Notes on Blue Ocean Strategy

I recently read Blue Ocean Strategy by Kim and Mauborgne. Its focus was on ways to create and release products that are so different from the competition's that the "ocean" is blue, not bloody red. It was a quick, useful read, and what I enjoyed most were the company examples the book analyzed. I found the sections that actually prescribed theory and mechanisms for creating blue ocean innovations the most lacking in specificity, but the overall frameworks made sense to me.

Below are my main notes and takeaways.

Part 1: Blue Ocean Strategy

Ch. 1: Creating Blue Oceans

• Cirque du Soleil versus Ringling Bros.
  
• Red ocean: bloody competition
  
• Blue ocean: expands industry boundaries and competition irrelevant
  
• Inventions spur blue oceans
  
• No perpetually well-performing companies
  
• Looking at industries and strategic moves is more informative than specific companies
  
• Value innovation: create so much value that competition irrelevant
  

Ch. 2: Analytical Tools and Frameworks

• Strategy canvas
• Value curve/strategic profile
  
• Don't look at current competition; look at alternatives and non-customers
  
• 4 actions framework
  
• Eliminate, reduce, raise, create (grid)
  
• Example: Yellowtail wine
  
• Example: Southwest
  
• Extreme focus on value innovation and letting all else go
  
• Have much different value curve than competitors; make tag line that's very memorable and different from others because product so different
  
• Focus, divergence, compelling tagline
  

Part 2: Formulating Blue Ocean Strategy

Ch. 3: Restructuring Market Boundaries

• 6 paths framework
  
• Challenge 6 fundamental assumption
  
• Look across alternatives, not just substitutes in an industry
  
• Example: NetJets
  
• Look across buyer groups and customer chain for unaddressed segments
  
• Look across complementary products and services, whole customer experience
  
• Look across functional or emotional appeals and include both
  
• Examples: Swatch, Body Shop, Cemex, Vanguard, Pfizer/Viagra, Starbucks
• Look across time, trends
  

Ch. 4: Focus on the Big Picture, not the Numbers

• Go study users with your own eyes
  
• User types: Pioneers, Migrators, and Settlers
  

Ch. 5: Reach Beyond Existing Demand

• Think about commonalities in non-customers rather than finer segmentation of existing customers
  
• 3 tiers of non-customers 
  
• Non-Customers who slightly use your service
  
• Refusing non-customers
  
• Unexplored non-customers
  

Ch. 6: Get the Strategic Sequence Right

• Test for buyer utility surplus over price
  
• Test for feasibility of cost structure
  
• Partnering
  
• Blue Ocean Idea (BOI) Index
  

Part 3: Executing Blue Ocean Strategy

Ch. 7: Overcoming Key Organizational Hurdles

• Tipping point leadership
  
• Don't convince through numbers or reports
  
• Have people experience problems firsthand
  
• Focus on key influencers in organization
  
• Focus on acts of disproportionate influence
  

Ch. 8: Build Execution into Management

• Get buy-in
  
• 3 E principles
  
• Engagement
  
• Explanation
  
• Clarity of Expectations
  

Conclusion: Sustainability and New Blue Oceans

• Watch competitors' value curves over time and innovate when they converge with yours