INTRODUCTION 

As an entrepreneur, studying your environment is imperative. This approach allows you to not only understand potential customers’ consumption habits but also to analyze the offerings of other companies on the market. Although the trend remains to define counter-attack or defense strategies in the face of competition. This approach, while common, is insufficient to ensure a long-term and effective presence in a market. A shortcoming that the Blue Ocean strategy seeks to address by presenting itself as a tactic with multiple promises. In reality, what is it?

ORIGIN OF THE BLUE OCEAN STRATEGIC MODEL

The Ocean-Bleu strategic model is based on multiple academic and practical works. The first “Blue Ocean Strategy” article appeared in the Harvard Business Review in 2004. It was quickly followed by the publication of the same author’s book, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, in 2005.

OBJECTIVE

The main objective of this model lies in highlighting two possible strategic approaches facing the competition in a market., Moreover, it seeks to highlight the importance of the blue ocean strategy. Rather than directly facing their competitors, successful companies manage to create a new, uncontested space in a market. The differentiation and low-price approaches are linked in order to guide the entrepreneur towards the creation of value and demands. The use of the term blue ocean relies on the unexplored character of vast and deep market spaces.

WHEN AND HOW TO USE IT?

The blue ocean strategy calls for a differentiation and cost-reduction approach to create new markets or new opportunities within a market. The interest is to answer these during or before the competitors are able to do it. A blue ocean called a market is therefore unknown and untapped before it was created. That requires innovation through the creation of value. In the same vein, we must identify the elements taken for granted in the market and eliminate them in order to reduce the relevance of the competition. Creating elements that have never been offered on the market is therefore a must. It is also important to raise certain elements of the product beyond market standards in order to differentiate itself from competitors and appear as the only relevant offer.

INTEREST

The Blue Ocean model, as well as the reference works in which it has been published, makes it possible to understand and explain, from a strategic perspective, the popular successes (or not) of several companies over the last sixty years. From these observations, several lessons are learned. The proposed model makes it possible to formulate, and structure the growing desires and needs to innovate in order to remain competitive in the increasingly complex, global and changing business environments.

CONCLUSION

Africa is always changing. As a result, developing avant-garde and innovative skills is more than necessary for the entrepreneur who is still alive. Beyond the features of a product or service that were the deciding factors in the purchase decision at the time, consumers on the continent appear to value more consumption experiences. As a result, it is critical to bet on your uniqueness and authenticity. What else do you have to offer?