We have had significant help in actualizing this book. INSEAD, our academic home, has continued to provide a unique and inspiring environment in which to conduct our research. We have benefited greatly from the truly global composition of our faculty, student body, and executive education participants, as well as the crossover between theory and practice that exists at INSEAD. Dean Ilian Mihov and Deputy Dean Peter Zemsky of INSEAD have provided enduring encouragement and institutional support. We would also like to acknowledge our former Dean Frank Brown for his vision to establish the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute.
With our deans’ support—including that of former INSEAD Executive Education Dean Soumitra Dutta who is now dean of Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, we have been able to create many blue ocean programs for INSEAD executives and MBAs that are carried out across the globe. Special thanks to all the INSEAD MBAs who have taken part in the Blue Ocean Study Group, the Blue Ocean Simulation Course, and the Blue Ocean Theory Course, and to all the executives from around the world who participated in the Blue Ocean Strategy Open Enrolment Program or Blue Ocean Strategy corporate-specific programs. Their challenging questions and thoughtful feedback clarified and strengthened our ideas. Special thanks also to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which has extended financial support for our research and has proven to be a great long-term partner dating back now for more than 20 years.
We are grateful for INSEAD’s faculty who have taught blue ocean courses in the MBA, EMBA, and executive education programs at the school. Among the faculty are Professors Andrew Shipilov, Fares Boulos, Peter Zemsky, Guoli Chen, Jens Meyer, Javier Gimeno, Neil Jones, Mi Ji, James Costantini, Ben Bensaou, Michael Shiel, Narayan Pant, Loïc Sadoulet, Matthew Lee, Lauren Mathys, and George Eapen. Not only have they provided valuable feedback and rich discussions that have stimulated our thinking, many have importantly also become our dear friends. Thank you to all.
Along the trajectory of our research journey, many people have supported us at different points and we are thankful for all. However, there are two individuals who deserve special mention: Gavin Fraser and Marc Beauvois-Coladon. Over long years, both Gavin and Marc have provided feedback and put our ideas in practice often before they were even published. We are delighted and proud that two of the blue ocean shifts discussed in this book are the direct result of their powerful application of the ideas in practice. Gavin and Marc, thank you for your support and insight, the intellectual integrity you bring to your work, and importantly your friendship. Special thanks are also due to Jae Won Park, CEO of the Malaysia Blue Ocean Strategy Institute (MBOSI); John Riker, who skillfully led the Blue Ocean Strategy Initiative Center; and blue ocean senior experts Jason Hunter and Ralph Trombetta, whose experiences in applying our ideas in practice have directly contributed to our book. The dedicated work of all the directors and fellows of MBOSI including Jang Rae Cho, Gowrishankar Sundararajan, Lisa Carse, Tim Polkowski, Pamela Leong, Craig Wilkie, Julie Lee, Pallav Jha, and the rest of the MBOSI team serves as the backbone for the national blue ocean shift we lay out in the book’s epilogue.
Thanks especially to our Blue Ocean Officer Kasia Duda and her team at MBOSI for their enthusiastic support and dedication. Kasia, thank you for being an unsinkable ship and great captain of the team. We appreciate all that you do.
Special thanks are also due to CEO of the Blue Ocean Global Network, Robert Bong, who also serves as chief advisor to MBOSI, and his team: Chin Chin Lim, Serena George, and Gan Kah Liang. Thanks also to the members of the Blue Ocean Global Network, a global community of practice on the blue ocean family of concepts—especially to those we were unable to mention here.
Warm thanks are also due to our outstanding team of executive fellows and researchers, current and recent past, at the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute (IBOSI). In particular, Mi Ji, Oh Young Koo, Michael Olenick, Mélanie Pipino, Katrina Ling, and Jee-Eun Lee. Through the thought-provoking cases and firsthand original theory-based videos, today blue ocean concepts are used in over 100 countries around the world. Thanks also to our IBOSI coordinator Kim Wilkinson. Researchers beyond those already cited who deserve special mention are Zunaira Munir, Allison Light, and Amara Buyse.
Over the decade since our first book Blue Ocean Strategy was published, corporate executives, public officers, entrepreneurs, small-and medium-size business owners, and even high school students and religious organizations have set out to put our ideas and market-creating tools and frameworks into practice to make a blue ocean shift. To all these individuals—some of whom are contained in this book—we offer our sincere thanks. You have inspired us, sharpened our thinking, and greatly shaped the ideas in this book.
The Malaysian government has been applying the concept and tools of blue ocean shift to national development through its National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) initiative. We are enormously grateful to Prime Minister Najib Razak and former Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi for their vision and inspiring leadership to create blue oceans for the nation. Also, special thanks are due to Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi, Defence and Special Function Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, and all cabinet ministers who have spearheaded the cross-ministerial collaboration under NBOS.
The chief secretary to the government of Malaysia, Ali Hamsa, and the chairman of Petronas and former chief secretary to the government, Sidek Hassan, deserve our special appreciation for their excellent work in institutionalizing and nurturing the growth of National Blue Ocean Strategy within the Malaysian government. Other important contributors to NBOS include the secretary general of Treasury, Irwan Serigar; chairman of Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) and former minister in the prime minister’s department, Wahid Omar; governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, Muhammad Ibrahim; director general of the Public Service Department, Zainal Rahim; chairman of Agrobank and former director general of the Public Service Department, Zabidi Zainal; inspector general of the police, Khalid Abu Bakar; chief of the Defense Forces, Raja Mohamed Affandi; former chief of the Defense Forces, Zulkifeli Zin; CEO of Petronas, Zulkiflee Ariffin; commissioner general of prisons, Zulkifli Omar; and director of the National Strategy Unit, Aminuddin Hassim, along with all the secretaries general and directors general of the Malaysian Civil Service and the leaders of the Malaysian security forces.
It would be remiss of us not to acknowledge the millions and millions of Malaysians who have contributed, either directly or indirectly, to creating blue oceans in Malaysia through various NBOS initiatives. We are very grateful to the numerous civil servants, teachers, students, generals and soldiers, police officers, professionals, businesspeople, entrepreneurs, youth, retirees, housewives, even inmates and many more besides, who have given their time, energy, and hearts as participants and volunteers. While there are far too many to mention their names here, it has been truly inspiring to witness the efforts made by citizens from all walks of life who have supported and played a crucial role in Malaysia’s national development through NBOS.
We’d also like to thank President Obama’s Board of Advisors on the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. This work provided new impetus for us to apply and expand our blue ocean theory into the nonprofit sector.
In writing this book we have benefited from the comments of many people. In particular, we are grateful for the thoughtful comments and suggestions made by Nan Stone. Not only is Nan a dear friend we have known for over 20 years, she also served as the editor-in-chief of Harvard Business Review overseeing our initial HBR articles that are the seeds of our research. Thanks are also due to the valuable comments and feedback made by Andrea Ovans.
Finally, we would like to thank our publisher, Hachette Books. From the very start the entire team, in particular Mauro DiPreta, Michelle Aielli, and Betsy Hulsebosch, have believed in the ideas and been strong enthusiastic supporters, providing encouragement and inspiring ideas, and importantly, also being graciously patient as we struggled to get the manuscript done. We appreciate the dedicated efforts of Joanna Pinsker and David Lamb as well. Thanks also to Michael Pietsch, Hachette’s CEO, for his full support and commitment to our book. We are grateful to all.