Quotes from W. Chan Kim

we have observed a consistent pattern of strategic thinking behind the creation of new markets and industries, what we call blue ocean strategy.

Disengaged employees are an unfortunate reality in the workplace, and poor leadership is often to blame.

Youth and skill will win out every time over age and treachery. True or false? False. Even the best and brightest are regularly eaten alive by politics, intrigue, and plotting.

Perspective is critical to success. Your mind-set is more ingrained than you realize.

Numbers are disputable and uninspiring

What we look for determines what we see. When we assume that the only way we can create a new market is by disrupting an old one, opportunities for nondisruptive creation can be easily missed. People tend to focus their attention on the core of existing markets and what it would take to disrupt the existing order. This narrows their vision and blinds them to the wealth of nondisruptive market-creating moves they could make.

Organizational politics is an inescapable reality of corporate and public life.

In our experience, the more an industry is populated by settlers, the greater is the opportunity to value-innovate and create a blue ocean of new market space.

Stakeholders need to know that their voices have been heard and that there will be no surprises.

A good way to test the effectiveness and strength of a strategy is to look at whether it contains a strong and authentic tagline.

Red oceans may not be the paths to future profitable growth, but they feel comfortable to people and may have even served an organization well until now, so why rock the boat?

By learning to use their current resources right, companies often find they can tip the resource hurdle outright.

They reveal that for major product and service categories, brands are generally becoming more similar, and as they are becoming more similar, people increasingly select based on price.

to win in the future, companies must stop competing with each other. The only way to beat the competition is to stop trying to beat the competition.

The more that companies share this conventional wisdom about how they compete, the greater the competitive convergence among them.

plans, as of yet there has been no theory or process for true strategy creation. We believe the four-step process proposed here goes a long way to correct this situation. By being built around a picture, it addresses many of managers' discontents with existing strategic planning and yields much better results. As Aristotle pointed out, "The soul never thinks without an image.

Tal como nos decía uno de los ejecutivos de Virgin Group, «no debemos permitir que lo que podemos hacer ahora condicione nuestro punto de vista sobre lo que se necesita hacer para ganar mañana. Nuestro enfoque es de pizarra limpia».

When exceptional utility is combined with strategic pricing, imitation is discouraged.

The cost and risk of developing an innovative idea are borne by the initiator, not the follower.

executives are often reluctant to accept the need for change; they may have a vested interest in the status quo, or they may feel that time will eventually vindicate their previous choices. Indeed, when we ask executives what prompts them to seek out blue oceans and introduce change, they usually say that it takes a highly determined leader or a serious crisis.

To reach beyond existing demand, think noncustomers before customers; commonalities before differences; and desegmentation before pursuing finer segmentation.

Organizations that pursue differentiation to stand apart from competitors tend to focus on what to offer more of. Those that pursue cost leadership tend to focus on what to offer less of. While both of these are viable strategic options, which a great many organizations currently pursue, both will keep you stuck in the red ocean, operating on your industry's existing productivity frontier.

If companies give in to the tempting route of either bumping up the strategic price or cutting back on utility, they are not on the path to lucrative blue waters.

By focusing on the key factors that lead buyers to trade across alternative industries and eliminating or reducing everything else, you can create a blue ocean of new market space.