Chapter 2 Foreword & Acknowledgments

This book is a product of friendship, loyalty, and mutual trust.It is friendship and trust that inspired us to explore the main ideas expressed in this book and finally to write it. We met in class 20 years ago—one a professor, one a student.We've been working together ever since, like two wet rats in the same sewer.So this book is not a success of ideas, but a success of friendship, and we have found that friendship is more meaningful than any idea in the business world—because we are not alone. No journey is easy, and no friendship is just filled with laughter.Fortunately, on the writing journey, our days are exciting because we are completing a task designed to learn and improve.We believe deeply in the ideas in this book, and they are by no means intended for those who muddle through or whose purpose in life is merely to dawdle; for that is not our interest.If you are only satisfied with the above-mentioned life attitudes, please do not need to read this book, but if you want to start a business, and want to build a win-win enterprise for customers, employees, shareholders and society, please read on.While it's not easy, it's worth doing.

Our research argues that no business can remain great forever, just as no industry can survive forever.When we look back on the road we have traveled, we will find that we, like the company, have done smart things and stupid things.To be more successful, we need to study and understand the behaviors that lead to positive change, and how we can systematically replicate such correct behaviors.This is what we call smart strategic nudges, and we have found that the central strategic act is creating blue oceans. The blue ocean strategy requires enterprises to break through the "red ocean" formed by traditional bloody competition and expand new non-competitive market space.Different from the existing competitive market demand, which is usually shrinking, the blue ocean strategy considers how to create demand and break through competition.This book not only challenges business thinking, but also tells them how to achieve their goals.First, we introduce a set of analytical tools and frameworks to tell readers how to deal with challenges systematically; second, we clarify several principles to distinguish blue ocean strategy from traditional competitive strategy.

Our goal is to build a systematic and operable blue ocean strategy and implement it outside of the current "red ocean" competition in the known market space.Only in this way can companies expand blue ocean territories in a sensible and responsible manner, while maximizing opportunity and minimizing risk.Any enterprise, regardless of its size, whether it is an established industry enterprise or a new entrant into the industry, should not and cannot take excessive risks. The content of this book is a summary of 15 years of research, using a data interval of more than 100 years, and also includes a series of articles in the "Harvard Business Review" and other related academic articles related to this point of view.The concepts, tools and ideological framework described in this book have been tested and updated continuously in European, American and Asian companies for many years.The exposition of this book brings together the above work and ideas into a unified framework.This framework includes not only an analysis of how to approach blue ocean strategy, but also answers to the most important personnel questions to enable organizations and people to consciously implement these ideas.Here, we put how to win trust and loyalty, and understand the importance of employees' rational and emotional cognition, at the core of the blue ocean strategy.

The blue ocean opportunity has opened up.With the exploration of the blue ocean field, the market space continues to expand.We believe that this expansion is the root of business growth.However, how to systematically create and open up the blue ocean field is not enough both in theory and in practice.We sincerely invite readers to read this book and learn to become the driver of future growth. The writing of this book has received a lot of assistance. INSEAD offers a unique research environment where we benefit from a rich interweaving of theory and practice, and learn from a truly international mix of staff and students. The Deans, Antonio Borges, Gabriel Hawawini and Ludo Van der Heyden, encouraged the study from the very beginning and provided support with the work arrangement, allowing us to combine research and teaching.Financial support for our research was provided by Price Waterhouse Corporation (PwC) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), in particular Frank Brown and Richard Bair of PwC, and Rene Abate, John Clarkeson, George Stalk, and Olivier Tardy of BCG, among others They are all very good partners.

Over the years, we have been greatly assisted by a research team composed of highly qualified researchers.Special mention should be made of our two research assistants: Jason Hunter and Ji Mi, who have worked with us in recent years, and their continuous research support and spirit of excellence have played a key role in the writing of this book.The authors sincerely thank them for their work. Colleagues at the Academy have contributed greatly to the ideas presented in this book. INSEAD teachers, especially Subramanian Rangan and Ludo Van der Heyden, gave valuable comments and support for the author's views.Many INSEAD faculty taught the framework and ideas in this book to EMBA and MBA audiences, receiving valuable feedback that further refined our understanding.Others provided informational support or spiritual encouragement.For this, we would like to thank Ron Adner, Jean-Louis Barsoux, Ben Bensaou, Henri-Claude de Bettignies, Mike Brimm, Laurence Capron, Marco Ceccagnoli, Karel Cool, Arnoud De Meyer, Ingemar Dierickx, Gareth Dyas, George Eapen, Paul Evans , Charlie Galunic, Annabelle Gawer, Javier Gimeno, Dominique Heau, Neil Jones, Philippe Lasserre, Jean-Francois Manzoni, Jens Myer, Claude Michaud, Deigan Morris, Quy Nguyen-Huy, Subramannian Rangan, Jonathan Story, Heinz Thanheiser, Ludo Van de Heyden, David Yound, Peter Zemsky and Ming Zeng.

We are fortunate to have a global network of practitioners and case studies.They have made outstanding contributions in applying the ideas in this book to practice and providing case materials for our research.Among many others, Marc Beauvois-Coladon deserves special thanks, for working with the author from the beginning, he played a major role in promoting the fourth chapter of this book by translating the author's views into the practice of enterprises.Others to thank: Francis Gouillart and his associates; Gavin Fraser and his associates; Wayne Mortensen, Brain Marks, Kenneth Lau, Yasushi Shiina, Jonathan Landrey and his associates; Gabor Burt and his associates; Junan Jiang, Ralph Trombetta and his associates Assistants; Shantaram Venkatesh, Miki Kawawa and their assistants; Volker Westermann and their assistants; Matt Williamson; and Caroline Edwards and their assistants.We also thank Mark Spelman, Omar Abbosh, Jim Sayles and their team for working with Accenture in the first place.Thanks to Lucent Technologies for their support.

In the course of our research, we met with senior business executives and government officials around the world, who contributed their time and energy to help us further refine the ideas in this book.Among the many private and public institutions that practice our ideas, Samsung Electronics' Value Innovation Project (VIP) and the Value Innovation Brain Tank (VIAT) serving the Singapore government and private sector are our sources of inspiration and learning.Especially Jong-Yong Yun from Samsung Electronics, and all life secretaries from the Singapore government are our helpful partners.My heartfelt thanks go to the members of the Value Innovation Network (VIN), a global practice of the concept of value innovation, and special thanks to those we cannot mention here.

Finally, thanks to Melinda Merino, the editor of this book, for her creative reviews and editorial feedback, and to Harvard Business School Press for its reviews and enthusiastic assistance.Thanks also to past and present editors of HBR, especially David Champion, Tom Stewart, Nan Stone, and Joan Magretta.We owe a lot to INSEAD's MBA, Ph.D and corporate executive education participants, especially the participants of the Strategy and Value Innovation Research Group (VISG) for their great support in the formation of our ideas.Their challenging questions and thoughtful feedback make the authors' thinking clear and powerful.