Blue ocean strategy underscores a policy that challenges organizations to distance themselves from the aggressive competition through the establishment of unexplored markets that make extant rivalry inappropriate. One of the rationales behind Kim and Mauborgne (2004) using the colors blue and red is to portray different markets illustratively. In the red ocean, the market space has organizational borders that are established and known. It holds a massive conflict involving companies where they are consistently attempting to outshine one another to realize a bigger segment or demand. The moment market spaces get crowded with competitors, organizations seek to outdo each other, and this leads to profitability and growth decreasing greatly attributable to the cutthroat mode of rivalry that makes the red ocean bloody (“Blue Ocean Strategy”, 2015). The concerns of a blue ocean may be linked to profits and development being enormous, profound, and prevailing.
Values and Imperatives
Contrary to the red ocean approach, the blue ocean strategy establishes unidentified market spaces that are not affected by competition, and demand is generated instead of organizations fighting for it. Therefore, in such situations competition becomes irrelevant since the regulations and hindrances to market operations are yet to be set and are often waiting for establishment. Kim and Mauborgne (2004) employ the blue ocean analogy to depict the uncharted territorial spaces without contestants and that have undiscovered opportunities to explore. The authors assessed a broad scope of strategic practices around a multitude of sectors across the globe and spurred principles that enable the formulation and implementation of blue ocean approaches. Blue ocean tactics include reconstructing market boundaries, maintaining concentration on the big picture, reaching past arising demands, seeking to get the strategic progression right, overcoming organizational obstacles, and changing intention into policy. The book acts as a turning point in the history of dynamic businesses and is prepared to enable companies and organizations to forge a bold new course to realizing a winning plan in the future.
The notion of blue ocean strategy represents a new approach of industries establishing their ground, creating new values, forming fresh customer bases, and enjoying successful operations devoid of aggressive competition. In such markets, demand is generated, development is gainful and quick, competition is insignificant, and imperatives of the game are not laid down. Where there is such a broad and unfathomable potential of the market that is yet to be explored, venture ascertains vastness and strength concerning profitable growth and infinite fortunes. In line with Kim and Mauborgne (2004), market limits between the blue and red oceans occur only in the organizational executives’ minds. The main problem is the realization of the best way of creating novel, uncharted territories while switching the center of attention from competition to generation of innovative significance to make new demand accessible. Another hindrance is that most organizational managers are used to the red ocean approach and feel at ease with the competition.
The Blue Ocean Framework
The most appropriate approach to describing the charisma of blue oceans is to assess the paradox of the strategy. The outcome of the study by Kim and Mauborgne (2004) established that just 14% of the sampled organizational launches were done within the blue ocean framework. Such organizations realized a 38% income impact and approximately 62% of profit realization. This is remarkable compared to most of the selected business launches, 86%, which were geared toward the red ocean tactic. Such businesses were only able to grasp 39% of the total profit generation. Such a paradox appears appealing particularly to businesspersons, who are eagerly seeking practices of improving their revenues and profitability.
In their study, Kim and Mauborgne (2004) highlight the blue ocean approach that organizations should stop competing with one another for enhanced growth. This is supported by the present technological practices that are contracting market spaces with supply surpassing demand attributable to globalization. As an increasingly high number of organizations come together in the existing markets, the rivalry is based on grounds of cost reduction with ensuing low profits. Nevertheless, the competition that is anchored on price cannot create a lasting solution. A wide pool of studies affirms that the blue ocean tactic is highly successful when markets are packed or in declension. This signifies that industries should target entirely new consumer groups to build their customer base.
Kim and Mauborgne (2004) strongly assert that organizations should not only outplay their rivalry but also seek to create completely new strategies such as searching and venturing into unexploited markets. The main course of action is, therefore, to discover what consumers want when purchasing products and services and define a lasting solution. Apart from establishing customers’ preferences, the practice of discovering and entering blue ocean markets should not be about forecasting and pre-allocation of business inclinations. Instead, effective practices should be implemented with reference to organizational executives who can restructure market realities in an essentially new technique. From numerous researchers’ points of view, the blue ocean strategy model offers a variety of tools and frameworks to steer organizations toward the establishment of exceptional policies to form segments and operate in uncharted territories.
As blue ocean tactics drive industries and organizations into the discovery and innovation of uncontested market spaces, it might be intricate for a time-honored hierarchical establishment to reinvent its controls and shift in a completely different direction. Most people are strongly convinced that organizations should carry on with their proven habit that creates profit and hinge on their competitive benefit rather than taking up incertitude of the future through embarking on risks of pioneering and becoming new movers. According to Agnihotri (2016), routine and established practices are not detrimental to an organization if they are enabling continued success and not acting as coercive masks.
Rationalization and systematization of companies may result in innovation and inventiveness but demands collaboration among all stakeholders and the generation of trust and confidence. Moreover, overcoming negative economic conditions through conducting tests and local customization regulates robustness and habits while making bureaucracy a facilitating tool instead of a coercive weapon that hinders growth. In such a realization, the blue ocean approach is inclined toward systematic exploration of the way taking risks and pursuing paths not yet trodden connects with innovativeness and drives organizations to exponential development (Dvorak & Razova, 2018). To most marketing professionals, the blue ocean strategy is not a new notion since consideration of other extant theories, for example, differentiation strategy, in addition to Porter’s five forces encompassing threats of new entrants and replacement framework is based on the same concept. Therefore, the greatest challenge concerns the most effective means of fostering inventiveness and out-of-the-box thinking among organizations to uphold progress.
To modify organizational practices in line with the blue ocean framework, a company should first change its focus from the existing competition to concentrate on new and unexplored opportunities while having a high regard for current non-customers. For the tactical repositioning of the center of attention, evaluating the contest is necessary for the realization of the worth and expenditure approach since it might otherwise lead to conventional rivalry. The modified consideration from the traditional rivalry and current consumers should allow organizations and marketers to become attentive and receive vital insight to formulate new chances, generate fresh client ideals, and create uncharted territories beyond the conventional industrial scopes. Organizations and industries planning to employ the blue ocean strategy should be conscious that it necessitates dynamic processes and not merely the role of following through a policy (Safari, Sadat, & Sadabadi, 2016). This is attributable to the fact that competition will in a while arise in the newly ventured markets. Dynamism successfully handles the sustainability of the blue ocean approach and gainsays the right to apply the model.
Conclusion
Blue ocean strategy represents a policy that challenges organizations to distance themselves from the violent competition through the establishment of uncharted markets that make extant rivalry inapposite. Increased competition makes organizations strive to outshine each other, and this leads to productivity and growth declining greatly. The blue ocean strategy may be associated with profits and development being vast, profound, and prevailing. Modification of organizational practices corresponding to the blue ocean framework requires a company to first change its focal point from the existing competition to deliberate on new and uncharted opportunities while highly regarding current non-customers. Companies and industries planning to utilize the blue ocean strategy should be alert that it is a dynamic process and not merely a single approach.
References
Agnihotri, A. (2016). Extending boundaries of blue ocean strategy. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 24(6), 519-528. Web.
Blue Ocean Strategy. (2015). What is the blue ocean strategy? [Video file]. Web.
Dvorak, J., & Razova, I. (2018). Empirical validation of blue ocean strategy sustainability in an international environment. Foundations of Management, 10(1), 143-162. Web.
Kim, W.C., & Mauborgne, R. (2004). Blue ocean strategy. Harvard Business Review, Web.
Safari, H., Sadat, M. M., & Sadabadi, A. A. (2016). Designing competitive strategies through apply of judo strategy and blue ocean strategy in BSC model. Iranian Business Management, 8(3), 607-363. Web.