The case describes how the Danish company Zirq Solutions, a subsidiary of Norwegian NG Group, brought circular economy thinking to the pharmaceutical industry. Under CEO Thomas Morch and the inventive CTO Jesper Vinther Dueholm, Zirq Solutions established the only industrial process in the world capable of recovering materials from used medical pens (to inject insulin or for fertility treatment) - and recycled them to make new products. Encountering multiple roadblocks on the journey towards establishing the new circular business model, they found that the best way to overcome them was partnerships.

Over her career as a business executive, Norwegian Anita Krohn Traaseth became a seasoned mentor for emerging professionals, guiding them through the complexities of navigating promotions, salary negotiations, and leadership development. Recognizing the demand for accessible and practical advice, she leveraged her expertise into various channels, including podcasts, books, and eventually clothing - encapsulating her wisdom in the form of discreet t-shirt messages worn under professional attire. As her innovative approach gained traction, Traaseth expanded her vision, designing a signature red suit intended to inspire confidence and self-assurance in the wearer. The KROHN ""slow fashion"" house was born. This engaging case study examines the foundations of KROHN's success through the lens of Blue Ocean Strategy. Professors seeking to enrich their classrooms with a captivating, real-world example of entrepreneurial innovation and strategic execution will find it to be a valuable resource for discussions on personal branding, unconventional marketing strategies, and the art of creating differentiation at low cost.

How to implement blue ocean strategy? What are the organizational and management risks and how can a leader attenuate those risks to build execution into strategy successfully? The case "Blue Ocean Strategy Implementation: Real-life Learning and an Interactive Game" brings the implementation principles of blue ocean leadership to students, entrepreneurs, and executives alike in a comprehensive and effective way. First, it introduces two different real-life examples of successful and failed blue ocean strategy implementation. It sets the ground for learning key frameworks of blue ocean leadership for strategy execution: tipping point leadership and fair process. Aided by the accompanying lecture slides, the foundations of strategy implementation are taught in depth by addressing four types of organizational hurdles in strategy execution - cognitive, resource, motivational, and political - and how tipping point leadership allows organizations to overcome them fast and at low cost, while fair process builds trust, commitment, and voluntary cooperation deep in an organization. Finally, principles and concepts of tipping point leadership and fair process are applied through an interactive game, creating an engaging and lively classroom experience with deep learning. The interactive game is online, with professors receiving free access to it.

From nearly bankrupt to a franchised chain of 150+ clinics and growing, PetWellClinic: Shifting from a Red to a Blue Ocean shows the use of blue ocean strategy to redraw industry boundaries and create a remarkably successful business. Dr. Sam Meisler, DVM, MBA, found himself struggling in a red ocean of the veterinary care industry. Stressed out and nearly bankrupt, Dr. Meisler applied blue ocean strategy concepts and tools to create a new market space in veterinary care. This is an ex-ante case where blue ocean strategy was used from the beginning to build a large new blue ocean business while transitioning away from his struggling traditional clinics. The first PetWellClinic was launched in 2010 and there are now over 150 franchises sold. Embedded in the case are seven short videos featuring key people which may be used in the classroom. This case enables a rich discussion related to entrepreneurism, blue ocean strategy, leadership, behavioral economics, turnarounds, and professional practices.

In October 2021, Facebook changed the parent corporation name to Meta and announced plans to build a metaverse, a 3D virtual world for work and fun. This case explores whether Meta's metaverse is likely to be a blue ocean utopia for people and society at large or some form of dystopia. It is designed to create a lively classroom discussion and dives into issues ranging from the difference between value innovation and technology innovation to the potential danger of Meta, already one of the most powerful companies in the world, expanding its unfettered influence and control even further across its already three billion users. The case challenges students to explore the social, economic, and environmental implications of Meta's proposed metaverse along with potential business models. The theory and tools of Blue Ocean Strategy are used in the analysis.

The case helps participants explore and understand the difference between value innovation, the creation of a leap in value, and technology innovation, the creation of breakthrough technology. It teaches students to identify value innovation offerings, how value innovation differs from technology innovation and their commercial consequences. The case also explores if and how patterns in value innovation remain constant across industries and throughout time. The case is designed to foster a lively classroom discussion driven by mini cases and exercises.

The notion that innovation is tied to creative destruction is embedded in the psyche of innovators and entrepreneurs, which is why individuals and companies instinctively focus on disruption in pursuit of innovation and growth. But is disruption the only way to innovate and create new markets? And is it the best way? This case explores the other side of market-creating innovation, what Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne call "nondisruptive creation". It happens when you innovate and create new markets where there once wasn't anything, so there's no displacement. Emerging from online gaming, esports is a new sporting experience where spectators watch professional athletes compete playing video games. Since esports is an entirely new industry, it does not disrupt an existing market. The case illustrates the evolution of esports from a game for individual players to a spectator sport, creating an entirely new market space where both incumbents and new entrants find new business opportunities, as well as the social and economic impact of nondisruptive creation by examining the externalities of esports on various industries and communities.

