1. Do you take industry conditions as given? Or do you reshape them in your favor?

The conventional way for executives to develop strategy is to begin by analyzing the environment: Is the industry growing or shrinking?

Is the competition strong or not? Most strategies are built on such assessments. In other words, structure shapes strategy.

However, blue ocean strategists do not take industry practices as a given. What they recognize, and what most of us forget, is that while industry conditions exist, individual firms created them in the first place. Industry boundaries are not fixed.

Take the example of Andre Rieu, a Dutch violinist and conductor who created an uncontested and expanding market space of classical music for the masses in an industry marked by shrinking demand, rising cost, and financial losses.

Was classical music a dying industry given its aging customer base? What could an orchestra do in this environment other than hire more superstar conductors and guest soloists to win a greater customer share, or implement huge cuts to save money at the expense of artistic quality?

Rieu did neither.

Instead, he looked to the vast population of music-loving people who were daunted by the rituals of orchestral concerts and the complexities of classical music.

His concerts not only interspersed familiar classical pieces with themes from movies, musicals, and pop songs of Elvis Presley, Celine Dion and the like, but also brought in elements such as special lighting, balloons and dove launches, fireworks, and even figure skating, creating an epic experience and a feast for emotions and senses.

Instead of letting existing industry conditions shape his strategy, Rieu reshaped them, thereby creating a new market space and building a multimillion-dollar business with a mass following in the midst of a red ocean.

This is the perspective that you need in our world of mounting challenges. The pandemic has had a shock effect on economies and businesses and is bound to trigger more changes and disruptions in many industries.

Will you go down as a victim of change and disruption?

Or are you going to rise above the challenges and reshape the business environment in your favor?

A blue ocean perspective can be a decisive factor here as it frees you from the shared industry logic that could dramatically restrict your creative thinking and understanding of what is possible and profitable