#blueoceanstrategy #businessstrategy #melissakwan #valueinnovation #riskreward Creating the most value comes value innovation. This was proven time in the book Blue Ocean Strategy and the research done by its authors. That being said, is it always the best risk adjusted strategy in every case? I recently found this November 2023 article by Melissa Kwan, CEO and co-founder of EWebinar and found it to be compelling and well thought out. She makes the point that: "...the lack of competition may be a red flag". In our experience at both advising and creating Blue Ocean strategies and executing them, we found that the risk of validating a market and a product idea is indeed a very high risk for a new independent company. A well established company could externalise the risk of a Blue Ocean Strategy by creating an independant or semi-independent subsidiary to advance the execution plan, for example. Innovation involves risks: time and resources and one of the reasons that so many companies are in "red oceans" is simply because they do not want to assume these additional risks. This is why the risk/reward needs to be understood at the onset. The list of counter points includes but is not limited to:
"the lack of competitors in Blue Ocean may indicate that the idea isn’t viable"
All the market validation and education has to be done by the innovating company
The clients often don't realize they have a problem to solve
There is no comparable on ROI data which may make it a harder sell
Melissa Kwan simply reiterates what Blue Ocean companies do: they "...use a Blue Ocean Strategy to develop disruptive innovative products and create demand for them." Companies looking to use a Blue Ocean Strategy have the most to win but must be conscious of all the risks involved and equip themselves with the tools and expertise necessary to manage the risk/reward ratio. Read the full article by Melissa Kwan at:
