The organizations have been adapting to different strategies with a view to beat the competition, as well as sustain their position in a given market. However, the organization also needs to consider both internal and external variables that could affect the overall performance of the organization. In today's challenging world, we often find the organizations competing in an over-crowded market. Hence, under such conditions, it is more important to focus upon either introducing a new product or to capture a new market, or to get into such a market space, wherein no one else can compete with the organization (Sparrow 2404-2427).
Such strategies are termed as blue ocean strategies, wherein the logic is not about technological innovation, or focusing upon target segments; instead, it deals with creating a strategy that will lead the organization to get into the uncontested market space. Such strategies will make the entire competition irrelevant factor for the organization. The organization can then either create a demand for their product or can capture the new demand. In addition, the trade-off between the value delivered to the customers and the cost paid by the customers will be eliminated. The organization will be aligning to a differentiated and low-cost strategy so as to sustain in a given market environment.
It has been observed that, the organizations initially used to adapt to the Red Oceans strategy, which reflect the implementation of the strategies in the existence industries and markets. Hence, the market space was known, and any new entrant or substitute or existing player would find it easy to break down the strategy of the other.
The competitive rules were easy to understood, and hence, the organizations did not find much difficulty in to outperform their rivals in a given environment. But, the only drawback of this strategy was the over-crowdedness of the firms and organizations. As a result, the growth and profit prospects got reduced. Finally, even the products turned into commodities, due to which, the demand from the customers got decreased (Richter, Dawson, & West 2749-2769).
As against this, the Blue Ocean strategy was implemented with a view to create a market space. There are no players, no markets, and no industries that exist as of today. Hence, under this strategy, the organizations will find it much easy to operate and overcome their competitions (Kim & Mauborgne 2-12). The growth and profit prospects are ample, and hence, the organizations will be utilizing them to its ultimate potential.
Blue Oceans are meant to be the engines of the growth. In such a strategy, the demand is created either for new products or new market space. In addition, there is no assistance from the technological perspective, which would seem to be innovative. It ignores the trade-off between the value and the cost, and thus, the organizations can focus upon introducing products, which are not only lower in price but also capable of delivering better values to the end-customers (Kim & Mauborgne 2-12). This is how Blue Ocean strategy seems to be more successful as compared to the Red Ocean strategy.
I would now like to apply the concepts of Strategic Management for Edwards Land organization, where I have been working. I will then analyze the strategies from the concepts of Blue Ocean perspective. And, if there are no such strategies existing, I would like to recommend the organization to implement the same. Edwards Land has been into the Land acquisition and Management services for the Energy Industry since last 30 years. It has been the leading facilitator regarding land acquisition and management throughout Western Canada. The organization relies upon excellent communication and the strengths of their solid team, which help in dealing with various issues for their valued clients.
The core competency of the organization is in managing different land programs, which would further result into an industry leading project. The projects are carried out on time, and also within the given budget. The organization has been adapting as per the changing needs of the customers. The organization is staying ahead of the competition by continuously improving their services and quality.
They are fostering the concepts of effective team management, and are accordingly, moving forward to achieve their vision and mission values. They have been combining the experiences and intuition so as to achieve not only flexibility but also achieve the objectives of the organization. They are focusing more upon the needs of the customers, and hence, it seems that they have adopted the customer-centric approach. They provide value to the people in the form of services that they provide to the respective community.
Nowadays, they have also started to implement technological solutions so as to assist the project teams in their different tasks. With the help of these solutions, they have been able to manage the land information efficiently and accurately. With the help of these technological solutions, they are able to track all the progress of their different project activities. They are able to deal with the issues of land acquisitions, project notifications, issue management, compliance and non-objections, and survey authorizations.
Finally, the usage of technology and their management techniques helps the organization to achieve better results. They are able to deal with all the projects in an efficient manner; in addition, they are able to complete all the tasks within the given deadline, and at the same time keeping the costs considerations.
However, the organization can still improve by focusing upon the innovation concept. Innovation refers to bringing an incremental change in the product or service offered by the organization. Such modifications are possible by either modifying the product, or the service or the process of manufacturing that product or increasing the satisfaction and motivation levels of the employees (Kim & Mauborgne 2-12). In some of the rare cases, even by improving the organization environment or creating a new market space or turning the attention of the customers toward the organization will help the organization to achieve bigger and safer market share in a given competitive environment.
However, the organization needs to learn about the value chain analysis so that they can determine how the customers are placing values over the products or services offered by the organization. Considering some of the factors such as how relative helpful is the product to the customer against the parameters of price, optional features, ease of use, speed and accuracy will help us to draw a value curve for a given organization. We would, thereby, like to draw a value curve for Edwards land considering another substitute option or competitive option is available in the market. So, let us rate each of these five parameters on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being lowest relative level, and 5 being the highest relative level.
So, consider Edwards Land as one player in the market, and consider another player, which is a tough competitor for Edwards Land in terms of price, accessibility and complexities. Edwards Land has been performing well in terms of technological features and support. But, the lower price products, the easier accessibility and lesser amount of complexities will drag more customers. This is shown in figure – 1. Hence, Edwards Land needs to improve upon the pricing parameter, the accessibility parameter, and the support parameter. The complexities can still be solved through one or the other solutions, but it is much difficult to overcome these two issues.
Edwards Land, can therefore, think to implement the Blue Ocean Strategy, with a view to create a new market space. In this new market, the pricing of the products and services will be high as compared to its competitor. But, along with that, they will be able to improve upon the technological features, the accessibility issues, the complexity factor, and the support factor issue. By creating a new market, initially, the customers will find it difficult to pay a premium price for the products offered by Edwards Land. However, by paying an extra premium price, they are able to get better accessibility, more technological features, get rid of complexities, and finally, more support from the organization. By, implementing this option, Edwards Land will be able to become and sustain the market leadership of a given industry. This is shown in the figure – 2. This, is how, Edwards Land can achieve desired level of success in a new market space with the help of Blue Ocean Strategy.
References
Sparrow, P.R. “Globalizing the international mobility function: the role of emerging markets, flexibility and strategic delivery models.” International Journal of Human Resource Management 23.12 (2012): 2404-2427.
Richter, A.W., J.F., Dawson, & M.A., West. “The effectiveness of organizational teams: A meta-analysis.” International Journal of Human Resource Management 22.5 (2011): 2749-2769.
Kim, W.C., & R.A. Mauborgne. “Blue Ocean Strategy.” Harvard Business Review (2004): 2004, 2-12.
Appendix
Figure – 1: Value Curve of Edwards Land and Competitor A before the implementation of Blue Ocean Strategy
Figure – 2: Value Curve of Edwards Land and Competitor A after the implementation of Blue Ocean Strategy
