First came the book and now there is an institute in the making. The international bestseller, ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’ written by INSEAD professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, sold more than a million copies in its first year of publication and is being published in a record-breaking 41 languages. Although there are no plans for a follow-up book at this stage, INSEAD has set up the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute.

In a rare interview, Kim and Mauborgne, both strategy professors, told Knowledge that they knew there would be an audience for their research as their articles in the Harvard Business Review sold half a million reprints. Read more..

Are companies using Blue Ocean Strategy to search for ‘uncontested market space’ and, if so, how?

One group which has been exploring blue ocean thinking for the past three years is Starwood Hotels and Resorts. However, as INSEAD Knowledge has been finding out, the company has so far been taking a step-by-step approach to implementing the concept, rather than try to realise any sort of ‘grand vision’. As Starwood itself puts it, it’s more a question of finding ‘blue puddles, lakes or rivers’ at this stage rather than ‘blue oceans’ as such. Read more..

Internet business America Online (AOL) has had a chequered history since its marriage to the US media giant Time Warner in 2002. Yet, despite the challenges it faces, AOL Europe’s current CEO Dana Dunne is bullish about the relevance and importance of Blue Ocean thinking to the company. Read more..

The book ‘Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant’ has had a huge impact worldwide. Written by INSEAD professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, it sold more than a million copies within its first year of publication and has been translated into 39 languages, breaking Harvard Publishing records as the fastest selling book in print. Read more..