Category: vision – mission

There is a book on the shelf of almost every serious executive in the world. It has sold over four million copies, been translated into 46 languages, and spawned an entire consulting industry. Its central idea is so compelling that once you hear it, you cannot unhear it.

The book is Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS), published in 2004 by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. The central idea: stop fighting competitors for the same shrinking pool of customers. Create new market space where competition is irrelevant. Stop swimming in a Red Ocean of blood and churn. Find your Blue Ocean.

Every executive who has heard this wants it. The aspiration is sound. The problem is that the book quietly fails to deliver what its title promises – and that failure has cost organizations time in over two decades of strategy retreats.

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The Word That Did the Damage

The most consequential editorial decision in modern management publishing happened when the authors agreed to put the word “Strategy” in the title.

That single word changed how executives read the book. Strategy implies a plan. A method. A set of steps you can follow to get from where you are to where you want to be. Executives arrived at the book expecting operational guidance. What they received instead was one of the most elegant collections of business case studies ever assembled — and no instructions for replication.

Consider the cases. Cirque du Soleil, the book’s showcase story, reinvented the circus by eliminating animals and creating a sophisticated adult entertainment category. Yellow Tail wine made wine approachable for beer drinkers by stripping out complexity and jargon. NVIDIA opened its graphics processors to general computing and created an entirely new category of accelerated processing. Taylor Swift reinvented the artist’s relationship to fans, catalog ownership, and brand extension.

Each case is vivid. Each pattern is compelling. But each story was crafted long after the journey was complete.

That is the problem. Every case in the book is retrospective. The authors identified companies that had already succeeded, mapped their moves, and presented the pattern. What they did not — and perhaps could not — provide is a repeatable method for how your company executes a similar move from scratch, in your industry, with your constraints, before the outcome is known.

This is not a minor gap. It is the structural flaw that separates the book’s promise from its delivery. And it helps explain why boardrooms around the world have produced beautiful strategy canvases (as the book instructs) and returned to fighting the same competitive battles the following Monday morning.

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The Tool That Starts in the Wrong Place

There is a deeper problem, and it lives inside the book’s primary diagnostic instrument — the Eliminate, Reduce, Raise, Create grid, known as the ERRC.

To use the ERRC grid, you map what your industry currently does across every competitive factor, then decide what to eliminate, reduce, raise, and create. Every factor you analyze is defined in relation to what competitors already do. The entire diagnostic starts with your rivals.

Here is the irony: a framework designed to help you escape competition requires you to think about competition first. If your strategic imagination is anchored to what already exists, you have not left the Red Ocean. You have only rearranged your position within it. The book’s primary tool quietly undermines its central promise.

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The Pattern the Book Ignores

Set aside the tool problem for a moment. Assume your team finds its Blue Ocean. You create uncontested market space, grow rapidly, and establish genuine differentiation. What happens next?

Blue Ocean Strategy is largely silent on this question. And the answer, drawn from its own case studies, is uncomfortable.

Cirque du Soleil created its blue ocean in the 1980s and spent nearly four decades defending it. New competitors entered experiential entertainment. Costs rose. The company took on debt to fund global expansion. In June 2020, it filed for bankruptcy protection.

Netflix invented streaming video and watched Disney, Amazon, Apple, and dozens of others flood the same space within a decade. Uber redefined urban transportation and has spent most of its existence losing money as imitators replicated its model in every major market.

These are not execution failures. They are the inevitable result of treating a blue ocean as a destination rather than a phase.

Every competitive advantage has an expiry date. The timeline varies — years, sometimes decades — but the sequence never changes. You create uncontested space. Competitors notice. Imitators arrive. Margins compress. The blue ocean turns red. This is not misfortune. It is the entirely predictable lifecycle of any strategic advantage, and it has been predictable for a long time.

That is the core of what Blue Ocean Strategy leaves out: a theory of time.

The book is written as though the strategic challenge is finding the right space. It is not. The deeper challenge is understanding that every space you find is already aging from the moment you enter it — and that long-term survival depends on building the next blue ocean while the current one is still profitable enough to fund it.

