Blue Ocean Strategy for Solopreneurs: Big Picture Thinking Implementation

Today we cover Blue Ocean for Strategy for Solopreneurs: Big Picture Thinking Implementation.

In this series, we’re breaking down the business bestseller Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Marketspace and Make the Competition Irrelevant.

Today, in Blue Ocean Strategy for Solopreneurs: Big Picture Thinking Implementation, we wrap up our last post on big picture thinking and discuss how to use the As-Is and To-Be Strategy Canvas as well as the ERRC Grid.

In review, the As-Is strategy canvas is a visual depiction of your industry and the company’s state of play. It lays out the key factors of competition along a horizontal axis. It cannot be overstated how important the discoveries will be when you start to honestly assess your company’s key factors of competition. Most businesses find that they are swimming in a deep red ocean of competition. With discipline and guidance, these discoveries lead company owners to understand how important value innovation is to the future.
Let’s look at a visual.
In this case, I’m sharing an As-Is strategy canvas around the topic of personal leadership.

You can see in the graphic that one is asked to be candid about the key factors of competition among leaders. Translate the horizontal lines into whatever the key factors are for your business or industry and you’ll quickly learn how vanilla your offerings probably truly are. In the case above, the leader is scoring very low on time and effort on the vertical axis.

When you’ve e