Blue Ocean Finale To Lancaster MBA

The Lancaster University Management School MBA class of 2012 rounded off their programme with a fast-paced simulation of the famous Blue Ocean Strategy, and managers from advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi joined in! We caught up with student Orjan Krane to find out more.

 

The Blue Ocean Strategy, developed by two INSEAD professors and now taught at business schools around the world, is a framework to help managers expand their market, explore new territory, and reformulate their offering to capture 'non-customers', or customers who would not normally purchase their product.

 

The Lancaster simulation was also attended by a team of managers from world-leading advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, with which Lancaster has a close relationship. The exercise was delivered by Lancaster faculty together with business simulation expert Remi Triolet from StratX, a firm which works with blue chip firms around the world.

 

Richard Meek from Lancaster's Marketing Department explained the value of the simulation: “[It’s] trying to change the mindset that people operate in, move them into a way of thinking about new markets... to develop new customer groups.”

 

When we spoke to Orjan last week he was already job-hunting in Singapore. He told us what he liked about the simulation and how the MBAs gave the Saatchi & Saatchi managers a run for their money!

 

Originally from Norway, Orjan’s background lies mainly in sales and marketing within the holiday sector. He is also a qualified NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) practitioner and coach and completed a Bachelor’s degree in Business Studies at Lancaster prior to his MBA.

 

Like many students he pursued his MBA as he wanted a career change and new challenge. Why Lancaster? Because of its "Focus around management consultancy, mindful leadership and learning through action with practical real-life assignments’

 

Orjan explained how in his younger days he worked his way up within the tourism industry without a formal higher education, which made him recognise the value of studying business. an experience which  meant that his first step upon leaving was to embark on an undergraduate degree in Business: "A solid business education... would enable new doors to open and give me greater choice," he said. Going on to the Lancaster MBA he said was proof of his "strong calibre" and "great management and leadership potential".

 

Orjan has refined his job search to Norway and Singapore.  He figures that with many of the world’s economies recovering from recession, it’s best to go places where things are looking up. "Norway is my home country and will always have a special place in my heart. Singapore is a country I love and admire and where lots of exiting things are happening at the moment". He is now seeking a role where he can improve business performance through "new strategy development and implementation and change management".

 

For two and a half days, several teams competed through different rounds and stages with specific objectives. Each stage began with a theoretical introduction and ended with a recap of results, and discussion of the factors that made some of the teams perform better than others.

 

According to Orjan the simulation was: "A great way to learn about Blue Ocean strategy and how to translate it into action successfully’. But what value did it bring to his MBA? "It offered tons of valuable lessons throughout what felt like a fun and action-packed game. This kind of action learning is one of the cornerstones in the philosophy behind the Lancaster MBA and it was a great way end our year"

 

Commenting on the involvement of the Saatchi & Saatchi managers, Orjan said they competed on equal terms with Lancaster’s MBA teams. "They did extremely well, but were beaten by one of our teams in the final rounds!"

 

A final word on the Blue Ocean simulation came from Chris Saunders, Director of the Lancaster's MBA programmme: "It's really important that our students go away not only able to compete in existing markets, but also able to create new products and new services for new markets and with the ability to be innovative." 

 

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