You have a desire. You have the vision. But the next logical step in the game is executing. This is what is really important. One of the best things to do is what is commonly called “The Blue Ocean Strategy”, and basically what that is is filling a niche that no one else is.
“Blue Ocean Strategy is a business book written by Professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, from the INSEAD business school. The book offers retrospective examples of how successful businesses captured uncontested market space, and thereby made competition irrelevant. This was formerly described as “Value Innovation,” in 5 articles for the Harvard Business Review by Kim & Maubourgne before they released the book in 2005.
The “ocean” refers to the market or industry. “Blue oceans” are untapped and uncontested markets, which provide little or no competition for anyone who would dive in, since the markets are not crowded. A “red ocean”, on the other hand, refers to a saturated market where there is fierce competition, already crowded with people (companies) providing the same type of services or producing the same kind of goods.
Their idea is to do something different from everyone else, producing something that no one has yet seen, thereby creating a “blue ocean”. An essential concept is that the innovation (in product, service, or delivery) must raise and create value for the market, while simultaneously reducing or eliminating features or services that are less valued by the current or future market. The authors critique Michael Porter’s idea that successful business are either low-cost providers, or niche-players. Instead, they propose finding value that crosses conventional market segmentation and offering value and lower cost. ” *
Where is your Blue Ocean?
The Biggest Mistake in the web development scene today is heading out into a crowded niche, not doing anything to set yourself apart from the competition,and mostly being a play on SEO. I could name half a dozen developers who make this same mistake. And at one time I largely did the same thing. Not any more. It’s way to exhausting and for that matter boring as a Saturday afternoon in Home Depot.
In today’s internet that just isnt going to cut it. Yeah its great to set out to do that and you can find some short term profitablity in that strategy but in the end you will end up bankrupt because no one can compete against the big dogs forever. And your competition will do whatever it takes to get ahead and stay ahead. The real solution to success is creating your own Blue Oceans.
Let’s talk about creating your own Blue Ocean. Basically their are really two strategies you can utilize when creating your Blue Ocean. Strategy number one is finding a niche absolutely no one has invaded. An example of that would be a low cost horizontal elevator with triangular doors. No seriously everything under the sun has been done and will be done over and over again. It’s a matter of approach and style. That’s the bottom line. Low Cost Airlines done and done again. Blog Networks done and redone. Low Cost Blog Networks done and redone.
How are you going to do differently something that has been done before? How are you going to set yourself apart from everyone else? The first step is in proper marketing. Do you market yourself as an expert? Do you push yourself harder than everyone else did? Those are two of the essentials to creating and swimming in your Blue Ocean.
Let’s talk about one project I’m working on. I don’t like to normally share projects I work on but hey let’s go for it anyhow. I’m attempting to create a Blue Ocean Project in the arena of a local directory project. You might think directories have been done and done again. But I haven’t seen a terrible amount of local directories. I will focus mostly on one state the one I currently live in. And work on developing a solid directory and marketing it locally. But it can’t just be a directory it has to offer some service to locals besides the typical directory scheme. So I have to brainstorm. And find a way to set it apart. I’m not an expert at directories. But I do blogging pretty good, and I do some SEO now and again. So maybe offering some solid helps for companies looking to gain access and benefit from the directory.
Tommorow I show you how I’m going to build the directory, what steps its going to take to succeed and how to realize your own Blue Ocean.
* Source: Wikipedia
