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And just a note - we recorded this by phone. This episode originally aired on HBR IdeaCast in March 2015. AND why knowing who your non-customers are is as valuable as knowing your customers. You’ll learn about some of the common traps managers fall into – like trying to please existing customers OR focusing on adjacent market niches. Today, we bring you a conversation about what can go wrong when you try to implement blue ocean strategy. But its co-creator Renée Mauborgne says it’s not a guaranteed win.
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Blue ocean strategy is a landmark business idea, first introduced in 2004 right here at HBR. What do Ralph Lauren,, and Cirque du Soleil have in common? Give up? They’re all brands that have successfully created “blue oceans” – uncontested, new markets where success is all about differentiation and lower costs. HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR On Strategy, case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock new ways of doing business. Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Blue Ocean Strategy and Red Ocean Traps (March 2015).HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. Key topics include: blue ocean strategy, competitive strategy, growth strategy, and innovation, Ralph Lauren, Salesforce, product and service design, making your own market, innovation, sector growth, and strategy canvas. And why it’s so important to know who your non-customers are and include them in your market research. They discuss what specifically can go wrong when you try to implement blue ocean strategy, including the common traps managers fall into. And that creates the failure,” Mauborgne explains. “What we’ve found is that managers’ existing mental models, the assumptions about what works in competing in existing industry space - they often apply to their efforts to create new markets. But its co-creator Renée Mauborgne, a professor of strategy and management at INSEAD, tells IdeaCast host Sarah Green Carmichael that it’s not a guaranteed win. Blue ocean strategy is a landmark business idea – first introduced in 2004 in an HBR article.
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