A Blue Ocean Strategy for 2010, a new year/a new decade

It’s crowded out there.  Everyone feels some form of competition breathing down their back.  In the imagery made popular by the authors of Blue Ocean Strategy, we work in too many “red oceans,” with too many people trying to reach the same customers/clients.

The solution – a blue ocean strategy.  Here are a few key quotes from the book:

Cirque du Soleil succeeded because it realized that to win in the future, companies must stop competing with each other.  The only way to beat the competition is to stop trying to beat the competition.

Blue oceans are defined by untapped market space, demand creation, and the opportunity for highly profitable growth.

In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set.

In increasing numbers of industries, supply exceeds demand.  The business environment in which most strategy and management approaches of the twentieth century evolved is increasingly disappearing.  As red oceans become increasingly bloody, management will need to be more concerned with blue oceans than the current cohort of managers is accustomed to.

Here’s the strategy – create new markets.  Competing for old ones is a  “yesterday” strategy.  Create your own markets in brand new territory – this is the blue ocean strategy.

• Red Ocean vs. Blue Ocean Strategy

Red Ocean Strategy	Blue Ocean Strategy
Compete in existing market space	Create uncontested market space
Beat the competition	Make the competition irrelevant
Exploit existing demand	Create and capture new demand
Make the value-cost trade-off	Break the value-cost trade-off
Align the whole system of a firm’s activities with its strategic choice of differentiation or low cost	Align the whole system of a firm’s activities in pursuit of differentiation and low cost

Seldom have I felt people as ready to put the past year/the past decade behind them.  We long for a new start.  A new start – a blue ocean – for a new year and a new decade.  For the new year, I ask a simple question – what is your blue ocean strategy for 2010?

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You can purchase my synopsis of Blue Ocean Strategy, with audio + handout, at our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.