The Spinosa Factor

This morning I enjoyed a terrific workshop put on by the Greater Baltimore Technology Council (GBTC) about helping businesses identify new market space and eliminate competition. The workshop is focused around a publication put out by the Harvard Business School Press and is mandatory curriculum at Harvard.

I’ve personally read this book twice and I strongly recommend this to decision makers and people empowered with the responsibility of growing new business opportunities for their companies.

This is a very difficult process and addressing “Blue Oceans” mandates that differentiators have to be substantial and recognized in order to produce tangible results. Examples/Case Studies in this book also highlight very large companies with extensive budgets in being able to tackle new concepts/opportunities. I’d like to whine and say it’s not possible for those without significant investment capital but truth be told it is. Especially in technology related offerings where the majority of costs can be absorbed by variable costs mostly pertaining to labor. With that being said there is a huge price to be paid one way or another and entering a “Blue Ocean” is always inherently at a higher risk then swimming in the “Red Ocean” of traditional services or products.

When you get the chance I highly recommend picking up this book and giving it a read and who knows maybe the GBTC may put on another workshop related to this matter in the near future.