Blue Ocean Strategy Implementation: Real-Life Learning and an Interactive Game

How to implement blue ocean strategy? What are the organizational and management risks and how can a leader attenuate those risks to build execution into strategy successfully? The case “Blue Ocean Strategy Implementation: Real-life Learning and an Interactive Game” brings the implementation principles of blue ocean leadership to students, entrepreneurs, and executives alike in a comprehensive and effective way. First, it introduces two different real-life examples of successful and failed blue ocean strategy implementation. It sets the ground for learning key frameworks of blue ocean leadership for strategy execution: tipping point leadership and fair process. Aided by the accompanying lecture slides, the foundations of strategy implementation are taught in depth by addressing four types of organizational hurdles in strategy execution – cognitive, resource, motivational, and political – and how tipping point leadership allows organizations to overcome them fast and at low cost, while fair process builds trust, commitment, and voluntary cooperation deep in an organization. Finally, principles and concepts of tipping point leadership and fair process are applied through an interactive game, creating an engaging and lively classroom experience with deep learning. The interactive game is online, with professors receiving free access to it.

This case replaces the previous version "How to Implement Blue Ocean Strategy" (5624) and its accompanying teaching note.

• To help students learn how to overcome the four organizational hurdles – cognitive, resource, motivational, and political – in order to successfully execute a strategic shift. “Tipping point leadership,” blue ocean leadership’s change management tool, is introduced here to show how to address these four hurdles effectively by focusing on factors of disproportionate influence to effectuate organizational changes fast and at low cost. • To help students understand that the fundamental base of strategy execution lies in the attitudes and behavior of people deep in an organization. In particular, an organization must cultivate a culture of trust and commitment so that people can embrace a novel strategy of their own accord and willingly go beyond compulsory execution. Fair process is an important and integral component that builds people's trust and commitment. • To examine the real-life example of the Tata Nano and appreciate how failing to address a key organizational hurdle can have a negative impact on strategy execution. In implementing the blue ocean strategic move of the Tata Nano, Tata Motors addressed the cognitive, resource, and motivational hurdles adequately but tripped over the political hurdle, leading to disastrous consequences for the otherwise brilliant strategic move. • To study the real-life example of Zappos and understand how strategy execution is effectively ensured when a company nurtures a culture of trust and commitment to motivate people to implement the strategy of their own accord. Zappos achieved speed, quality, and consistency in delivering outstanding customer service backed by employees’ trust, dedication, and voluntary cooperation.