Creating a New Mental Category

Entrepreneurial Traits Needed
Aaron Phiri, Manager, South Africa, Member
Its clear from the description of the blue market strategy that entrepreneurial traits such as innovation must be at the heart of the strategy.

Creating a New Dimension in Mind of Entrepreneurs
Min Prasad Budhathoki, Project Manager, Nepal, Member
Hello all, I think the Blue Ocean strategy helps to create new dimension in mind of entrepreneurs. Human nature is very versatile and always wants a new taste. In such a competitive world it is wise to adopt Blue Ocean strategy rather then a red ocean strategy. Of course, there should not be any type of discomfort or deception in the name of new changes.

How to Find a Blue Ocean
Cengiz Pak, Strategy Consultant, Turkey, Member
I suggest the Kano model, for those looking for a way of creating a strategy like blue ocean. For every strategical movement you need a direction and Kano may clear the clouds of "what customer wants" and then check whether someone is doing it.

Customer Satisfaction is Most important
mohamed
Whichever strategy to be undertaken - whether Red or Blue Ocean - the vital point is: satisfaction of customers in relation to their needs and preferences.

Change in Mind of Customers?
carlos calderon, Director, Colombia, Member
That idea is not clear for me, should the process involve a change in the top of mind of customers? How do you now that it will be successful?

No Guarantee that a Blue Ocean Strategy will Work
Jonathan Narducci, Business Consultant, United States, Member
There is never a guarantee that a plan, initiative or strategy will work. The best you can do when you build one to differentiate your business from others is make sure that the plan, initiative or strategy is a valid one by understanding your customers, technology, trends, targeted markets, and your and your colleagues' experiences.
Also, you can't rely on what's worked in the past. "New" is never proven - by definition - until "put out there." However "new" can be substantiated through knowledge.

Blue Ocean Strategies create new Values and Visions
Jean-Philippe THOME, CEO, France, Member
I like Blue Ocean strategy very much, because it's clever and based on a constructive and positive way of thinking, totally opposed to the red one which is rather destructive, as the main goal is to fight against competition.
Blue ocean creates new values, new visions and helps to think differently.

Successfully Crystallising the Idea Will Expand the Red Ocean..
Ravi Unni, Manager, Qatar, Member
The imagery is perfect - red denoting bloodshed to capture market; blue to indicate untapped vast unchartered waters.
Without going into the debate on whether the new market is in 'mind world' or 'real world', I would say the success of creating the new market would crystallize the idea into expanding the 'red ocean'.
Another aspect is whether by differentiating from existing products / services [marginal improvement], can we say its 'blue ocean'?

Blue Ocean Strategy is Enterpreneurial
Eddie Baker, Student (MBA), United States, Member
Blue ocean strategy reflects separation of wheat from chaff, is truly enterpreneurial; and is the root of all things--before, now, and hereafter.

BOS Dependencies
durgaaprosad, Strategy Consultant, India, Member
The success of creating the new market will depend on the innovative ideas translated into action by the CEO of the organization.

Never Turn your Back on the Ocean
Robert Masters, United States, Member
The supporting material to this thread uses eBay as an example of successful Blue Ocean thinking. While I think eBay was hugely successful, there is ample evidence to suggest they were slow in responding to new competition. Unique market positions aren't unique for long. Blue Ocean thinking with an eye toward a red ocean future seems more realistic.

WHO can Create a New Mental Category
B Subba Rao, HR Team Member, India, Member
Entrepreneurs are interested in doing business in proven services/products. They should explore avenues for new innovative useful services/products which should be useful to improve the quality of social living. The blue oceans have to be explored by the present youth who should be tutored to evince interest in uplifting society as a whole.

Consider Markets as our Family
C. S. Vijendra Rao
We need to look at all markets as a extension of our own family. The needs are different, earnings are limited and there is a forced social responsibility to and from everybody in the family. We need to focus on savings rather than on spending. BOS can play a huge role in creating a case study where wealth is created for social causes rather than focussing on creation of products which ultimately turn into waste. E.g. automobiles create pollution, health hazards, accidents and erode nature. We need to look at mobility and not meaningless travel.

Combine Blue + Red Ocean Strategies
SHASHANK CHAVAN, Manager, India, Member
Organisations can approach both the strategies. The revenues from red ocean can be invested in Blue Ocean strategy. This will definitely help an organisation to stand out.

