For a long time now, companies and other business enterprises have engaged themselves in an endeavour to gain a competitive advantage. This is usually because of the numerous companies that deal with the same line of products in the contemporary society. This increase has led to a situation where there are so many companies that are competing for the profit pool. It goes without saying that some businesses may make lower profits or even be thrown out of the market. Therefore, most companies focus on competition. The main aim is usually to gain a competitive advantage over the other companies with the aim of maximizing on profits. The Blue Ocean Strategy aims to discourage this approach and suggest a better one. The authors, Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne acknowledge that most businesses compete at what could be referred to as the red ocean. The term red ocean is used to refer to the bloody kind of environment that results when numerous companies try to compete for the little market available (Mauborgne and Kim 2017). They observe that although majority of the businesses compete within this red ocean, this strategy is unlikely to yield more profits and growth in the future. The greatest argument that the authors make in the book is that the companies that intend to be successful in the future can only be so if they shift their focus from the red ocean/ battling with competitors. Instead, such companies should focus on creating their own blue oceans. The term blue ocean is used to refer to an uncontested market ((Mauborgne and Kim 2017). This means that the businesses that create a blue market will no longer be competing for a market but will be sure of one. In a nutshell, the book has succeeded in its endeavour of guiding businesses on how to move from the red ocean to the blue one. This has been achieved through a step by step process on how to achieve this. The authors have ensured to use extensive research to guide their work. One of the factors that may show the success of the book in achieving its endeavours is that the book remained the top seller for more than 100 weeks. In addition, more than 6 million copies were sold. The authors of the book intended to demonstrate the importance of shifting the approach of businesses from competition to that of creating a blue ocean/ an uncontested market.
About 95 percent of businesses fail within 10 years ((Mauborgne and Kim 2017). These are shocking statistics. Amazingly, the community of entrepreneurs seem to have accepted this as the standard for businesses. It is without doubt that any business is started with the hope that it will last and that it will continue to be profitable. After all, the main aim of a business is to maximize profits. The authors note that there are numerous businesses competing in the same line of products. This is likely to create a chaotic future where some businesses will be thrown out of the market ((Mauborgne and Kim 2017). To avoid this, the authors suggest a shift of business approach from that of competition to creating an uncontested market. The book revolves around some five steps that can be used to achieve the shift. The first step is to select the right scope of the business’ blue ocean initiative and then focus on building the confidence of the people. This simply means that the business should first focus on the product or service that they want to deal with. Here the authors suggest some tools that the business can use to identify the areas that they are likely to have the most gain. As noted earlier, the main aim of most businesses is to maximize profits. After identifying the area that the business will have most gain, the authors suggest that the business should put together a team that is going to help carry out the blue ocean initiative (Mauborgne and Kim 2017). Confidence is a very important key for the success of the initiative. It is important to ensure that the employees are confident that the business will achieve its endeavour. This increases the chances of success. The second step is to have a clear picture of the current state of the play. This simply means having a clear picture of the current landscape in as far as strategy is concerned. According to Mauborgne and Kim (2017), the picture should be so simple that almost anyone can understand it. The authors provide some tools that can help the entrepreneur understand where they are now. It is very important to have a clear vision of where the business is headed to. Extensive evidence suggests that this will go a long way in ensuring that the business succeeds.
The third step is identifying the hidden constraints/ challenges and figuring out innovative ways of turning them into business opportunities (Mauborgne and Kim 2017). As seen in the previous step, it is important to have a big picture that is very clear. After having this picture, it is important to establish another clear picture of the assumptions and challenges that are likely to be experienced in the process of achieving the vision. Identification of these is very important as is analogous to identifying the factors that are likely to stand in the way of achieving the vision. The authors note that these hidden constraints should not be treated as challenges. Rather, the entrepreneur should view them as opportunities or avenues of breaking from the chain of competition. The challenges/ constraints become opportunities when the business endeavours to providing solutions for them. If a business focuses on providing solutions to these challenges, then it is on the right path towards creating its own blue ocean. This step also helps the entrepreneurs identify who the non-customers are and why they tend to stay away from their industry. This framework of analysis is very important as it also helps the business focus on how to create new customers for the product or service being offered. The fourth step is moving from the picture to actually creating the actual blue ocean. At this step the team is ready to create the uncontested market by mainly focusing on differentiation and low cost (Mauborgne and Kim 2017). In other words, this step involves focusing on reconstructing the market boundaries and creating new markets. The authors provide the six paths framework to help the entrepreneurs achieve this step. The advantage of this framework is that it helps the entrepreneur see opportunities. It helps identify what the business could eliminate, reduce, raise or create so that there is potential for creating up to six blue ocean moves. The fifth and the last step is launching the blue ocean move. This final step basically involves selecting the appropriate blue ocean move and rapidly testing it in the market. The authors guide the entrepreneur on how to identify the best blue move to make by holding a blue ocean fair. The fair is intended to collect the feedback of the people which will be used in the decision-making process (Mauborgne and Kim 2017). After this fair, the business is ready to launch its blue ocean initiative. In a nutshell, the authors provide entrepreneurs (whether potential or already in business) with some five key steps in ensuring that they create a market that is uncontested. Following these five steps will help a business thrive for long in the market.
