A personal story of how I escaped the sharks (and found my Blue Ocean)

Every entrepreneur has heard of the Blue Ocean Strategy, right? And you’ve probably heard it so many times, alongside other business jargon. Still, having a blue ocean makes your life so much easier. You will experience less competition, higher margins, sustainable growth, and stronger brand loyalty. Who wouldn’t want that?

Let’s also dive into what you would experience if you navigate in a red ocean:

• High competition – price erosion, high marketing costs, high sales costs, lots of resources, etc.
• Lower margins – well… that speaks for itself if you have to spend cash on marketing, sales, and fighting competition with pricing.
• Unsustainable growth – the future is unpredictable. You can’t count on momentum; you need to fight for every deal.
• Lower brand loyalty – with many competitors, customers will try to find the best deal in the market.

So, what do you want? Let me give you a personal example.?

When I was building my business in Denmark, our agency worked with a no-cure-no-pay model. Our customers would pay us for every sale.

• Competition: There weren’t that many agencies, but we didn’t do anything differently from the others. As a result, the customer was going for the best deal.
• Margins: Since we didn’t have any differentiators, we had to compete on price. It was horrible! And once the deal was in, the margin was so low that we couldn’t afford to miss a sale, leaving operations with huge pressure to bring in sales. As a result, the quality of each sale didn’t meet our or the customer’s standards, leaving even less margin.
• Sustainability: The relationship with our customers was very volatile. It had nothing to do with partnership or improving together. We simply had to deliver good-quality sales for a low price. Since there was no operational or mental connection, a “divorce” was always looming. We couldn’t grow our business sustainably, and we couldn’t give the customer our best work.
• Loyalty: The customer was loyal to the price, not to our brand—which makes sense, since we didn’t do anything differently from the rest.

You might be thinking: how did you survive? Well, we were one of the few agencies delivering reasonable quality, and there weren’t many others with sales capacity. Personally, I was ready to quit! It demanded too much from our business and people.

So, what did we change??

I guess we found our Blue Ocean!

The only thing we did was change our revenue model from a no-cure-no-pay model to a shared revenue model. This meant that both the customer and we would share in the revenue—and the loss. Before, we were the only ones with “our hand on the stove.” Now the customer had their hands on the stove too. In my opinion, this is the only way to build a real relationship (there’s a reason married couples vow to support each other for better or worse! ;-) ). Finding the first customer who would agree to such a model wasn’t easy, but I did it.

What happened? Now that we both needed to be successful to keep the cost per order and the revenue at expected levels, we could invest in proper campaigns to increase sales conversion.

• Competition: Nobody else was building marketing campaigns around their sales or having a joint venture with the customer.
• Margins: Due to the shared revenue model, we technically earned a lower margin since we shared it with the customer. But the opposite happened: we became so successful with our campaigns that we outperformed the no-cure-no-pay model. By doing this, costs per sale dropped to an all-time low for the client, resulting in even higher investments in our campaigns and sustainable margins for us.
• Sustainability: Our business became predictable because now the market came to us, instead of us having to fight for every customer. Now, customers wanted to commit to large contracts with solid investments for multiple years. In fact, we turned the sales challenge into a production challenge—we had to rethink how we could handle these large contracts in the most optimal way.
• Loyalty: The pressure was off; we could pay our people a solid base salary. The quality of sales improved (we produced the lowest churn in the market!), our workforce stayed longer, and our customers remained loyal and even increased their investments year after year.

What I’m trying to say is that it’s worth spending time finding your Blue Ocean.?

A solid Blue Ocean Strategy ignites sustainable growth.?

For businesses in the scaling phase, Blue Ocean Strategy isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a critical tool for unlocking new growth opportunities without getting bogged down in cutthroat competition. Rather than battling competitors head-on, Blue Ocean Strategy pushes companies to think differently, to create new value that opens up fresh markets where competition becomes irrelevant.

Let’s dive into why Blue Ocean Strategy is so important for growing companies and how it can be implemented to not only survive but thrive in the process of scaling.

1. Why Blue Ocean Strategy Matters for Growing Companies

When a company is scaling, it’s at a crucial point. Growth requires resources—time, money, talent—and competing in an already crowded market can drain those resources quickly. As your company grows, the pressure to differentiate intensifies. Many businesses fall into the trap of trying to outcompete others by simply doing the same things a little better or a little cheaper.

However, this leads to what’s called a “red ocean”—a space where everyone is fighting over the same customers, offering similar products, and often engaging in price wars. This is not a recipe for long-term success. The margins shrink, and growth becomes harder to sustain.

