How Simple Changing the game can be

“Changing the game” can sound grand, like inventing a brand new industry but in reality, it can be far more practical and specific. Here are just three pretty straight-forward ways to find some Blue Ocean in your world.

1) Remove a Friction Everyone Has Accepted

Changing the game can be as simple as removing what customers have learned to endure:

• opaque pricing

• long lead times

• confusing handovers

• a lack of measurement

Fixing one entrenched irritation can create disproportionate demand because it stands out immediately.

2) Create a New Way to Buy

Sometimes the offer does not need to change, the buying model does.

• subscription instead of one-off projects; one-off projects instead of subscriptions

• productised entry points instead of bespoke proposals

• modular services that can be bought or combined at will by your customers

This is where many businesses discover they are not short of expertise, they are short of packaging and delivery design.

3) Serve the “Non-Customer”

The obvious market is not the only market. Many categories ignore the people who would benefit if the offer were easier, smaller, faster, or less intimidating. If you create an offer that works for those people, you are no longer competing head-to-head. You are creating demand that was not already being served.

Why Most Businesses Do Not Do This

If changing the game is so valuable, why does everyone not do it? Because it is not immediately rewarded in the same way that winning is.

Winning is quick and easy to measure. Changing the game is measurable later down the line:

• a new segment takes time to form

• a new proposition needs iteration

• early signals are qualitative before they become quantitative

In many businesses, the operating cadence is geared to short-term metrics. That cadence unintentionally penalises exploration, so the work that could change the future is postponed in favour of work that wins the next quarter.

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