Blue Ocean Strategy

Porter’s Five Forces (1980), named after Michael E. Porter, is a critical framework to access the level of risk and degree of potential profitability of each industry in which firms are competing. Specifically, five forces are shown in Figure 1, are includes competition between rivalry, potential of new entrant, threat of substitute products, and pressure on bargaining power of suppliers and customers.

The intensity of rivalry, which is the most obvious of the five forces in an industry, helps determine the extent to which the value created by an industry will be dissipated through head-to-head competition. The most valuable contribution of Porter's “five forces” framework in this issue may be its suggestion that rivalry, while important, is only one of several forces that determine industry attractiveness.

As we begin to strategically plan for our business, it is important for us to take a deep dive into our competitive environment to understand where we are strong competitively and where we are weak competitively. An analysis of the forces driving industry competition using M.E. Porter’s Five Forces Model will assist us in determining where the power lies in a business situation as we begin to plan. We must understand how they work in our industry and how they affect our particular situation. Whatever the collective strength of these forces is, our job as the strategists of the organization is to

According The Wall Street Journal” … Cirque du Soleil, the Canadian company that redefined the dynamics of a declining circus industry in the 1980s. Under conventional strategy analysis, the circus industry was a loser. Star performers had “supplier power” over the company. Alternative forms of entertainment, from sporting events to home entertainment systems, were relatively inexpensive and on the rise. Moreover, animal rights groups were putting increased pressure on circuses for their treatment of animals.” (Murray, 2014) A new era was created transforming the concept of what is a circus today. As the Wall Street Journal described, “Cirque du Soleil eliminated the animals and reduced the importance of individual stars. It created a new form of entertainment that combined dance, music and athletic skill to appeal to an upscale adult audience that had abandoned the traditional circus. (Murray, 2014)

In the article, “The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy,” Michael Porter argues that the five forces are an important element for managers and investors in the business industry. Porter stated that it is important to “understand the competitive forces, and their underlying causes” which many companies will use to determine if they will gain profit or not (Porter 80). Companies determine their profitability of the industry through the level of the force that they face. For instance, when the forces are favorable, most companies will be profitable. Porter gives a detail description of the five forces and explains the importance of each force. The five forces are the threats of new entrants, the power of the buyers, the power of the suppliers, the threats of substitute for products or services, and the rivalry among existing competitors. Porter believes that “a company strategist who understands the competition extends well beyond existing rivals will detect wider competitive threats and be better equipped to address them” (Porter 93). In other words, when strategists understand the different forces it will benefit them to make better decisions and to be ready to face the different challenges between competitors. In the article, Porter’s main goal is to present the importance of the five forces to the audience.

In order to process the nature of a blue ocean entity, it is imperative to grasp the point of derivation, which is otherwise known as a red ocean. A red ocean, which is polar to a blue ocean, generates its namesake from a literal representation. Imagine a feeding frenzy in the middle of the ocean; the water turns red with the victim’s blood as predators compete for survival. Now, apply this image to economic conditions. In an open market in any given industry, where there are established standards, barriers, and rules, competitors in a well-defined saturated industry jockey for market shares from

Porter (1980) identified some competitive forces that shapes and fosters competition in a market and determines the inherent long run attractiveness of a market. He also said that, this analytical tool could be effectively used to understand the industry level situation. However, the findings based on the Porter's model clarify that, the company has strong competitive situation now in the UK as ASDA has strong rivals like; Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons etc.

This is done by creating a leap in value both for the buyers as well as for the organization thereby creating a new and uncontested market space. Companies left out in the red ocean usually follow a conventional approach, running to beat competition by creating a defensible position in the current market space order.

BOS is a kind of strategy which be inspires to innovate and focus on develops new demand and new markets through selling products e.g: Ipod, Ipad instead of fighting with the competition over the same market share as well as satisfying the same demand from the customers which is typically done in a red ocean strategy (ROS). In other word, BOS represent "untapped market space" and the opportunity to gain high profit for the companies. They urge companies to enhance the value of innovation by focusing more on price, utility, and cost positions. In addition, companies also suggested creating and capturing their new customers demand as well as keeping their focus on the big picture, not the numbers. (Kim and

Nowadays many new companies have emerged in the markets this will cause a lot of conflicts in the crowded marketplace in order to stay in the competition, success and gain profits. The competition is often so severe that some companies cannot sustain themselves and may stop operating. Therefore, W.Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne whom are professors of strategic management they develop a blue ocean strategy as a new way of thinking to make this competition irrelevant and creating new market space. It is also demonstrates how the companies traditionally work in red ocean conditions where companies are fighting fiercely against each others to gain a share of the market.

To what extent did the growth strategy of the HKET Group follow the key ‘imperatives’ of a Blue Ocean Strategy? Explain and use examples from the case to illustrate your points.

Porter’s Five Forces model is used to evaluate the degree of rivalry between competitors in a given industry through assessing the four forces that lead to this outcome. These forces are the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of buyers, and the threat of substitute products.

Its idea of value innovation originates from Porter’s early view of business strategies. It contrast from Porter in a way that it frames the thought that low costs strategy and differentiation strategy can be joined together, rather than being mutually

The maturity of an industry has brought a company swimming in a red ocean, which means price war strategy, according to a bestseller book titled Blue Ocean Strategy that is written by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. This situation influences the way a company evaluates its strategies and effectiveness regularly. Each company has a particular business culture, which is suitable only for the company in a specific industry. This condition may not be suitable when the industry changes or the company is acquired by another company at bigger size.

Authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne are both professors of strategy at INSEAD Business School, France, and are both Fellows of the World Economic Forum. They both have an established presence in the world of academics and business, so they can be considered an authority on strategic and business planning. First published in 2005, Blue Ocean Strategy introduced a new way of creating market space. Kim and Mauborgne proposed that the market could be divided into two categories: blue oceans and red oceans. In a red ocean, everything is known, the rules are laid out and the boundaries clearly defined. In a blue ocean, the competition becomes irrelevant as businesses forge into the untapped potential of the market creating their own space. This book revolutionized how businesses thought about strategic and business planning.