What’s a blue ocean strategy?

Put simply, it’s creating something that no-one else is providing, which allows you to swim alone in your part of the marketplace, whilst also differentiating yourself from your competition.

It doesn’t have to be a brand-new product either, it can be repackaging an existing product, so it’s delivered or purchased in more convenient ways.

Most new things aren’t new anyway. Just repackaged.

Take Netflix. We all watched films before Netflix. But rented a DVD with card or cash, rather than streaming it through the cloud for an affordable monthly subscription.

Same goes with music, which has mainly moved to downloads and streaming from vinyl and CD’s.

Any company can do this with a little thought.

Instead of people buying printers and continuously paying for expensive ink cartridges, we created unlimited ink printing packages, which includes the printer, unlimited replacement cartridges and lifetime warranty, in an affordable monthly subscription.

We created blue ocean with office print and scan (photocopiers & laser printers) technology too.

Normally this equipment would cost £1,000’s, most would lease it over 3 or 5-years and pay on top for what they printed each month. After-which their supplier would sell them new equipment.

Instead, we refurbish used equipment making sure it’s fit for purpose, providing it to organisations for free. Meaning they save £1,000’s and truly only pay for what they print, with no strings attached.

We’ve even started doing it with used laptops and PC’s. Refurbishing them and loading up Office 365. There’re no upfront fees, just a small monthly fee which includes lifetime warranty too.

A pizza place might offer a monthly subscription with a 20% discount, which provides a family with food and drinks every Saturday night, guaranteeing business (if the food and service stay good).

Or do what Elon Musk did and create a pure play business (just EV’s), as he did in Tesla, which completely shook up the car industry, and has left the traditional players struggling to catch up.

We’ve done something similar with EV charge point installations.

Electrical contractors would usually install them, fitting them in between their traditional re-wire and light fitting work. But this can lead to long installation dates and inconsistent quality of work.

Our blue ocean was to create a pure play EV charge point installation company, who provide free impartial advice and employ their own highly trained installers. Which allows us to provide 14-day installation guarantees from approval, with safe rigorous repeatable installation processes.

…any organisation can create a blue ocean strategy, just remove your water wings, and dive in.