The Four Actions Framework — Guide your Student Life with This Business Concept
By: Julia Li
Tags: Productivity, Strategy, First Post, Teenagers, Student Life

“Relate the text to yourself” may have been one of the most valuable lessons from my elementary school teachers. With this mindset, any reader can dismantle a piece of writing and apply it to their personal experiences.

For instance, I recently read a business book on market competition. Although the professional advice was catered towards large companies, I somehow related these corporate strategies to my life as a teen.

The book was called Blue Ocean Strategy written by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim. Here’s a line from the book that summarizes its purpose:

“The aim of the blue ocean strategy is straightforward: to allow any organization — large or small, new or incumbent — to step up to the challenge of creating blue oceans in an opportunity-maximizing, risk-minimizing way. The shift from competing to creating new market space and hence making the competition irrelevant.”

Book: Blue Ocean Strategy written by W.Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne — Highly Recommend!

Instead of trying to find ways to compete with similar companies, Mauborgne and Kim encourage businesses to find innovative ways to create untapped markets. The book discusses the effectiveness of Blue Ocean Strategy and the various methods to identify new markets.

Although my intention in reading this book was to gain more knowledge as a business student, I gradually realized that much of this advice was not only applicable to large coorporations — it was equally valuable to students like me.

As a student, I often catch myself in “red oceans”: oversaturated markets with lots of competition. In this “ocean”, I find myself facing numerous teens who all join youth-run organizations, school clubs, and other extracurriculars.

Don’t get me wrong, my goal is not to criticize these endeavours. Rather, I am looking to answer the why. Why are these positions important to us? What is the purpose of these activities?

The answer lies in the changing expectations that are imposed upon students. One of the greatest differences between the highschoolers of Gen Z and its preceding generations is that Gen Z is working hard to be “well-rounded”. In other words, not just high G.P.As and honour roll grades — we need to be the leaders of school clubs, debators on the National Team, and interns at Microsoft.

how my accomplished friends can make me feel sometimes

What is the purpose of all these experiences? Are they really as valuable as they claim to be? Better yet: how can I ensure that these activities “contribute to my life in a positive manner”?

I am not claiming that these activities are time-wasters. However, I believe that we could use the Blue Ocean Strategy to stand out from the crowd and simultaneously gain valuable experiences.

The Blue Ocean Strategy proposes the Four Actions Framework, which “asks four key questions to challenge an industry’s strategic logic and business model”.

In our context: how can students change their daily activities to face competition while (more importantly) living a productive lifestyle?

The four questions that the book proposes are:

Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated? Which factors should be reduced well below the industry standard? Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered? Which factors should be raised well above the industry standard?

Let’s answer these four questions.

First, what should you eliminate?

These are the commonly overlooked activities that are frequently used by everyone. A familiar example is a volunteer position at the local summer camp. As one of the most common occupations for high school freshmen, many students automatically turn to the opportunity. Although it may be a valuable experience for some, it could easily be a mundane position that was pursued without much thought. It’s easy to follow the crowd when scouting for opportunities — but if you don’t think the experience is valuable to your learning, eliminate it.

Another experience that you could eliminate is the low-commitment role. I used to tutor a kid every Sunday. I earned money and it was easy. However, eventually I found the tutoring sessions tedious and mundane. At a certain point, I quit the job and I couldn’t have been more grateful for this decision. Every Sunday, I have two more hours to invest immerse myself in activities that I’m more passionate about.

Some may argue that low-commitment jobs are useful for resume-padding. Wouldn’t it be easier to fill the page with several low-commitment roles instead of a few high-commitment positions?

There is definitely a contrast in number, but let me ask you this: how are you different from all the others who do the same thing? What valuable experience can you talk about? When you invest yourself in a greater commitment, you push yourself to learn and improve. There is nothing more valuable than building individual skills from personal commitments.

Finally, you should eliminate the things that you don’t like. This seems pretty obvious, but it applies to many commitments that begin in childhood. Under parental influence, many children partake in extracurriculars that they grow to love or hate. By the time they’ve grown old enough to realize their displeasure in the activity, they’ve already invested so much time and effort that it’s just too difficult to let go.

For me, it was dancing. I started dancing 12 years ago and spent thousands of dollars on my lessons. However, I was never enthusiastic at practices, and the applause I received on stage didn’t satisfy me the way it motivated the other dancers. It was difficult for my family to accept that I wanted to drop my greatest investment, but I was adamant. By discontinuing dance, I was free to pursue something that I genuinely enjoyed: volleyball. It became a sport that I not only loved but also learned important life lessons from.

In summary, evaluate your activities to identify the ones that are taken advantage of, require low commitment, or simply do not enjoy. You’ll be relieved and more ambitious when you let go of things that hold you down.

Let’s move on to the next question.

What factors in your life should you reduce?

The difference between the reducible activities and eliminatory ones is that reducible events are still important, but often deserve less attention. The way I like to think about it is: if I spend less time on this activity now, will it impact my future significantly? If the answer is “no” or “I don’t know but I’m doing it anyway”, push it down the priorities. This could include unproductive meetings or endless conferences that you attend with no specific purpose. We don’t want to stop having meetings or attending conferences, but the benefits of reducing the frequency of these events often outweigh the costs.

A common example for teens is: social hangouts. It’s undoubtedly important to spent time with friends — but if I go to Starbucks with my best friend biweekly instead of weekly, will it negatively impact my future? Oftentimes, the answer is no. By reducing (not eliminating) the amount of time I spend leisurely, I’m able to advance in the academic goals that do directly impact my future.

when you get caught up in all the exciting social events, what do you do?

Now that we’ve reflected on the things we can eliminate or reduce from our lives, what do we do with this extra time?

We think about the factors that could be raised and created.

Factors that should be raised

Factors that should be raised entails the requirements to achieve a certain result. For instance, grades and test scores are an essential component for university applications. Most students recognize that good grades will increase their chance of getting into their dream college. Although high grades do not always correlate with success, it is important to think about the requirements in the area you want to pursue… and then excel at them.

Another factor to raise is your strength. If something comes easier to you than others, you should keep at it! Your talent combined with hard work will achieve outstanding results.

Factors that you should create.

In Blue Ocean Strategy, they ask: which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?

This is probably the most difficult and compelling factor that you should focus on. How do you truly stand out from the others? What unique experiences contribute to your exceptional candidacy?

As the book said:

“This is the chance to identify the core value, or the major unique attribute/difference that your company will offer in order to attract new markets.”

In my mind, I think of it as:

what are the unidentified holes in our society that require mending?

Just like all the Youth Non-Profit Organizations that try to improve society, what is something unique that I can offer? Being able to identify this “hole” and proposing a creative solution validates your role as an active member and ambitious innovator for the community. Together, we can mend the holes and build a stronger foundation for society.

How will you stand out amongst the others?

Even though this is the most challenging factor, I encourage you to think about it — then take action.

While I reflect on my personal experiences in an attempt to compose a brilliant academic journey, I hope that you can use the four actions framework to reflect on your life now. Regardless of your age, this framework can apply to all, allowing us to improve our lives by categorizing the four different factors.

Before You Go

My name is Julia Li, and I’m still figuring it all out… but I’d like you to join me :)