'Blue ocean' ways to solve 5 issues

A National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) programme to reduce crime, rehabilitate prison inmates at army camps, provide household assistance, ensure rural water supply and optimise vacant armed forces land for agriculture took off yesterday.

The use of the strategy had proven effective in several of the government's innovative programmes.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the government had found the formula contained in the theoretical business strategy particularly beneficial in maximising output, while incurring the lowest cost possible.

"The Blue Ocean Strategy is a management tool which can be applied in the government's administrative context as it enables us to think out of the box with good results.

"It will be expanded to other initiatives," he said while launching the Communitisation Rehabilitation Programme at the army's Mahkota Camp here yesterday.

The Blue Ocean Strategy is a business strategy book first published in 2005, and written by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.

It illustrates the high growth and profits an organisation can generate by creating new demand in an uncontested market compared with competing with other suppliers for known customers in an existing industry.

The rehabilitation of petty criminals programme, which was adapted from the Blue Ocean Strategy, placed prisoners at low-security detention centres within army camps.

Najib said the new concept was better than placing them with hardened criminals in normal prisons, as it was proven that such corrective methods would only increase the number of criminals in society.

"Under this detention concept, the petty criminals will not be influenced to become worse by those who had committed serious crimes.

"This increases their chances of returning to society. The facilities at the detention centres also allow weekly visits by family members and, hopefully, this will make them feel remorseful for the things they did."

Inmates at such detention centres are also allowed to earn a small wage by doing odd jobs around the army camp.

"The government will also save a lot of money this way as we do not need to build more prisons," said Najib, adding that such a detention centre costs only RM4.5 million, while a conventional prison costs between RM50 million and RM60 million.

There are 200 inmates at the detention centre in Mahkota Camp.

Other army camps, which would be among the first to host detention centres, are Syed Sirajuddin Camp in Gemas, Tok Jalai Camp in Alor Star, Batu 10 Fourth Mechanised Briged Camp in Kuantan and Desa Pahlawan Camp in Kok Lanas.

Najib said such an innovative approach could also be seen as cooperation between the armed forces and police in training their officers.

"We will try to utilise the same application from the Blue Ocean Strategy to our efforts, particularly those under the National Key Results Areas," he added.