W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne 2015 Blue Ocean Strategy

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· 66,500 ratings · 1,434 reviews

Start your review of Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant

Mar 07, 2009 Hal rated it it was ok

The signal-to-noise ratio of business books generally tends towards zero. They fall into one of three categories: baked-over platitudes designed to reinforce the self-esteem of the reader (see First Break all the Rules), laughably faulty reasoning (see Good to Great), and interesting ideas that are overextended and driven into the ground (see The Tipping Point). Fortunately for Blue Ocean Strategy, it tends towards the latter.

There are a few good ideas in the book, but they are shrouded in unnec

There are a few good ideas in the book, but they are shrouded in unnecessary jargon and applied precariously to far too many companies.
It uses the holy grail of business books: create a structured, numbered framework for analysis (see The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People or The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader or at least 1000 others) and then cherry-pick examples that can fit into the framework (see Built to Last).

All this aside, the fact that is directionally correct in advice and contains some thought-provoking ideas earns it a couple of stars. Unfortunately, I may never be able to sell my business book idea: It's All Due to Luck and Nepotism.

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Jul 25, 2008 Robert rated it it was amazing

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant
W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
Harvard Business School Press

This is an especially thought-provoking book that, as have so many others, evolved from an article published in the Harvard Business Review. According to Kim and Mauborgne, "Blue Ocean Strategy challenges companies to break out of the red ocean of bloody competition by creating uncontested market space that makes the competition irrelevant...This book not only challenges companies but also shows them how to achieve this. We first introduce a set of analytical tools and frameworks that show you how to systematically act on this challenge, and, second, we elaborate the principles that define and separate blue ocean strategy from competition-based strategic thought." The material provided by Kim and Mauborgne is essentially worthless, however, unless and until decision-makers in a given organization accept their challenge, are guided and informed by the six principles, and effectively use the tools within appropriate frameworks. The responsibility is theirs, not Kim and Mauborgne's. To assist their efforts, Kim and Mauborgne focus on several exemplary companies that have dominated (if not rendered irrelevant) their competition by penetrating previously neglected market space. They include the Body Shop, Callaway Golf, Cirque du Soleil, Dell, NetJets, the SONY Walkman, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, the Swatch watch, and Yellow Tail wine.

All of these Blue Ocean strategies created new or much greater value for customers. Their emphasis is on the quality of experience, not on the benefits of a new technology. According to Kim and Mauborgne, their research indicates that "the strategic move, and not the company or the industry, is the right unit of analysis for explaining the creation of blue oceans and sustained high performance. A strategic move is the set of managerial actions and decisions involved in making a major market-creating business offering." The cornerstone of a Blue Ocean strategy is value innovation that occurs "only when companies align innovation with utility, price, and cost positions. If they fail to anchor innovation with value in this way, technology innovators and market pioneers often lay the eggs that other companies hatch." For Kim and Mauborgne, value innovation is about strategy that embraces the entire system of a company's activities. It requires companies to orient the whole system toward achieving a "leap" in value for both buyers and themselves. Kim and Mauborgne explain HOW to create uncontested market space wherein competition is essentially irrelevant.

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Dec 21, 2012 Greg rated it did not like it

Kind of a stupid book. The overall premise is, don't compete directly with your competitors, create new markets. Of course, it falls into the classic trap that all business books seem to fall into, which is looking only at cases that support the theory and ignoring all that don't. The theory itself is pretty obvious when you look at it - basically it argues that making a profit in any commodities market boils down to reducing costs, and that when your competitors cannot directly compete against Kind of a stupid book. The overall premise is, don't compete directly with your competitors, create new markets. Of course, it falls into the classic trap that all business books seem to fall into, which is looking only at cases that support the theory and ignoring all that don't. The theory itself is pretty obvious when you look at it - basically it argues that making a profit in any commodities market boils down to reducing costs, and that when your competitors cannot directly compete against you, you will make much more money. This is essentially the classic economic picture of perfect competition vs monopoly, and is quite obvious.

Furthermore, many of the examples he uses have only a tenuous connection to his theory. For example, he tries tying the turnaround of the NYPD to his theory. It was an interesting story, but I'm still scratching my head how targeting hotspots and shifting resources is an example of Blue Ocean theory.

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The authors provide case studies on how some companies left their "bloody-red" oceans of competition for completely open blue oceans where they were unique.