A framework called the Three Horizons Framework, developed by Hodgson, Curry and others, addresses precisely this gap. It argues that organizations must simultaneously protect today’s advantage, develop tomorrow’s opportunity, and explore the possibilities that will matter in five to ten years. Not sequentially. Simultaneously. Because by the time your current advantage is visibly declining, it is already too late to begin building its replacement.

Blue Ocean Strategy asks: where should we compete? The Three Horizons Framework asks: for how long, and what comes next? The first question without the second is not a strategy. It is a plan with no second act — which is exactly what Cirque du Soleil, Netflix, and Uber each discovered in turn.

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The Company That Proved Both Points

Wawa is a food retailer based in the northeastern United States. It operates convenience stores, fuel stations, and quick-service restaurants — three of the lowest-margin, highest-failure-rate business categories in existence. It is also, by most available measures, one of the most successful blue ocean practitioners in American business history.

In 2009, facing a world where supermarkets, fast casual chains, and fuel retailers were all converging on its territory, Wawa’s leadership formally applied the Blue Ocean tools. The strategy canvas and ERRC grid structured their analysis and were genuinely useful. They identified that their weakest offering — food service — was also their highest-potential opportunity for differentiation.

What followed was systematic reinvention. Wawa repositioned from a convenience store that also sold food into a quality quick-service restaurant that also sold fuel and convenience items. Fresh bread baked on premises. Customizable meals made to order. High-quality coffee at accessible prices. Touchscreen ordering kiosks. A store layout redesigned with food at the center.

The results are measurable. An average 7-Eleven generates roughly US$30,000 to $35,000 in weekly revenue per store. Wawa averages US$116,000. That gap — more than three times the category standard — is what genuine blue ocean execution produces in real dollars.

Perhaps more telling is what the broader industry makes of Wawa’s performance. QSR 50, the standard industry ranking of quick-service restaurants, does not include Wawa in its listings. The reason given is that Wawa sells fuel and packaged goods, which technically classifies it as a convenience store rather than a restaurant. If Wawa were included, it would rank first in per-store sales — ahead of McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, and Panera Bread. The most effective blue ocean practitioner in American retail is invisible to the industry supposed to be tracking it. That is what genuine category creation actually looks like.

But here is the detail that the book’s framework cannot account for, delivered in the words of Wawa’s own former CEO Howard Stoeckel: “We’re paranoid when it comes to success and we’re always reinventing ourselves.”

Not proud. Not secure. Paranoid.

Wawa has reinvented itself across more than two centuries — from dairy farming to grocery retail to convenience stores to fuel to quick-service restaurants. Each reinvention happened before the previous model was exhausted. In 2012, Stoeckel announced that Wawa was no longer a convenience store. It was, he declared, “a leading quick-service restaurant and leader in the fast-casual-to-go space that also sells gas and convenience items.” No such category existed at scale at the time. Competitors scoffed. Customers gradually came to see it exactly that way.

That move — naming a new space and teaching the market to recognize it before rivals could claim it — is not in the Blue Ocean book. It belongs to a separate body of thinking about category design, developed by writers including Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon, and Nicolas Cole. Their argument is direct: whoever names the new category can dominate it for decades to come. Language is key. The market does not automatically recognize new value — someone has to hand it the vocabulary.

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What Executives Should Actually Do

Blue Ocean Strategy offers the right aspiration. The ambition to escape a competitive space rather than simply fight better within it is correct, and the book makes that case more compellingly than almost anything else in the management canon.

But aspiration without method produces what most organizations have experienced: a retreat, a strategy canvas, a renewed sense of possibility, and no change the following quarter.

The complete system looks something like this. Use BOS to identify where genuine value innovation is possible — where you can create new demand rather than compete for existing demand. Apply a long-horizon lens from the moment you make your move, treating your new blue ocean as inherently temporary and building the next opportunity while the current one is still strong. Invest as much in naming and framing your new category as you do in designing it — because a blue ocean no one can describe is a blue ocean no one will defend.

The book is not wrong. It is incomplete. Read it for the vision it provides so clearly. Then build the method around it that it never supplies.

