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Blue Ocean Strategy / Strategy Canvas

L1StrategyCompetitive advantagedesignStages 0 to 3

Reference model

The Blue Ocean strategy canvasA line chart. The factors the industry competes on run along the bottom and the level each firm offers rises up the side. Two competitors’ curves follow the same shape; a new value curve in gold takes a different shape, high where the rivals are low and low where they are high. A good strategy has focus, divergence and a compelling tagline.PriceLead timeQualityServiceRangeBrandOFFERING LEVELHighLowFACTORS THE INDUSTRY COMPETES ONCompetitor ACompetitor BYour new value curveRed ocean: your curve follows the rivals’ curves. Blue ocean: a different shape, in space nobody serves.A good strategy has focus, divergence and a compelling tagline.

Factors the industry competes on run along the bottom; how much each firm offers rises up the side. A good strategy has a curve that is different, focused and easy to put in a tagline.

About this model

Competing head-on with rivals in an existing industry (a red ocean) leaves little room for profit. The strategy canvas draws how you and your rivals compete on the factors the industry fights over, so you can see where your curve merely follows theirs and where you could break away into uncontested space (a blue ocean).

W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne — Blue Ocean Strategy · 2005

How to read it

  • List the factors the industry competes on, then score what you and your two main rivals offer on each (1 = little, 5 = a great deal).
  • If your curve runs alongside the industry’s you are competing on the same terms as everyone else. A blue-ocean curve diverges: high where the industry is low, low where it is high.
  • Look beyond today’s customers: the biggest new demand usually sits with non-customers who find the industry’s offer too costly, too complex or irrelevant.

What this does

Maps your offering against competitors on the factors customers actually value, looking for an uncontested space rather than competing head-on.

When to use it

Ideation through Early Growth, when the industry feels commoditised and a genuinely different value curve is worth exploring.

What happens next

A validated new value curve feeds the ERRC Grid to make the redesign concrete.

Golden thread

Builds on ←

    A starting point: it needs no earlier tool.

    Feeds into →

    • errc

    Framework library: Strategy and environment (layer L1), lifecycle stages 0 to 3.

    Use this tool, free

    Sign in to open the worksheet. Your work saves as you type, the AI can draft the parts you have not filled in, and you finish with an analysis and a 30/60/90-day action plan.

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    Hand-built by Eccellere and reviewed by Eccellere on 02/11/2026. Guidance, not advice: apply your own judgement.