Blue Ocean specialist to coach Brunei usinesses on creating and capturing new demand

Posted on  09/08/2017  |  Media Centre

A Blue Ocean strategy expert and veteran consultant from the Blue Ocean Strategy Institute will engage in dialogue with Brunei business owners, managers, corporate executives and government representatives on the subject of “Sailing to the Blue Ocean: Finding Opportunity in Challenging Times” at the LBD Forum on Wednesday, September 27 at the Radisson Hotel.

The dialogue aspires to help local businesses break out of intense competition and create profitable growth in existing and new markets. It will particularly benefit business owners, senior corporate figures, and executives who are directly involved in the development of products and services.

A business is said to be in a “blue ocean” when it thrives with uncontested market demand for its products and services in a market space where competition is practically nonexistent or of no consequence.

Blue oceans denote the wider and deeper potential of a market that is untainted by competition. In blue oceans, there is abundant opportunity for rapid and profitable growth, as demand is created rather than fought over. Competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be defined.

The cornerstone of blue ocean strategy is “value innovation”, the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost. Its aim is not to compete, but to create value for buyers, the company, and its employees, while reducing or eliminating features or services that are inessential to the current or future market.

Raj Kumar, Blue Ocean Strategy specialist and CEO, UCSI Blue Ocean Strategy Consulting at the Blue Ocean Strategy Institute, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

By contrast, in a traditional “red ocean”, businesses operate under intense competition. To sustain themselves, businesses focus on building advantages over competitors, usually by assessing what they do and striving to better. In a red ocean, capturing a share of the market is seen as a zero-sum game in which one company’s gain is achieved at another company’s loss. As new players emerge, the market gets overcrowded, profits start to decline, and growth opportunities diminish. Ultimately, businesses could come under threat.

The discourse and dialogue on Blue Ocean Strategy will be led by Raj Kumar, one of the region’s foremost minds on the subject and CEO of UCSI Blue Ocean Strategy Consulting at the Blue Ocean Strategy Institute based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. An excellent communicator, Raj is a certified Consultant and Practitioner from the Blue Ocean Strategy-Initiative Centre of Professors Kim and Mauborgne, co-creators of Blue Ocean Strategy. He has conducted programs on Blue Ocean Strategy across North America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, and has helped hundreds of SMEs, large companies, conglomerates and government-linked corporations successfully deploy and implement Blue Ocean Strategy.

About 150 attendees from business and government are expected to attend the LBD Forum on September 27. It is part of a two-day LBD Program which also includes an LBD Workshop on September 28. The LBD Program is organized by Asia Inc Forum in partnership with Baiduri Bank as Major Partner, Borneo Bulletin as Media Partner and MMW as Creative Partner.

Registration is now open. Information on the LBD Program and how to register can be found online at asiaincforum.com or through Ms Huda Sulaiman at phone 2226555 ext 12, email conference@asiaincforum.com.