All comparisonsVS
Blue Ocean Strategy
W. Chan Kim, RenΓ©e Mauborgne
Good Strategy Bad Strategy
Richard Rumelt
Blue Ocean Strategy
W. Chan Kim, RenΓ©e Mauborgne
- Pages
- 320
- Focus
- How to make competition irrelevant by creating uncontested market spaces β blue oceans β instead of fighting over shrinking profit pools in red oceans.
- Best for
- Strategists and business leaders who feel trapped in commoditized markets and need a systematic way to find new demand.
- Style
- Practical
Good Strategy Bad Strategy
Richard Rumelt
- Pages
- 336
- Focus
- What strategy actually is β a coherent set of analyses, guiding policies, and actions β and why most of what passes for strategy is just fluff, goals, or wishful thinking.
- Best for
- Executives and consultants who are tired of vague mission statements and want to learn how to diagnose problems and craft focused, actionable strategies.
- Style
- Practical
Similarities
- Both are fundamentally about escaping the trap of me-too competition and finding sources of advantage that competitors can't easily copy
- Both use extensive real-world case studies β Cirque du Soleil and Southwest Airlines appear in both β to illustrate what good strategic thinking looks like in practice
- Both argue that most companies don't actually have a strategy; they have a collection of performance goals disguised as strategy
Differences
- Blue Ocean Strategy gives you a specific toolkit β the Strategy Canvas, Four Actions Framework, Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create grid β while Rumelt's book is more about developing strategic judgment than following a template
- Kim and Mauborgne focus exclusively on market creation and value innovation; Rumelt covers the full spectrum of strategy including competitive defense, resource leverage, and organizational focus
- Blue Ocean Strategy is optimistic and prescriptive β here's how to create new markets; Good Strategy Bad Strategy spends its best chapters tearing apart bad strategy with almost surgical brutality
Our Verdict
Read Good Strategy Bad Strategy first. Rumelt will teach you to think clearly about strategy before you try to execute any framework, and his demolition of bad strategy is worth the price alone. Then read Blue Ocean Strategy as one powerful approach within that clearer strategic mindset. Without Rumelt's foundation, Blue Ocean tools become another set of templates applied without judgment.
Read both: 14 hours