January 1, 2005

BLUE. ISN’T. FOUND.

                   

🚀 Audacious Move of the Week

BLUE. ISN’T. FOUND.

Creating uncontested market space isn’t about searching for a mythical Blue Ocean—it’s about building a differentiation strategy that makes you The ONLY One™ for the customers you choose to serve.

Bold Decisions Create Extraordinary Businesses.

I hope it helps you create yours.

Stop searching for a Blue Ocean. Create one.

Blue Ocean Strategy has always bothered me.

Not because the aspiration is wrong.

Who wouldn’t want to operate in “uncontested market space” where competitors are irrelevant?

Sounds wonderful.

My problem is what happens Monday morning.

You’re running a business surrounded by competitors. They’re discounting. Copying. Launching new stuff. Technology is changing the game. Customers want more and expect to pay less.

You’re swimming in a Red Ocean.

And someone tells you:

“Go find a Blue Ocean.”

That’s like telling someone struggling in shark-infested water:

“There’s an island somewhere. Go find it.”

Interesting idea.

Not terribly useful.

🦈 We Didn’t Go Looking for Blue Water

When we were building an internet business from startup to more than a BILLION in annual sales, we didn’t escape competition.

We were surrounded by it.

Big competitors.

Aggressive competitors.

Competitors with resources.

Competitors perfectly capable of copying what we did.

So we didn’t waste time trying to find a market where they didn’t exist.

We created a piece of the market they couldn’t own.

That distinction matters.

We started with a brutally practical question:

HOW BIG?

What revenue growth did we want over the next 24 months?

Then:

WHO to SERVE?

Which customer groups had the potential to deliver that growth?

Only then did we go hunting for something most organizations barely understand:

WHAT do they CRAVE?

Not what they need.

Needs are crowded.

Needs are obvious.

Needs are where competitors congregate and eventually look alike.

We wanted the emotional itch beneath the need.

What did these people desire, covet, lust for?

What experience would cause them to choose us and keep choosing us?

That became the raw material for differentiation.

And then came the question that changed everything:

HOW will we COMPETE and WIN?

Our answer had to make us The ONLY One™ who delivered something our chosen customers craved.

Not better.

Not cheaper.

Not “one of the leading.”

ONLY.

That was our Blue Ocean.

And we created it while standing right in the middle of the Red one.

🔥 Change the Question

Don’t ask:

“Where is there a market with no competition?”

Ask:

“What can we own that makes comparison with competitors less relevant?”

That is a completely different strategic conversation.

It moves you away from searching for some magical uncontested market and toward creating a unique place inside the market you already occupy.

Your ONLY Statement™ puts a stake in that ground:

“We are The ONLY Ones who…”

Finish that sentence with something meaningful your chosen customers CRAVE and you have the beginnings of your own market space.

But there’s one nasty little detail.

⚡ You Actually Have to Deliver It

Declaring yourself The ONLY One™ doesn’t make you one.

Your organization has to prove it.

Every day.

Your people.

Your processes.

Your customer experience.

Your leadership.

Your operating systems.

Everything has to conspire to deliver the promise.

Otherwise your Blue Ocean quickly turns red again.

That’s why differentiation can’t live in a strategy document.

It has to become an operating principle.

🎯 Create It. Don’t Find It.

Stop looking over the horizon hoping you’ll discover some pristine piece of blue water where competitors can’t touch you.

Stay where the sharks are.

Choose WHO you intend to serve.

Discover what they CRAVE.

Create something ONLY you own.

Then build your organization around delivering it.

Don’t FIND your Blue Ocean.

CREATE it.

🚀 Want more Audacious Moves™?

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Extraordinary careers aren’t built by ordinary decisions. They’re built one Audacious Move™ at a time.

Now go make yours.

Cheers,
Roy

• Posted 1.1.05 at 06:00 am by Roy Osing
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