The Basic Assumptions of Blue Ocean Strategy

Full text

1
Czestochowa University of Technology
Faculty of Management
PROCEEDINGS
OF THE 1st INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN THEORY
AND PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT
CITPM 2016
21st-22nd April 2016
Czestochowa, Poland

243
Piotr Kuraś1*
Częstochowa University of Technology, Faculty of Management
Poland
35. THE BASIC ASSUMPTIONS OF BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY
Abstract: The aim of the paper is the presentation and characteristics of the basic assumptions of the concept of Blue Ocean
Strategy. It is the proposal of the researchers: W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. It emerged a slightly more than a decade
ago as a result of several years of research into strategic moves of enterprises. This concept is widely recognized all over the
world, particularly in the circle of practitioners of management. Most of all, this is due to a high level of operationalization of
this strategy. In the paper, there have been presented the basic assumptions of this strategy and the most important
instruments allowing for efficient building of potentially effective strategy. The result of the application of this strategy is
creating new, not previously occupied, operation space, free form competition. Since competition becomes unimportant the
enterprise may concentrate its efforts on development. In this paper, there were applied some of the most general methods of
the processing of research material, i.e. analysis and synthesis.
Keywords: Blue Ocean Strategy, management, strategic management, strategy
JEL Classification: L1, M11
1. Introduction
The basic goal of the functioning of each enterprise is development and generating value for its
owners. Both theoreticians and practitioners of management agree that the greater probability of
achieving this goal occurs when the enterprise has a clearly specified vision of development. One can
attempt to achieve this goal by extending the range of products of the company, an increase in the
volume or value of sales, cost reduction, while concentrating on specific markets essential for the
enterprise. The achievement of the goal becomes easier if there are specified the ways of conduct
towards the environment of the company, particularly competitors and possessed resources, skills and
competences. Summing up, the enterprise needs a vision, goal and plan and the way to achieve this
goal. While using the language of management, the company needs the strategy. Hitt, Ireland,
Hoskisson (2011, p. 4) define it in the following way: “A strategy is an integrated and coordinated set
of commitments and actions designed to exploit core competencies and gain a competitive advantage.
When choosing a strategy, firms make choices among competing alternatives as the pathway for
deciding how they will pursue strategic competitiveness”. The need for possessing the strategy by the
company is underlined by Obłój (2007b, p. 19), who claims that: “The strategy is something which has
the fundamental impact on life or death, success or failure of the company”.
The problem itself consists in whether there is the canon of “a good strategy” regardless of its
nature, i.e. irrespective of whether it is innovation, aggressive, defensive strategy or the one imitating
typical solutions. The answer to this question is not easy, however, it seems that there can be isolated
some characteristics which are common for, so defined, strategy.
The first canon of “a good strategy” is intellectual simplicity. The strategy, particularly, in the
conditions of great uncertainty of the environment, must be complex but simultaneously simple, based
on a few principles which form a coherent whole (Nogalski et al., 2004). For instance, Eisenhardt and
Sull claim that, under present conditions, managers, instead of taking positions (the assumption of the
positioning approach) or using competences (the assumptions of the Resource-Based View), should
select a few key strategic processes and concentrate their efforts on them. These processes may refer to:
innovation, product, partnership, entering new markets etc. On the other hand, simple rules should
constitute the guidance system allowing managers to seize opportunities (Krupski, 2004). Another canon
of a good strategy is external coherence. The strategy must be adapted to market trends, demographic
changes, behavior of enterprise towards market changes, briefly speaking, it must be adjusted to the
environment. The third canon of a good strategy is internal coherence. In the framework of a good
1 Ph.D. Piotr Kuraś, Armii Krajowej 36b, 42-201 Częstochowa, Poland, e-mail: piotr.kuras@zim.pcz.pl
*Coresponding author: E-mail: piotr.kuras@zim.pcz.pl

