Brett Dwyer writes:

Strategy is a quirky topic; it seems there are dozens of different ways that leaders will explain what the concept even is. This, in turn, means there are thousands of books on the topic.

Textbook authors will write about the variables of differentiation and cost. Others will present an argument that strategy revolves around what is most important right now.

However, I’m yet to read a book with a more compelling and visual argument for what strategy can ideally be and it’s certainly informed the way we think about strategy, as outlined here.

The authors argue that most businesses compete in a bloody, red ocean. There are too many businesses doing things in much the same way, offering much the same product or service. It means that there’s very little visible difference between one provider or another. It becomes a scrappy fight for survival.

They explain that truly successful businesses have found ways to operate in a clear blue ocean, where they are providing value that is not found elsewhere.

Their use of diagrams was a real eye-opener for me as an exercise that is well worth working through.

Within our business we’ve managed to identify a blue ocean that we wish to dominate. But it’s perhaps less outwardly obvious than some of the examples in the book. For us, we wish to provide a career experience and opportunity for our team that is unique, rewarding and found nowhere else. (The thinking is that motivated accountants will provide a better service to their clients and want to stay with Eagle) At the moment we certainly seem to be swimming in clear blue water.

A global phenomenon now published in a record 44 languages. Over 3.5 million copies sold. A bestseller across five continents.

Your Guide to Creating Uncontested Market Space?and Making the Competition Irrelevant 

This international bestseller, embraced by organizations and industries worldwide, challenges everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success.

Now updated with a new chapter and additional content from the authors, Blue Ocean Strategy argues that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves (spanning more than 100 years across 30 industries), the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors, but from creating “blue oceans”?untapped new market spaces ripe for growth.

Blue Ocean Strategy presents a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and outlines principles and tools any company can use to create and capture their own blue oceans. A landmark work that upends traditional thinking about strategy, this bestselling business book charts a bold new path to winning the future.

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