Some are well-known business stories, such as Southwest Airlines becoming a low-cost provider. However, the book provides details into Southwest's underlying business strategies that may not be well known. Other case studies gave new insight into various companies and their product strategics. One interesting story, for example, was [yellow

The authors provide case studies on how some companies left their "bloody-red" oceans of competition for completely open blue oceans where they were unique.

The book covers the "strategic canvas" for analyzing competitors and planning a new market space. It then outlines six different principals for creating your own "blue ocean" strategy:

1) Reconstruct market boundaries
2) Focus on the big picture, not on the numbers
3) Reach beyond existing demand
4) Get the strategic sequence right
5) Overcome key organizational hurdles to make blue ocean strategy happen in action
6) Build execution into strategy from the start to build organizational trust and commitment

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This well-written book seems like common sense however it is an eye-opener for less sophisticated colleagues who doesn't know much about competitive advantage. It arguments how contested markets ("red oceans") should look for uncontested markets ("blue oceans"). Everything in this book is common sense. Nintendo is another high-profile example. Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's CEO, has referred to the Blue Ocean Strategy in interviews.

I do think the Blue Ocean Strategy is nothing without execution though

I do think the Blue Ocean Strategy is nothing without execution though. I think a large number (maybe more than 50%) of companies do not have a strategy. So it is not just execution that is missing. In fact, execution is easier once you have a strategy. This book, like many other business books, fails because it only talks about success stories. It does not talk about the majority of examples of Blue Ocean failed or currently marginal businesses:
- SPARSH, an innovative computer interface (google Pranav Mistry)
- Electric cars, which were invented in 1899!

I wouldn't highly recommend it but its an interesting read for someone new to this concept. For others, I would suggest or should look at "The Innovator's Dilemma" by Clayton M. Christensen for a better treatment of the ideas and the root causes for why they work.

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Jan 25, 2008 Ia Tjitrawasita rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: entrepreneur, policy makers

Keywords: blue ocean - red ocean - value innovation

How to win the competition? You can challenge your opponents on a head-to-head competition. Suppose that your target is to book 200 contracts each month. In order to fulfil the target you can compete on pricing. It means that you should give bigger discount than your opponents.

But head-to-head competition has its own limitation. There is another way to compete. A smarter way. Chan Kim and Mauborgne propose another solution: don't compete with

Keywords: blue ocean - red ocean - value innovation

But head-to-head competition has its own limitation. There is another way to compete. A smarter way. Chan Kim and Mauborgne propose another solution: don't compete with your competition, why don't you make them irrelevant!

The book idea is to give your customers better services without any head-to head competition. It gives you a framework helps you to re-design your products/services. It helps you find your niches.

The book is quite easy to read and has an excellent and brilliant idea. It's a must for anyone responsible in decision making.

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Blue Ocean Strategy is a business book that covers how to beat the competition by not trying to beat the competition. A red ocean symbolizes blood in the water, where companies are competing by traditional means (like price). The book advocates creating a category and explores a variety of topics to aid in creating a "blue ocean" such as value innovation, emphasis on the big picture, diminishing risk, and evaluating alternatives to your industry (and much more). The first half of the book seemed Blue Ocean Strategy is a business book that covers how to beat the competition by not trying to beat the competition. A red ocean symbolizes blood in the water, where companies are competing by traditional means (like price). The book advocates creating a category and explores a variety of topics to aid in creating a "blue ocean" such as value innovation, emphasis on the big picture, diminishing risk, and evaluating alternatives to your industry (and much more). The first half of the book seemed to be more about the strategic approach to category creation, where the second half of the book had more of a focus on people and management. I personally found the first half to be much more useful. I think there's better material out there for the management side of things. Overall, Blue Ocean Strategy was definitely worth the investment of time. I'd highly recommend it for entrepreneurs. ...more

This is a business school sort of trade book that has been getting a lots of hype. I had to read it for some other purposes so I worked through the book rather than through the numerous HBR articles. The premise of this book is that firms should not bother with messy competition, which will limit their profits and keep them warring with other competitors. Instead, firms should redefine their businesses into new offerings that are appealing to customers but are in such conditions or situations th This is a business school sort of trade book that has been getting a lots of hype. I had to read it for some other purposes so I worked through the book rather than through the numerous HBR articles. The premise of this book is that firms should not bother with messy competition, which will limit their profits and keep them warring with other competitors. Instead, firms should redefine their businesses into new offerings that are appealing to customers but are in such conditions or situations that other firms cannot easily imitate them. This is "blue ocean" strategy - in which you are the only fish in a big pond. The alternative, of course, is "red ocean" strategy - red because there are other fishes in the pond, whose competition will bloody the waters. Get the analogy?? Examples are provided of firms that have done this and suggestions are made about how to copy them. The writing style is crisp.

