Blue Ocean Strategy Review on its way ...

I'm currently reading Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.

After several people coming up to me after speeches and telling me that my mafia offer idea sounds a lot like the blue ocean strategy, I have decided that I better determine for myself if that is true.

So far, let's just say it is NOT exactly true. But, I will do a full review once I finish. If any of you have any comments on the topic, please drop me a line.

I'll be back after I complete my review.
Here's to maximizing YOUR profits!
"Dr Lisa" Lang

P.S. Next GROUP Mafia Offer Boot Camp is Aug 29, 30, 31 in Denver. More information at http://www.mafiaoffers.com/

All rights reserved. ©2007 Dr Lisa, Inc.

Mafia Offer Boot Camp Schedule

We just completed another successful Mafia Offer Boot Camp. This was a group boot camp with 4 companies in attendance. We developed 4 very nice mafia offers. The group dynamic is always very interesting because other companies provide feedback on your offer.

We just set the schedule for the rest of the 2007 GROUP boot camps:

• August 29, 30, 31 - Denver, CO
• September 26, 27, 28 - Denver, CO
• October 24, 25, 26 - Denver, CO
• TBD Nov/Dec - Sydney, Australia
• TBD Nov/Dec - Auckland, New Zealand

We also did a private boot camp at the end of May and I received this quote:

"We participated in a Mafia Offer Boot Camp in May 2007. It was a great 3 days! There's a lot of passion that "hey we can do this" and the offer we developed is so much more powerful than where we started! We are looking forward to the follow up calls and to getting started!"
Bob M, General Manager of a small division of a fortune 100 company

Here's to Maximizing YOUR Profits!
"Dr Lisa" Lang

P.S. I'm on vacation next week on a week long bicycle ride through Colorado. I'll be back at the first of July.

Pricing Using Theory of Constraints Part 6 of 6

This is the final installment on Theory of Constraints pricing. At least for now. Goldratt's Theory of Constraints, The Goal, and Throughput Accounting don't address pricing specifially. So, I tried to summarize what we do with our clients. This pricing exercise has resulted in 10 to 20% increase in profits for our clients, so I would expect the same for you. So let's summarize what we covered about pricing.

• Part 1: We discussed the importance of and how to calculate the Throughput per Constraint Unit (T/CU) for each of your current products or services.
• Part 2: We discussed how to calculate a minimum T/CU which is like the minimum price you need to charge to cover your operating expenses and make a profit.
• Part 3: We then compared the T/CU we get for each product/service to the minimum T/CU we calculated.
• Part 4: Next we discussed how to handle products/services that are priced below the calculated minimum T/CU.
• Part 5: And finally we discussed how to handle products/services that are priced above or well above the calculated minimum T/CU.

With this additional information, I hope you can determine a price that 1) will help you to achieve your financial goals; 2) meet or exceed the value perceived by the market place (will customers buy at that price?); and 3) establish the position, brand and image you desire in your supply chain.

Here's to maximizing YOUR profits and setting your prices!

"Dr Lisa" Lang

P.S. Check out our new Theory of Constraints Pricing Project! http://www.scienceofbusiness.com/Default.aspx?tabid=144

(c)Copyright 2007, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

Mafia Offer Boot Camp Season

I did not write last week. We were doing a boot camp in Kansas City plus a speech for a TEC/Vistage retreat in Michigan. It's Mafia Offer Boot Camp Season. This is a good time of year to do a Mafia Offer Boot Camp because budgeting and preparation for next year are right around the corner. What better way to prepare?

• To have a mafia offer to strategically drive your organization!
• To answer the question why change!
• To sell the improvements you made this year! (If you uncover capacity or increase efficiencies, but don't sell them -- what bottom-line impact have you had?)
• To have a specific plan on how to substancially increase sales AND profits!

We have a group boot camp coming up June 13, 14, 15 in Denver. If you need to decide what next year will bring and the plan to do it, you should consider attending. Drop me a line if your interested in the details and if your company is a good fit. See also www.mafiaoffers.com

And, if you're ready for a break from HUMIDITY then you are also ready for a visit to Denver, Colorado! Did I mention we were in the midwest this week?

Pricing using Theory of Constraints Part 5

For the products that are well above the T/CU you need to look into the following things:
- what is your close rate on these items, is it low?
- have your customers/prospects told you that you were over priced?
- do you want more of this type of business?

The products that are slightly above the T/CU you calculated are probably fine. And some of them that are well above the T/CU are probably OK too. But the ones that you would like to sell more of, but are not, due to too high pricing, these are the ones you should consider lower the price on.

...to be continued...

Here's to maximizing YOUR profits!
"Dr Lisa" Lang
(c)Copyright 2007, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.