Strategic Winning Gambits in Financial Stewardship: The Green Ocean & Clear Water Strategies of LJ Roth Reconstruction, Inc.

by Cenen Herrera

Writing from Clear Water City, Pinellas County, Florida, USA

Clearwater Beach is the Best City Beach on the Gulf of Mexico according to Dr. Stephen Leatherman ("Dr. Beach"), a Florida International University professor who has been ranking America's beaches for nine years. USATODAY.com readers ranked Clearwater Beach in their 2001 Top 10 list of Best Beaches from Maine to Hawaii.

Taking a break from a busy schedule in my new found industry: the restoration business of LJ Roth Reconstruction, Inc. (www.ljroth.com), I and my family took a vacation at Sail Port, Tampa, Florida, USA. The place is near Clear water beach where my youngest daughter told me during a mid-afternoon swim that the color of the water was green. I then reflected on the blue ocean business strategy book written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne against the background of the restoration industry.

According to WIKIPEDIA, the underlying concept of the book titled “Blue Ocean Strategy” is the metaphor of red and blue oceans, which describes the market universe.

Red Oceans represent all existing industries. This market is a zero-sum-game, meaning, you get an additional share while at the same time your competitor loses the same amount of market share. Under the red ocean strategy, cutthroat competition turns the ocean bloody, i.e., red oceans.

Blue oceans on the other hand involve the creation of a new market opportunity by creating a new market place. A potential market space is explored, which results in rapid growth and enhanced profitability. Thus, where new markets are created, lesser competition is expected. In addition, blue oceans pertain to companies taking care of the environment as their business and making profits along the way.

Green Ocean Strategy is like the Clear Water beach at Florida, USA. It pertains to the strategic winning gambits that we have employed at LJ Roth Reconstruction, Inc. in creating a combination of red ocean and blue ocean strategies. At LJ Roth Reconstruction, Inc., green ocean strategic winning gambits pertain to the simultaneous expansion of its existing markets and the creation of new business opportunities that are unrelated to its existing product lines such as the newly launched marketing focus on duct cleaning services. Green Ocean Strategy is the latest catalyst of innovation at LJ Roth Reconstruction, Inc.

A Paradigm Shift Towards Open-Book-Management

by Cenen Herrera

Writing from Springfield, Missouri - USA

During the first quarter of 2011, I attended a seminar entitled “Great-Game-of-Business" authored by Mr. Jack Stack, President & CEO of Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation (SRC). The seminar was all about common-sense accounting and how transparency played an important role in professionalizing an organization. How much information should shop-floor managers and their workers know about an organization’s performance and the critical numbers that drove such performance were the two important lessons that were taught during the seminar. SRC’s actual turn-around strategy in the early nineties using open-book-management was used as the reference case, and top-executives representing various industries came together to play the great-game-of-business.

I attended the seminar together with top executives from our company and in a scale of 10 where 10 is the highest, I would give the seminar a score of 10 for the following reasons:

1.      Open-Book-Management is a strategic winning gambit for companies who believe that employees are the best and real assets of their company;

2.      The great-game-of-business is a highly functional game for professional managers to cultivate unlimited business opportunities;

3.      The critical numbers that drive performance should be clear to all employees of an organization for all to see the actual causes of any gap between target and actual numbers;

4.      Precision marketing is when all employees are committed to the marketing plan and this plan is best carried out through open-book-management; and

5.   SRC and its employees have been playing the great-game-of-business for decades, and have shown a large number of organizations and their employees how to play the game to earn regular bonuses that are not found in organizations that do not practice open-book-management.