From Publishers Weekly
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
American Way, March 2005
Globe and Mail, June 8, 2005
Book Description
Winning by Not Competing: A Fresh Approach to Strategy
Since the dawn of the industrial age, companies have engaged in head-to-head competition in search of sustained, profitable growth. They have fought for competitive advantage, battled over market share, and struggled for differentiation. Yet these hallmarks of competitive strategy are not the way to create profitable growth in the future.
In a book that challenges everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne argue that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than a hundred years and thirty industries, the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors, but from creating "blue oceans": untapped new market spaces ripe for growth. Such strategic moves-which the authors call "value innovation"- create powerful leaps in value that often render rivals obsolete for more than a decade.
Blue Ocean Strategy presents a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and outlines principles and tools any company can use to create and capture blue oceans. A landmark work that upends traditional thinking about strategy, this book charts a bold new path to winning the future.
W. Chan Kim is the Boston Consulting Group Bruce D. Henderson Chair Professor of Strategy and International Management at INSEAD. Renée Mauborgne is the INSEAD Distinguished Fellow and Professor of Strategy and Management.
Publisher comments
The book has resonated with executives at small and large companies, nonprofits, and government agencies, many of whom have changed their strategies after reading the book. They include Nintendo, Ford, Samsung, and The Government of Singapore.
- NINTENDO - In an interview about the Nintendo Wii, Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs for Nintendo of America, said "Inside Nintendo we call our strategy `Blue Ocean.' " - FORBES.COM, February 2007
- FORD - "One major influence on [Ford's secret Piquette Project] is BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY... Copies have been circulating briskly among Ford offices these days." - Detroit Free Press, January 23, 2006
- SAMSUNG - "Samsung Electronics has not only embraced, but has meticulously developed and applied to its product development this Value Innovation theory coauthored by Professors Kim and Mauborgne." - Korean Economic Daily
Back Cover copy
Yet in today's overcrowded industries, competing head-on results in nothing but a bloody "red ocean" of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. In a book that challenges everything you thought you knew about the requirements fro strategic success, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne contend that while most companies compete within such red oceans, this strategy is increasingly unlikely to create profitable growth in the future.
Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more then a hundred years and thirty industries, Kim and Mauborgne argue that tomorrow's leading companies will succeed not by battling competitors, but by creating "blue ocean" of uncontested market space ripe for growth. Such strategies moves--termed "value innovation"-create powerful leaps in value for both the firm and its buyers, rendering rivals obsolete and unleashing new demand.
Blue Ocean Strategy provides a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant. In this frame-changing book, Kim and Mauborgne present a proven analytical framework and the tools for successfully creating and capturing blue oceans. Examining a wide range of strategic moves across a host of industries, Blue Ocean Strategy highlights the six principles that every company can use to successfully formulate and execute blue ocean strategies. The six principles show how to reconstruct market boundaries, focus on the big picture, reach beyond existing demand, get the strategic sequence right, overcome organizational hurdles, and build execution into strategy.
Upending traditional thinking about strategy, this landmark book charts "a bold new path to winning the future".
About the author
W. Chan Kim is the Boston Consulting Group Bruce D. Henderson Chair Professor of Strategy and International Management at INSEAD. Renée Mauborgne is the INSEAD Distinguished Fellow and Professor of Strategy and Management.