Blue Ocean Strategy

Blue ocean strategy is a business strategy framework introduced by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne in their 2005 book Blue Ocean Strategy, which contrasts competing in existing, crowded markets, described as red oceans, with creating new, uncontested market space, described as blue oceans, where competition is rendered largely irrelevant. The framework encourages companies to pursue value innovation, simultaneously reducing costs and increasing value for buyers, rather than choosing between the differentiation and low-cost strategies that dominate conventional competitive strategy. It has been widely adopted in business strategy teaching and consulting as an alternative to strategies premised on outcompeting rivals within an already defined industry.