The famous blue ocean framework is a great one. We’ve been using it frequently at Loop to describe how we see our distribution of services into the market.
However, there’s one thing I’ve noticed about the term which lacks some nuance.
Blue ocean implies that there are enormous pools of opportunity that are untapped. But this isn’t the case. It’s actually more like the world is full of red oceans, and there are small inlets of blue.
You have to sail for months, sometimes years before finding the blue inlets. If you can successfully identify a blue inlet and desire to capitalize on it, you then also must grow it. That’s because inlets represent early adopters - i.e. those who don’t need the same advocation and education cycles as other buyers.
There’s something reflexive about the whole thing. The more you take advantage of the blue inlet, the more it actually grows into a blue ocean.
We can take Tesla as an example. Tesla’s cars are often referred to as a classic example of a blue ocean strategy- marrying the existing behavior of purchasing a car with the philosophy of a better environment (and cooler ride). If the world didn’t know about Tesla’s vehicles today and there were no electric cars, it would take yet another decade of hard work to educate customers on the product and the company’s philosophy.
The blue oceans aren’t just sitting there. They have to be earned. They start as pools. Founders put in the work to expand those pools. Traction (network effects, brand awareness, scale effects, etc.) all influence the rate at which the pool grows.
This makes sense. If there was just as much blue water as red, it would be much easier to identify. It’s not. There are very few pockets of low competition, high value business. It takes a long time to find. It’s elusive and must be grown carefully.