Blue Ocean Strategy  (English, Hardcover, Kim W. Chan)

Blue Ocean Strategy: How To Create Uncontested Market Space And Make The Competition Irrelevant is a book that shows how companies can create their own unique niches.

Summary Of The Book

Conventional business models are geared towards operating in the traditional market space. The entrenched view of the marketplace is as one big space where all competitors fight with each other for a share. This creates a blood red ocean where few can survive, and most companies close operations, unable to compete.

The blue ocean, on the other hand, is small and tranquil. It might be smaller, but it is much less turbulent. If there is competition, the space is not as crowded and so there is more share for the players. This book concentrates on teaching the readers how to create these blue oceans. It shows them how to redefine the marketplace by being innovative in their ideas. It shows them how to successfully implement these ideas.

Blue oceans are created by companies that think differently. Instead of following the herd, they blaze their own trail. One of the examples cited in Blue Ocean Strategy: How To Create Uncontested Market Space And Make The Competition Irrelevant is the Cirque du Soleil. This company redefined the traditional circus

The traditional circus had been unable to stand up to emerging competition from movies, television, video games etc. The cost of hiring performers had been going up, while profit margins were becoming narrower. Moreover, there was increasing aversion among the public to the use of animals in these shows. Also, animals were high maintenance properties, costing a lot in food, health care etc. Cirque du Soleil saw these challenges, and decided to avoid these pitfalls altogether They devised a new form of entertainment and targeted a new type of audience. They took the acrobatics of circus acts and gave it a unique twist by adding a theme and storyline to connect these performances. They also added music and dance to the show. By doing all this, they attracted new audience to their shows, including theatre audience.

Blue Ocean Strategy: How To Create Uncontested Market Space And Make The Competition Irrelevant explains that identifying and creating new market spaces like this results in new niches that make competition irrelevant.

The authors show how companies can identify these kinds of opportunities. They explain how to revise their strategies to take advantage of these niches. They also show how to successfully implement these strategies.

About The Authors

W. Chan Kim is a professor and a management expert.

W. Chan Kim has served on the boards of many international corporations. He is currently Co-Director of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute. He is also Chair Professor of Strategy and International Management at INSEAD. He has received honors like the Nobels Colloquia Prize for Leadership. He has also been listed by Thinkers 50 in their list of top management experts.

Renee Mauborgne is a leading management expert and a professor.

Renee Mauborgne is an INSEAD Distinguished Fellow and an affiliate professor at INSEAD. Mauborgne is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum, and is a member of President Obama’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.