Sublime

To get real leverage, you have to persuade them that they have something concrete to lose if the deal falls through.

seen. When Porter questions why so few companies are able to maintain successful strategies, he often points to flawed goals as the culprit:

Inconsequential to their own performance

3. Improve on the competition

This type of trade-off—pioneering a new path and the risk that entails versus entering an established domain but facing greater competition—occurs at the business level as well.

There are positioning strategies to deal with the problem of being No. 2 or No. 3 or even No. 203. (See Chapter 8, “Repositioning the competition.”) But first make sure you can’t find something to be first in. It’s better to be a big fish in a small pond (and then increase the size of the pond) than to be a small fish in a big pond.

How do you size up the threat of new entry?

Leaders should use their short-term flexibility to assure themselves of a stable long-term future.

Blue oceans, in contrast, are defined by untapped market space, demand creation, and the opportunity for highly profitable growth. Although some blue oceans are created well beyond existing industry boundaries, most are created from within red oceans by expanding existing industry boundaries, as Cirque du Soleil did. In blue oceans, competition is