Skip to main content

Blue Ocean Strategy

Strategies for creating uncontested market space and achieve strong, profitable growth.

Developed by INSEAD Professors of Strategy W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, Blue Ocean Strategy provides theoretical and scientific contributions to the fields of strategy and management that companies, governments and non-profit organisations can use to improve their practice and performance.  

This series showcases the two professors’ thought leadership amid their work as Co-Directors of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute. They are also the authors of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Blue Ocean Shift - Beyond Competing, the international bestseller Blue Ocean Strategy and Beyond Disruption: Innovate and Achieve Growth Without Displacing Industries, Companies, or Jobs

Strategies for creating uncontested market space and achieve strong, profitable growth.

Sort by:

Strategy

A Nondisruptive Approach to the Environment

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne, M. Ji

Companies can help the transition to a greener economy without sacrificing their financial interests.

Strategy

Five Key Insights for Positive-Sum Innovation

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

With the right tools, businesses can innovate and achieve growth without negatively impacting society.

Strategy

An Alternative Path to Innovation and Growth

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

How leaders can innovate and achieve growth without displacing industries, companies or jobs.

Strategy

Creating Your Blue Ocean Through Noncustomer Analysis

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne, M. Ji

Adopting a blue ocean perspective can allow you to reach beyond your existing industry’s customers.

Strategy

The Rising Importance of Value Innovation for Creating New Growth

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne, M. Ji

With limited resources at hand, companies need to stay smart and efficient when it comes to investing in innovation.

Strategy

A Blue Ocean Compass for Your Post-Covid Strategy

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne, M. Ji

Four questions to help you rethink industry logic and existing practices to prepare for a powerful comeback.
2 comments

Strategy

How to Be a Blue Ocean Strategist in the Post-Pandemic World

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne, M. Ji

A blue ocean mindset uncovers hidden opportunities amid the Covid-era economic crisis.
2 comments

Strategy

Why Tech Innovation Isn’t the Answer Everyone Thinks It Is

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

Value innovation is the cornerstone of new market creation.
4 comments

Strategy

Business as a Force for Good: A Blue Ocean Perspective

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

How to shift from dividing to expanding the economic pie.
2 comments

Strategy

Is Amazon Dooming Retailers or Are Retailers Dooming Themselves?

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

Retailers are focused on competing instead of creating.
2 comments

Strategy

What It Takes to Shift From Competing to Creating

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

Why non-disruptive creation is as important as disruption in seizing new growth.
1 comment

Strategy

Three Steps Towards Market Domination

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

The market dynamics of value innovation.
5 comments

Strategy

The Strategic Edge of a Blue Ocean Thinker

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

The ten-year expanded edition of Blue Ocean Strategy came out this year. Blue ocean strategy continues to grow in popularity across the world and is widely used in practice and in MBA and executive education classrooms. INSEAD Knowledge interviews Professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne to understand the strategic edge it brings, its impact on business education at INSEAD and around the world, and what we can expect in the future.
2 comments

Strategy

How to Build a Sustainable Blue Ocean

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

High performing and sustainable market-creating strategies align value, profit and people.
2 comments

Strategy

Four Reasons Why Blue Ocean Thinking Is Crucial

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

The rising needs of consumers and their increasing voice means organisations need to move in new, creative directions.
1 comment

Strategy

Want to Create a Blue Ocean? Avoid These Six Red Ocean Traps

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

Firms trying to tap into new markets for growth often fall into the traps of putting resources into wooing existing customers and investing heavily in value-added offerings. But this won’t get them to blue oceans.
4 comments

Strategy

How One Company Turned the Recession into an Opportunity – and Thrived

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

We recently had the opportunity to interview Shawn Busse, CEO of Kinesis – a Portland marketing firm founded in 2000. When his company started to feel the impact of the downturn in 2009, Shawn turned to Blue Ocean Strategy to change the course of the company and steer it towards uncontested market space. This blue ocean journey has allowed Kinesis to enjoy becoming one of the Portland Business Journal’s 100 fastest growing private companies three years in a row, and be selected as a 2015 Portland Business Journal Small Business & Innovation Award honoree.
4 comments

Leadership & Organisations

The Mind Map of Blue Ocean Leadership

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

Releasing the ocean of untapped talent and energy of employees is something few companies can afford not to do. Visualising blue ocean leadership in comparison to conventional leadership practices will help you with implementation.
1 comment

Leadership & Organisations

A Conversation on Blue Ocean Leadership

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

INSEAD Knowledge interviews Professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.
3 comments

Leadership & Organisations

How to Institutionalise Your New Blue Ocean Leadership Practices

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

After identifying what leadership acts and activities should be eliminated, reduced, raised and created to achieve a step change in leadership strength in your organisation, it’s time to institutionalise your new leadership profiles.
2 comments

Leadership & Organisations

How to Develop and Select Your New Leadership Profiles

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

The Blue Ocean Leadership Grid can be used to identify what leadership acts and activities should be eliminated, reduced, raised, and created in pursuit of high impact at low cost.
3 comments

Leadership & Organisations

How to See Your Current Leadership Reality

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

Without a common understanding of where leadership stands today and is falling short, a forceful case for change cannot be made.
3 comments

Leadership & Organisations

The Four Pillars of Blue Ocean Leadership

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

To unleash employees’ untapped talent and energy, leaders need a strong repertoire of actions, not just better awareness and empathy.
5 comments

Leadership & Organisations

From Blue Ocean Strategy to Blue Ocean Leadership

W. C. Kim, R. Mauborgne

The same way that Blue Ocean Strategy can create uncontested market space, Blue Ocean Leadership can unleash oceans of untapped talent and employee potential in organisations.
12 comments