I’m sure you’ve heard of the “blue ocean strategy”. It was coined by W. Chan Kim in his book of the same name and expanded in the more recent book “blue ocean shift”.
The concept makes a lot of sense on the surface. A red ocean is an overcrowded market with cutthroat competition.
The books main premise is that there is a third area to compete beyond price and value – finding a new untapped market through innovation.
The blue ocean is a market without competition. Instead of competing head to head with other companies you find a new untapped market and take it all for yourself. You innovate and add value in a totally new way to create a league of your own. You create a new market through creative disruption. Overcome old technology to gain a huge competitive advantage.
This episode is a critique of this concept.