Asia Inc organises Blue Ocean Strategies workshop for SMEs
By Aziz Idris
File photo shows Raj Kumar facilitating a discussion at the Blue Ocean Strategy Seminar on May 30. – ASIA INC
The workshop was held in response for the success of the Seminar on Blue Ocean Strategy held on May 30.
According to a press release from Asia Inc Forum, the workshop will, “help them (SMEs) to develop and grow their businesses through quality learning and building relationships with their peers in business and with other relevant organisation.”
Companies have long been engaged in head-to-head competition in search of sustainable profitable growth. They have fought for competitive advantage, battled over existing market share, and struggled for differentiation with Brand Management. Yet in today’s overcrowded industries, competing head-on results in an overcrowded “red ocean” of rivals fighting over a shrinking and “bleeding” profit pool.
To challenge the conventional assumptions for strategic success, the co-creators of Blue Ocean Strategy, W Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne contend that while most companies compete within such red oceans, this strategy is increasingly unlikely to create profitable growth in the future.
Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than a 100 years and 30 industries, Kim and Mauborgne argue that tomorrow’s leading companies will succeed not by battling competitors, but by creating “blue oceans” of uncontested market space ripe for growth. Such strategic moves–termed “value innovation”–create powerful leaps in value for both the firm and its buyers, rendering rivals obsolete and unleashing new demand.
BOS strongly advocates on focusing on the big picture view, that is, entire value chain of a business, the way of thinking rather than sub system of the entire organisation by asking three questions: Where are we today? Where do we want to be? How are we going to get there?
BOS has a set of tools and framework to address these questions in a systematic manner leading to the expected outcome of brand creation, with unprecedented new demand and highly profitable growth in an uncontested new market space.
According to Delwin Keasberry, Programmes Manager of Asia Inc Forum said, “The purpose of bringing Blue Ocean Strategy into the picture- for the seminar and workshop this year is to provide the opportunity for SMEs to assess and rethink their current business strategy. The workshop will give participants opportunities to test drive the tools of BOS using case studies and learn concepts and methodologies especially value innovation.”
The Blue Ocean Strategy Workshop will be facilitated by Dr Peter Ting, Regional Vice President, Operations & Market Innovation and Raj Kumar, Director of Strategy & Innovation at the UCSI Blue-Ocean Strategy Regional Centre in Malaysia.
According to Ti Eng Hui, Deputy General Manager, Retails Banking and Branch Network in Baiduri Bank – one of the major partners to the programme: “We are proud to be able to participate in the development and continued growth of local SMEs through this programme. As a Bank with deep knowledge and understanding of the local environment, it is important that there is constant dialogue and discussion with the SME business community to understand each other better.”
Convened by Asia Inc Forum in major partnership with Baiduri Bank and Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources and in associate partnership with Microsoft, Indramas and SKS Wood and supported by Borneo Bulletin and Media Permata, the Local Business Development Programme is a platform for dialogue issues, challenges and practical learning that are important for local business development in Brunei.