2. Christian Sandström holds a PhD from Chalmers
University of Technology, Sweden. He writes and speaks
about disruptive innovation and technological change.
4. Count the your number of times you answer
’yes’ to the following questions:
5. 1. Is your company facing
heightened competition
from domestic and
international rivals?
2. Do your sales people
increasingly argue they
need to offer deeper and
deeper price discounts to
make sales?
3. Are you finding your need
to advertise more to get
noticed in the marketplace,
yet the impact of these
efforts keeps falling?
6. 4. Is your company focused
more on cost cutting,
quality control, and brand
management at the expense
of growth, innovation, and
brand creation?
5. Do you blame your slow
growth on your market?
6. Do you see outsourcing
to low cost companies or
countries as a principal
prerequisite to regain
competitiveness?
7. 7. Are mergers and
acquisitions the principal
means your company sees
to grow?
8. Is it easier to get funding
for efforts to follow your
competitor than it is to get
funding for breaking away
from competition?
9. Is commoditization of
offerings a frequent worry
of your company?
10. List your key
competitive factors and
then those of your
competitors. Are they
highly similar?
8. If you answered ’yes’ to 6-10 out of those
questions, you are in a red ocean.
9. If you answered ’yes’ to 1-5 out of those
questions, you are in a blue ocean.
10. Red Ocean Blue Ocean
Compete in existing markets Create a new market
11. Red Ocean Blue Ocean
Compete in existing markets Create a new market
Beat the competition Avoid the competition
12. Red Ocean Blue Ocean
Compete in existing markets Create a new market
Beat the competition Avoid the competition
Exploit existing demands Explore new demands
13. Red Ocean Blue Ocean
Compete in existing markets Create a new market
Beat the competition Avoid the competition
Exploit existing demands Explore new demands
Customer value or low cost Customer value and
low cost
14. Red Ocean Blue Ocean
Compete in existing markets Create a new market
Beat the competition Avoid the competition
Exploit existing demands Explore new demands
Customer value or low cost Customer value and
low cost
Differentiation or low cost Differentiation and low
cost
17. The Strategy Canvas will help us to find new
markets and thereby avoid competition.
18. Start with mapping up the different performance
parameters that matter in your industry.
19. For example: in the camera industry you’ll find price,
image quality, design, compatibility, weight etc.
20. Try to make an (unbiased) plot of how your
company performs along your key
dimensions. And also try to plot where your
competitors have positioned themselves.
21. You will end up with something like this.
10
9
8
7
6
Our products
5 Competitor 1
Competitor 2
4
3
2
1
0
Price Factor Factor Factor Factor Factor Factor
2 3 4 5 6 7
22. Now you have a pretty good idea about what the
competitive climate looks like…
23. If your line intersects with those of your
competitors to a large extent - you are in
a red ocean. Eat or be eaten.