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PS — Going Deeper: Five Prompts for Your AI Assistant

The arguments in this article can be taken further using any AI tool. Here are five prompts to continue the thinking:

1. “Map my company’s current strategy against the Three Horizons Framework by Hodgson and Curry. Ask me questions about our current business, emerging threats, and what’s already replacing us in the market.”
2. “Using Blue Ocean Strategy’s ERRC grid as a starting point, help me identify where my industry’s assumptions are so deeply embedded that we have stopped questioning them.”
3. “Give me five examples of companies that created a genuine blue ocean, then failed to build the next one before their advantage decayed. What was the warning signal they missed in each case?”
4. “Help me write a category definition statement for my business — not what we do, but what new space we are creating and why we should own it.”
5. “Based on Wawa’s reinvention story, design a set of questions I can bring to my next strategy retreat to test whether we are building our next blue ocean or simply defending the current one.”

As a leader—whether in politics or business—you want to inspire people. You want them to care, commit, and go above and beyond. But earning this level of engagement is difficult. In fact, it’s one of the most elusive challenges in leadership.

Inspiration, after all, isn’t automatic. It doesn’t come from holding a title or issuing commands. It’s something that must be carefully cultivated, often against the backdrop of public skepticism. That’s one reason why political campaigns, like Jamaica’s upcoming election cycle, can offer unexpected leadership lessons—if viewed through the right lens.

Today, many are disenchanted with politics. Voter turnout in Jamaica has declined steadily, echoing global trends that point to growing cynicism about leadership, institutions, and the future. And this problem isn’t confined to government. In the corporate world, executives also struggle to mobilize teams and customers around a vision—especially in environments marked by uncertainty, competition, and fatigue.

Ideally, leaders shouldn’t need to bribe, pressure, or manipulate people into action. Instead, they aim to win over hearts and minds so that others willingly contribute their discretionary time, energy, and creativity. That’s what genuine inspiration looks like—but it’s easier said than done.

Leaders, even well-intentioned ones, often destroy followership without realizing it. They lose focus, fail to articulate a compelling vision, or make careless remarks that erode trust. You’ve likely seen this happen—where someone in authority squanders goodwill with a single tone-deaf comment or decision.

Amidst this leadership crisis, I recently came across a video from Wavell Hinds, the former West Indies cricketer and now a political aspirant with Jamaica’s PNP. His short Facebook message, filmed at a deserted Sabina Park, offers a masterclass in communicating a purpose-driven future—one that transcends personal ambition or partisan gain.

Grounded in Painful Truths

Hinds begins with brutal honesty: West Indies cricket has declined. Once the pride of the Caribbean, it now commands little interest or passion. For many young Jamaicans, he argues, the game no longer holds any allure because they never grew up seeing it at its best.

Standing in an empty Sabina Park, once a symbol of cricketing greatness, he laments: “There’s silence, no noise, no matches, no drinks.” He speaks not just as a politician, but as someone who lived the dream—having represented the West Indies in 45 Test matches and winning a Champions Trophy.

His message is credible precisely because it’s personal. Cricket, he says, was a vehicle for his childhood ambitions. Now, he mourns what appears to be its slow death in the region’s consciousness.

Avoiding Cynicism and Cheap Shots

Yet despite the raw emotion, Hinds avoids the kind of toxic finger-pointing that dominates many political messages. Yes, he questions the current government’s commitment, criticizing superficial gestures like ribbon cuttings and photo ops. But his tone isn’t bitter. He doesn’t vilify.

“Where is the action once the lights and cameras are off?” he asks. The question lands—not because it attacks—but because it invites reflection.

This is instructive. Too often, leaders believe they must attack rivals in order to stand out. But in both politics and business, overemphasizing competition can alienate your audience. Customers don’t care who your competitors are. Employees don’t necessarily rally behind a “we beat them” mentality. And voters? They grow weary of petty battles.

The Power of a Shared Future

What people do care about is the future—and whether a leader has a credible, inclusive path to get there.

