During April’s A to Z blogging challenge, I came across an fascinating market- creating topic called “Blue Ocean Strategy”. I can’t wait to dive into this concept further! Its application in various case studies makes for great study.
Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne are leading business thought leaders and strategy management professors at INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute in Fontainebleau, France. They set out to understand what it would take to survive and thrive in a competitive global environment.
“Demand was no longer outstripping supply, as it had following World War II. Instead, the world was facing a new, tougher game of supply outstripping demand, which meant ever-greater competition.”
https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/our-story/
They differentiated the red and blue ocean strategies.
- Red ocean is affiliated with cut-throat competition in existing industries in the known market space.
- Blue ocean is affiliated with areas that are unexplored and untainted by competition: areas for opportunity and growth.
They wrote an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review: “How to Achieve Resilient Growth Throughout the Business Cycle“. I’ve summarized 4 pieces of advice they shared.
Journey to the Blue Ocean – Building Resilient Growth
1. “…To create growth resilience, focus on building a healthy, balanced portfolio of market-competing and market-creating strategic moves, of red and blue ocean strategies.”
2. “…Don’t wait for growth to slow to make market-creation a strategic priority. Act now. In a downturn you want to be buffered by your market-creating move, and that can only happen when your market-creating move is already launched or set to launch.”
3. “…Ensure that your market-creating efforts are a core component of your corporate strategy and not siloed into a function, effectively a side show.”
4. “…Remember technology itself doesn’t create markets. What creates new markets is the use of technology. Is it linked to value innovation or not? Will your product or service make a positive change in peoples’ lives, and hence unlock a windfall of consumer surplus?”
https://hbr.org/2020/03/how-to-achieve-resilient-growth-throughout-the-business-cycle#comment-section
Fission PM 