Never, never, never, never give up! Make a success of living by seeing a goal and aiming for it unswervingly. You never really lose until you stop trying – Secret of Success,
The FIFA World Cup tournament has finally arrived and many millions from around the world stayed up late with their eyes glued to the TV screen watching their favourite teams compete in Germany. As we watch, let us not forget the trainings and hard works, often with accompanying mental and physical exertions necessary to make it to the tournament. Such is the demand of a world class team that any aspiring individual or company that seeks after meaningful success will likewise need to experience and overcome.
Last month, I introduced you to a new book written by two distinguished management guru (W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne) who did extensive researches on how companies succeed in overcoming competition and creating new markets. Blue Ocean, the title of the book examines what strategies are effective in creating brand equity that lasts for decades.
Blue oceans are created by untapped market space, demand creation and the opportunity for highly profitable growth. Companies need to go beyond competing. Instead of focusing on beating the competition, one focuses on making the competitors irrelevant by creating a leap in value for the customers and the organisation, thereby opening new and uncontested space. Value innovation places equal emphasis on value and innovation.
In the case of CEFL, by looking across the market boundary of the industry, we offered non-traditional English language training in the form of preparing students using an international context rather than a local context. Its innovation takes the form of a delivery programme that can be duplicated throughout its network and is student-centred and value is provided in the form of an internationally recognised qualification as well as vast improvement in the students’ studies. By offering unprecedented utility in the form of acquisition of relevant language skills and an internationally recognised qualification at the end of each course, CEFL has created a blue ocean and has designed a new programme for English language learning; one that is markedly different from traditional providers of English language education.
Creation of blue oceans is about driving cost down while simultaneously driving value up for the customers. CEFL’s strategy embraces the entire system of company activities. From economies of scale in cost of materials and promotions to student fees, CEFL has been able to remain competitive despite the high rate of inflation happening in the market place led by higher fuel cost, utility and manpower costs. Student fees have remained unchanged throughout the years and we are improving this to another level by removing the upfront placement tests fees.
Our success has prompted many others to come into our field and we need to continue to differentiate ourselves from these players. Thus we continue to train and retrain our staff and teachers, we designed new courses and provide holiday programmes as well as PTMs, essay competitions, award presentations and seminars. Quality delivery and students’ interest continue to be our focus. As the book suggests imitators may enter but they will find imitating a whole-system approach an uneasy feat. And so they will have to spend large sums of money just to create awareness, often to the advantage of the original creator. Experience shows that even the most expensive marketing campaigns struggle to unseat the original blue ocean creator. We have a loyal following and shall continue to build on their loyalty.
The mid-year exams once again have come and gone with more students sitting than previous years. In fact we are the only ESOL centre that enrolled students for mid-year exams. The Academic department as usual has been busy with this task and the production of new courses. Thus we now have in addition to the intensive Holiday English courses various products that meet the needs of additional demands.
Market conditions, I understand have been sluggish and the general public is feeling the effects of the cut-backs in government spending. With the implementation of the 9MP, everyone is hopeful that conditions will improve with corresponding benefits to all. For our organisation, as we enter the second half of the year, let us continue to provide quality delivery towards students’ success in the year-end examinations while maintaining our presence in the market through various promotions and write-ups. We will also conduct the annual parenting seminar by Professor Goh which is slotted for 26th July 2006 entitled "Communicating Positively and Constructively With Your Children".
We intend to use our coming Licensees meeting as a platform to discuss future plans for the group. This is because we recognise every participant as valuable to the group and can contribute positively in terms of ideas and suggestions. We will share the findings of our survey and also the improvements that come about from these findings. Where we have fallen short we will overcome and where changes are necessary, due regard will be given. Let us use this platform to the maximum benefit of everyone and I look forward to seeing you all.
May I on behalf of my colleagues take this opportunity to wish you all many Happy Days ahead!
Eng
22-06-2006
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