OK, but the problem is that there is nothing new here.

Coming up with a distinctive position that is very attractive to customers and that will justify high prices and good profits is a very old idea. Who wouldn't want to do that? The problem is that finding such opportunities happens most times through a combination of some skill and more luck. The firms that do this, and the examples in the book, have not escaped competition and their advantage does not last for long on average.

Telling someone to go out and follow such a strategy is a little bit like the old joke about the cure to poverty being simple - step 1, get yourself a million dollars; Step 2 . . .
(I think Steve Martin originally did this.)

The examples are not really helpful. Given a successful firm, it will not prove hard to find a reason why it succeeded. That is not helpful for someone else moving forward.

Overall, this is a popular treatment of corporate strategy that oversimplifies a lot. Careful readers can find better meals on which to chew.

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I had to read this book for a strategy class. Business strategy is all about how you intend to differentiate yourself from the competition and how you plan to get there. The premise of Blue Ocean Strategy is, as stated on page 4, "Red oceans represent all the industries in existence today. This is the known market space. Blue oceans denote all the industries not in existence today. This is the unknown market space." So the point of this strategy is to remove your business from the bloody sea of I had to read this book for a strategy class. Business strategy is all about how you intend to differentiate yourself from the competition and how you plan to get there. The premise of Blue Ocean Strategy is, as stated on page 4, "Red oceans represent all the industries in existence today. This is the known market space. Blue oceans denote all the industries not in existence today. This is the unknown market space." So the point of this strategy is to remove your business from the bloody sea of eat-each-other-alive competition and find or create a new field all to yourself.

But none of the examples cited in the book have created any "new industries". Southwest Airlines is still an airline. [yellow tail] is still a wine. Cirque de Soleil is still a circus. They do find ways to tap into new or specialized markets. So to me, these companies have more or less sailed to the edge of the red oceans, but they haven't completely left it.

What's bothersome to me is that the authors don't have an example of how they or someone else have taken a company through the steps to find that coveted blue ocean. What we have are existing companies who have differentiated themselves from their competition or tapped into a new customer base. So it seems as if the tenets of blue ocean strategy have been reverse-engineered to fit a handful of companies. This seems to be a research project that yielded some similarities between successful companies.

I'm not saying that their strategy is wrong, but perhaps I'd be more convinced of it if there were a company who successfully followed their method.

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Dec 19, 2019 Joe rated it really liked it

A boring book with several great insights.

The take-aways:
- Competition can be tough. Well-defined business spaces (a.k.a. red ocean, filled with blood) are vicious.
- Instead of competing in red oceans, consider creating a new space (a.k.a. blue oceans, no blood)
- There are several ways to create a blue ocean. The main idea is to re-evaluate core assumptions about (1) who your customers are/could be, and (2) what your customers value.
- For example, "the circus" was traditionally for kids. It had animals. And clowns. And over-priced popcorn. However, Cirque du Soleil re-thought these assumptions. Did "the circus" *need* to be for kids? What about adults? Did it need to have animals? And 3-ring acts? What if it was more performative/thematic instead?
- By changing their value proposition or by targeting a specific customer segment, businesses in competitive spaces can carve out profitable niches.
- That said, be mindful of what prevents competitors from copying your strategy! Ideally, you can do find something valuable and then protect it, otherwise your blue ocean will turn purple... then red.

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all my previous comments/critique was encapsulated on 2 appendixes at the end of the book so it confirmed my assumptions rather nicely. I believe he made for him self a blue ocean consultancy business and this book was the start of it? Beyond the Machiaveli political tips , everything else was around a catchy phrase and that what his main message seems to be. Rest are old theories in new color.

