PERSON
W. Chan Kim
South Korean-born strategist (b. 1952), Boston Consulting Group Bruce D. Henderson Chair Professor at INSEAD, co-creator of
blue ocean strategy — the framework for creating uncontested market space by making competition irrelevant.
W. Chan Kim (b. 1952) is one of the most influential business strategists of the twenty-first century. As the Boston Consulting Group Bruce D. Henderson Chair Professor of Strategy and International Management at INSEAD, Kim has spent three decades researching how companies achieve extraordinary growth not by outperforming rivals but by making rivalry irrelevant. Together with his long-time collaborator Renée Mauborgne, Kim developed the
blue ocean strategy framework, which has reshaped how organizations think about competition, value creation, and market innovation. Their research, grounded in empirical analysis of over 150 strategic moves across thirty-plus industries and spanning more than a century of business history, introduced concepts that have become standard vocabulary in corporate strategy:
value innovation, the
strategy canvas, the
four actions framework,
noncustomer analysis,
fair process, and
tipping point leadership. Their landmark 2005 book
Blue Ocean Strategy has sold over four million copies and been translated into nearly fifty languages. Kim has been consistently ranked among the