Ocean strategist? Share your thoughts on this topic with us via Twitter (@SlingshotLiving). 

“What’s missing is imagination”

We fully agree with the premise of a recent article entitled “There’s Enough Math in Finance Already—What’s Missing is Imagination,” posted by Jason Gots over at Big Think. It overlaps nicely with the basic premise of Gabor’s newly released book Slingshot’ that as children, our imagination knew no boundaries, but as we grow older, our intellectual comfort zone shifts from that of continuous exploration and inquisitiveness to that of conformity with accepted norms of perception.

From Big Think:

But everyone at some point encounters – and many of us swallow – the dangerous notion that creativity and calculation are irreconcilable enemies. 

This perspective lives at the very heart of our school curricula from first grade through graduate school, as our talents are identified and we, complicit in the scheme, label ourselves ‘artistic’ or ‘sporty’ or ‘scientific.’ No doubt there are real, epigenetic differences in the way people think and see the world, but in epigenesis lies the key: Nature gives us talents, but nurture determines how we use them, and how mono or multidimensional our minds become.

Listen to Gabor’s recent chat with Laura Kelly, SVP of Global Product Marketing at American Express to find out how she’s injecting a much needed layer of creativity and imagination into the finance industry.

[Image via Big Think.]

Laura Kelly joins Gabor on Slingshot Living Radio

At last, the day is finally here. Now you can tune in to Gabor’s chat with Laura Kelly on Slingshot Living radio. Laura is the SVP of Global Product Marketing at American Express. Find out how Laura is leading the charge to re-imagine the finance industry.

Tired of archaic, industry-imposed limitations? Grab a copy of Gabor’s new book Slingshot: Re-Imagine Your Business, Re-Imagine Your Life for inspiring, creative remedies.

Ready-made value innovations for the airline industry

Readers of Gabor’s book Slingshot: Re-Imagine Your Business, Re-Imagine Your Life—like @brodybond—know that the airline industry is brimming with untapped potential to enrich the lives of customers. One particular idea is the creation of a frequent flyer program in which passengers earn more points the less luggage they bring.

We therefore enjoyed learning about a method of boarding planes that, in a Blue Ocean Strategy way, could improve air travelers’ experience while simultaneously reducing costs for airlines.

From the celtrino blog:

I recently read a fascinating piece by Tim Hornyak over at CNET News who reported on a physicist that can cut plane on-boarding time in half.

There are a number of remarkable things about this achievement.

First of all, it has the potential, or so the physicist at the centre of this proposed on-boarding methodology claims, to save over €100 million per carrier. Yes, that’s per carrier and it is an astronomical sum in any industry but for the airline industry that faced bankruptcy some years back after the cataclysmic events of 9/11, even more so.

Secondly, Jason Steffen who is an astrophysicist by trade published his findings in The Journal of Air Transport Management in 2008. Here we are in 2011, close to 2012 actually, a full four years later and not a dickie bird or a tweet from the carriers on their impending adoption of this cost saving and hugely transformative on-boarding methodology.

What other ways can the airline industry enrich the lives of travelers? Share your thoughts on this topic with us via Twitter (@SlingshotLiving).  

 

What does a Slingshot sound like?

Now you can hear it too. We’re delighted to announce that Gabor’s book Slingshot: Re-Imagine Your Business, Re-Imagine Your Life is now available in audio format. So now, in addition to having Slingshot at your fingertips, you can  also listen to all of the trailblazing content. And no extra charge for the sultry voice! 

Find out why you need to infatuate your target audience and to provide them continuous lifestyle enrichment; how to become market-driving and to shape your offering for broadest relevance; and how to channel your reclaimed creativity into smart strategy. Launch yourself to new business and personal heights and have fun doing it with your copy of Slingshot: Re-Imagine Your Business, Re-Imagine Your Life available in text, electronic and now audio formats. 

The rules, what rules?

We couldn’t agree more with the recent New York Times article “The Children’s Authors Who Broke the Rules,” which was brought to our attention by Slingshot Visionary Chip Conley. 

Via the New York Times:

The stylistic eccentricities of Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein and Theodor Geisel, a k a Dr. Seuss, are so much a part of the childhood vernacular today that it’s hard to imagine their books were once considered by some to be wholly inappropriate for children.

Yet these three authors — who each have a new book coming out this month in what can only be described as a Seussian coincidence (“But, see! We are as good as you. Look! Now we have new books, too!”) — challenged the conception of what a children’s book should be. And children’s literature, happily, has never been the same.

How did Theodor Geisel redefine a whole entire segment of the book industry and significantly grow its target audience in the process? Read the inspiring case study in Gabor’s new new book Slingshot: Re-Imagine Your Business, Re-Imagine Your Life.

 

 

A peek into creativity and innovation in the world of finance

Yes, we know, to most it may seem like an oxymoron. But not so over at American Express. Set your reminders for Thursday 20 October as Gabor chats with Laura Kelly on Slingshot Living radio. Laura is the SVP of Global Product Marketing at American Express. At the exciting intersection of finance and technology, find out how Laura is leading the charge to re-imagine the industry.  

Tired of archaic, industry-imposed limitations? Grab a copy of Gabor’s new book Slingshot: Re-Imagine Your Business, Re-Imagine Your Life for inspiring, creative remedies.

 

Has the flash burned out at Kodak?

Back in 2008 we wrote about Kodak, which, “with the dawn of the digital era, was left trapped in a darkroom—a victim of its own core business.” At that time Kodak seemed to be awakening from its long slumber and charting a new course towards tranquil blue oceans. 

That was three years ago and recent reports are causing analysts to wonder if Kodak can finally steam its way to profitable blue oceans, or if its situation is now more akin to turning the Queen Mary II around in a small bathtub.  From the Wall Street Journal:

Investors have become impatient with the drawn out and expensive turnaround, heightening the pressure on Mr. Perez to show results. The company has posted only one profitable year since he became CEO in 2005. He says it will return to profitability in 2012. The board isn't considering replacing Mr. Perez at this time, two people familiar with the matter said.

The one-time blue chip suffered with the transition to digital cameras and lost much of its traditional film business to foreign competitors. Intellectual property licensing and lawsuits have largely funded Kodak's cash needs but stalled earlier this year, prompting Kodak to decide to sell 1,100 of its digital patents.

We’re curious what you think. Share your thoughts on this topic with us via Twitter (@SlingshotLiving). 

[Image via Vintage Cameras & Equipment.]