In 2005, professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne wrote the Blue Ocean Strategy and launched a revolution in business strategy.

Instead of struggling to survive in the bloody shark-infested “Red Oceans” of vicious competition, why not move to the “Blue Oceans” where there was little or no competition?

The Blue Ocean Strategy defines success as not about fighting for a bigger slice of an existing, often shrinking pie, but about “creating a larger economic pie for all.” The book was a publishing sensation. It sold more than 4 million copies and has been translated into 44 different languages.

The book includes many illuminating examples of Blue Ocean strategy in action, including:

• Cirque du Soleil didn’t attempt to operate as a normal circus, and instead carved out a niche for itself that no other circus had ever tried.
• The National Youth Orchestra of Iraq found success by “reducing the emphasis on technical excellence and a sophisticated European repertoire” and instead focusing on “the power of music to bridge the deepest divides and highlight Iraq’s rich heritage.” Abandoning expensive guest conductors and soloists and European repertoire, the orchestra comprises young men and women from all Iraqi ethnic and religious groups.
• The French Groupe SEB found success by slipping out of the intensely competitive market for conventional French fry makers, by creating a French fry maker that operated without the hassle of heating large quantities of oil. The Acti-Fry made healthier French fries with only one table spoon of oil for two pounds of French fries. It transformed the market for French fry makers.

In effect, Blue Ocean strategy involves market-creating innovation. It opens up new possibilities that are not available to organizations operating within the existing cost-value structure. It expands the universe as to what is possible, often enabling higher value at lower cost.

• Mindset: The authors found that, as in the world of Agile management, Blue Ocean strategy is fundamentally a shift in mindset. It involves “expanding mental horizons and shifting understanding of where opportunity lies.”

• Tools: Successful implementers of Blue Ocean strategy have used practical tools to systematically “translate blue ocean thinking into commercially compelling new offerings.” Sporadic, one-off “Blue Ocean strategy” is one thing: systematically adopting Blue Ocean thinking is another.

• Human-ness: Successful implementers exemplify “a humanistic process, which inspires people’s confidence to own and drive the process to own and drive the process for effective execution.”

The Blue Ocean mindset: explores the distinctive opportunity-based thinking that is at the foundation of Blue Ocean strategy. It is a perspective that enables strategists “to ask a fundamentally different set of questions,” the answers to which “in turn enable them to perceive and appreciate the fallacies behind long-held assumptions and the artificial boundaries we unknowingly impose on ourselves.”

It describes for instance how Salesforce.com was able to upend the customer-relationship management industry through providing services on a subscription basis through the cloud. Such Blue Ocean strategists epitomize strategic agility by focusing on creating and capturing new markets, not fighting over existing customers. In effect, they “think different.”



The Blue Ocean Strategy is a good strategy to add to your business growth strategy toolkit!