Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, 1. Creating Blue Oceans

The global phenomenon that has sold 3.5 million copies is published in a record-breaking 43 languages and is a bestseller across five continents--now updated and expanded with new content. This global bestseller, embraced by organizations and industries worldwide, challenges everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success. Now updated with fresh content from the authors, "Blue Ocean Strategy" argues that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves (spanning more than 100 years across 30 industries), the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors but from creating "blue oceans"--untapped new market spaces ripe for growth. "Blue Ocean Strategy" presents a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and outlines principles and tools any organization can use to create and capture their own blue oceans. This expanded edition includes: a new preface by the authors: Help! My Ocean Is Turning Red; updates on all cases and examples in the book, bringing their stories up to the present time; two new chapters and an expanded third one--Alignment, Renewal, and Red Ocean Traps--that address the most pressing questions readers have asked over the past 10 years. A landmark work that upends traditional thinking about strategy, this bestselling book charts a bold new path to winning the future. Consider this your guide to creating uncontested market space--and making the competition irrelevant. To learn more about the power of blue ocean strategy, visit blueoceanstrategy.com. There you'll find all the resources you need--from ideas in practice and cases from government and private industry, to teaching materials, mobile apps, real-time updates, and tips and tools to help you make your blue ocean journey a success. In Chapter 1, Creating Blue Oceans (21 pages), the authors review the thought process and research underlying their strategic management model. They argue that the key determining characteristic for successful blue ocean companies is a focus on value innovation, which opens up a new market (blue ocean) by adding customer value while managing costs. Value innovation depends on the alignment of innovation with utility, price, and cost.