Ricky’s Online Business Blog

“How to develop the web site?”, asks the web designer.

“How to get more free search engine traffic?”, asks the search engine optimization expert.

“Is it the right business model?”, asks the Internet consultant.

These three questions reflect the three levels of Internet strategy when we decide on using the Internet to help our business. The three levels are technical, marketing and business levels.

The technical level concerns of domain name, hosting, web development, user interface design, programming, content, graphic design and e-commerce. The objective is to develop an attractive, user-friendly, informative and useful web site for the target visitors.

The marketing level concerns of online branding, keyword research, search engine optimization and positioning (SEO or SEOP), social media marketing, PPC advertising, email marketing, viral marketing, blog marketing, Internet marketing and others. The objective is to reach out to and attract web site traffic from the target visitors.

The business level concerns of aligning the Internet strategy to the business strategy of the organization (not the other way round!). It questions how the Internet can help in achieving the organizational goals and decides on the right business model. In many cases, the Internet can be used to gain competitive advantages. It can also be an enabler to transform the business strategy and even create a blue ocean of uncontested market space!

The business level defines the business model on the Internet. The marketing level creates the demand. The technical level forms the customer experience. They are not mutually exclusive, but are complimentary to one another.

But planning should flow top-down from the business level to the marketing level to the technical level. A company’s Internet strategy should be approached first from a business point of view, not from a technical point of view.

How are your web site doing now? Are you taking care of all these levels above?

I’m interested to take a short course on law for self-improvement. In particular, I wish to learn about laws applicable to businesses, intellectual property, e-commerce and cyberlaws.

However, as I browse through the web sites of law schools on the Internet, such as that of ATC (Advance Tertiary College), I don’t quite find what I want, unless I don’t mind taking a single subject in courses like ICSA. These law schools cater for those who want to be lawyers, but not working people who want to learn more about law like me.

According to an insider, the higher education industry in Malaysia is very competitive. Not many private colleges are making money. In fact, many are struggling and are on the verge of closing down. There are thousands of colleges, institutions and training centers registered with the two government ministries in Malaysia. But how large is our population?

The colleges need to seek a way out, not to fight head to head with other colleges, but to seek their own way. I guess they need their own blue ocean strategy.

One example is not to see what other colleges offer and follow suit. That is, not to benchmark others. But they are to look beyond their traditional customers and find out what non-customers want.

Take my case as example. Law schools like ATC could look beyond their traditional market boundary consisting of those who want to take up law as their career. Perhaps they could offer law courses to those currently not their customers who are interested in gaining some knowledge in law, and catering for what they need.

Colleges could design new courses in response to what the market wants. They could win by devising and executing a blue ocean strategy. But sometimes you need a paradigm shift to look beyond what is being done now…

How about you? Are you able to find the course that you would like to take?

The blue ocean strategy is more than just a fad. It’s influencing how businesses made their strategic planning for years to come. Its various strategic tools and models, such as the four actions framework, are extremely useful to create blue ocean strategy business.

The blue ocean strategy is not only applicable to businesses, but in other contexts as well, though we can’t apply everything directly in those settings. In particular, the four actions framework is useful in planning our own personal life.

Whether we like it or not, everyone of us is a Me Inc., and we are the CEO of our own life. We do have a mission to complete on this earth in this life. And to achieve this, we have been bestowed with resources such as time and money.

The four actions framework can be used to differentiate ourselves (or our business) from others yet at a lower cost. It asks four main questions – what to Eliminate, what to Reduce, what to Raise and what to Create (ERRC)? Let’s take an example how I might want to plan my expenses:

Eliminate – In recent years, I have developed a habit of eating out in expensive restaurants with others, that now I patronize these places even when eating alone! I don’t have to spend so much when eating by myself. I need to cut this expense completely!

Reduce – I need to reduce buying seemingly useful but actually unnecessary items such as books and magazines. I don’t have so much time to read all of them!

Raise – I should spend more on high-leverage expenses which give good returns in long term. For example, taking classes to educate myself in business, finance and technology can go a long way toward success in life.

Create – I may want to consider some investment instruments such as shares, which as a risk-averse person I never tried. Of course, getting educated first in these is essential to avoid losses.

I find it helpful to that many things in business and life can be applied through this ERRC model. Is there anything you want to get ERRC’d too?

I have been benefited by a talk on blue ocean strategy held recently. It is one thing to read the book. But it’s another to listen to real life stories as two practitioners from Spritzer and StemLife shared how they apply blue ocean strategy in their respective companies.

While I should not divulge much details on their strategies, suffice to say that they are both market leaders in their own market space. They have strategies in place to create new markets and make their competitors irrelevant.

What I like about them is that they painstakingly and devotedly shared their knowledge and experience in strategizing for the benefits of the business community. Hopefully more and more Malaysian companies will discover our own blue ocean strategy and bring our country to new heights!

I heard they are not paid for their speeches. However, it is still good PR and CSR service for their companies as they educated us on the technical aspects of their products – mineral water of Spritzer and cord blood stem cells of StemLife. I have learned something new