Jan 30, 2019 Mario Tomic rated it it was amazing

This book is an essential read for any entrepreneur looking to compete in a saturated marketplace and build a successful business. Too many startups fail because founders try to compete directly with well-established companies that dominate the market. The Blue Ocean Strategy is a book about finding your niche within a niche so you can stay competitive and grow.

I read the book after reading the article published in HBR, the book is really valuable and will enrich the reader will a lot of perspectives, tools and frameworks ... i liked mainly the "Strategy canvas" form first sight .. what a great and powerful tool

This is clearly a must read book for every one interested in the filed of management or strategy, But i will emphasis and insist on these points:
- Before reading this book, Please, read other book related to strategy (I will advice: Michael E. Porter books, or at least his article: what is strategy?) - I figured that some ideas that told in the book already told before, but the author but it in the very very right context
- The theory needs to be challenged and examined by an independent party
- I expect that i will find a drawn chart for the process of creation the blue ocean strategy, the absence of this chart is making the book hard to follow and challenged

Note: I added a lot of quotes from the book into goodreads and social media platforms

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Oct 08, 2012 Kislay Verma rated it did not like it

Full review at Solomon Says:

Let's go through the pros and cons of this book. The idea that there are no eternally excellent companies, and that the strategic move, instead of the company should be the unit of analysis is compelling. The authors argue that all companies make mistakes, so we should look to their strategic moves for excellence or the lack thereof instead of the companies themselves.

Now for the con, which is pretty much the existence of this book. Anybody even remotely familiar with

Full review at Solomon Says:

Now for the con, which is pretty much the existence of this book. Anybody even remotely familiar with business will realize what a gigantic truism Blue Ocean Strategy is. "Create awesome things that everyone and their grandmother wants.". This is literally all the book says. Sure. Why Not!!! Just let me put on my magic hat!

Innovation of the type that Kim and Mauborgne are suggesting is very, very hard. The Blue Ocean Strategy fails to acknowledge this difficulty. It takes the greatest challenge of corporate strategy and peddles an oversimplified solution through anecdotes and fancy terms.

Blue Ocean Strategy is not a theory. There is neither hypothesis nor attempted proof here. The whole thing goes backwards from effects to causes. What little "theory" is given is self-validating. We already know what the traits of a successful product/service are. It adds value to peoples lives and makes money for the company. The authors have made these two the hallmark of their "value innovation", and since every successful new business meets these criteria, the authors pretend that the theroy is valid.

The book is also guilty of what Nassim Taleb calls "survivorship bias". It analyzes only successful cases of blue ocean creation. If there is any industry segment which is trying to create blue oceans, it is startups. How many startups did all that this book suggests and yet failed?

Blue Ocean Strategy is a great tag line, but is actually a descriptive work masquerading as prescriptive theory. Read it only if you must.

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Feb 19, 2014 Trevor rated it really liked it

I remember as a child asking my dad why I should pick up skiing over snowboarding. He responded that while snowboarding was certainly fun, because of its popularity it was also commonplace. Reasonably talented teenage snowboarders were a dime a dozen on any ski hill. Good young skiers, however, were few and far between. Reflecting on the choice between becoming one of the unwashed masses of snowboarders or one of the few, the happy few skiers, I chose the latter. Over the years being a reasonabl I remember as a child asking my dad why I should pick up skiing over snowboarding. He responded that while snowboarding was certainly fun, because of its popularity it was also commonplace. Reasonably talented teenage snowboarders were a dime a dozen on any ski hill. Good young skiers, however, were few and far between. Reflecting on the choice between becoming one of the unwashed masses of snowboarders or one of the few, the happy few skiers, I chose the latter. Over the years being a reasonably good skier has served me well, differentiating myself from many of my peers and has created numerous business relationships and opportunities.

Kim and his co-authors take this basic concept and apply it to business. They suggest that positioning one's company away from popular and hotly contested "red ocean" and moving to less frequented "blue ocean" can pay huge dividends.

Blue Ocean Strategy differentiates itself from many business strategy books in that it doesn't simply dwell on this semi-novel strategic formulation, instead it includes numerous tools and suggestions for actively moving a company from red to blue ocean. Although some of the suggestions strike me as too esoteric to prove useful in a real business, the majority are simple, straight-forward, and can be utilized as useful thought experiments if nothing else.

All in all I found the book engaging a worthwhile read.

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Apr 05, 2020 Deane Barker rated it really liked it

This book is meant to describe a new approach/strategy to marketing.

