Real-world Business Analysis Part V

This week, you will move forward in your application of strategic thinking concepts and strategic tools. The tools you will explore this week focus on the creation and initial assessment of value innovation or blue ocean strategies.

post to your Group Discussion area an attachment document in which you have included the following items (use the bold section titles to separate the various analyses). You must also post a 1- to 2-paragraph summary of your work as the text of your post so that the instructor can see it.

Review Chapter 3, “Reconstruct Market Boundaries,” in the course text Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, and, using Figure 3-5 on page 79 as a guide, construct a quick six paths analysis for your chosen company.

a. This entails identifying (either in graphical or tabular form) the current state of competition, vis-à-vis industry, strategic group, buyer group, scope of product or offering, functional-emotional orientation, and time.

b. Then, use this analysis to inform your development of a strategy canvas, where you will begin to explore a reconstruction of market boundaries—looking to identify potential blue ocean spaces (see next step).

Strategy Canvas Analysis

Review pages 25–28 in Chapter 2, “Analytical Tools and Frameworks,” and review Chapter 4, “Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers” in the course text Blue Ocean Strategy. Draft a complete strategy canvas for your real-world business that addresses the following:

• Why/how have you chosen the factors that the industry competes on and invests in?
• Why/how have you assessed the relative offering level for each element?
• Which competitors/segments did you select to model and why?

Four Actions Grid Analysis

Review pages 29–37 in Chapter 2, “Analytical Tools and Frameworks.’ Based on your strategy canvas and six paths analysis, complete an “eliminate-reduce-raise-create” grid for your real-world company. Make sure that your four actions framework is consistent with your emerging overall value innovation strategy and that you have begun to anticipate the various implementation challenges that will arise from your grid analysis.

Noncustomer Analysis

Review Chapter 5, “Reach Beyond Existing Demand” in the course text Blue Ocean Strategy. Complete a three-tier analysis of noncustomers and write one or two paragraphs that describe the strategic implications of your analysis and how it informs your emerging value innovation strategy.