Innovation beyond blue oceans

The authors take issue with the 'blue ocean' theory of innovation, arguing that inspection of one of its claimed successes - Samsung - reveals a more complex picture.

Innovation beyond blue oceans

Patrick Barwise and Seán MeehanLondon Business School and IMD business school

Patrick Barwise and Seán Meehan take issue with the well-known 'blue ocean' theory of innovation, using as an example one of its claimed successes, Samsung. For the real world of 'red' to 'purplish' oceans, they recommend a more balanced and inclusive framework for innovation.

"Galactic." That's how the Financial Times described Samsung's 2012 first quarter results, with an 81% year-on-year increase in net income.

Samsung is now world market leader in mobile handsets with a 20.7% volume share. More significantly,...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands