Blue ocean strategy provides tools and frameworks to systematically analyze the cost versus differentiation consideration. The Four Actions Framework, used in concert with the Strategy Canvas, and Six Paths Framework, drives companies to pursue differentiation and low cost in redefining their strategy. It asks four questions: Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated? Which factors should be reduced well below the industry’s standard? Which factors should be raised well above the industry’s standard? Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?

The first question forces you to consider eliminating factors that companies in your industry have long competed on. Often those factors are taken for granted even though they no longer add value or may even detract from value. The second question drives you to assess where you are over-serving customers, increasing your cost structure for no gain. The third question pushes you to uncover and eliminate the compromises your industry forces customers to make. The fourth question helps you to discover entirely new sources of value for buyers and to create new demand and shift the strategic pricing of the industry. It is by pursuing the first two questions (eliminating and reducing) that you gain insight into how to drop your cost structure vis-à-vis competitors. The second two questions, by contrast, provide you with insight into how to lift buyer value and create new demand. Collectively, they allow you to systematically explore how you can reconstruct buyer value elements across alternative industries to offer buyers an entirely new experience, while simultaneously keeping your cost structure low.

By breaking the differentiation/low-cost trade-off companies will create blue oceans, either by expanding existing markets or creating entirely new ones.

Blue ocean strategy provides tools and frameworks to systematically analyze the cost versus differentiation consideration. The Four Actions Framework, used in concert with the Strategy Canvas, and Six Paths Framework, drives companies to pursue differentiation and low cost in redefining their strategy. It asks four questions: Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated? Which factors should be reduced well below the industry’s standard? Which factors should be raised well above the industry’s standard? Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?

The first question forces you to consider eliminating factors that companies in your industry have long competed on. Often those factors are taken for granted even though they no longer add value or may even detract from value. The second question drives you to assess where you are over-serving customers, increasing your cost structure for no gain. The third question pushes you to uncover and eliminate the compromises your industry forces customers to make. The fourth question helps you to discover entirely new sources of value for buyers and to create new demand and shift the strategic pricing of the industry. It is by pursuing the first two questions (eliminating and reducing) that you gain insight into how to drop your cost structure vis-à-vis competitors. The second two questions, by contrast, provide you with insight into how to lift buyer value and create new demand. Collectively, they allow you to systematically explore how you can reconstruct buyer value elements across alternative industries to offer buyers an entirely new experience, while simultaneously keeping your cost structure low.

By breaking the differentiation/low-cost trade-off companies will create blue oceans, either by expanding existing markets or creating entirely new ones.

Blue ocean strategy provides tools and frameworks to systematically analyze the cost versus differentiation consideration. The Four Actions Framework, used in concert with the Strategy Canvas, and Six Paths Framework, drives companies to pursue differentiation and low cost in redefining their strategy. It asks four questions: Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated? Which factors should be reduced well below the industry’s standard? Which factors should be raised well above the industry’s standard? Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?

The first question forces you to consider eliminating factors that companies in your industry have long competed on. Often those factors are taken for granted even though they no longer add value or may even detract from value. The second question drives you to assess where you are over-serving customers, increasing your cost structure for no gain. The third question pushes you to uncover and eliminate the compromises your industry forces customers to make. The fourth question helps you to discover entirely new sources of value for buyers and to create new demand and shift the strategic pricing of the industry. It is by pursuing the first two questions (eliminating and reducing) that you gain insight into how to drop your cost structure vis-à-vis competitors. The second two questions, by contrast, provide you with insight into how to lift buyer value and create new demand. Collectively, they allow you to systematically explore how you can reconstruct buyer value elements across alternative industries to offer buyers an entirely new experience, while simultaneously keeping your cost structure low.

By breaking the differentiation/low-cost trade-off companies will create blue oceans, either by expanding existing markets or creating entirely new ones.

Blue ocean strategy provides tools and frameworks to systematically analyze the cost versus differentiation consideration. The Four Actions Framework, used in concert with the Strategy Canvas, and Six Paths Framework, drives companies to pursue differentiation and low cost in redefining their strategy. It asks four questions: Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated? Which factors should be reduced well below the industry’s standard? Which factors should be raised well above the industry’s standard? Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?

The first question forces you to consider eliminating factors that companies in your industry have long competed on. Often those factors are taken for granted even though they no longer add value or may even detract from value. The second question drives you to assess where you are over-serving customers, increasing your cost structure for no gain. The third question pushes you to uncover and eliminate the compromises your industry forces customers to make. The fourth question helps you to discover entirely new sources of value for buyers and to create new demand and shift the strategic pricing of the industry. It is by pursuing the first two questions (eliminating and reducing) that you gain insight into how to drop your cost structure vis-à-vis competitors. The second two questions, by contrast, provide you with insight into how to lift buyer value and create new demand. Collectively, they allow you to systematically explore how you can reconstruct buyer value elements across alternative industries to offer buyers an entirely new experience, while simultaneously keeping your cost structure low.

By breaking the differentiation/low-cost trade-off companies will create blue oceans, either by expanding existing markets or creating entirely new ones.