Quotes from W. Chan Kim

It appears, then, that neither the company nor the industry is the best unit of analysis in studying the roots of profitable growth. Consistent with this observation, our study shows that the strategic move, and not the company or the industry, is the right unit of analysis for explaining the creation of blue oceans and sustained high performance. A strategic move is the set of managerial actions and decisions involved in making a major market-creating business offering.

Every great strategy has focus, and a company's strategic profile, or value curve, should clearly show it. Looking at Southwest's profile, we can see at once that the company emphasizes only three factors: friendly service, speed, and frequent point-to-point departures.

focus, divergence, and a compelling tagline. Cirque du Soleil's strategy canvas allows us to graphically compare its strategic profile with those of its major competitors.

Debido a que operan en mercados en los que inicialmente no hay rivales, los innovadores de valor disfrutan de un extraordinario crecimiento. Hablemos de Starbucks, que transformó un producto funcional (café) en otro emocional con su cadena de «oasis inducidos por la cafeína» y que ofrece lugares de reunión chic, relajación y bebidas creativas a base de café. Starbucks opera con unos márgenes que son unas cinco veces superiores a la media del sector.

Never use the competition as a benchmark

while speed may be important, even more important is linking innovation to value. No company should rest easy until it achieves value innovation.

The assumption that bleeding-edge technology is equivalent to bleeding-edge utility for buyers—something that, our research found, is rarely the case.

Value without innovation tends to focus on value creation on an incremental scale, something that improves value but is not sufficient to make you stand out in the marketplace.

there is no such thing as a riskless strategy Strategy will always involve both opportunity and risk

Messages communicated through numbers seldom stick with people

Blue ocean strategy, by contrast, shows how strategy can shape structure in an organization's favor to create new market space.

blue ocean strategy is a theory of market creation

In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set.

A blue ocean strategic move can create brand equity that lasts for decades

We don't have a theory of strategy creation

Companies should strive to make the competition irrelevant by offering buyers a leap in value.

luck, of course, will always play a role, as it does with all strategies

Neither the company nor the industry is the best unit of analysis in studying the roots of profitable growth.

We hoped to push managers to create innovative proposals and break the boundaries of their conventional thinking.

It is important to distinguish between value innovation as opposed to technology innovation and market pioneering.

The rule here is to go for the largest catchment that your organization has competence to seize.

When people understand what is expected of them, political jockeying and favoritism are minimized, and people can focus on executing the strategy rapidly.

Large R&D budgets are not the key to creating new market space. The key is making the right strategic moves.

To stand apart in these overcrowded markets, you need to be creative through value innovation.