On the other hand, Blue Ocean Strategy creates uncontested market space by offering something entirely different. Instead of joining the race to the bottom, you innovate to provide unique value. For growing companies, this approach can be transformative. It allows you to scale without constantly looking over your shoulder at what competitors are doing. More importantly, it lets you grow on your own terms, in a space where demand is fresh, and competition is minimal or even non-existent.

2. How to Implement Blue Ocean Strategy in a Scaling Company

Implementing Blue Ocean Strategy during a period of growth requires a shift in mindset—from competing to creating. It’s not just about improving what already exists but imagining what’s possible. Here’s how growing companies can apply this strategy to scale effectively:

Step 1: Redefine Your Market

Scaling companies often feel boxed into existing markets, competing on similar offerings. But Blue Ocean Strategy encourages you to ask: Are there untapped needs we can address that no one else is focusing on?

For example, as you grow, consider whether your current market is serving all potential customer segments. Are there groups of people who aren’t being catered to because your industry hasn’t considered their needs? By redefining your market, you can uncover opportunities to create something new.

Step 2: Focus on Value Innovation

Growth without innovation is risky. Scaling companies need to ensure they are not just expanding in size but in value. Blue Ocean Strategy focuses on value innovation—delivering more value to customers while reducing unnecessary costs.

When scaling, look at your existing processes, products, and services and ask:

• What can we eliminate that isn’t adding value?
• What can we enhance to make our offering stand out?
• What new value can we create that isn’t being offered anywhere else?

For growing companies, value innovation doesn’t always mean creating something brand new. It can mean reimagining your current offerings in ways that better meet evolving customer needs. Think of how Uber scaled by focusing on the customer experience—streamlining ride-sharing with convenience and accessibility—rather than just improving on traditional taxi services.

Step 3: Explore Non-Customers

One of the core ideas in Blue Ocean Strategy is to look beyond your existing customer base and identify non-customers who aren’t currently using your product or service. These non-customers could represent a whole new market for your business, providing the opportunity to scale without fighting for the same group of customers as your competitors.

When scaling, you can ask:

• Why are some people not engaging with our industry?
• What barriers are stopping non-customers from considering our product or service?

By removing barriers and rethinking how you approach these potential customers, you can tap into new markets. For example, Apple’s iPhone wasn’t just a product for tech enthusiasts; it was designed to be intuitive enough for non-tech users, which allowed them to capture a much wider audience.

Step 4: Continuously Innovate as You Scale

Scaling is not a one-time effort, and neither is creating a blue ocean. As you grow, your company must continually innovate to maintain that uncontested space. The market will evolve, and new players may emerge, so it’s important to stay ahead by constantly reviewing your strategy.

This means:

• Reassessing customer needs regularly to ensure your products or services still offer unique value.
• Investing in R&D to explore new ways of delivering that value.
• Being willing to pivot if your current blue ocean starts to become a red ocean.

Netflix is a great example of this. After creating a blue ocean with its DVD-by-mail service, it didn’t rest on its laurels. Instead, it pivoted to streaming long before the rest of the market caught on. By continually innovating, Netflix maintained its position as a market leader, even as others began to follow suit.

3. Benefits of Blue Ocean Strategy for Scaling Companies

For companies in the process of scaling, the benefits of a Blue Ocean Strategy are clear:

• Less Direct Competition: You’re not fighting over the same customers, so you’re not forced into price wars or costly marketing battles.
• Higher Margins: With less competition and more unique value, you can often command higher prices, leading to better profitability.
• Sustainable Growth: By continually innovating and exploring new markets, your growth doesn’t rely on traditional customer acquisition strategies, which can become expensive and less effective over time.
• Stronger Brand Loyalty: Companies that successfully create blue oceans often build stronger relationships with customers because they offer something truly unique. This leads to higher customer retention and brand loyalty.

Why Blue Ocean Strategy Is a Game-Changer for Scaling Companies

Scaling your company shouldn’t feel like a constant fight to stay ahead of the competition. Blue Ocean Strategy offers a path to growth that doesn’t involve outcompeting your rivals at every turn. Instead, it focuses on creating new opportunities, solving problems in unique ways, and unlocking uncontested market space.

For growing companies, this approach allows you to scale with intention, focus on value innovation, and find new ways to serve both existing and untapped markets. By shifting from a mindset of competition to one of creation, you’ll set your business on a path toward sustainable growth—on your own terms.

So, if you’re ready to stop competing and start creating, Blue Ocean Strategy might just be the blueprint your growing company needs.