BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY Critique of the book titled, “Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant” by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, published by Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Massachussets, 2005, ISBN 978-59139-619-2. The book can be nicely summarized by the following interesting quotes from the book: “The only way to beat the competition is to stop trying to beat the competition.” “In red oceans, the industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are awaiting to be set.” “Instead of focusing on beating the competition, they focus on making the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value for buyers and your company, thereby opening up new and uncontested market space.” “Value innovation is based on the view that market boundaries and industry structure are not 'given' and can be reconstructed by the actions and beliefs of the industry players.” “To fundamentally shift the strategy canvas of an industry, you must begin by reorienting your strategic focus from competitors to alternatives, and from customers to non-customers of an industry. ” When I was still with the BPI Asset Management and Trust Group, I was able to attend one of the talks of Mr. Aurelio “Gigi” Montinola. He actually urged the line managers to read the Blue Ocean Strategy book before we do our usual planning sessions. Typcially, when someone gives me an unsolicited recommendation like that, I usually file it away in the “later” pile and often never get around it. As it happens though I really trust Mr. Montinola's opinion since he just sent me a personal congratulatory note for my my promotion to Manager & Senior Account Officer, and the fact that he made a special point of recommending it to our Group game me the extra motivation to go out and purchase the book at Fully Booked. It was one of my best buys! Instinctively, I placed the book beside my other business books collected during my MBA days. However, while reading the book, I made a note to myself to place it beside my “Self-Help” books. This is because the book is based on principles that can actually apply to many aspects of life. So what is blue ocean strategy? Sounds like a mundane topic best discussed either at the UP Diliman Marine Science Institute or at the Munsayac, Michael Gines – Comm 320 – Final Exam – September 22, 2012