Blue Ocean Shift Book Review

Blue Ocean Shift 1
The Blue Ocean Shift Book Review
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Blue Ocean Shift 2
The Blue Ocean Shift Book Review
Introduction
For a long time now, companies and other business enterprises have engaged
themselves in an endeavour to gain a competitive advantage. This is usually because of the
numerous companies that deal with the same line of products in the contemporary society.
This increase has led to a situation where there are so many companies that are competing for
the profit pool. It goes without saying that some businesses may make lower profits or even
be thrown out of the market. Therefore, most companies focus on competition. The main aim
is usually to gain a competitive advantage over the other companies with the aim of
maximizing on profits. The Blue Ocean Strategy aims to discourage this approach and
suggest a better one. The authors, Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne acknowledge that most
businesses compete at what could be referred to as the red ocean. The term red ocean is used
to refer to the bloody kind of environment that results when numerous companies try to
compete for the little market available (Mauborgne and Kim 2017). They observe that
although majority of the businesses compete within this red ocean, this strategy is unlikely to
yield more profits and growth in the future. The greatest argument that the authors make in
the book is that the companies that intend to be successful in the future can only be so if they
shift their focus from the red ocean/ battling with competitors. Instead, such companies
should focus on creating their own blue oceans. The term blue ocean is used to refer to an
uncontested market ((Mauborgne and Kim 2017). This means that the businesses that create a
blue market will no longer be competing for a market but will be sure of one. In a nutshell,
the book has succeeded in its endeavour of guiding businesses on how to move from the red
ocean to the blue one. This has been achieved through a step by step process on how to
achieve this. The authors have ensured to use extensive research to guide their work. One of
the factors that may show the success of the book in achieving its endeavours is that the book

Blue Ocean Shift 3
remained the top seller for more than 100 weeks. In addition, more than 6 million copies were
sold. The authors of the book intended to demonstrate the importance of shifting the approach
of businesses from competition to that of creating a blue ocean/ an uncontested market.
Summary of the Book
About 95 percent of businesses fail within 10 years ((Mauborgne and Kim 2017).
These are shocking statistics. Amazingly, the community of entrepreneurs seem to have
accepted this as the standard for businesses. It is without doubt that any business is started
with the hope that it will last and that it will continue to be profitable. After all, the main aim
of a business is to maximize profits. The authors note that there are numerous businesses
competing in the same line of products. This is likely to create a chaotic future where some
businesses will be thrown out of the market ((Mauborgne and Kim 2017). To avoid this, the
authors suggest a shift of business approach from that of competition to creating an
uncontested market. The book revolves around some five steps that can be used to achieve
the shift. The first step is to select the right scope of the business’ blue ocean initiative and
then focus on building the confidence of the people. This simply means that the business
should first focus on the product or service that they want to deal with. Here the authors
suggest some tools that the business can use to identify the areas that they are likely to have
the most gain. As noted earlier, the main aim of most businesses is to maximize profits. After
identifying the area that the business will have most gain, the authors suggest that the
business should put together a team that is going to help carry out the blue ocean initiative
(Mauborgne and Kim 2017). Confidence is a very important key for the success of the
initiative. It is important to ensure that the employees are confident that the business will
achieve its endeavour. This increases the chances of success. The second step is to have a