Blue Ocean Strategy – Original Thought or Just a Reflection of “Myopia”?
Posted on | July 22, 2008 | joshua lyall
A little while back, I finally got down to Blue Ocean Strategy in my ever-renewing stack of new books. Any book based not in opinion but in research gets my attention. In this case W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne spent a decade formulating their ideas based on analysis of 150 strategic moves across a variety of industries and eras (comparable to a lite version of a Jim Collins project).
Kim and Mauborgne came to the conclusion that most current industries are already overcrowded with quality competitors who are fighting over a limited number of potential customers (i.e., Red Oceans). They contend that in order for companies to experience significant growth in the future they need to look for uncontested market space (i.e., a Blue Ocean) outside of what they may consider their current market.
The authors provide an excellent systematic approach for a Blue Ocean search, but the big idea behind the book doesn’t feel that new. Almost 50 years ago, father of modern marketing Theodore Levitt spelled out these same essential elements in his most famous article, “Marketing Myopia”.
Putting the example Levitt famously used into Blue Ocean terms, the problem with the railroad companies of the early 20th century was their determination to continue competition in the Red Ocean of railroad transportation while neglecting to look for a Blue Ocean in the larger transportation market. The focus of Levitt’s article was more on the barriers that keep companies in Red Oceans, while Kim and Mauborgne focus on strategies for finding Blue Oceans, but they share the same premise.
My issue with the book does not discount Kim and Mauborgne’s work; they have provided some valuable tools strategists would do well to employ as we plan our companies’ futures – a type of corrective lenses for our collective marketing myopia.
However, I do wish they had given credit to their distinguished predecessor who first so eloquently conveyed these ideas. And I particularly take issue with those who extolled the book as “breakthrough” and “original” as this does a serious disservice to those unaware of the rich provenance of the subject, perpetuating the idea that areas of strategic thought have somehow been overlooked and new strategies are the only thing relevant in a 21st century world moving at broadband speeds.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The principals of marketing strategy are not being written (or rewritten) in the 21st century. Adaptations in strategic implementation are made as new mediums and tactics become available (i.e., Web 2.0), but this is nothing new. Just as Blue Ocean Strategy is nothing new, only an expansion on a well-established idea – which is always welcome, let’s just give our “founding fathers” their due.
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