Blue Ocean Shift: Beyond Competing; Proven Steps to Inspire Confidence and Seize New Growth

Business-school professors Kim and Mauborgne (Blue Ocean Strategy) dedicate this stirring business primer to showing how organizations can move from fighting over crowded markets with competitors to creating their own markets. In order to move from “red oceans full of sharks” to “wide-open blue oceans” free of rivals, Kim and Mauborgne explain, leaders must identify and challenge fundamental assumptions. These include, most commonly, that market boundaries are fixed and that companies must decide between differentiation and low cost. The authors bolster their credibility by showing how nonprofits, businesses, and governments have applied their strategies, and they draw lessons from these clients’ successes and failures. The book includes powerful real-life examples, including that of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq, which challenged sectarian divisions; French appliance maker Groupe SEB, which decided to produce french-fry makers that don’t involve any actual frying; and the government of Malaysia, which moved inmates out of overcrowded prisons to idle land on military bases. This invaluable guide will be empowering to business-minded readers. Agent: Robert Barnett, Williams & Connolly. (Sept.)