24 | The Lion King
The ‘Blue Ocean’ strategy
for winning customers
By Aramide Olatunji
C
ompetition in the bank-
ing environment is in-
tense. Banks struggle for
competitive advantage, battle
over market share and struggle
for differentiation. This head-on
competition often results in noth-
ing but a bloody ‘red-ocean’
of rivals fighting over a shrinking
profit pool and failing to build
any meaningful and sustained
strategy to create profitable
growth in the future. This reality is
often defined as the red ocean
strategy.
In red oceans, industry bounda-
ries are defined and accepted
and the competitive rules of the
game are well understood. Here,
companies try to outperform
their rivals in order to grab a
greater share of existing de-
mand. As the space gets more
and more crowded, prospects for
profit and growth are reduced.
Blue Ocean strategy deals with
the reality of companies engag-
ing in head-to-head competition
in search of profitable growth. In
blue oceans, demand is created
rather than fought over. There is
ample opportunity for growth
that is both profitable and rapid.
There are primarily two ways to
create blue oceans. In limited
instances, companies can give
rise to completely new industries.
In most cases however, a blue
ocean is created from within a
red ocean, when a company al-
ters the boundaries of an existing
industry.
The UBA Blue Ocean strategy for
customer service
At UBA we are not dominated by
the idea of staying ahead of the
competition. As value innova-
tors, we do not accept the indus-
try conditions as given. We do
not set strategy accordingly. We
do not let competitors set the pa-
rameters of our strategic thinking.
We do not focus on comparing
strengths and weaknesses with
those of our competitors in order
to build an advantage. We are
not interested in competing at
the margin for incremental share.
As value innovators, our logic
starts with the ambition to domi-
nate the market by offering a
tremendous leap in value. We
do not let what we can do today
determine our view of what is
required to ‘win’ tomorrow.
We understand that customers
are a finite resource. We need
to prove to shareholders that we
are capable of acquiring more
of this limited resource, and are
capable of retaining the custom-
ers that we have.
We need to show we are allo-
cating resources efficiently and
managing the cost-to-serve
those customers based upon
what they are worth today and
what they will be worth tomorrow
and need to have a sufficiently
compelling customer value
proposition that ensures the
development of current custom-
ers through appropriate and
relevant up-sell and cross-sell
initiatives.
We are focused on develop-
ing leaps in value for both UBA
and the buyers, creating all new
profitable demand. The creation
of blue oceans in UBA’s customer
service is reliant on innovation
across products, services and
delivery (experience).
We fully understand that the
companies most successful at
repeating value innovation are
those who take advantage of
all three of these platforms. We
are committed to developing a
customer-centric business model
to stand out of the bloody red
ocean of competitors.
Customer Service
