Result Delivered: Leaders escape price wars, eliminate competition, and create uncontested market spaces based on innovation, simplicity, and customer value.
HABIT 1 — Competing on What Everyone Else Competes On
Why this keeps you in the Red Ocean:
When you compete where others compete, you fight over:
- Price
- Features
- Margins
- Capacity
- Market share
Competition becomes a zero-sum game.
You win only when someone else loses.
Where companies get stuck:
- Same value proposition
- Same pricing logic
- Same channels
- Same customer promises
- Same product categories
THE BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY:
The Value Innovation Shift (VIS-1)
1. Remove what customers don’t value
Cut complexity, options, features, processes.
2. Raise what customers desperately need
Speed, simplicity, reliability, transparency.
3. Create new value that competitors don’t offer
New experiences, new pricing models, new usage outcomes.
Result Delivered:
Your offering becomes unmatched → competition irrelevant.
HABIT 2 — Optimizing Inside the Industry Instead of Redefining It
Why this keeps you trapped:
Red Ocean companies ask:
- How can we improve?
- How can we optimize?
- How can we add features?
Blue Ocean leaders ask:
- How can we redefine?
- How can we simplify?
- How can we change the rules?
Optimizing improves the past.
Creating shapes the future.
THE BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY:
The Industry Redefinition Play (IRP-2)
1. Look across alternative industries
What are customers hiring instead of you?
2. Identify barriers customers face
Time, complexity, expertise, regulation, risk.
3. Design a solution 10X simpler
Subscription, automation, integrated service, platform.
Result Delivered:
A new industry category emerges — created and owned by you.
HABIT 3 — Selling Units Instead of Selling Transformation
Why this kills differentiation:
Selling products makes you comparable.
Selling outcomes makes you unique.
Red Ocean selling:
- Ton-based
- Hour-based
- Feature-based
- Commodity pricing
Blue Ocean selling:
- Transformation
- Outcomes
- Predictable results
- Subscription value
THE BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY:
The Transformation Value Model (TVM-3)
1. Sell the result, not the resource
Predictive reliability
Zero downtime
Guaranteed performance
2. Create recurring revenue
X-as-a-Service → predictable cashflow, sticky customers.
3. Build a value ecosystem
Partners + platforms + data → customers become members, not buyers.
Result Delivered:
Your business shifts from transactional → relational → transformational.
THE EXECUTIVE 15-SECOND VERSION
- Competing → Red Ocean
- Creating Value → Blue Ocean
- Selling Outcomes → Unbeatable Differentiation
Result Delivered:
A new space where competition disappears, margins rise, and value accelerates.