As seen in the discussion above, the blue ocean strategy focuses on moving from a competitive based market (red ocean) to creating an uncontested market (blue ocean). There are several advantages of such a move. One of the advantages is that the business is likely to enjoy more profits. In a competitive market, supply exceeds demand. This means that a business must employ aggressive techniques to ensure that they command a significant share of the market and retain a competitive advantage. This may often lead to little profits and even closure of the business. The blue ocean strategy helps overcome this problem and help businesses maximize on profits in an environment that is free of competition. Another advantage of the strategy is that it helps the business come up with a strategy of surviving an unattractive industry. An unattractive industry is used here to refer to an industry that is very competitive. In cases where there is high competition, there is a high likelihood that a business will not be making much profits. In fact, the business might even make losses and risk being pushed out of the market. Employing the blue ocean strategy will help the business remain relevant in the market since the focus will be on commanding a new market where there will be little or no competition. This way, the business is likely to make more profits and last longer in the market. The final advantage that will be discussed here is that the strategy helps businesses to identify key areas of improvement. The strategy helps the business identify the things that it should not continue doing. Secondly, it helps identify the things that should be done less off. Thirdly, the business identifies whether there are certain areas in which it should raise its standards. Finally, the strategy helps the business identify whether it should create new steps. These key areas of improvement are key in helping a business achieve its strategy.
There have been numerous cases where new businesses emulate those that are already successful. Suppose a business employs the blue ocean strategy and achieves command for a market that is relatively uncompetitive. There is a likelihood that other businesses will emulate the model of this business. This may result to the red ocean situation again. This is because the move will increase competition meaning that businesses will have to pursue competitive advantage. The other weakness of the blue ocean strategy is that it suffers from a survivor bias. This has been one of the main weaknesses that the critics of the books have raised. The argument is that the book employs the successful business models to show that it is possible to create a blue ocean. Critics of the strategy say that the book largely borrows from the successful models to conclude that other businesses can also succeed. Instead of such focus, it would have been better if the book provides some fundamental principles that a start up business can follow to become successful/ command a significant portion of the market. Critics also argue that there is an inability to compare and contrast the rates of success of the businesses that seek entirely new markets.
Conclusion
The Blue Ocean Shift was a book written in the year 2005. The authors were Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. The book became so popular that it remained a top seller for more than 100 weeks. In addition, more than 3.6 million copies of the book were sold. The book focuses on helping businesses command a market that is uncontested so that they can remain viable in the future. In the contemporary environment, there is so much competition. The competition is so high that about 95 percent of all businesses to not live long enough to see their 10th birthday. Due to this high competition, a business must aggressively look for means of achieving and maintaining a competitive advantage. Otherwise, the business may be pushed out of the market. The Blue Ocean Shift aims at providing businesses with five key steps that a business can take to ensure it creates a market that is free of competition. The main advantage that is associated with the blue ocean shift is that it helps businesses focus on new markets. Since the main aim of a business is to maximize profits, the shift is very important. In addition, the book helps entrepreneurs identify some key areas of improvement that could be pursued. Although the blue ocean strategy has been termed as advantageous, there are some who criticize it. These argue that a business that employs the initiative is likely to be emulated by others. This is then likely to lead to a situation where competition will resume once again. Despite the criticism, it would be true to conclude that the book has been successful in achieving its purpose. The purpose of the book was to help business move from high competition (red ocean) to creating new uncontested markets (blue ocean).
References
Mauborgne, R., & Kim, W. C. (2017). Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing-Proven Steps to Inspire Confidence and Seize New Growth. Pan Macmillan.
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