Red Ocean vs. Blue Ocean Strategy

Red Ocean Strategy	Blue Ocean Strategy
Compete in existing market space.	Create uncontested market space.
Beat the competition.	Make the competition irrelevant.
Exploit existing demand.	Create and capture new demand.
Make the value-cost trade-off.	Break the value-cost trade-off.
Align the whole system of a firm’s activities with its strategic choice of differentiation or low cost.	Align the whole system of a firm’s activities in pursuit of differentiation and low cost.

W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne coined the terms red and blue oceans to denote the market universe. Red oceans are all the industries in existence today – the known market space, where industry boundaries are defined and companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of the existing market. Cutthroat competition turns the ocean bloody red. Hence, the term ‘red’ oceans.

Blue oceans denote all the industries not in existence today – the unknown market space, unexplored and untainted by competition. Like the ‘blue’ ocean, it is vast, deep and powerful –in terms of opportunity and profitable growth.

The chart above summarizes the distinct characteristics of competing in red oceans (Red Ocean Strategy) versus creating a blue ocean (Blue Ocean Strategy).

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Blue Ocean Strategy & Shift Tools

W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne created a comprehensive set of analytic tools and frameworks to create blue oceans of new market space. In their New York Times bestselling book, Blue Ocean Shift (September 2017), Kim and Mauborgne share how to put these practical market-creating tools into practice to move from red to blue oceans and to do so in a way that people own and drive the process.

Brimming with battle-tested lessons and the stories of organizations from around the world that put their ideas into practice, Kim and Mauborgne highlight what works, what doesn’t, the potential pitfalls along the way and how to avoid them to achieve the best results in your organization. Get your copy of Blue Ocean Shift now, and get all these answers plus so much more including exercise templates you can use to apply the tools in your organization. Learn, apply and execute successful blue ocean shifts using the fully interactive and guided Blue Ocean Studio™.

Blue Ocean Tools

Don’t just check out the tools. Learn how to put them in practice. Find out what works, what doesn’t, the potential pitfalls along the way and how to avoid them to achieve the best results in your organization. Get your copy of Blue Ocean Shift now, and get all these answers plus so much more including exercise templates you can use to apply each tool in your organization. Learn, apply and execute successful blue ocean shifts using the fully interactive and guided Blue Ocean Studio™.