CITPM 2016 – Contemporary Issues in Theory and Practice of Management
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strategy, programs and operating activities must support and strengthen each other, i.e. there is feedback.
The last canon of a good strategy is communication. The strategy must be explainable for stakeholders of
the company. Only in this way can it be understood and accepted by them. The test for communication is
the possibility to present a strategy in a graphical form (Obłój, 2007a).
Both theoreticians and practitioners of management constantly search for the strategy whose
implementation will provide high probability of achieving market success since the fulfillment of the
above conditions does not guarantee success. It is also necessary to be able to combine resources in
appropriate configurations, use own skills and competences but also if not, above all, use opportunities
emerging unexpectedly on the market and disappearing from it.
After the period of the dominance of the planning, evolutionary and positioning approach and,
recently, Resource-Based View (Ziółkowska, 2012; Tomski, 2013; Kuraś 2013) in management, there
are about to appear the concepts which are not subjected to the previous classifications. They may
include the school of real options and the concept of seizing opportunities (Krupski, 2004), or Blue
Ocean Strategy (BOS) being the subject of the considerations of the present paper.
2. Research methodology
The aim of the paper is the presentation and characteristics of the basic assumptions of the concept of
Blue Ocean Strategy. This is the concept which emerged a slightly more than a decade ago and since
then it has been gaining more and more interest. BOS is the concept of the enterprise strategy whose
actual implementation significantly increases the probability of achievement of competitive advantage
over business rivals. This concept, as opposed to the concepts dominating on the market so far, is
characterized by a high level of operationalization. This means that the concept is not only a vaguely
outlined theoretical construct but contains a range of clear, specific and precisely formulated
guidelines and recommendations, easily to understand for everyone who would like to undertake the
implementation of this strategy. These reasons have been considered sufficient to introduce and
promote the discussed concept in order to expand the scientific discussion in this area.
Scientific cognition requires the application of appropriate research methods. In this case, there were
applied some of the most general methods of the processing of research material, i.e. analysis and synthesis.
The subject of the analysis was the concept of the discussed strategy in order to decompose the problem
into smaller components to be able to determine the existing conditions, properties or cause and effect
relationships. Mental analytical operations refer to deductive reasoning in here. While examining the
problem there was also applied the method of synthesis, in this case characterized by inductive reasoning.
3. Theoretical background
Over the years, the definition of the strategy has changed since the content of the strategy has also
changed. Along with the changing conditions of competition, the ways of dealing with competitors
were also subjected to change. Therefore, it should not be surprising that the achievements of strategic
management now consist of many concepts of overall and functional strategies which have been the
attempts to respond to the present requirements.
Due to the nature of the paper, there will only be briefly introduced the most important approaches to
the concept of the strategy, i.e. the ones which have had the greatest impact on strategic thinking.
Drucker (1954) understood the strategy as a complete plan which specifies what decisions can be taken.
Chandler (1962) claimed that the strategy reflects long-term goals of the enterprise. Ackoff (1974), who
proved that the strategy refers to long-term goals and ways to achieve them affecting the system as a
whole, expressed a similar opinion. Andrews (1971) acknowledged that the strategy is a set of goals
(tasks) included in programs and plans and constitutes the pattern of decisions referring to the strengths
of the enterprise. Ansoff (1985) claimed that the selection model of strategic behavior depends on:
budget, strategic adaptation and strategic discontinuity. Mintzberg (1987) understood the strategy as a
conscious plan, identified with formal action, which is aimed at particular purpose to achieve a certain
position in the future. Eisenhardt and Sull (2001) state that the strategy arises from the concentration on
the most important strategic processes and development of simple rules that shape the processes. On the
other hand, Johnson, Scholes and Whittington (2010) claim that the strategy is the action plan specifying
a long-term direction and scope of the activity of the organization achieving competitive advantage due
to the concentration and appropriate configuration of resources and competences.
According to Porter (2010), the goal of the strategy is to achieve long-term competitive advantage,
among others, by means of performing activities other than competitors or similar activities but in a

