Our Iceberg is Melting - a fable on change management

Today I went to a bookstore and browsed several books in management section.

Then I found a book titled "Our iceberg is melting" which seemed quite thin and I decided, well I can finish it in the store itself.

So, within half an hour, I managed to finish the book off!

It was a fable about penguins in Antarctica. But funny part is, authors managed to highlight how change management can be implemented through this fable.

The fable naturally draws on eight steps for leading change which I have paraphrased below into seven to make them easier to understand:

1. Get peoples' attention.


2. Establish a change-leading team.


3. Agree on the results you want



4. Allow needed changes.


5. Show regular progress.


6. Stay focused.
7. Build new habits that will serve you well after the change is done
8. Make changes stick



This book is by no means a bible on change management, but definitely a good reading on steps how to deal with it.

What is a BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY?

The relevant book where the idea came from - http://bit.ly/c55AK1

First what is red (opposite of blue here) ocean? It is the tradional market place where firms compete with each other.

Blue ocean is a new marketspace, yet to be explored. Since it is new, competitions are irrelevant there.

What is a BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY? The authors explain it by comparing it to a red ocean strategy (traditional strategic thinking):

1. DO NOT compete in existing market space. INSTEAD you should create uncontested market space.

2. DO NOT beat the competition. INSTEAD you should make the competition irrelevant.

3. DO NOT exploit existing demand. INSTEAD you should create and capture new demand.

4. DO NOT make the value/cost trade-off. INSTEAD you should break the value/cost trade-off.

5. DO NOT align the whole system of a company's activities with its strategic choice of differentiation or low cost. INSTEAD you should align the whole system of a company's activities in pursuit of both differentiation and low cost.

Wikipedia link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ocean_Strategy