The "blue ocean" strategy means that you find some aspect of your market that no one is doing, and try to dominate that, rather than fighting it out with other vendors in your space -- which is a "red ocean" strategy.

It's a good book that's just long enough. Long enough to describe the strategy and explain the pitfalls, but not padded too far.

The problem is that acting on the strategy in this book will be a very long play. This

This book is meant to describe a new approach/strategy to marketing.

It's a good book that's just long enough. Long enough to describe the strategy and explain the pitfalls, but not padded too far.

The problem is that acting on the strategy in this book will be a very long play. This is not a tactical book that gives you some tips you can use today. To do anything with this, you'd need a lot of time to completely pivot your business, I think.

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Jun 05, 2017 Jina rated it it was ok

I only skimmed this book. Thought the charts were stupid. Reasonably interesting premise that would have been the right length for 100 pages or less, not a full book. The thesis is that in selecting your product-market fit, you can try to compete with everyone else (the crowded "red ocean") or you can try to be the only one in your market (the "blue ocean").

For example, if you're running a circus, you could try to compete with Ringling Bros. and plenty of lesser-known competitors, who were in a

For example, if you're running a circus, you could try to compete with Ringling Bros. and plenty of lesser-known competitors, who were in a race to the bottom. (The book was written when Ringling Bros. was still in business, but their closure in 2017 just emphasizes the authors' point.) Or you can make a new market. Cirque du Soleil went after the adult market rather than appealing to families with small kids. Their product is obviously different, more theatrical; and instead of the same act all the time, they offer different performances, so there's a reason to keep going back. The price is also similar to live theater.

Another example is Curves: instead of trying to compete with other gyms, they offered something very specific, a convenient gym for busy women, with an easy-to-follow circuit routine and no mirrors. Authors Kim and Mauborgne are also fans of Novo Nordisk (marketed to patients instead of doctors by making insulin injections easier), Bloomberg Business (offered shopping to time-strapped traders, who then forced IT managers to buy the terminals), and the "broken windows" policing model of the New York police department (also described by Malcolm Gladwell).

Overall an enjoyable read, and I don't disagree with their premise, I just think it should have been a lot shorter.

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Sep 29, 2017 Daniel rated it it was amazing

This is a very good book. I am reading it for the first time because the new one has come out and I wanted a baseline. The premise is simple most competitors compete in price, variety, quality etc but the profits are slim and market is stagnant. This is called the red (bloody) ocean. To win big, you need to develop the Blue Ocean Strategy, bu looking into unexplored market. For example, Cirque du Soleil had transformed circus performance into sort of a theatre thing, attracting audience who woul This is a very good book. I am reading it for the first time because the new one has come out and I wanted a baseline. The premise is simple most competitors compete in price, variety, quality etc but the profits are slim and market is stagnant. This is called the red (bloody) ocean. To win big, you need to develop the Blue Ocean Strategy, bu looking into unexplored market. For example, Cirque du Soleil had transformed circus performance into sort of a theatre thing, attracting audience who would not mind paying the high price for a nice performance. It also managed to cut costs by doing away with the animals.

This is all very well and good, but sometimes success is only obvious after the fact. Even Steve Jobs did not get everything right and had a few products that flopped. It is of course easy to see after the facts, but the only way to develop these blue oceans is to try and try and try again.

The unforeseen effect of this book has been the explicit point made in this book: Do not focus on your existing customers because they are relatively happy anyway, and competition is stiff; focus on getting new customers instead as they are the Blues. This has caused some companies, including my local cable TV company giving their customers the feeling that they don't treasure their existing customers and are just nice to the new ones. That is the saddest side effect of this international best seller.

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Mar 13, 2008 Jelantik rated it it was ok

It was a booming marketing strategy that suddenly every body talked about. Even my 'ex' boss!

With curiousity I bought this book to find out what is this so famous new marketing strategy?!?!? when I finally read the book, actually there is nothing new in it. It is actually the same strategy that I've learned in university. Mainly it talks about DIFFERENTIATION AND BEING DIFFERENT, that's it.

Thanks God I didn't buy the original english version that cost a fortune!!

It was a booming marketing strategy that suddenly every body talked about. Even my 'ex' boss!

Thanks God I didn't buy the original english version that cost a fortune!!