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different way. An important condition for formulating an effective strategy is the adjustment of own
business to the specific target group. The idea is to provide customers with the values desired by them
in a different way than competitors. The above mentioned author identifies only three typical basic
(overall) strategies. It is the cost leadership strategy, consisting in aiming at reducing operating costs,
differentiation strategy, consisting in offering products with more attractive properties than the ones
offered by customers and concentration strategy, consisting in limiting own product range to the
selected product for a small group of customers. In the opinion of this researcher, TQM, outsourcing,
reengineering, change management, kaizen, lean management are not strategies but techniques,
management tools, leading to an increase in operating efficiency (Porter, 1996).
Most of modern popular basic strategies, if not all of them, to some extent, are inscribed in any of the
strategies discussed above. While not settling down whether the proposal for the strategy classification by
Porter should be treated as the open or closed catalogue, however, it should be noticed that, in the practice
of management, every now and then there occur new concepts of basic strategies.
Classic strategies are relatively well recognized and commonly applied. Therefore, they do not
provide the enterprise with such opportunities for development as in the eighties or nineties.
Nowadays, it is believed that companies should create innovation strategies. Innovation strategies are
the result of neither wisdom of managerial staff nor thorough analysis. They are usually the effect of
in-depth consideration of the existing business models and potential opportunities provided by the
market. The starting point is always the existing model, dominating on the specific market. The
transformation of the existing model into a new model requires the answers to three fundamental
questions: what to take, what to add and what to change, to use new opportunities (Obłój, 2007a). One
of such innovation strategies is Blue Ocean Strategy.
4. Blue Ocean Strategy
The concept of Blue Ocean Strategy was developed by Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. The authors
are strategy and management professors at INSEAD.2 The authors themselves are very well known
figures in the scientific world since they publish their papers in the leading global publishing houses.
Apart from that, these researchers are strongly connected with business practice by playing the advisory
role on the market. In 2005 they published the book entitled: Blue Ocean Strategy. How to Create
Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. 3.5 million of copies of the book,
translated into 44 languages, were sold within a decade. The book has won many prestigious awards and
recognition among managers. It seems that these are sufficient arguments to take a closer look at this
concept. Such a motivation has been the reason for taking up the subject of the present paper.
4.1. Red and blue ocean – the boundaries of competition
The content of the discussed book was the outcome of using the results of fifteen years of research. It
included more than 150 strategic moves in more than 30 industries and the period of the analysis
covered more than 100 years. The authors also analyzed many scientific works concerning different
dimensions of the strategy. They noticed that enterprises, while searching for sustainable growth, tend
to apply head-to-head competition. However, in today’s extremely competitive industries, these
enterprises must compete for the shrinking pool of profits with even greater force. More and more
frequently, long-term success in business is the result of giving up competition and creating new
market spaces, previously not used. According to the creators of the concept, the only way to beat
competitors is to stop trying to beat them (Kim, Mauborgne, 2010).
To explain their concept the authors refer to images. They propose to look at the economy as the
world that consists of two oceans: the red one and the blue one.
Red oceans amount to industries existing nowadays. It is well-known market space. In here, the
boundaries of industries are defined and accepted and the rules of competitive games well-known. The
competitive fight is based on traditional assumptions. Enterprises are trying to outdo their competitors
and grab the largest part of the existing demand whereas market space is becoming increasingly
2 L'Institut européen d'administration des affaires – one of the largest schools of management and business in the world,
established in 1957 in France. In the rankings of Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal INSEAD it regularly occupies
the top positions among the highest ranked schools in the world in terms of programs of Global MBA (in 2015 – the 4th
position).

