Smart Business Magazine, February 2016

14 Smart Business Columbus February 2016 The importance of a blue ocean strategy for your business and personal life Make your competition irrelevant At a recent Women for Economic and Leadership Development gathering in Columbus I was asked to lead a presentation on Finding Your Blue Ocean Strategy It was based on a book that had a seismic impact on my business which I read 10 years ago Blue Ocean Strategy How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant According to authors W Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne the definition of a blue ocean strategy is to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant The book cites a remarkable example illustrated by Cirque du Soleils incredibly successful path to success Cirque du Soleil came to the market with a venue that combines the artistic richness of theater acrobatics and circus 20 years ago It created a new audience of spectators who were willing to pay several times the admission of a traditional circus to see their shows As a result Cirque du Soleil generated a level of revenues in less than 20 years that took Ringling Bros and Barnum Bailey more than 100 years to achieve Finding my own way In my own life I had entered the staffing industry an industry with thousands of national and global competitors After understanding the need to create new market space rather than compete with competitors I deliberately branded our staffing company as a social enterprise that creates job opportunities for people with employment challenges such as a disabled veterans veterans military spouses and people with disabilities The other discriminator that was incredibly relevant is that we are woman owned a highly valued distinction among Fortune 1000 companies government agencies and government contractors that are held to compliance drivers to meet their women owned business spending requirements Ten years after reading Blue Ocean Strategy weve launched insurance and IT apprenticeship models The strategy links education and job experience in order to provide the federal and insurance verticals with a workforce that has the experience and certifications to fill the unmet need of those verticals It is another path our company is taking inspired by the book You may be already there For the WELD event I was challenged with presenting blue ocean strategies to a mixed audience of women executives managers and business owners I asked the audience to define what sets them apart in how they do their jobs and or how they run their businesses The variety of responses suggested that many women were creating these strategies both as leaders and business owners One respondent an owner of a global IT firm said her blue ocean strategy was this In a commodity IT industry we lead with our mission of creating education and job opportunities for women interested in IT Another participant expressed her blue ocean strategy as seeing the disparate dots and connecting people with ideas and opportunities Dont underestimate the importance of your blue ocean strategy as a woman business owner and executive It could have a seismic impact on you too smartwomen Publishers Note The goal of Smart Women is to showcase the advice and achievements of local businesswomen and to recognize inspiring male advocates and effective womens programs MERRY KORN President and CEO Pearl Interactive Network Inc a staffing sourcing and apprenticeship services company that places a hiring priority on a niche workforce of disabled veterans veterans and people with disabilities Merry was one of six EY Accelerating Entrepreneurs finalists for 2015 and her company was recently one of two recipients of the Social Entrepreneur of the Year award for Central Ohio www pinsourcing com www linkedin com in merrykorn www facebook com PearlInteractiveNetwork @ PearlInterNet http bit ly 1JFooB4