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Jan 25, 2018 C rated it liked it

A decent but not groundbreaking explanation of how to beat your competition through value innovation: creating a leap of value for buyers while driving costs down. The book explains the theory and gives examples. There are many questions for you to ask yourself about your business. There are some helpful tables and graphs. The book is fairly dry, and not especially engaging. It's written for larger companies with mass-market products, so small businesses that provide services (like mine) need to A decent but not groundbreaking explanation of how to beat your competition through value innovation: creating a leap of value for buyers while driving costs down. The book explains the theory and gives examples. There are many questions for you to ask yourself about your business. There are some helpful tables and graphs. The book is fairly dry, and not especially engaging. It's written for larger companies with mass-market products, so small businesses that provide services (like mine) need to put some effort into translating the advice to their situation.

According to the book, value innovation happens by 1) saving costs by eliminating and reducing factors and industry competes on, and 2) increasing buyer value by raising and creating elements the industry has never offered.

"Although some blue oceans are created well beyond existing industry boundaries, most are created from within red oceans by expanding existing industry boundaries … In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. It will always be important to to swim successfully in the red ocean by outcompeting rivals. Red oceans will always matter and will always be a fact of business life. … To seize new profit and growth opportunities, they also need to create blue oceans."

The authors say the book is based on over 15 years of research in over 30 industries, data going back over 100 years, and HBR and academic articles.

The book was recommended in Zag: The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands. As a result, I expected this book to be more insightful.

Notes
Analytical Tools and Frameworks
4 Actions Framework
• Eliminate: Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated?
• Reduce: Which factors should be reduced well below the industry's standard?
• Raise: Which factors should be raised well above the industry's standard?
• Create: Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?

3 characteristics of a good strategy
• Focus
• Divergence: uniqueness; differentiation from industry average.
• Compelling tagline: deliver clear message; advertise an offer offering truthfully.

Reconstruct Market Boundaries
6 Paths Framework to breaking out of market boundaries
1. Look across alternative industries. Focus on key factors that lead buyers to trade across alternative industries (products and services with different functions and forms but same purpose. Give advantages of both alternatives. E.g., NetJets gives advantages of commercial airlines and private jet.

2. Look across the strategic groups within industries. Understand why consumers trade up or down among groups. E.g., Curves built on advantages of traditional health clubs and home exercise. Lexus offered quality of Mercedes at price of Lincoln.

3. Look across chain of buyers. Shift buyer group. E.g., Novo Nordisk focused on patients, not doctors. Bloomberg focused on traders and analysts, not IT managers.

4. Look across complementary products and service offerings. Define total solution buyers seek when they choose your product/service and think about what they need before, during, after they use your product. Identify pain points of your product and eliminate them through a complementary product. E.g., Barnes & Noble shifted from seller of books to seller of pleasure of reading and intellectual exploration, adding lounges and coffee bars. Dyson designed vacuum cleaners without cost and annoyance of changing bags.

5. Look across functional or emotional appeal to buyers. Functionally-oriented industries (those that compete on price and functionality with a rational appeal) can infuse commodity products with new life by adding a dose of emotion. E.g., Cemex shifted from selling bags of cement to selling a dream: adding a room to a house, where the family can laugh and be happy. Starbucks shifted from selling coffee to selling emotional atmosphere.

6. Look across time. Foresee how trends will change value to customers and change your business model, to take advantage. Study trends that have high probability of impacting your business, are irreversible, and have a clear trajectory. Predict what market will look like given the trend, then work backwards to identify changes to make today. E.g., Apple created iTunes to take advantage of trend towards mobile digital music. Cisco took advantage of growing demand for high-speed data.

Focus on the Big Picture, Not the Numbers
4 steps of visualizing strategy
1. Visual awakening. Compare your business with competitors by drawing your "as is" strategy canvas. See where your strategy needs to change.
2. Visual exploration. Go into the field to explore the 6 paths to creating blue oceans. Observe the distinctive advantages of alternative products and services. See which factors you should eliminate, create, change.
3. Visual strategy fair. Draw your "to be" strategy canvas based on insights from field observations. Get feedback on alternative strategy canvases from customers, competitors' customers, and non-customers. Use feedback to build the best "to be" future strategy.
4. Visual communication. Distribute your before-and-after strategic profiles on one page for easy comparison. Support only those projects and operational moves that allow your company to close the gap to actualise the new strategy.