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congested, growth prospects are increasingly uncertain. Offered products rapidly lose their distinctive
features and become standard products and “life or death” competition is becoming the ocean full of
blood of competing rivals.
On the other hand, blue oceans are industries not existing nowadays. It is unknown and not used
market space, creating the demand and the opportunity for growth. Admittedly, some blue oceans are
created beyond the existing boundaries of industries, however, most of them are made of parts of red
oceans by expanding the boundaries of the existing industries. The authors give the example of Cirque
de Soleil, nowadays one of the greatest cultural export products of Canada. The circus founded by a
group of buskers in 1984, in less than 20 years, reached such a level of income for the generation of
which the global leader of the circus sector Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey needed more than
100 years. The success had its source in the fact that Cirque de Soleil did not try to take over the
customers of the shrinking circus sector, historically satisfying the needs of children. They did not
attempt to compete with them. They appealed to a completely new group of customers, adults and
corporate clients who were able to pay several times higher price for unique experiences, not
previously known. In this way, the company created new free market space, which caused that
competition became irrelevant. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant since the rules of the game are
yet to be established (Kim, Mauborgne, 2010).
The authors have no illusions that there may exist only blue oceans. They even claim that red
oceans will always be significant and they will always be the fact in the economic life. However, since
the supply exceeds the demand in an increasing number of industries, competition will be necessary
but insufficient to maintain a high level of results. Therefore, enterprises must go beyond the previous
framework of competition and should create blue oceans (Kim, Mauborgne, 2010).
Dating from the eighties of the 20th century, there have been theoretically developed and practically
applied different strategies based on competition. As a result, this area is relatively well recognized
and, in spite of the fact that, from time to time, in scientific discussions, there appear threads identical
with the discussed blue oceans, so far, there have not been proposed the framework and rules for
efficient management of risk of creating blue oceans. Kim and Mauborgne did it as the first ones.
4.2. Creating blue oceans
Blue oceans are nothing new in the economic life. Many industries, which are mature now, e.g.
automotive, aircraft, phonography, petrochemical industry did not exist some time ago. Along with
technical and technological progress we observe the emergence of increasingly new industries: mobile
telephony, the Internet, biotechnology, trust funds, coffee bars. They used to be blue oceans providing
their creators and first participants with development potential not limited by competition. At present,
along with an increase in competition, that space has been filled up with red. In reality, industries
constantly evolve, operational activities are improved, markets expand, subsequent competitors come
and leave them. Not to lose one’s own potential to fight against competitors it is worth searching for
new space – one’s own blue ocean.
Kim and Mauborgne examined the impact of creating blue oceans on the growth of the company,
measured both with revenues and profits. For this purpose, there were analyzed market entries of 108
companies. The results are presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Profit and growth consequences resulting from creating blue oceans
Source: Kim, Mauborgne, 2010, p. 23
From among all market debuts 86% consisted in minor improvements. They brought about 62% of
the total revenues and only 39% of the total profits. The other 14% of debuts were directed towards
searching for new unused space. They generated 38% of the total revenues and as much as 61% of the
total profits. In spite of some constraints resulting from this simple analysis, the benefits resulting
from creating blue oceans seem to be obvious.
39%
62%
86%
14%
38%
61%
Market debut
s
Impact on revenues
Impact on profits
Debuts on red oceans Debuts on blue oceans

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The research of the total of 150 different strategic moves revealed that success in creating blue
oceans depends neither on the industry nor the organization of the company. Creating and occupying
free spaces has been the activity of the companies: new and mature, large and small, run by young and
senior managers, operating in both attractive and unattractive industries, associated with simplicity and
advanced technologies. However, they shared one common feature. All of them were characterized by
a coherent, over time and independent of the industry, approach to creating free market space.
What distinguishes the winners from the losers in creating blue oceans is the approach to the
strategy. The companies imprisoned in red oceans have applied the conventional strategic approach.
The creators of blue oceans do not compare themselves with competitors using indicators or do not use
commonly applied strategic tools. They use a completely different strategic logic which has been
called value innovation.
Value innovation occurs when companies combine one innovation with utility, assessment and
costs. It is contradictory to the widely recognized dogma which assumes the necessity to choose
between value innovation and cost. Cirque de Soleil rejected this dogma while giving up animal shows
and circus stars generating the highest costs in the circus sector, at the same time, offering the globally
unique show, actually being the combination of the circus and the theatre. The company provided
some new elements, untypical of the circus, such as the plot, intellectual, artistic, music and dance
value, higher than the one in the traditional circus. In other words, Cirque de Soleil offers the best of
the circus and the theatre, eliminating or reducing everything else. At the same time, it offers
unprecedented utility value. This example reflects well the assumptions and characteristics of the
discussed value innovation. It is graphically presented in Figure 2.
Simultaneous aiming at uniqueness and low costs
Figure 2. Value innovation
Source: Kim, Mauborgne, 2010, p. 36
Creating the blue ocean is about simultaneous lowering costs and increasing value for customers.
The value for the customer results from utility and assessment of the range of products addressed to
the purchaser. The value for the enterprise results from prices and costs of offered products. The whole
may work if it is properly configured. In this sense, it is something more than only innovation. It is the
strategy including the whole system of enterprise activities. Value innovation requires from companies
to orient their entire system to achieve sharp rise in value, both for the customer and themselves (Kim,
Mauborgne, 2010).
The summary of the above considerations is concisely presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Red Ocean Strategy versus Blue Ocean Strategy
Red Ocean Strategy Blue Ocean Strategy
Competing in the existing market space Creating free market space
Fighting against competitors Competitors are no longer important
Using the existing demand Creating and grabbing new demand
Necessity to find compromise between value and cost Breaking the coercion between value and cost
Ordering the entire system of the company operations in
compliance with the strategic choice between
uniqueness and low costs
Ordering the entire system of the company
operations in compliance with its strive for
uniqueness and low costs
Source: Kim, Mauborgne, 2010, p. 36
Value for the customer
Costs
Value
innovation

