Blue Ocean Leadership
Question & Answer
Kim & Mauborgne
Answer Your Questions Here
Here W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, the authors of Blue Ocean Strategy & Blue Ocean Shift, answer some of the most common questions they receive on blue ocean leadership from around the world. We hope these will be of interest to you too!
Can blue ocean leadership be applied to small organizations?
Kim & Mauborgne: Yes, definitely. Blue Ocean Leadership works equally for large, medium and small organizations. In fact, one of the strengths of blue ocean leadership is its scalability – […]
Does the blue ocean leadership process require a deep belief and buy in to be successful?
Kim & Mauborgne: For any strategic or organizational transformation to be implemented effectively, a deep buy in is a must. Without an intellectual and emotional understanding of the logic for […]
How do you evaluate blue ocean leadership performance?
Kim & Mauborgne: First, there is no one single or generic formula for evaluating leadership performance. Depending on the market reality an organization faces, different organizations will have different criteria […]
Is blue ocean leadership really ‘new’ in essence?
Kim & Mauborgne: First, traditional leadership development programs and theories normally look at the supply side and focus on who leaders need to be. Factors they examine include values, qualities […]
How do you establish the links between a certain activity and high value?
Kim & Mauborgne: First, through interviewing the heads of and subordinates of leaders at each management level, we can identify acts and activities that are critical to the specific market […]
What happens when leaders aren’t capable of expected actions?
Kim & Mauborgne: No change can happen without pain. Capabilities can be developed, but only when people feel there is a need to do so. The as-is leadership profiles help […]
How can disengaged employees be trusted to help chart the company’s future?
Kim & Mauborgne: There will always be some people who are disengaged with no intent to change. These are the people an organization may rightly be cautious to trust. That […]
How are the activities of leaders linked to their markets?
Kim & Mauborgne: By connecting to market realities, we mean that under blue ocean leadership the people who face market realities in an organization are asked for their direct input […]
What metrics and efforts are used to sustain blue ocean leadership?
Kim & Mauborgne: First off yes, the factors on the x-axis of the to-be leadership canvas tend to remain relatively stable. These factors are determined during the four-step blue ocean […]
Are the change management tools the same as those you offer in the Blue Ocean Strategy book?
Kim & Mauborgne: Yes, largely. In blue ocean strategy, tipping point leadership and fair process are two key frameworks that allow companies to build execution into strategy making and overcome […]
How do you conduct the senior level interviews with the employees?
Kim & Mauborgne: The senior managers talk directly with employees. Typically, the team in charge of conducting interviews at the three management levels of senior, middle and frontline is composed […]
Who creates alternative profiles for a given level?
Kim & Mauborgne: It is always done by a cross-functional group of senior managers chosen to lead the process. At the middle management level, they interview both the heads of […]
