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 enlarge | Authors: W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Rating:  171 reviews
Sales Rank: 644
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1
ISBN: 1591396190
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.802
EAN: 9781591396192
ASIN: 1591396190
Publication Date: February 3, 2005
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| Customer Reviews:
 Easy to read, easy to understand December 23, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I will not say this book is the defininate guide to success but does provide a new way of looking at the market, in particular an alternative look on the market.
By not only focussing on cost reduction, but more on getting more people interested in your product, this book gives some eye openers.
Even if it's not practical for you, the book is easy and entertaining to read and therefore no waste of time.
A must read! December 22, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Today, competition between companies is rampant and bloody, especially with the new emerging economies such as China and India. According to the authors, our industries have become overcrowded, creating a "red ocean" of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. The authors argue that while most companies compete within such red oceans, this strategy is increasingly unlikely to create profitable growth in the future. The authors argue that tomorrow's leading companies will succeed not by battling competitors, but by creating "blue oceans" of uncontested market space ripe for growth. Such strategic moves, according to the authors, render rivals obsolete and unleash new demand. The authors say, "These ideas are not for those whose ambition in life is to get by or merely to survive." (ix). The ideas in this book are meant to make a difference, and to create a company that builds a future where customers, employees, shareholders, and society win. As a side note, more than one million copies of this book were sold in the first year!
The metaphor of red and blue oceans is used to describe the market universe. Red oceans are all the industries in existence today--the known market space. In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of existing demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities, and cutthroat competition turns the red ocean bloody. Hence the term `red oceans'.
Blue oceans, in contrast, denote all the industries not in existence today--the unknown market space, untainted by competition. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. Blue ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored.
This book challenges companies to break out of the red ocean of bloody competition by creating uncontested market space that makes the competition irrelevant. Instead of dividing up existing--and often shrinking--demand and benchmarking competitors, blue ocean strategy is about growing demand and breaking away from the competition. The authors say, "No company--large or small, incumbent or new entrant--can afford to be a riverboat gambler. And no company should." (x).
One such company that broke away from the competition is `Cirque du Soleil' (French for `Circus of the Sun). This Canadian company, founded in 1984 by Guy Laliberté, has forever changed the world of Circus entertainment. Instead of competing in a declining industry, with Circus profits at an all time low due to a decline in attendance and increase in overheads, Laliberté created a whole new industry in circus entertainment. The focus was no longer on animal shows, which were expensive to perform and were opposed by Animal Rights movements, but on spectacular audiovisual performances from artists from around the world. You'll have to attend a show to real know what `Cirque du Soleil' is all about. Each show is a synthesis of circus styles from around the world and has its own central theme and storyline which brings the audience into the performance by having no curtains and continuous live music.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s Cirque expanded rapidly and went from one show with 73 employees in 1984 to currently 3,500 employees from over 40 countries. `Cirque du Soleil' tours every continent and has an estimated annual revenue exceeding US$600 million. The multiple permanent Las Vegas shows alone play to more than 9,000 people a night--5% of the city's visitors--adding to the 70+ million people who have experienced `Cirque du Soleil.'
Laliberté succeeded in breaking away from the competition and creating a new demand: stunning and magical performances with a storyline from cultures spanning the globe! A visit to 'Cirque' is a journey through time and space.
`Cirque du Soleil' is just one example (and the first) the authors cite. Their research is based on more than fifteen years of research on 150 strategic moves by companies in thirty industries and spanning more than a hundred years. The authors also published a series of `Harvard Business Review' articles. Their research led them to create strategies to making the competition irrelevant.
In this book, you will be introduced to the six principles that every company can use to successfully formulate and execute blue oceans. You will learn how to reconstruct market boundaries, focus on the big picture, reach beyond existing demand, get the strategic sequence right, overcome organizational hurdles, and build execution into strategy. Basically, these strategies will chart "a bold new path to winning the future."
The authors say that there are no permanently excellent companies, just as there are no permanently excellent industries. A perfect example is Polaroid. A giant once; gone today. The industry itself has changed and evolved, with the advent of digital photography. The companies that created a new demand in this industry are the ones that survived.
 There are other books I'd recommend before considering this one December 17, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book addresses a fundamental requirement of all business owners: In order to succeed, you must swim into uncharted waters and create a unique identity. Now that we know we're dealing with the concept of branding, there are five books I've read prior to Blue Ocean Strategy:
Marketing Warfare: 20th Anniversary Edition
This book introduced the military concept of "flanking" (staking your claim in an uncontested area) over 20 years ago.
The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding
More on branding from Ries & Trout, with an additional 11 "laws" specifically targeted toward Internet branding.
The Brand Gap: Expanded Edition
"Five disciplines to help companies bridge the gap between brand strategy and brand execution"
Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands
As in "When your competitors, 'ZIG', you must 'ZAG'"...as the back-cover copy states, it's a book on how to "out-position, out-maneuver, and out-design the competition."
The Power of Unfair Advantage: How to Create It, Build it, and Use It to Maximum Effect
A tough, no-nonsense book from a business writer who witnessed the transition of "Silicon Valley" from orchards to semiconductor firms. He also summarizes Ries & Trout's "flanking" principles.
So the question is "After reading these books, what new insights did I gain from Blue Ocean Strategy?" The answer? Not many.
The first problem I have with the book is the writing style of the authors. It's just a personal preference. I prefer the more direct, hard-hitting styles of the authors I've listed above. I found myself two or three pages into selected chapters and thinking "Are you EVER going to get to the POINT?"
The second problem is that there seems to be an attempt to build a "working model" or "paradigm" and what I find myself with is a grad student term paper that doesn't really climb into the real-world business trenches with me.
YES, Cirque du Soleil makes for an interesting case study. But I'm more interested in the hard-core, nitty gritty realities of stepping out onto the battlefield and making my business stand out.
I strongly urge anyone considering the purchase of this book to either thumb through it in your local bookstore or head on over to Google Books and read the available excerpts. The writers will either win you over or they won't. I gave the book three stars for the importance of its subject matter and docked it two stars for the writing style of the authors.
The best book on Strategic Planning I have ever read December 12, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I spotted this book in the Harvard Business Review magazine a couple months ago. I took it out of my local library and after the first chapter stopped reading it returned it and immediately bought a copy. This is a book that requires a notepad, two or more highlighters, and those postit flags to mark the important things to remember.
I literally couldn't put it down. I have used their Strategy Canvas to help our company work on developing a strategic plan for an entire new product offering.
Incredible look at strategy, a must read for business owners, managers and certainly Strategic Planners.
One of the best books i have read December 6, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A must read book for any one who intend to start a business or who want to enhance their existing one. It clearly lays down the protocol to identify the untapped markets. Brilliant presentation.
Regards,
Arun.
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