There is a lot of buzz about subscribing to a “Blue Ocean Strategy” that makes traditional concepts of competing for market share irrelevant. Certainly, companies competing in Puerto Rico, with its relatively fixed consumer market size as an island, could benefit from a strategy that essentially focuses on creating new demand for a product or service, instead of going after a larger piece of the same pie.

The “Blue Ocean Strategy” was expressed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in a book published in 2005. They oppose that tomorrow’s leading companies will succeed not by battling competitors, but by creating “blue oceans” of uncontested market space ripe for growth. A well known example of this is Cirque du Soleil, which transformed from a stagnant industry (traditional circus) and has created a new uncontested market space in the entertainment business with unprecedented growth and profitability.

<b>Four Steps to a “Blue Ocean Strategy”</b>

The approach follows four basic steps to success that any company can initiate.

1)  Eliminate factors that the industry (whatever it may be) takes for granted but adds no perceived value to customers.
2)  Reduce factors well below the industry’s standard to avoid the mistakes of over delivering in order to beat the competition.
3)  Raise factors well above the industry’s standard so your customer won’t have to make compromises.
4)  Create new sources of value that the industry has never offered.