Hinds doesn’t merely lament the past or criticize the present. He paints a vision of what could be: a resurgence of West Indies cricket that unites generations and rekindles national pride. It’s not about winning the next match or the next election. It’s about anchoring today’s actions in a future worth striving toward.

For corporate leaders, this is an important lesson. It’s tempting to focus narrowly on market share, quarterly results, or outperforming the competition. But those goals rarely ignite passion. Instead, leaders must craft “probable futures”—like “Sustainable Manufacturing 2040” or “AI for Human Flourishing”—that spark hope and demand innovation.

People don’t follow leaders because they outperform the competition. They follow those who offer a bigger vision—one that includes them, stretches their imagination, and makes them feel part of something meaningful.

Become an Ambassador from the Future

Effective leaders speak and act as if they’ve already visited the future—and are now returning to guide us toward it. They describe what they’ve seen in vivid, practical terms. They acknowledge the obstacles, yes—but they also lay out a clear path forward.

This kind of visionary leadership is difficult. It can be lonely. But it’s also the most fulfilling and impactful kind of work.

So ask yourself: what future are you inviting others to help create? Are you giving them something worth committing to—not just because it benefits your organization, but because it matters to the wider world?

The takeaway is clear: whether you’re in the boardroom or on the campaign trail, being inspiring is hard. But when your message is grounded in truth and tied to a compelling, collective future, people will follow—not because they must, but because they choose to.

As a leader, you navigate a relentless sea of deadlines and short-term goals. The pressure to be agile and decisive is immense. Yet, amidst the daily chaos, a powerful tool often gets neglected – the long-term vision. You might believe it’s a luxurious indulgence, a distant dream with little bearing on the here and now. But what if I told you that fostering a vision for a faraway future can have a profound impact on your company’s immediate performance?

Beyond the Transaction: Unlocking Deep Inner Motivation

Think about the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Many managers rely on the former – bonuses, commissions, and other forms of immediate rewards. These tactics can get results, but they fail to tap into the wellspring of human drive that lies beyond mere compensation.

Consider the most inspiring individuals you know. They may dedicate years to raising children, contribute to charity, or pursue long-term educational journeys. These actions highlight the power of delayed gratification, where the inherent value of the goal fuels sustained effort.

Unfortunately, most companies fall short of harnessing this power. When every task is framed as a transactional exchange – “I give you money, you give me work” – employees become conditioned to expect a tangible reward for every action. This transactional approach stifles intrinsic motivation, leaving them feeling uninspired and disengaged.

But imagine if you offered your team a chance to invest in their own futures, a future inextricably linked to the company’s success. Here, we’re not talking about vague pronouncements about “balanced sheets” or “customer benefits.” You need to co-create a compelling vision of the future, one that resonates with everyone on board.

Think about the GraceKennedy 2020 Vision and Vision 2030 Jamaica projects. These initiatives, crafted collaboratively with hundreds of people, charted a course spanning over two decades. Despite their extended timeframes, they demonstrably ignited immediate action.

In some companies, employees are so energized by their shared vision, they even volunteer to sell products on their own time. This illustrates the power of a long-term vision to motivate and inspire immediate action.

Navigating Storms with Purpose: Focus During Emergencies

In today’s volatile business landscape, agility and adaptability are crucial. You need a workforce that can respond swiftly to unforeseen challenges. However, relying solely on a reactive, adrenaline-fueled approach has its limitations. Chronic stress can lead to burnout, and a workplace solely focused on solving the immediate problem at hand lacks direction.

This is where a long-term vision steps in. It provides the necessary context that goes beyond simply “getting through the day” or “surviving the crisis.” It allows your employees to remain two-headed, addressing immediate challenges while keeping the long-term vision in sight.

Let’s use customer service as an example. Reactive customer service often prioritizes every single complaint, regardless of its validity. But a strategic vision, informed by a long-term perspective, can create a framework for prioritizing customers. Remember Michael Porter’s quote: “Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.”

When your employees understand the invented future, it shapes each customer interaction as a strategic choice, not just an obligation. They can use the vision to guide their decisions, prioritizing interactions that align with the company’s long-term goals.

