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Seeing Blue: A New Strategy for Business Success

Twenty20: Cricket on fast-forward

The world of cricket has recently seen the rise of a new version of the game known as ‘twenty 20’. A shorter, faster-paced version than normal cricket, twenty20 is a revolutionary new concept designed to remove the so-called ‘boredom factor’ of the game by speeding up operations and limiting the length of matches to hours rather than days. In the process, say its supporters, a large amount of fun has been injected into a game which was previously more renowned by outsiders for its slow, sober, sedate contemplation. 

The newly repackaged game began in England at county level, but became a global phenomenon with the creation of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in arguably the world’s most cricket obsessed nation. The IPL, with its colossal budget, is able to offer big financial incentives to players relative to the standard game of cricket.  Players conduct the game in a non-stop fashion and rules have been introduced to ensure there are penalties for time wasting. By adopting a style usually associated with the likes of the National Basketball Association or the National Football League in America, twenty20 is grabbing non-cricket fans and has been producing headlines such as: “the Twenty20 revolution is the greatest opportunity the sport has known” (3).

Twenty20 is a different application of BOS than the two examples above: it is not a reinvention of the game, but a repackaging, which has managed to take cricket into new market spaces. 

BOS in the past and future

Examples such as the above can all be understood within a Blue Ocean Strategy framework. Blue Ocean Strategy, however, is not only a strategy of the present time. The research for the articles and book shows that similar strategic moves have existed since at least the 1880’s. 

With large scale profits at stake and considerable relevance in a vast array of market sectors, Blue Ocean Strategy is not only an evocative phrase but an increasingly powerful language. As BOS spreads and becomes more widely adopted to explain success stories throughout the modern world, integrating BOS with other popular business tools and frameworks is surely the next step for this new business strategy. 

References

(1) Tony Babinsky, Cirque Du Soleil: 20 years under the sun, Harry N. Abrams Inc, 2004

(2) Nintendo.com/news

(3) Mike Atherton, former England cricket Captain and Chief Cricket Correspondent, Times Online, June 2008