1. Blue Ocean Strategy Chapter 4
Larin Sanders
Brian Davis
Ivan Salazar

2. Chapter Overview
Discovering the right strategic plan to get to the blue ocean strategy
Four steps
1. Visual Awakening
2. Visual Exploration
3. Visual Strategy Fair
4. Visual Communication

3. Drawing a Strategy Canvas
Produces strategies that unlock creativity
Focus on the big picture
Shows the strategic profile of an industry
Shows the strategic profile of current and potential competitors
Shows the company’s value curve

4. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Step 1: Visual Awakening
Ask executives what prompts them to seek out blue oceans and change
Draw a value curve of the company’s strategy
See where your strategy needs to change

5. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers

6. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Step 1: Visual Awakening
European Financial Services
Did not have a defined or communicated strategy
Value curve for both offline and online business lacked focus
Creating strong desire in top management to seriously rethink the company’s current strategy
results

7. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Step 2: Visual Exploration
The next step is to send a team into the field
A company should never outsource its eyes.
Great strategic insights are “less the product of genius than of getting into the field and challenging the boundaries of competition.”

8. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Step 2: Visual Exploration
The first area of concern, when visually exploring, obviously resides in the customer
Identifying the array of complementary products and services that are consumed alongside your own may give you an insight into bundling opportunities.
One needs to look at how customers might find alternative ways of fulfilling the need that your product or service satisfies.

9. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Step 2: Visual Exploration
EFS (European Financial Services) example
Sent managers into the field for 4 weeks
Each manager to interview 10 people in corporate foreign exchange services
Found that what they thought was key to their success was actually their achilles’ heel.
The factor which was valued most was getting speedy confirmation of transactions

10. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Step 2: Visual Exploration
EFS continued…
After their findings, the teams were sent back to the drawing board to draw 6 new value curves using the six path framework
Hope to push managers to create innovative proposals and break the boundaries of conventional thinking
Also asked to create compelling taglines for each strategy.

11. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Step 3: Visual Strategy Fair
The EFS example continued…..
After two weeks of drawing and redrawing the teams were ready to present in a visual strategy fair.
The teams were only allowed to present each curve for no more than 10 min
The pictures were hung on the walls so the audience could see them and vote.

12. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Step 3: Visual Strategy Fair
After all strategies were given, the judges were to place 5 sticky notes on their favorites strategy.
Judges were then asked to explain why they voted on the ones that they did and why they didn’t vote on the others.
Found that one-third of what they thought were key competitive factors were only marginal to customers.
Another one-third was not articulated well or was overlooked.

13. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Step 3: Visual Strategy Fair
After the strategy fair, the managers could complete their mission….. Being able to “draw a value curve that was truer likeness of the existing strategic profile”
More important.. Managers could now draw a future strategy that would be distinctive and now reveal a true but hidden need in the marketplace.

14. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Eliminate
Relationship management
Raise
Ease of use
Security
Accuracy
Speed
Market commentary
Reduce
Account executives
Corporate dealers
Create
Confirmation
tracking

15. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Step 4: Visual Communication
Distribute your before-and-after strategic profiles on one page for easy comparison.
Support only those projects and operational moves that allow your company to close the gap to actualize the new strategy.

16. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Visualizing Strategy at the Corporate Level
Using the Strategy Canvas
It captures the current state of play in the known market space. This allows you to understand where the competition is currently investing and the factors that the industry competes on.
Also, it propels you to action by reorienting your focus from competitors to alternatives and from customers to noncustomers of the industry.

17. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Example of Strategy Canvas

18. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Visualizing Strategy at the Corporate Level
Using the Pioneer-Migrator-Settler (PMS) Map
Visualizing the potential of each product in the future growth of the company.
The Pioneers are products that offer unprecedented value and high profit growth potential.
The Migrators are goods and services that have value but are not innovative.
The Settlers are goods and services that follow the industry norms.

19. Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
Review
“The soul never thinks without an image”-Aristotle
Step 1: Visual Awakening
Step 2: Visual Exploration
Step 3: Visual Strategy Fair
Step 4: Visual Communication
How do you maximize the size of the blue ocean you are creating?

20. Summary of Chapter Visual Awakening Visual Exploration
Visual Strategy Fair
Visual Communication
-Compare your business with your competitors’ by drawing your “as is” strategy canvas
-See where your strategy needs to change
-Go into the field to explore the six paths to creating blue oceans
-Observe the distinctive advantages of altercative products and services
-See which factors you should eliminate, create, or change
-Draw your “to be” strategy canvas based on insights from field observation
-Get feedback on alternative strategy canvases from customers. Competitors’ customers and noncustomers
-Use feedback to build the best “to be” future strategy
-Distribute your before-and-after strategic profiles on one page for easy comparison
-Support only those projects and operational moves that allow your company to c lose the gaps to actualize the new strategy