Monday Morning CEO – October 30, 2017
Blue Ocean Shift – Beyond Competing, the wonderful follow-up to the 2005 classic Blue Ocean Strategy was released on September 26, and it has been a must read since the pre-release Amazon order showed up on the front porch.
Equally as inciteful as the original, Kim and Mauborne offer a Five Step Plan to making a Blue Ocean Shift in part two of the book. As with most management and management thinking classics, such as In Search of Excellence or Thriving on Chaos by Tom Peters, first reads are often subtle in how they redirect your thinking.
Inclusive of original Blue Ocean tools such as the ERRC Grid, Shift also applies concepts such as The Strategy Canvas to case study illustrations. Chapter 9, Discovering an Ocean of Noncustomers, provides an excellent bridge to Part 4 of the book which focuses on Reconstructing Market Boundaries.
Only in my first walk through, Blue Ocean Shift – Beyond Competing, is a faster read than Blue Ocean Strategy, and well worth the thirteen year wait. Drilling down in the last third of the book with focus on Red Ocean and Blue Ocean Lenses, Action Steps and other tools will provide fresh perspective for any business owner, corporate leader or managerial academic seeking to reimagine markets and discussions about swimming to a Blue Ocean.
Robert J. Oravitz, MBA 