Developed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne (Value Innovation, 1997; Charting Your Company's Future, 2002; Blue Ocean Strategy, 2005).
Plots the factors an industry competes on and each rival's level on them, then uses eliminate, reduce, raise, and create to draw a value curve unlike any rival's.
When to reach for it
When an industry has become a price fight over the same features and the aim is to compete where rivals are not.
How it runs
- Define the industry or product category.
- List the eight to fifteen factors rivals compete on.
- Plot each rival's level of investment on each factor.
- Decide which factors to eliminate, reduce, raise, and create.
- Draw the new value curve and test that it diverges.
- Check it with noncustomers, then build the go-to-market plan.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- Value Innovation: The Strategic Logic of High Growth, Harvard Business Review, 1997
- Charting Your Company's Future, Harvard Business Review, 2002
- Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, 2005