SMK Convent Lebuh Light teachers attending the
Blue Ocean Strategy workshop at DISTED Hospitality Campus
As we see more and more businesses using Blue Ocean Strategies to adapt to changing times, some innovators and trailblazers in education are “seeing the light” as well. All-too-often, educators are slow to adopt new ideas from business and apply them to academia but here is one story we especially would like to share with you.
This short article examines the many ways Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) can be used to create a better educational system. The process sounds very much like how BOS is used every day in the business world because not surprisingly, people in practically any industry ask similar questions:
- What are the complexities of the educational workplace that we can streamline and adapt to better serve our students?
- Can BOS help us share missed opportunities and ideas?
- How can you make the educational environment more conducive to learning?
- How can you make school more appealing for students and teachers? What about for their parents?
How can you apply Blue Ocean thinking to educational settings?
At the core of BOS is a focus on adding value in innovative ways and expanding beyond what is there today. As you see things changing in your market space and among your competition, you must be able to apply new ideas and new technologies in effective ways.
SMK Convent Lebuh Light teacher in BOS workshop mapping out value
innovations that enhance the teaching and learning experience
I love to find these situations where BOS is relevant and resonates well. Dr Koo Wee Kor, DISTED College president, speaking in 2013 at a Blue Ocean Strategy workshop for SMK Convent Lebuh Light teachers, made this very strong point:
“A school is a ‘corporate entity’ in a ‘red ocean’ of imperatives that require solution-driven action such as demand exceeding supply leading to too many students in a class, real or imagined overwhelming workload encountered by teachers and pedagogical issues of learning and teaching mismatch.”
