Blue Ocean Strategy - Classics From the Vaults of Creating Blue Oceans

Classics From the Vaults of Creating Blue Oceans - Blue Ocean Strategy

At Creating Blue Oceans, Blue Ocean Strategy, we cater to visitor feedback and interaction. To this end, we monitor which of our entries provoke especially lively discussion and response from our readers. So today, by request, we are opening up the Creating Blue Oceans vaults and re-introducing these ever-green entries. What follows is one such classic:

Are you providing your customers comprehensive solutions?

Instead of manufacturing products or providing services within certain industry limits, businesses should be in the business of providing comprehensive solutions to customers, even if that means overstepping traditional industry boundaries.

As an illustration, consider the following anecdote. In the 90’s, scores of Ukrainians would pack into buses headed for Central European destinations such as Budapest, where they could buy all kinds of western consumer goods for the first time. These elaborate shopping excursions caught the attention of the Ukrainian underground. Packs of modern-day bandits started raiding the buses in mid-journey, knowing that they were full of cash on the way out or full of goods on the way back home.

As this ritual evolved, empathetic bandits began issuing certificates to their victims which stated that they have already been robbed. This way, if the bus was to be intercepted again, the passengers could prove to the next group of robbers that they have already been cleaned out and were not trying to hide anything. As such, the certificates saved time and confusion, and by overstepping traditional boundaries of banditry, much improved the overall experience of the victims.