Talk to and observe customers, non-customers, users.

Reach Beyond Existing Demand
Focus on non-customers and desegmentation before exploiting differences among existing customers. Seek to convert non-customers of the industry into new demand, rather than trying to capture greater share of existing industry customers. Seek key commonalities in what buyers value, rather than trying to embrace customer differences through finer customization and segmentation.

Non-customers tend to offer far more insight into how to unlock and grow a blue ocean than do relatively content existing customers.

Questions to ask about non-customers
1. Why do first-tier non-customers watch to jump ship and leave your industry? Focus on commonalities and the segment buyers.
2. Why do second-tier to your non-customers refuse to you? Focus on commonalities.
3. Why is your industry not targeting third-tier unexplored non-customers? What needs do they have that you could meet?

No tier of non-customers is inherently more valuable. Focus on the one that's the "biggest catchment" at the time. And see if there are commonalities across all three tiers.

Get the Strategic Sequence Right
Sequence of blue ocean strategy
1. Buyer utility: Is there exceptional buyer utility in your business idea?
2. Price: Is your price easily accessible to the mass of buyers?
3. Cost: Can you attain your cost target to profit at your strategic price?
4. Adoption: What are the adoption hurdles in actualizing your business idea? Are you addressing them up front?

6 utility levers: customer productivity, simplicity, convenience, risk, fun and image, environmental friendliness.

Eliminate blocks to utility across the buyer experience cycle (purchase, delivery, use, supplements, maintenance, disposal).

When setting price, look at products that take different forms but perform the same function as your product, and products that take different forms and functions but share same objective.

You need price-minus costing to arrive at a cost structure that's profitable and hard for followers to match.

3 levers to reduce cost
• Streamline operations, reduce costs from a manufacturing to distribution.
• Partner with companies to gain capabilities and economies of scale.
• Change pricing model of industry.

A Sketch of the Historical Pattern of Blue Ocean Creation
Creating blue oceans doesn't require tech innovation, even in tech industries. Key is value innovation (innovation linked to buyer's value).

Creation of blue oceans contributes to strong, profitable growth and strong, positive effect on brand.

Computer industry has experienced several blue oceans created by simplified computers and making them cheaper.

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A few too many examples in my opinion - it became repetitive.

assess trends across time: "decisive to your business...irreversible...have clear trajectory"

1) focus
2) divergence
3) Compelling tag line

Without buyer utility there's no blue ocean. Compelling reason for a mass of people to buy.
Setting strategic price - compelling ability to pay for offering
Product at cost. Cost don't drive price.
Address adoption hurdles.

volume intensive - more costs in knowledge marketplace on r&d not on production.

The

A few too many examples in my opinion - it became repetitive.

assess trends across time: "decisive to your business...irreversible...have clear trajectory"

1) focus
2) divergence
3) Compelling tag line

volume intensive - more costs in knowledge marketplace on r&d not on production.

The people at the front line care as much about process/strategy as people at the top. Follow due process at rollout or risk alienating your employees.

Reconstruction (demand - redfine problem itself) vs recombination (supply)

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Feb 24, 2020 Brooke rated it really liked it

Insightful observations on how to create market differentiation without feature comparisons against competitors. Since this was written 15 years ago, several of the case studies were rather dated (Borders, Barnes & Noble, iTunes), yet I was also fascinated to observe the businesses that have continued to succeed in their blue oceans (Cirque du Soleil, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks).

Another great model. That doesn't take into account halo effect and bias in the data. Great for having a tool and framework for business model, but not an generalised model. Read Phil Rosenzweig book to get perspectives on the common mistakes from its data Another great model. That doesn't take into account halo effect and bias in the data. Great for having a tool and framework for business model, but not an generalised model. Read Phil Rosenzweig book to get perspectives on the common mistakes from its data ...more

Jul 25, 2021 Pratik Samant rated it really liked it

This book captured my attention from the very first chapter. I had already heard a lot about this book and the book did not disappoint. You'll find a lot of small case studies and examples to understand the concepts and frameworks explained in the book. Real life cases elevates the trust factor & makes it an interesting read.

Jan 24, 2021 Ebrahem Anwar rated it it was amazing

This book change my perspective on How to build lasting and competitive businesses

Jul 13, 2018 Paco rated it liked it

Modeling disruptive innovation is easier read than done.

