Our profs are all really awesome. They give engaging lectures (even on topics as seemingly boring as accounting) and have great experience to draw on and are generally pretty fantastic. However yesterday was, I think, my favourite class among all classes and subjects since I started school. It was in our Strategy class and the topic of the day was “blue ocean strategies” basically how to innovate.
Coming into strategy class I was a bit sceptical as a lot of literature on “why company xyz has a good strategy” is very hindsight-y. Based on how such articles are usually written, I am always left thinking there’s no way you would have thought company xyz’s strategy would succeed without the benefit of hindsight. This is a big reason why I don’t read business books that you can buy at Indigo or whatever.
Anyways, into class we went. Our prof talked a lot about how the best way to compete in an industry is to not compete in an industry at all and rather just invent a new one. i.e. Cirque de Soleil….It’s not a circus and it’s not theatre. Or (my personal favourite), the Wii…make a videogame system for the family instead of one for just hard-core gamers. For all you videogame fans, turns out my prof was on the actual team that invented the concept for the Wii with Nintendo!! He is one super smart guy and strategy class is teaching me a ton. And it’s stuff I can actually use for success in the business world even without the benefit of hindsight. Huray!
However, you too are going to have to shell out the dough to get into Rotman to get the full scoop on what my strategy prof is teaching. ;-)
So yeah, very educational week!!
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