Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition

a simple yet comprehensive method to ensure that the key components of an organization, from value to profit to people, are aligned to support the strategic shift Blue Ocean strategy requires? This is important as companies all too often focus on certain dimensions of their organizations, paying less heed to other dimensions that must support the strategy to make it a sustainable success. In Recognition, this expanded edition expressly explores the issue of alignment in the context of Blue Oceans. We present cases of success and failure in alignment to show not only how it is achieved in action but also how it can be missed. Chapter 9 addresses this alignment challenge. Renewal. When and how to renew Blue Oceans over time. All companies rise and fall based on the strategic moves they make or don't make. A challenge organizations face is how to renew Blue Oceans over time, as every Blue Ocean will eventually be imitated and turn red. Understanding the process of renewal is key to ensure that the creation of Blue Oceans is not a one-off occurrence but can be institutionalized as a repeatable process in an organization. In this expanded edition, we tackle how leaders can turn the creation of Blue Oceans from a static achievement into a dynamic renewal process both at the business level and at the corporate level for multi-business firms. Here, we articulate the dynamic renewal process for creating sustainable economic performance both for a single business that has reached for a Blue Ocean and for a multi-business organization that has to balance both red and Blue Ocean initiatives. In so doing, we also highlight the complementary roles that red and Blue Ocean strategies play in managing a company's profit for today while building strong growth and brand value for tomorrow. Chapter 10 addresses this renewal challenge. Red Ocean Traps – What They Are and Why They Should Be Avoided Lastly, we show the 10 most common Red Ocean traps we see companies fall into as they put Blue Ocean strategy into practice. These traps keep companies anchored in the red even as they attempt to set sail for the blue. Addressing these traps is critical to getting people's framing right to create Blue Oceans. With the proper grasp of the concept, one can avoid the traps and apply its associated tools and methodologies with accuracy so that right strategic actions can be produced to sail toward clear blue waters. Chapter 11 addresses the challenge of Red Ocean traps. What are the main points of distinction? The aim of Blue Ocean strategy was straightforward – to allow any organization, large or small, new or incumbent, to step up to the challenge of creating Blue Oceans in an opportunity-maximizing, risk-minimizing way. The book challenges several long-held beliefs in the field of strategy. If we had to zoom in on five key points of distinction that make the book worthy of consideration, it would be these. Competition should not occupy the center of strategic thinking. Too many companies let competition drive their strategies. What Blue Ocean strategy brings to life, however, is that this focus on the competition all too often keeps companies anchored in the Red Ocean. It puts the competition, not the customer, at the core of strategy. As a result, companies' time and attention get focused on benchmarking rivals and responding to their strategic moves rather than on understanding how to deliver a leap in value to buyers, which is not the same thing. Blue Ocean strategy breaks from the stranglehold of competition. At the book's core is the notion of a shift from competing to creating new market space and, hence, making the competition irrelevant. We first made this point all the way back in 1997 in Value Innovation, the first of our series of Harvard Business Review articles that form the basis of this book. We observed that companies that break away from the competition pay little heed to matching or beating rivals or carving out a favorable competitive position. Their aim was not to outperform competitors. It was to offer a quantum leap in value that made the competition irrelevant. The focus on innovating at value, not positioning against competitors, drives companies to challenge all the factors in industry.