1. Chapter 7: Overcome Key Organizational Hurdles
Group 4: Troy Harris, Nick Sharp, Nick Dieter, and Homar Builtron

2. Believe it or not, companies often have a tough time translating thought into action whether in red or blue oceans. Blue ocean strategy represents a significant departure from the status quo.

3. What needs to change about the status quo in business?

4. The Four Hurdles
Cognitive: Waking employees up to the need for a strategic shift.
Limited Resources: The greater the shift in strategy, the greater it is assumed are the resources needed to execute it.
Motivation: How do you motivate key players to move fast and tenaciously to carry out a break from the status quo?
Politics

5. Google’s Four Hurdles
Cognitive: Founder Larry Page was no longer interested in the nitty-gritty of running a business like Google. Instead, he wanted to see big changes happen in the world. For him to achieve this, he restructured Google underneath Alphabet and stepped aside for Sundar Pichai to run Google.
Limited Resources: The companies that are under Alphabet are, Nest, Google, Google Ventures, Google Capital, Calico, Google X, and Fiber. However, Google and its subsidiaries are the only companies that are making money for Alphabet.
Motivation: It is unclear what Google’s employees are doing to break the status quo. However, key members such as Chief Business Officer Omid Kordestani are stepping down for young talent to take over. This will help steer Google into a blue ocean by having executives with new ideas.
Politics: Foreign and domestic governments are placing roadblocks in Google’s path. These roadblocks range from fines to banishment from countries. Just recently Vice President Pence called Google out for censoring the internet and promoting communist propaganda in China.

6. To achieve this, Page had to use tipping point leadership
To achieve this, Page had to use tipping point leadership. This is when you flip conventional wisdom on its head. Tipping point leadership allows you to overcome the previously mentioned four hurdles fast and at a low cost while winning employees’ backing in executing a break from the status quo.

7. What are some companies that you have noticed that use tipping point leadership?

8. Breaking through the Cognitive Hurdle
Make people aware of the need for a strategic shift and to agree on its causes
Messages communicated through numbers seldom stick with people
Figures can be manipulated or misleading
Tipping point leadership does not rely on numbers to break through the cognitive hurdle
They zoom in on the act of disproportionate influence
Making people see and experience harsh reality firsthand
They build on the insight to inspire a fast change in mind-set that is internally driven of people’s own accord

9. Ride the “Electric Sewer”
Employees must come face-to-face with the worst operational problem
Facing poor performance is shocking and inescapable, but actionable
Supervisors can also shift their mind-set fast when shown the worst reality
Helps to sensitize superiors to a leader’s needs fast

10. Meet with Disgruntled Customers
Not only letting the managers see a operational horror, but get them to listen to their most disgruntled customers firsthand
There is no substitute for meeting and listening to dissatisfied customers directly
This helps to find the gaps in perception

11. Jump the Resource Hurdle
Multiply the value of the resources you have
Hot Spots- have low resource inputs but high potential performance gains
Cold Spots- have a high resource inputs but low performance impact
Horse Trading- trade your excess resources for an area where you need more to fill in gaps

12. Redistribute Resources to Hotspots
Ex: NYPD in the subway systems.
They only needed officers in areas of the subway with high crime rates.
Google has moved a lot of resources to Google ads and marketing other websites.

13. Identify your cold spots
Searching for cold spots, Bratton found processing criminals in court was too expensive and time consuming. He processed them on busses as a result.
Google shopping is down because of Amazon so they made an auction feature.

14. Engage in Horse Trading
NYPD traded office spaces for patrol cars in different units.
Google has Google Earth and they sell the software to other apps such as onyx or weather radars.

15. Jump the Motivational Hurdle
Employees must be aware of the need for a strategic shift, and how it can be done with limited resources
Necessary for people to understand what needs to be done AND act on that insight in a meaningful way
If and when, then a movement is started
This can be achieved through several strategies
Kingpins, fishbowls, and atomization
sharp

16. Kingpins
Find the most influential people, the natural leaders that people respect
These kingpins can unlock or block access to key resources
The key to motivating the masses is to motivate the key people that the masses look up to
Everyone will fall into line
A big factor is the need to convince the kingpins of the necessity of the change, not to force them to believe
sharp

17. Fishbowl Management
The next step is to place those kingpins in fishbowls
Transparency, accountability, and fairness
All players are put in the open and on a level playing field
With all success and failures in the open, good competition can start to take place
No blaming your poor performance on another department-they were in the same room also
Explain decision process for promotions or lack thereof
Set clear expectations that are the same for everyone
Mitigates suspicion
Provides support and pushes people along the journey
Big takeaway is respect for the employees
sharp

18. Atomization Relates to the framing of the challenge
Unless people believe that the challenge is attainable, they will not even try to reach it
Break the overall change into small piece or “atoms”
Different people at different levels can relate to the challenge they are given
Framed this way, the challenge is all-encompassing and doable
Each person does their little atom, and no more
Makes responsibility for implementing the blue ocean strategy land in everyone’s hands, not just the CEO or leader of an organization
sharp

19. Knocking over the Political Hurdle
Even if the organization is right at the edge at the tipping point of execution, there are still powerful forces that will hinder you
The more impending the change, the more that external and internal forces will be more vocal about keeping their power
This can completely derail a new strategy
To overcome these challenges, there are three factors:
Leveraging angels, silencing devils, and getting a consigliere on the top management team
sharp

20. Secure a Consigliere
An advisor, in addition to managers with strong functional skills like marketing or operations
This person will help identify landmines that would be faced in implementing a strategy- a respected senior official
Because of experience, they know who the key players are and how they will respond
Be pro, or silently sabotage
Can lead to a dramatic change of the guard
Don’t be afraid to get rid of the people who will try to hinder the advancements
sharp

21. Leveraging Angels and Silencing Devils
Who are the devils? -those with the most to lose
The angels? -those with the most to gain
Identify the supporters and detractors, and forgot those in the middle of the road- they will follow
Isolate detractors, build supporters, and stop a war before it has the chance to gain steam
The key to win over detractors is to know all the angles of attack and build counterarguments backed by real facts and reason before presenting the change to them
sharp

22. Challenge Conventional Wisdom
Conventional method is to transform the masses
Requires steep resources and long time frames
Tipping point leaders
Change the extremes, those who have a disproportionate influence, and change the masses
Fast and low cost
Not every change requires a proportionate action
Focusing on the disproportionate is a critical leadership component for making blue ocean strategy happen
sharp