Creating New Markets: The Importance of Non-Customers

Blue ocean strategy is a landmark business idea – first introduced in 2004 in an HBR article. But its co-creator Renée Mauborgne, a professor of strategy and management at INSEAD, tells IdeaCast host Sarah Green Carmichael that it’s not a guaranteed win.

“What we’ve found is that managers’ existing mental models, the assumptions about what works in competing in existing industry space — they often apply to their efforts to create new markets. And that creates the failure,” Mauborgne explains.

They discuss what specifically can go wrong when you try to implement blue ocean strategy, including the common traps managers fall into. And why it’s so important to know who your non-customers are and include them in your market research.

Key topics include: blue ocean strategy, competitive strategy, growth strategy, and innovation, Ralph Lauren, Salesforce, product and service design, making your own market, innovation, sector growth, and strategy canvas.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

• Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: Blue Ocean Strategy and Red Ocean Traps (March 2015)
• Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.
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