Blue Ocean and Career Reinvention

I believe many of us desire to reinvent our lives and our careers. Some of us have lost our enthusiasm and zest for the work we do. We spend countless hours feeling disheartened and wishing for a better tomorrow. Many of us seek work that brings fulfilment and reward. We seek work where our personal aspirations are aligned to our career goals.

Many of our dreams, aspirations and wishes are very different today than when we first started working. In fact, the world has changed tremendously over the past decade. Job security and staying loyal to the same employer has become a thing of the past.

Yet, most of us feel stuck, not knowing where to start with regards to reinventing oneself. Chan Kim, writer of the book Blue Ocean Strategy describes in full detail how to reinvent a business. Businesses like Nintendo, AirAsia and others applied “blue ocean thinking” and reinvented their industries. At Leaderonomics.com, we believe the same “blue ocean thinking” can be applied to your career. Reinventing your career really starts with self-discovery.

You need to have the aspiration to want to change and reinvent yourself and your career. Once you have the desire, then you can leverage some of the “blue ocean” tools, including the Strategy Canvas (which we will rename the “Career Canvas”) and the ERRC tool. You can read all about how you can reinvent your career in our centrespread on pages 8 and 9 in this week’s edition.

Interestingly, most people only realise the importance of a career make-over when they lose their job. They get a jarring wake-up call when they receive their “pink slips” and react to the situation. Some lose hope and go into a state of depression. Others use this situation as an opportunity to reinvent themselves. It forces them to think about themselves and their long-term motivations. It forces them to make changes in their lives. This entire issue provides you numerous useful tips and guidance on how to re-look at your career with different lenses.

Reinventing your career can be both frightening and exciting. So, don’t wait until you get fired or lose your job before you start to reinvent yourself. Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon, reinvents herself every three years. She was the most-tenured female CEO in the Fortune 500, having outlasted Carly Fiorina, Anne Mulcahy and many other more prominent women at the top. How does she keep reinventing herself to remain CEO for 12 years at Avon?

Andrea’s famous career reinvention advice: “Fire yourself on Friday and rehire yourself on Monday.” Andrea would actually sack herself as CEO and spend the weekend really thinking as a new CEO, what her business needed to reinvent itself. She would come in on Monday as the new Turnaround CEO ready to make bold changes.

You don’t need to fire yourself this weekend. But you can reinvent yourself and your career. So, spend this Saturday immersing yourself in www.leaderonomics.com (and enjoy the thousands of great articles here) or with your copy of Leaderonomics pullout and contemplate with us and enjoy the advice and tools we provide in this issue on how you can “reinvent your career”. Blue may just be the colour for you. Below are some great stories and links to how you can reinvent your career and your life with Blue-Ocean Thinking: