How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant

Highly Recommended for entrepreneurs competing in the global market! This book is a MUST READ for prospective entrepreneurs venturing into a highly competitive industry. As the internet brings the world closer together, so too comes outside competition that might not previously have been a threat. Any new product you come up with, China will make a cheaper version and ship it globally. However, unlike China, we do not have the same access to cheap resources and labor. This book has helped me come up with a new strategy that can be immediately executed and actually works!! It is a mandatory read for our business development team and helps you think beyond the current market offers. Don't wait, read it now!

A good book just got better! Practical guide on approaching strategy in a new way
I read the first edition about 5-6 years ago and have been a fan of the approach ever since. One of the things that impressed me most about the book was how practical it was. It provided me with easy to use tools that I could use on my own business to analyse and understand my current situation and most importantly, how to use those tools to create new market space. This expanded edition also includes several additional chapters which clarified my understanding of the concept. The chapter on avoiding red ocean traps points out how easy it is to remain stuck in a competitive mindset even as you try to create a blue ocean. I have seen this happen on several occasions within my own company but after reading the expanded edition, I have much more clear strategy on what I have been doing wrongly and how to get about it in the future.
In short, blue ocean strategy was already a great practical guide to approaching strategy in a new way. This expanded version is even more practical and even better as a result!

The expanded edition of Blue Ocean strategy is very timely because in September 2015 the New Sustainable development goals
will be rolled out to replace the old Millennium development goals and they will need a very new approach as we strive to create a new Green economy for the planet. The reason Blue Ocean strategy is very relevant is because by and large the 'entire planet
and ALL its 'existing products and services' have been created with little or no attention to sustainability of resource utilization and its life cycle. This gives us an opportunity to 're-think' outside the 'red ocean trap and create new green market spaces
to replace each of them.The new Blue Oceans are Green and the tools will help us create new Green market spaces.

Great way to look at business and growth opportunities beyond basic supply/demand, fixed economics, and competition methods usually taught in college. Great read for any self-motivated individual whether you run a business or employed in a regular job.

As a student of business, I highly admire the different approach this book has followed. It provides a fresh perspective to doing business, something that distinguishes successful business moves from others.
The idea of creating a new unconstested market hasn't been being followed by many and this book not only shows the importance of doing so, but also the approach to bring a strategic thought process.
This new edition expands on that line, explaining the possible 'traps' one can fall into that may posibly lead to failed strategies.
I do recommend this book to everyone, especially to students, entrepreneur and stratgeists.

Hope it helps, cheers!

Anyone interested in strategy articulation is, no doubt, steeped in the traditional approaches to strategy development. Blue Ocean Strategy is a complimentary approach that will benefit existing strategists in existing firms, as well as emerging strategist in startups.

The best entrepreneur and business book I've ever read!!!!! Thinking of start your new business or change the way your company works? Find blue oceans instead of bleeding in pursuit of take a little share of a red ocean market. So so recommended

Bought this for my girlfriend and she has gotten so much useful information from this book. It is jam-packed with amazing knowledge and how to get to where you want to be in business. As soon as she's done with the book, I'm going to read it myself.

Bought this for my girlfriend and she has gotten so much useful information from this book. It is jam-packed with amazing knowledge and how to get to where you want to be in business. As soon as she's done with the book, I'm going to read it myself.

In the decade since the first edition of their book was released, the ferocity of competition in existing industries and the pressures on costs and profits have only intensified, according to authors W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne in the latest incarnation of their best-selling book, “Blue Ocean Strategy Expanded Edition”. That is why there is a rising call for creative new solutions and such an allure in the idea of escaping from cut-throat “red ocean” markets into competition-free “blue ocean” market space.

While most businesses and organizations are trapped in very difficult competitive environments, there are plenty of examples around of organizations which have carved out their highly profitable blue-ocean niche. Is their success attributable solely to rare strategic brilliance or luck, or is there a systematic way of coming up with winning strategies? According to the authors, there are systematic ways of finding blue oceans, and the book provides a number of tools designed to help the reader do just that.

Blue ocean strategy is fundamentally based on value innovation; that is, finding a new way of providing compelling value to clients or customers by pursuing both differentiation and low cost at the same time. To do this, you identify the different strategic factors applicable to a particular industry, and then select some factors to be reduced well below the industry’s standard, some to be raised, some to be eliminated and some new ones to be created. The result of the process needs to be a focused strategy which diverges significantly from the industry’s average profile, and which comes with a compelling tagline.

However, a truly sustainable blue ocean strategy also needs barriers to imitation. These can include:

• Alignment barriers, making it difficult for competitors to align their value proposition, profit and people in the same way
• Cognitive and organizational barriers, whereby the particular form of value innovation conflicts with competitors’ conventional logic
• Brand barriers, whereby the value innovation conflicts with competitors’ brand image
• Economic and legal barriers, such as patents, a natural monopoly or a cost advantage driven by high volume

While not every reader of the book will discover a perfectly formed blue ocean strategy, almost every reader who spends time and effort working through the tools provided by the authors will come up with some creative strategic ideas which might not otherwise have arisen. This is one of my favourite books on strategy and, although the changes between the first edition and the expanded edition are not substantial, they are still enough to justify the price of buying the new edition.