Differentiation and Blue Ocean Strategy

So what is "Blue Ocean Strategy?"

According to authors Kim and Mauborgne in the Harvard Business Review of October 2004 and later their book,  competition within over crowded or saturated industries is not an effective way to sustain high performance and results.  They believe that by focusing only on the competition and "competitive advantage" that organizations and their advisor's and even scholars ignore two important and vastly more bottom line oriented approaches: to find and develop blue oceans, and to exploit and protect blue oceans.  There are two ways to create blue oceans. 

Some very relevant examples of this ideology could include Google, Apple's IPOD, Digital Cameras and GPS Phones.

For the SMB, utilizing this strategy means aligning your business and its activities towards the pursuit of differentiation and low cost.  Read the book and see if you can leverage the information to grow your small or medium business in 2007-08.