Questions Before:

How do you create a blue ocean systematically over and over, given that blue oceans eventually become red?

What is the fundamental principle behind creating a blue ocean? Is there 1 principle that you follow?

Questions After:

How do you discover a blue ocean?

How do you measure the risk in a blue ocean?

How do you execute in a blue ocean?

What is your process so that you discover Blue Oceans continually?

How do you analyze a blue ocean? What metrics do you use?

Main Points:

 Blue Ocean Strategy is about finding a new uncontested market space where you aren’t competing with the companies in a red ocean. In a blue ocean, you redefine the market and rules of the game so that you can flourish and grow. Rather than compete for sections in the current market population, you expand the number of people in the market that are your customers. You appeal to a greater audience. 

 The angle that you take makes the competition irrelevant. You pretty much have no competitors. Furthermore, Blue Ocean Strategy is about leveraging both low cost and differentiation, not one or the other.  You have to pursue both at the same time, also known as value innovation.  It is how you redefine the market so that there is no competition. As a result, you can expand and grow comfortably.  The key is that you abandon traditional strategies of competition that is prevalent in the red ocean. However, blue oceans eventually become red, so you need a strategy and framework for creating blue oceans continually.

 There are a few questions involving Blue Ocean Strategy. First of all, is it risky to dive into a blue ocean, a part in the marketplace that is unexplored and untapped? Next, can anyone deploy the Blue Ocean Strategy? For example, do the companies need to be big or small? Does the industry need to be expanding or contracting? Or is it dependent on industries, such as tech. Apparently, the book is claiming that anyone can execute the blue ocean strategy regardless of age, size, and industry.

 Traditionally, business schools cover the various strategies in executing in red oceans, such as lowering the price, positioning, and simple differentiation. Ultimately, staying in a red ocean has so much competition that your margins shrink continually. This is one of the few books that explain and analyze blue oceans.

 The examples that they used was Cirque du Soleil where they were able to change the declining circus industry and expand the appeal of the circus to more people, such as a theater. They were more artistic and intellectual, redefining the audience of a circus. Furthermore, they got rid of the animal acts of the circus, reducing the cost of the maintenance. At the same time, they were able to make cost cutting measures, such as not hiring famous circus stars, that reduced their production cost. What was interesting was that people didn’t know how to define them since they were so different.