Strategizing Using Human Values
Sanjeev Chugh, Teacher, India, Member
Everlasting success is a path which will be achieved only when one seeks answers to basic questions such as, am I thinking truthfully and sincerely to satisfy my needs? What are my needs anyway? And that of my family members? My neighbourhood? My society? My state? My country and so on...
In my opinion, when thinking is based on "needs" and not on fancy desires, what we get is pure action. And this unity with purity leads one to satisfy needs, take care of self, family and society and most importantly the now fragile environment. Mahatma Gandhi said, there is enough in this world to satisfy every one's needs, but the resources of the entire universe are not enough to satisfy one's greed.
So let us focus on needs, act with clean intelligence & purity of heart and leave the rest to the divine will to provide us the results. Its not a cakewalk though...! Challenges will come and our human values will be tested and the best practitioner will show us the way...! Ultimately truth will triumph.

Blue Ocean Strategy Requires Paradigm Shift
Sundaram, CEO, India, Member
This is interesting. To move from red to blue, you are actually talking about a paradigm shift. Even in this situation it is matter of time before the competition moves in, converting the whole issue back to red ocean.
Corporate social responsibility, respect for basic human values would be the best bet in he long run.

BOS is Similar to Disruptive Innovation
Swati Misra, Management Consultant, India, Member
Blue Ocean strategy is not a new concept. It is also known as disruptive innovation in the technical world.
Recall what Dell computers did in the land of IBMs and other players in the personal computer world. It started with targeting a niche segment - technical users who knew what they wanted in their machines. Slowly, this way of delivering customized PCs took over the standard retail outlet approach of pre-configured machines, and now Dell's way of delivering is popular among most breeds of PC users.

Technical Mastery Needed
Reginald Mathe Mazibuko, Director, South Africa, Member
I think Blue Ocean strategy needs to be carefully implemented as company can lose focus on its core competency (doing the basics right) in pursuit of another business. Only when a business has achieved a high state of technical mastery and is certain about it, then it can start pursuing other areas outside of it. Here in South Africa, Nedbank (the commercial bank) tried to integrate IT with banking without looking at the ramifications of losing their technical mastery. GM is another company that comes to my mind when talking about blue ocean strategy. At the end it got caught up in many business strategies.

@Robert Masters
Sanjay Verma, Business, Kenya, Member
I completely agree with the comment. The Blue Ocean strategy seems like a long definition of entrepreneurship. Existence of venture capitalists is also based on a promising innovative idea waiting to be implemented and seems to me another example of blue ocean...
Point being that there is nothing new in this theory, although I must say that I like the symbolism of the blue and red.
Every Blue Ocean will become a red ocean sooner rather than later. To avoid that from happening, to continue to enjoy a monopoly, to remain ahead always one needs a very strong entry barrier, which to my mind is not easy in a liberalised global economy.

Expanding Existing Horizon
vinit burdak, India, Member
Creating new market out of the existing market can be done by by expanding the horizon of existing boundaries.
For example: giving service support to new mobile handset manufacturer at one place and thus creating the mobile service centre franchise industry as a whole new industry and hereby reducing the cost of after sales service for the new mobile entrant.

BOS Aims at First Mover Advantage
Charles Peter, CEO, Kenya, Member
I strongly feel that the concept advocated by the Blue Ocean strategy is not any different from business innovation.
It is a question of businesses identifying other areas where competition is less intense and taking first mover advantages. It is unlikely that any Blue Ocean will remain so for long. With realtime information flows, blue oceans are becoming red oceans realtime and for survival, real time innovation is key for any business

Blue Ocean Strategy Similar to Differentiation Strategy
pradeep deo, Strategy Consultant, India, Member
I do not find much diffference between Blue Ocean strategy and a differentiation strategy.

Creating a New Mental Category
Elena Palkina, Manager, Russian Federation, Member
In my opinion, when a manager is constantly thinking about future, making long-term plans, he understands that he will not able to provide the company with successful future without using the strategy of blue ocean. On the contrary, the red ocean strategy will doom business to failure in the long-term outlook. So, the secret is ''living today always think about tomorrow's day".

Blue Ocean Thought Space
Sudipto Mahindar, India, Member
- Finding a new product
- Defining a new market segment
- Identifying a new customer need
can be thought space the Blue Ocean strategy fits into.
Recently launched "Sure" deodorant brand by Hul in India can be termed as Blue Ocean strategy because the product guarantees no sweat and this is new category created is an example of Blue Ocean strategy.
In India, mobile manufacturer Micromax has launched high end mobile for price sensitive low end customers by which they identified a new market segment, this can be defined as Blue Ocean strategy.

Connecting BOS to Boston Matrix
Elena Palkina, Manager, Russian Federation, Member
I think Red Ocean strategy includes such directions from the BCG matrix as: Cash Cows and Dogs; and the Blue Ocean strategy includes such directions as Question Marks and Stars.