Blue Ocean Strategy comes with the promise of an absolute shift in how you will think about business and just delivers some new interesting frameworks to add to your toolkit.

The idea that competitors are fighting in a red sea of blood while there is always a blue ocean of opportunity is very a powerful visual idea that most readers could feel as absolutely disruptive and inspiring. However is nothing new, it all comes back to the idea of th

Modeling disruptive innovation is easier read than done.

Blue Ocean Strategy comes with the promise of an absolute shift in how you will think about business and just delivers some new interesting frameworks to add to your toolkit.

But the book comes with the promise of a structural way to deliver and think about how to make this disruption happen. It fails. And the reason it fails is that disruption is by definition unstructured. The book has some clever business frameworks, useful and innovative, but don't expect anything more sophisticated than the classical Porter 4 forces.

Blue Ocean Strategy its just a good read if you enjoy business strategy that will enrich your business knowledge.

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Sep 09, 2021 Zakiya rated it liked it

3.5 rounded down. Recommended to me a while back and finally read. I appreciate the approach on how to look at companies. At the same time, the age of this book make you reflect on the examples used. Once a blue ocean…not always a blue ocean. So many things can change that -leadership changes, the economy, a pandemic….

For as long as I can remember, my environment has been teaching me that if I want to stand out and be recognized as an individual I have to set myself apart and be different in a positive way. Along my journey, I picked up the idea that I need to be competitive or else I will succumb forever into a state of oblivion or worse into a debilitating state not worthy of anyone's attention.

Of course, most if not all businesses have the same orientation. Many organizations are driven to be competitive e

Of course, most if not all businesses have the same orientation. Many organizations are driven to be competitive especially in capitalistic economies. If you are strong you'll win but if you're weak you'll die. For as long as our society measures the success of companies as compared to others performance, competition shall remain relevant. However, sometimes you get tired of the ordinary discourses of competition.

This book offers another way of looking at strategy. For me, blue ocean strategy is another way for companies to outperform (compete with) others in a whole new level. Instead of being reactive to what other companies are doing, a company adopting blue ocean strategy focuses on creating value innovation. The book has multitude of examples and good ideas on how companies can adopt this mindset. In a very simple way this means wowing you existing customers plus others who don't care with your product.

I have read the expanded edition of this book and the edition itself is an example of the renewal idea espoused in the last chapters. This book brings fresh perspectives for those who are engaged in a militaristic view of competition.

Will I recommend this book? Yes because I am tired of the normal Company A vs. Company B type of games within the bloody red pool of competition. I think I am ready to swim to a fresh blue ocean.

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Practical advice from one of the bosses at the INSEAD Strategy Institute. Sometimes it gets a little self-helpy in the sense that creates its own vocabulary and repeats them ad nauseaum until we can't take it anymore. The references, of course, are dated. But I like its insights.

Some reviewers accuse it of nitpicking evidences, but business is already a tricky area for scientific exactness: there is just too many variables, and this book doesn't (nor tries to) cover all of them. This is a book a

Good place to start when it comes to innovation, since it introduces a "curve of value", that can measure in what companies should innovate and truly generate value for the clients, avoiding small niches and creating a relative monopoly (or "blue ocean") for itself.

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W. Chan Kim is the Co-Director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute and a Chair Professor of Strategy and International Management at INSEAD. His book Blue Ocean Strategy, co-authored with Renée Mauborgne, has sold 3.6 million copies and is recognized as one of the most iconic and impactful strategy books ever written. It is being published in a record-breaking 44 languages and is a bestsel W. Chan Kim is the Co-Director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute and a Chair Professor of Strategy and International Management at INSEAD. His book Blue Ocean Strategy, co-authored with Renée Mauborgne, has sold 3.6 million copies and is recognized as one of the most iconic and impactful strategy books ever written. It is being published in a record-breaking 44 languages and is a bestseller across five continents.
Kim is ranked in the top 3 management gurus in the world in the Thinkers50 listing of the World's Top Management Gurus. He was selected for the 2011 Leadership Hall of Fame by Fast Company magazine and was named among the world's top 5 best business school professors by MBA Rankings. He also received the Nobels Colloquia Prize for Leadership on Business and Economic Thinking. He is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and an advisory member for the European Union. He also serves as an advisor to several countries. ...more

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