These are just a few examples of how a long-term vision can positively impact your immediate performance. A forward-looking vision acts as a test of your leadership clarity – the ability to inspire action today by painting a compelling picture of tomorrow. When you plant the seeds of a distant future, you cultivate a more engaged, motivated, and strategically focused workforce that can weather any immediate storm and navigate towards a brighter shared future.

This revised version maintains the use of the second person (“you”) while offering a more professional and engaging tone. It emphasizes concrete actions you can take and highlights the practical results of fostering a long-term vision.

Similar to most organizations, your company also has a vision or purpose statement. The initial idea was meant to ignite inspiration, but lately, it seems to have lost its allure. What interventions can you implement to foster a collaborative environment and encourage your staff to go above and beyond? And how does this statement support the goals outlined in your corporate strategy?

It is easy to comprehend the reasons for creating a compelling vision.

As we human beings look to the future, our imaginations run wild with the anticipation of what lies ahead, just beyond the corner. As such, while sitting at work on a Friday afternoon, we’re happy, feeling the anticipation of the weekend ahead.

By mid-day on Sunday, our energy levels plummet and a sense of unease settles in. Why? Monday looms ahead, and with it comes the familiar routine and the anticipation of the weekly grind.

Our psychology is wired to have an addictive tendency to anticipate what lies ahead. Sadly, this fact goes unnoticed by most individuals. The lack of understanding about the future, even among progressive companies, is the reason why social media has such a powerful draw for the average employee.

A company vision is management’s way of providing an alternative, and they offer five options to choose from.

1. **The Invisible Vision**: This form of vision exists solely within the mind of the company’s top leadership. While these individuals may be passionate about their vision, they fail to share it with the rest of the organization. Communication barriers or a desire to maintain control often lead to this secretive approach. As a result, employees are left in the dark, lacking a sense of direction and purpose.

In this first category, if no one besides the top leader knows where your organization is headed, it may be the case.

2. **The Vague Vision**: Perhaps the most common form, vague visions lack clarity and specificity. These statements are often found adorning office walls or buried within corporate documents. While they may sound lofty and inspirational, they fail to provide actionable guidance. Without clear goals and timelines, employees struggle to connect their daily tasks to the overarching vision, resulting in disengagement and apathy.

To determine if your company’s statement is vague, try this simple test. Reflect on whether a rational employee could perceive that the objective has already been fulfilled or is on the verge of completion. Is it done?

Additionally, is there a specific year associated with it? If the answers are simply “Yes” and “No”, it can be considered too vague, leaving room for people to only pay it lip-service.

Honestly…it would be more accurate to call it a slogan.

3. **The Squeezed-Up Vision**: In an attempt to avoid ambiguity, some organizations opt for short-term visions. However, these compressed timelines often lead to unrealistic expectations and limited scope. Employees may feel overwhelmed by the pressure to achieve short-term goals without a broader long-term perspective. As a result, motivation wanes, and morale suffers as employees become disillusioned with unattainable targets.

4. **The Strategy-Less Vision**: Even with clearly defined goals, a vision can falter without the support of a comprehensive strategic plan. In this scenario, organizations set ambitious targets but fail to provide a roadmap for achieving them. Without alignment between the vision and strategic objectives, employees are left to navigate uncertain terrain on their own. As a result, initiatives lack direction, resources are mis-allocated, and progress stalls.

But above all, they realize the groundwork has not been done because it fails to confront reality. As such, they believe the vision won’t be implemented.

On the flip side, there is:

**The Ideal Vision**: This represents the pinnacle of corporate visioning, combining clarity, inspiration, alignment, and engagement. An ideal vision is clear and concise, providing a roadmap for the organization’s future. It inspires passion and commitment among employees, fostering a sense of purpose and belonging. Moreover, it is aligned with the organization’s strategic objectives, ensuring that every action moves the company closer to its goals. Finally, it engages employees at all levels, soliciting their input and fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation.

In conclusion, the strength of a corporate vision lies in its ability to provide clear direction, inspire action, and drive meaningful progress. By understanding the various forms of corporate visions and striving for the ideal, organizations can chart a course for success in today’s dynamic business environment.