Classics From the Vaults of Creating Blue Oceans

At Creating Blue Oceans we cater to visitor feedback and interaction. To this end, we monitor which of our entries provoke especially lively discussion and response from our readers. So today, by request, we are opening up the Creating Blue Oceans vaults and re-introducing these ever-green entries. What follows is one such classic:

How Can You Turn Red Oceans Into Blue?
First a quick definition of terminology again: Red Oceans are those market environments which are dominated by cutthroat head-to-head competition. In contrast Blue Oceans are new market spaces in which companies can achieve such leaps in customer value (and hence profitability), that competition becomes irrelevant.

Consider this joke about psychologists: ‘How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?’ Answer: ‘Just one, but the light bulb must really, really want to change.’ 

This is the crux of it with companies too. The first step in discovering Blue Oceans, or turning Red Oceans into Blue, is a major shift in the strategic approach and mindset of a company. This is much easier said than done. Firstly, because companies stuck in Red Oceans need to abandon the limiting, yet much more familiar approach to competition and market opportunities that they have been cultivated for a long time. This is not easy, and requires highly committed leadership and the involvement of the whole organization.

It is also difficult because in many ways Blue Oceans are moving targets. While in Red Oceans benchmarking and market research were stable sources of market intelligence, Blue Oceans try to tap into not just expressed but also latent customer needs. Latent customer needs by definition are hard to define and measure because they have not yet been discovered. 

And now for the good news: Blue Ocean Strategy is here to help! The methodology of BOS is designed to provide a step by step guide to any company, regardless of size or industry on this difficult but highly rewarding journey from Red Oceans to Blue.