[Image via Sundrop designs.]
Why is sports the only profession where businesses actively trade employees with their direct competitors? There are frequent transactions between professional teams swapping athletes around. But we never hear, for example, of a high profile, veteran real estate agent being dealt from one agency to another in exchange for a couple of young prospects.
[Image via wagoldby.]
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. As a follow up to our story from yesterday, consider the following bit of comic insight as example of challenging conventional wisdom.
In order to promote free enterprise as well as to greatly increase town revenues, municipalities should position and operate road signs and traffic lights based on public auctions. This would enable busier or more prominent residents to pay for the convenience of customized traffic flows. For example, a VIP resident could pay for the convenience of having favorable traffic lights installed from the end of her driveway all the way to work and back. This system would also inject a spirit of joviality and fun competition into neighborhoods. For example, to humor a neighbor one could pay to have consecutive speed bumps installed right in front of his house, and to designate a “no parking” zone all around his property.
[Image via Soggy Semolina.]
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 examples of challenging conventional wisdom.
Defying Conventional Wisdom: Not Enough Memory
Not long ago personal computers used to simply tell you when they were incapable of executing some task. You saw on the screen “Not enough memory to perform this calculation or operation.” At that point the user had the choice of abandoning the task, saving further futile attempts, or to expand the system’s memory in order to proceed. In today’s age of information overload, wouldn’t it be nice if people could do the same? If we could know in advance if some complex thought or reasoning we are attempting to complete is simply beyond our capacity? That way we could choose not to waste further energy, or opt to continue by installing sufficient supplementary brainpower to tackle the issue.
[Image via Max_au.]
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 examples of challenging conventional wisdom.
Six-week sneeze
There are some fascinating statistics out there that reveal the total time we spend on various repetitive activities in our lifetime. For example, researchers may show that during our life we will spend on average six weeks sneezing, or ten years just watching TV. Even if we could not alter the total time we spend on each activity, just being able to set our own scheduling for them would open up some very exciting possibilities. For example, what if one could opt to shave non-stop for the next two months but then never have to bother with it ever again? Or if you could choose to take an eight-year nap and then stay awake for the next two decades straight?
Companies today, facing an environment of great uncertainty, need to embrace the idea of challenging traditional industry assumptions. This perspective of defying conventional wisdom goes hand-in-hand with the process of Blue Ocean Strategy, which is a systematic approach to turning unconventional ideas into successful strategies.
The importance of embracing the perspective of defying conventional wisdom was noted recently in an interview given by Steve Forbes, editor of Forbes magazine, to the Tampa Times. The inspiration for Forbes’ insight came a few years ago when he was browsing in a Florida bookstore and picked up a copy of Hannibal Crosses the Alps by Eckerd College classics professor John Prevas. From the Times interview:
Are you continuously searching for a different angle and fresh perspective? For inspiration, you can see more of our ideas on Defying Conventional Wisdom.
[Image via Dai Oni.]
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 bit of comic insight as example of challenging conventional wisdom.
Flying Bazaars
Duty-free shopping is one of the more irritating things about flying. Think about it: The duty free carts are invariably wheeled out right after the principal meal of an overseas flight, when you either want to visit the toilet to freshen up, or simply close your eyes and relax. Both are impossible as the carts, working in perfect unison on parallel isles, block all traffic, and necessitate that the lights stay on in case of a potential transaction. And for those passengers who actually want to buy something at 30,000 feet, chances are that the exact product they are looking for is not available, or they can’t get change in the very currency they hold. So here is a solution: Why not institute specially designated “shopping flights?” Such flights would feature a wide array of vendors whisking products up and down the aisles during the entire flight. This way mid-air shoppers can browse at leisure and are sure to find something special from the much-expanded selection, insuring a rich shopping experience. And best of all, such flying bazaars would not bother regular travelers, who could then have the option to choose “shopping-free flights.”
[Image via racingsquirrel.]
Recently we received an insightful submission entitled A Zen Coaching Philosophy for Tennis: Play-to-Play by Mark Valladares. We immediately recognized its powerful illustration of Defying Conventional Wisdom and Blue Ocean Strategy — in eliminating the competition by eliminating oneself from the competition. In fact, regular readers of this site will recall our example story of Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach and how his Blue Ocean-like thinking has enabled him to eliminate the competition and take the game of college football by storm.
Similarly in tennis, Valladres notes:
Continue reading A Zen Coaching Philosophy for Tennis: Play-to-Play by Mark Valladares here (in PDF).
[Image via Quickboy.]
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 bit of comic insight as example of challenging conventional wisdom.
The increasing demand for free-range animal meat is admirable. It shows that people are concerned and compassionate about the amount of exercise animals get prior to being eaten. But is it enough to simply know that a cow or chicken is free-range or not? This label only indicates whether an animal had access to exercise, but doesn’t show to what extent it took advantage of it. So shouldn’t the general temperament of the animal (i.e. lazy, lackluster, frisky, or hyper) also be indicated on each package of free-range meat, so as to allow consumers to get the full picture?
