In a sea of competition the water turns red with blood. If you want to find a way to separate yourself from the competition you need to find a part of the ocean where no one else is: the Blue Ocean. This is a pretty obvious notion once you’ve heard it.
What I’m thinking about these days is the difficulty of truly finding that empty zone. A lot of times it’s clear where the gap is (and I’m pretty positive about the real estate gap). The problem is trying to figure out how to get there. You can’t just go out a little bit because it won’t take any time at all for the competition to catch up and even move ahead when they see your strategy. You can’t go too far because the cost and risk of overshooting what your customers want is very high. You have to think like Goldilocks and find that right point that is just right.
Looking out at where I see us going, I’m very excited about the opportunity that is out there. The ocean is vast and if it’s done right it may be something crazy enough to work….
Nintendo purportedly followed this strategy with the Wii. It seemed to work out pretty well for them.