WebOrganic: Social Enterprise and Blue Ocean Strategy Case Study

This case study analyzes WebOrganic, a social enterprise in Hong Kong, and its implementation of a Blue Ocean Strategy. WebOrganic partnered with the government to provide computer equipment, training, and internet access to students, particularly those at the bottom of the pyramid. The organization secured partnerships with major technology companies and service providers to offer affordable e-learning solutions. The analysis explores WebOrganic's expanded mission to serve all students, not just those at the bottom of the pyramid, and how this strengthened its market position. It also examines WebOrganic's evolution into a community-based organization, its challenges, and recommendations for sustaining competitive advantage. The case study highlights WebOrganic's innovative approach to e-learning, its financial sustainability, and its holistic approach to serving the needs of students, teachers, and schools, ultimately solidifying its role as a Blue Ocean player.

Running head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS -WEBORGANIC
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
1. What is WebOrganic Blue Ocean Strategy? How does WebOrganic formulate and
execute its Blue Ocean Strategy?’
Blue ocean strategy avoids cut-throat competition of a Red Ocean by venturing
into an untapped market free from rivals(Kim and Mauborgne 2017). In Hong Kong, the
government announced a support program for internet learning with tenure of 5 years
called “I Learn at Home” to enable the citizens to access and afford information
technology .WebOrganic and Net-Com rock n’ roll were the service providers who won
the bid of the government and thus WebOrganic ventured into a Blue Ocean with only
one competitor. The organization served students in 10 districts of Hong Kong.
WebOrganic provided computer equipments, computer training, advisory services and
internet access which benefitted 522,000 students of Hong Kong and 85% families who
did not have access to internet previously. The concept of Bottom of the Pyramid is also
applied here (Chandrakala and Devaru 2013).
WebOrganic had suppliers like Lenovo Group, Intel Corp and Microsoft Corp so
that best products like ThinkPad Notebooks could be provided in schools at half of the
original price. Parents could pay for three years with annual installments. WebOrganic
entered into a partnership with PCCW Ltd and CSL ltd for broadband services and
mobile internet services respectively. WebOrganic’s annual package plan provided
internet and computer services to customers at a cheaper at a cheaper rate than the
competitors in marketplace. The bottom of pyramid in Hong Kong was the prime market
for WebOrganic ( Agnihotri 2013).
WebOrganic aimed not to be an average commodity seller. In order to provide a
holistic e-learning experience WebOrganic partnered with 11 social service
organizations which enabled WebOrganic to provide support to students and parents of
14 service centers while Net-Com rock n’ roll provided services to eight service centers.
WebOrganic was funded by companies like Google Inc. and Lenovo. WebOrganic
served the needs of an untouched market-the poor and destitute. This strategy helped
the organization to secure a competitive advantage in the marketplace and this social
edge increased the bargaining power of WebOrganic over suppliers. It was hard for
companies to locate the poor customer groups because these customer groups were

2CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
not accessible through retail stores and direct selling. But WebOrganic enhanced the
accessibility towards these groups of customers and also helped other organizations to
access young group of customers who could be long-term users in the long run. For
instance, WebOrganic helped Apple to access the education market with this strategy.
WebOrganic also ensured that its vendors were able to make gross profit. Thus, the
Blue Ocean strategy was formulated and executed well by WebOrganic (hbr.org 2017).
2. What is a Social Enterprise? What type of Social Enterprise is WebOrgnaic?
A Social Enterprise utilizes commercial strategies to enhance social impact,
improve well-being of humans and environment by ensuring profits for external
shareholders (Ridley-Duff and Bull 2015).
The market opportunities of the group of poor customers were leveraged by
WebOrganic by making use of value-added services and technology (Gupta 2013). The
government of HongKong facilitated the access of WebOrganic to a student market
which was not accessible by most retailers. WebOrganic ensured that poor students did
not buy outdated computers from second-hand stores which would have adverse
psychological impact on students. WebOrganic was an e-learning activist and wanted to
enhance the e-learning experience of schools. The organization developed 10
additional support centers, enriched its content support and designed a comprehensive
program which facilitated one-to-one computing in classroom (hbr.org 2017).
WebOrganic established persuaded teachers of school to value e-learning. The
organization provided tools of e-learning enhancement to 50 Seed Schools at a special
offer by leveraging relationships with infrastructure partners. These schools received a
holistic support for implementation of e-learning starting from cloud computing to
broadband support. Huang also enhanced value for students and teachers by
introducing Apple’s iPad as a learning tool. WebOrganic co-developed Tree School
Program with Apple to implement one-to-one computing in classroom; WebOrganic
partnered with textbook publishers of HongKong-The Commercial Press, Pearson
Education and Oxford University Press and created virtual bookstores for students

3CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
which addressed the content side of e-learning (hbr.org 2017). Thus, the type of social
enterprise for WebOrganic is a community-based organization.
3. What is WebOrganic’s expanded mission? How did this expanded mission help to
strengthen its position as a Blue Ocean Player?
The expanded mission of WebOrganic was to serve all students of Hong Kong,
not only those at bottom of the pyramid (Kolk, Rivera-Santos and Rufín 2014). The poor
students could purchase the products of WebOrganic like iPads at much reduced price
and average students purchased the products at discounted price. The “I learn at
Home” Program restricted the access of WebOrganic to eastern district schools of Hong
Kong. In order to serve students of eastern district schools, Huang provided iPads to
students at an average price who leased these products to underprivileged students.
Cantonese-learning software was installed onto iPads of WebOrganic to help students
from ethnic minority group. Huang also planned to serve students of special education
needs like visually and physically handicapped students.
WebOrganic aimed to be financially sustainable after its initial five years of
funding. Thus the organization wanted to diversify its business model by serving
students of Hong Kong for who products of WebOrganic would be affordable. The role
of WebOrganic as a distributor was strengthened by bulk orders which the company
received from schools. Huang also developed a program to replace tablets and
replaced broken and damaged computers for students at the cost of a small fee which
was a healthy source of income for the company. WebOrganic was a holistic- e-learning
facilitator. For instance, content management systems on i-Pads were developed by
WebOrganic with Apple and teachers were also trained by Apple as part of Tree School
Program(hbr.org 2017).
A lean corporate structure with only 13 permanent staff on payroll enabled
company to save cost. WebOrganic focused on a win-win relationship with university
volunteers and service centers. Huang utilized the staff of the centre to provide services
and thus he could reduce the cost of human resource. Huang had to bear zero financial
cost, Huang invited students of University to provide extra support for service of

4CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
WebOrganic(hbr.org 2017). Thus the Blue Ocean Strategy of the company was
strengthened by its expanded mission to serve all students of Hong Kong.
Conclusion and Recommendations
WebOrganic faced opposition from Principals of Schools who blamed the
company for insufficient funds, parents were not ready to spend extra money to
purchase products and software and teachers felt one-to-one computing wasted time.
These were strategic issues of WebOrganic that it could not act as a change leader
initially in Hong Kong.
It can be recommended that WebOrganic should have organized a change
management program in Hong Kong and raised awareness among teachers and
parents about benefits of e-learning before venturing into this untapped market. In order
to sustain competitive advantage, WebOrganic should continue building rapport with
teachers, parents and schools by organizing awareness programs because students of
all economic backgrounds were the potential market of WebOrganic.

5CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Reference Lists
Agnihotri, A., 2013. Doing good and doing business at the bottom of the
pyramid. Business Horizons, 56(5), pp.591-599.
Chandrakala, V.G. and Devaru, S.D.B., 2013. Blue ocean strategy and bottom of the
pyramid marketing. International Journal of Management Research and Reviews, 3(7),
p.3080.
Gupta, S., 2013. Serving the" Bottom of Pyramid"-A servant leadership
perspective. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 10(3), p.98.
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creating-a-blue-ocean.../HK1001-PDF-ENG [Accessed 10 Nov. 2017].
Kim, W.C. and Mauborgne, R.A., 2017. Blue Ocean Leadership (Harvard Business
Review Classics). Harvard Business Review Press.
Kolk, A., Rivera-Santos, M. and Rufín, C., 2014. Reviewing a decade of research on the
“base/bottom of the pyramid”(BOP) concept. Business & Society, 53(3), pp.338-377.
Ridley-Duff, R. and Bull, M., 2015. Understanding social enterprise: Theory and
practice. Sage.