The strategy canvas
An analytical tool that shows how much emphasis companies place on value areas in their industry.
A value curve is the result of plotting a company on a strategy canvas.
When a company and its competitors have similarly shaped or converging value curves, they are likely to be in a red ocean.
Two of the three common traits of successful blue ocean strategies appear on a value curve. These make value curves an excellent way to identify a Blue ocean strategy. The traits are focus and divergence.
A value curve with a small number of highly emphasized factors of competition implies a strategy with focus.
Value curves on a strategy canvas that are shaped differently than the rest of their industry indicate strategies with Divergence.
The cost of focusing on many factors of competition simultaneously needs to be justified. Good justifications for these costs include greater profits, substantial market share, and establishing or maintaining a moat to isolate against competition.
When a company is investing in features or factors of competition that provide limited incremental value for customers, the company may be over-delivering.
When a value curve shows high emphasis across many factors of competition, it’s an indicator that the company may be over-delivering without benefit.
When a company’s value curve zig-zags across the strategy canvas, it may mean they don’t have a coherent strategy.
An analytical tool that shows how much emphasis companies place on value areas in their industry.
Crowded markets where customers have many options to choose from, resulting in cutthroat competition.
Great strategies have a clear focus, diverge from competition, and are easy to explain.
Blue ocean strategy is about creating new markets to escape competition.
The factors that companies/products within an industry typically compete on to provide value to customers.