1. By Elias Balderas, Ryan Cooley, Jason Campos, and Stephanie Gomez

2.  What are the differences between red and blue oceans?  Cirque du Soleil  The Rising Imperative of creating blue oceans.  From Company and industry to Strategic move.  Value Innovation: the cornerstone of blue ocean strategy  Value Innovation Chart

3.  Red Oceans- represent all the known industries or known market space. Here companies try to outperform their rivals and get their share of the existing demand.  Blue Oceans-are defined by untapped market space, that demand creation, and have the opportunity for highly profitable growth.

4.  Saturated MarketNew Market Space  Too Much CompetitionNo Competition  Smaller Profit MarginsHigher Profitability  Rules are KnownRule Maker

6.  What makes Cirque du Soleil remarkable was that achieved rapid growth in a declining industry.  It appealed to a whole new group of customers rather than to try take from an already shrinking circus market.  Its success came from applying aspects of different industries and implementing it into theirs.  “They reinvented the circus”

7.  Technological advances have dramatically increased industrial productivity and has allowed suppliers to produce new products/services.  As a result, Supply Exceeds demand.  As global competition intensifies, there is no clear evidence of an increase in demand.  This results in accelerated commoditization of products/services.  Brands are becoming more similar and as a result people are selecting products based significantly off price.

8.  Are there lasting “excellent or visionary” companies that continuously outperform the market?  In search of Excellence, built to last, creative destruction  The answer is no. Neither the company nor the industry is the best unit of analysis for explaining the creation of blue oceans and sustained high performance.  Hotels, cinema, retail, airlines, energy, computers broadcasting, automobiles.  Neither industry nor organizational characteristics explain the difference between red and blue oceans.  Private or pubic, low or high tech, big and small companies.

9.  Separates winners from losers. Focus on making the competition irrelevant by creating a length in value, which is creating a blue ocean.  Value innovation places equal emphasis on value and innovation.  Value innovation occurs only when companies align innovation with utility, price, and cost positions.  Cirque du soleil focused on catering to adults rather than children, which resulted in competing in new market space.  Disney media plans to go into Russian media, which is untapped market space.(SM, Coulter.)

10. COST BUYER VALUE VALUE INNOVATION

11.  Red Ocean- Crowded market space, many competitors, and smaller profit margins.  Blue Ocean- new market space, with less competitors, where competition is irrelevant.  Companies that want to effectively pursue a blue ocean should use value innovation as their strategy of choice.