Realising dreams through competence

Top Stories

Realising dreams through competence
Dt Sathya Menon, Academic Director

Blue Ocean Academy trains minds and carves out a path of innovation for businesses

  • Follow us on
  • google-news
  • whatsapp
  • telegram

Published: Tue 24 Dec 2019, 10:55 AM

Last updated: Tue 24 Dec 2019, 12:58 PM

Blue Ocean Academy is an institution par excellence, and Dr Sathya Menon is the indispensable brain behind its success. Be it a professional or an aspiring student, Blue Ocean has an offering for everyone to chart out a path of robustness and intellect, which helps them rise in the rank and file of their professional cadre. 
"Market decides your destiny," said Dr Menon as he underlined the need for professional expertise courses in all walks of life. He says he deals closely with corporate and business leaders, and they keep coming back to Blue Ocean Academy as it instils in them the confidence and acumen to do big and scale new heights of success.
"You need to know what the market desires. we keep on changing benchmarks, and that is Blue Ocean's strategy," he said, as proudly outlined his vision. 
Just as the name implies, the academy believes in the blue ocean strategy which is beyond the idea of competition. It emphasises that change is inevitable in business and replaces market competition with market creation.
Everyone in the organisation works towards the benign goal of moulding a skilled generation instead of craving for profit. 
With its 20 years of expertise, the academy has proved that success is a natural outcome for an organisation that goes the extra mile to provide value for the customers. Blue Ocean's objective is rightly reflected in the quote "change is the end result of all true learning".
The organisation believes in the power of learning and educate individuals to bring about a greater change in their lives and ultimately in society.  
"Blue Ocean has never tried to compete with any other organisation. Our strategy is to create uncontested market space, thereby making competition irrelevant," Dr Menon illustrates.
With a humble beginning in 1998, Blue Ocean Academy has come a long way with a wider presence in GCC, Azerbaijan and Africa. It has many feathers in its cap; apart from being ISO certified, it is accredited by a number of world-fame centres of excellence as well. This is what makes Blue Ocean the indispensable destination for management professionals.
To this day, Blue Ocean has trained more than 80,000 people. "We have trained most of the corporate companies' staff in the UAE," Dr Menon remarked.
Dr Menon, as the CEO and Executive Director-Academics of Blue Ocean Academy, brings with him immense experience having worked with Al-Futtaim, Compaq, Ericsson and having set up distribution networks throughout the world.
His name counts for success and that is why Blue Ocean remains the centre-stage for management consultancy and academic grooming of professionals. Dr Menon holds 27 years of experience in the field of logistics, supply chain management and purchasing. He holds a PhD as well as an MBA in the same field of study.
He also holds a Master's degree in Materials Management and an MCIPS from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), UK. He has been awarded the prestigious fellowships - FCILT from Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), UK and FCMI from Chartered Management Institute (CMI), UK.
Dr Menon is also one of the pioneers in the region to receive certification as CPM from Institute of Supply Chain Management (ISM), USA. Armed with an executive programme in Artificial Intelligence from MIT Sloan Business School, USA, and a Certified SAP consultant for Supply Chain Management from SAP, Germany, Blue Ocean, he keeps Blue Ocean on a futuristic path.
"We specialise in designing courses that bridge the gap between infrastructure and knowledge, imparting futuristic skills to a new genre of industry leaders, shaping them into dynamic professionals in an increasingly competitive world," Dr Menon illustrates his academy's role, which has a global network of certified trainers, international affiliations and multinational partners. 
"We are not into the business of making money. We strive to create excellence. We do a lot of programmes to develop human capital, and we focus strongly on supply chain management, procurement, human resources, six sigma and aviation." 
Menon says the success story of Blue Ocean Academy is its humbleness and the way it empowers its staff. "There is no micro-management in our organisation, and I believe all are delivering to the best of their abilities. Word-of-mouth is our business strategy, and we genuinely train people." 
The impact that Dr Menon and his trainers have on participants makes Blue Ocean Academy an unforgettable choice. This is why all the multinational companies in the UAE are its proud customers, as they bank on Blue Ocean to enrich their human resource profile, learn on cost-cutting and how to excel in their upcoming endeavours.
Having personally trained more than 25,000 professionals and multiple business process re engineering consultancy assignments, Dr Menon has attained a revered status among the industry and corporate heads of UAE and abroad.
He is widely respected for his humility and regarded for his knowledge and fine-tuned pieces of advice. "I can identify gaps and weaknesses, and help them turn around with my experience and insight," the Blue Ocean chief pointed out, adding, "I teach out of passion, and people never forget my classes. Many top corporate heads today are my students."
There isn't any surprise that Blue Ocean Academy is sought-after by individuals and professionals alike because it has taught them a core lesson: Earlier it was an era of diversification, but now it's all about sticking to core competence.
Dr Menon is all praise for the leadership of the UAE, as he believes that without their vision and commitment, the UAE would not have been where it is today. "The UAE is one of the fundamental supply chains centres of the world, and it has a long way to go," he said.
Blue Ocean works on a unique mantra, which is known as ERRC: Eliminate (what you don't need), Reduce (burden), Raise (customer experience) and Create (value proposition). This is smart thinking and is the manifest of adaptability in changing times. 
Exclusive Industry seminars and forums, placement assistance and internship opportunities are some of the exclusive features that Blue Ocean boasts to remain invincible. These incentives act as a platform for networking and knowledge sharing for professionals from logistics, supply chain, procurement, human resource, project management, quality management and aviation industry. 
One of the incredible examples is of Blue Ocean students at Sharjah International Airport, wherein students learn about check-in, boarding, passenger assistance and the basic tenets of passenger service. Similarly, as part of corporate social responsibility, free training is offered to 100 low-income workers in the UAE. 
As Dubai inches towards Expo2020, Blue Ocean has plans for 'value innovation'. "We hope that Expo 2020 will be a breakthrough in the history of our academy and take it to new heights, and we plan to raise the bar with the advent of 2020," Dr Menon proclaimed. 
There are many firsts that Blue Ocean plans to come up with such as the conference of "Return of Investment in training" in December 2019, after successfully conducting five international conferences in procurement and supply chain, which were the largest in the UAE.
Likewise, Blue Ocean has also ventured into its own recruitment and placement cell to support students who are in need of jobs, and provide free training support to the financially challenged.
There is no pause-time for Blue Ocean Academy as it continuously believes in scaling new heights. As Dr Menon said, we believe in realising dreams, and the sky too is not the limit. In the next five years, it plans to extend operations in India and Africa, and reach out to Iraq and Pakistan.
True to its motto of 'Empowering Minds and Widening Horizons', Blue Ocean Academy will keep on adding value to the society in different ways in years to come as Dr Menon makes new inroads into his passion of carving out utmost excellence.


More news from