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4.3. The instruments of Blue Ocean Strategy
The implementation of any strategy requires the performance of some activities in the specific
sequence. It is also necessary to possess appropriate strategic tools. The classic approach to the
strategy, based on competitive fight, owns such instruments. There is at least the model of Porter five
forces, his concept of three basic strategies, matrix for strategic analysis etc. On the other hand, so far,
there have not been the tools leading to creating new market spaces. Kim and
Mauborgne created such tools. In the present paper, there have been presented the most important
ones: a strategy canvas, four actions framework, eliminate-reduce-raise-create grid.
A strategy canvas is the major analytical scheme of value innovation and creating blue oceans. It is
both a diagnostic scheme and the scheme of actions aimed at building Blue Ocean Strategy. A strategy
canvas allows for graphical presentation of the most important competitive factors in the specific
industry. At the same time, these are the areas of intensive investments realized by competitors.
Simultaneously, we obtain the information on what consequently customers receive. Figure 3 presents
a strategy canvas of the traditional circus.
Figure 3. A strategy canvas of the traditional circus
Source: Kim, Mauborgne, 2010, p. 69
The basic element of a strategy canvas is the value curve which imitates the level of achievements
of the leader or typical of the industry with reference to each essential competitive factor in the
industry. For this purpose, it is necessary to identify these factors. It is assumed that these factors are
the elements which are to determine success. They are often the area of significant investments and,
therefore, at the same time, the source of costs. The value curve, built on the basis of these
assumptions, allows to answer the question what competitors concentrate their efforts on. Therefore, it
is the starting point for building Blue Ocean Strategy. For the circus sector, such factors are: ticket
price, costs of gaining circus stars, animal shows, accompanying sales, multiple show arenas, fun and
sense of humor, tension and danger, uniqueness of the place.
Four actions framework is the tool allowing for reconstruction of the elements of value for the
customer and creating a new value curve. The starting point are four questions allowing for finding a
compromise between variety and low cost: which of the factors can be eliminated, which of the factors
can be reduced significantly below the standards in the industry, which of the factors can be raised
significantly above the standards in the industry, what factors, previously not offered by the industry,
should be created. The graphical presentation of the tool is shown in Figure 4.
Price
Circus stars
Animal shows
Accompanying sale
Multiple show arenas
Fun and humor
Tension and d
anger
Exceptional place
Value curve
of the traditional circus
High
Low

