CONCEPT
Blue Ocean Strategy
Kim and Mauborgne's framework for creating uncontested market space by making competition irrelevant — the strategic alternative to red ocean competition that generates growth through
value innovation rather than market-share capture.
Blue ocean strategy is the strategic framework
W. Chan Kim and
Renée Mauborgne developed through two decades of comparative research into how companies achieve extraordinary growth. The framework distinguishes
between red oceans — existing markets with established competitors, defined boundaries, and bloody competition over fixed demand — and
blue oceans — uncontested market spaces created by companies that make competition irrelevant through
value innovation. Kim and Mauborgne's analysis of 108 new business launches showed that while 86 percent were incremental extensions into existing markets (red ocean moves), the remaining 14 percent — the blue ocean moves — generated 61 percent of total profits. The framework rejects the trade-off between differentiation and low cost that
Michael Porter's competitive strategy framework insisted upon, demonstrating instead that the simultaneous pursuit of both opens new market space. Blue ocean strategy provides operational tools — the
strategy canvas, the
four actions framework,
noncustomer analysis — that allow organizations to systematically identify and create blue oceans rather