Blue Ocean Strategy
One of recent business books that has gotten a lot of press is Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. The favorable press is well-deserved, and in looking over my copy of the book I see many, many dog-eared pages. I know that I’ll be referencing it quite a bit.
The most important aspect of the book is the focus on value innovation. Kim and Mauborgne recommend that to create value innovations you have to focus on the user. This phrase, or variants thereof, are all over the book. Indeed, they devote a signficant portion of Chapter 8 encouraging executives to directly interact with users.
This is a perfect opportunity for Innovation Games. Using Innovation Games, you can get close your customers, understanding their needs on their terms. This is the cornerstone of value innovation.