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Figure 4. Four actions framework
Source: Kim, Mauborgne, 2010, p. 54
The first question leads to taking into account the elimination of the factor which, in the industry,
is considered as very important, on which there are frequently based competitive actions which,
however, may have become obsolete or lost its significance in customers’ eyes. The second question is
the one concerning the opportunity to simplify the range of products. Customers may not expect such
sophistication from the product range and are able to give up on it. The third question is to give the
answer referring to which elements should be strengthened and what is not the subject of interest in
the industry nowadays. The fourth question helps to find completely new sources of value for
customers, create new demand and enable the change in the price policy.
Eliminate-reduce-raise-create grid is the third key instrument in creating blue oceans. It is a type of
addition to four actions framework. The grid forces the company not only to pose four questions
concerning four actions mentioned above but also to take actions to create a new value curve. This
grid brings about four types of benefits. At the same time, it compels variation and taking care of low
costs. It allows to identify the companies focused exclusively on strengthening and creating and
thereby raising the structure of costs – the effect is offering excessively sophisticated products and
services. Another advantage is ease of understanding the idea of the grid. The last benefit coming from
the application of this instrument results from the fact that filling in the grid requires the thorough
analysis of competitive factors in the industry. In this way, there are often discovered dependencies
and relationships not previously noticed (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Eliminate-reduce-raise-create grid: the case study of Cirque du Soleil
Eliminate
· Star performances
· Animal shows
· Accompanying sales
· Simultaneous shows in a few arenas
Raise
· A unique place
Reduce
· Elements of entertainment and humor
· Tension and danger
Create
· Main theme
· Sophisticated atmosphere
· Show variation
· Music and dance art
Source: Kim, Mauborgne, 2010, p. 63
New
value
curve
Reduce
Which of the factors can
be reduced
significantly
below the standards in
the industry?
Raise
Which of the factors
can be raised
significantly above the
standards in the
industry?
Eliminate
Which of the factors
considered to be granted
can be eliminated?
Create
What factors,
previously not
offered by the
industry, should be
created?

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The conclusions coming from the application of the above instruments enables the reconstruction
of the value curve, allowing to create blue ocean. This curve should be different from the curve of
competitors. Then, this means that it focused on alternatives and not aiming at making its competitive
actions similar to the ones of rivals as it does in the case of classic competitive strategies. The example
of the value curve of Cirque du Soleil satisfying these assumptions is presented in Figure 6.
Figure 6. A strategy canvas of the traditional circus and Cirque du Soleil
Source: Kim, Mauborgne, 2010, p. 63
The effective Blue Ocean Strategy expressed by the value curve must have three complementary
properties: concentration point, divergence and catchy advertising slogan. These three features serve
as the initial criteria of the assessment of the commercial reality of the implementation of Blue Ocean
Strategy.
Each good strategy cannot exert pressure on all competitive factors. It must select a small number
of them, e.g. three and concentrate on them, make them its force.
The value curve of the company must significantly deviate from the curve of competitors. If it is
similar to them, it means that searching for new space ended in failure and it will be necessary to drift
on red oceans.
The advertising slogan must well reflect the uniqueness of the product range, it must advertise the
range of products in a reliable way, and most of all, arouse the interest of potential customers.
5. Conclusions
Undoubtedly, the enterprise needs a strategy. Without it, operations become accidental, chaotic, and
heading for direction which is not specified or hardly specified rarely ends in success. Having the
wrong strategy seems to be an even worse solution. Therefore, the enterprise not only needs the
strategy but it needs a good strategy. Blue Ocean Strategy, presented in the paper bears the
characteristics of a good strategy.
The basic advantage of this strategy is taking actions consisting in reconstruction of the value
offered to customers. In this way, new market spaces, not occupied by competitors, can be created.
This amounts to the emergence of new demand, new markets. Since there is not competition on these
markets, the rules of competitive game are only about to emerge. Instead of competitive fight the
enterprise can concentrate its efforts on its own development.
Price
Circus stars
Animal shows
Accompanying sale
Multiple show arenas
Fun and humor
Tension and d
anger
The unique
place
The main theme
Sophisticated audience
Show
variety
Music and dance art
Value curve
of the traditional circus
Value curve
of Cirque du Soleil
High
Low

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Another very important feature of the discussed strategy is a high level of its operationalization.
The concept has a wide range of instruments which allow to formulate, implement and realize. It
seems that this concept may become the origin around which there may emerge a new paradigm in
strategic management.
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