In the year 2000, only 2% of women in India used menstrual hygiene products. Almost a quarter-billion relied on cloth rags and many rural women were banished to a hut during their monthly cycle. In these unsanitary conditions, 62.4% had experienced at least one reproductive tract infection, with the result that teenage hysterectomies were not uncommon. The lack of menstrual products was linked to a high drop-out rate from school, forced teenage marriage, teenage pregnancy, illiteracy and often a lifetime of subservience. Yet despite the severity of the problem, taboo kept it largely hidden. Indians did not discuss menstruation. Arunachalam "Arun" Muruganantham changed this by innovating a new business method: micro-factories where women produced and sold sanitary napkins directly to other women. The case discusses how he solved a previously unaddressed problem in a way that created a new market, overcame deep social taboos, challenged centuries-old traditions and bettered women's lives, resulting in the creation of over 3,500 small businesses. It highlights how enterprises can be economically profitable and a force for good. And why, contrary to conventional thinking, innovation does not need to be disruptive but can be based on nondisruptive market creation.

Nintendo languished in last place during the console wars of the early 2000s, with game industry analysts suggesting that the Kyoto-based firm exit the gaming console market altogether. Instead, Nintendo used Blue Ocean Strategy to redefine market boundaries, creating the best-selling video-game console ever, the Nintendo Wii. Targeting noncustomers, the Wii outsold Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox combined, until the market was disrupted by smartphones and tablets. Mobile technology targeted the same noncustomers, offering easy-to-understand games and controls, and Wii sales suffered. Nintendo initially responded by introducing a tablet-like console, the Wii U, a poor copy of the tablet experience that was a dismal failure. Stepping back, Nintendo again used Blue Ocean Strategy to "value innovate" with the Nintendo Switch, the only console to outpace the Wii in sales, and by moving into adjacent markets, working with businesses in which it held a minority stake to release the wildly popular Pokémon Go and other mobile games.

The Universidad Privada Boliviana (UPB), the Private University of Bolivia, was founded in 1993. Not long after, in the late 1990s, civil unrest erupted with coca growers battling police in the streets outside the campus. Students and faculty fled, the prior President retired, and the University was functionally insolvent. Manuel Olave was hired as Rector (President) in 1999 to salvage the struggling school. Charged with turning around the struggling university, Olave realized that head-on competition would not help UPB thrive. Instead of benchmarking against leading universities, Olave formed a team to explore growth opportunities, using blue ocean methodologies like the Buyer Utility Map, Strategy Canvas, and Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create (ERRC) Grid. Based on insights from the blue ocean shift process, UPB made a series of strategic moves to capture untapped demand for higher education that was more affordable and of higher value for students. Two decades later, UPB is ranked the best private university in Bolivia, enrollment is at capacity, and the school is planning a third campus. The case comes with a first-hand video interview with Manuel Olave describing his blue ocean shift. The video can be downloaded for teaching purposes from https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/upb/ Also available in Spanish and Portuguese.

Self-driving cars are moving from science fiction to showroom fact, or at least to a car summoning platform. Waymo, the self-driving car division of Google, has ordered 82,000 self-driving cars for delivery through 2020. Cruise Automation, from General Motors, is perfecting their own fleet. Countless companies are driving full-throttle into the future. This case explores whether self-driving cars (autonomous vehicles or AVs) are a red ocean or blue ocean opportunity, and explains the difference between technological innovation and value innovation. It will prompt students to think about disruptive innovation and nondisruptive market creation, and why inventors of major technological innovations throughout history have often failed to meaningfully monetize their inventions.

Customers are gaga for Wawa, the restaurant / convenience store / gas station that inspires people to tattoo the firm's logo. Founded in 1803, Wawa morphed over time from an iron foundry to a textile mill, to a dairy farm, dairy delivery business, grocery store, then convenience store. Dark clouds descended with the 2008 financial crisis. As competitors converged on Wawa, management recognized the need for a new direction. After the CEO asked his executives to review a selection of business books, they chose Blue Ocean Strategy to redefine industry boundaries, shifting away from the red ocean of competition to a blue ocean of differentiation and low cost. By 2017 Wawa was the 34th largest private company in the US, with 625 million customers and sales of $10.5 billion. Wawa serves 222 million cups of coffee a year and 105 million hoagie sandwiches. Where the average 7-Eleven convenience store grosses $30,000-$35,000 per week, Wawa averages $116,000. It used Blue Ocean Shift to achieve breakout success and thrive for a decade after its strategic pivot. The case comes with a teaching note and firsthand video interview of Howard Stoeckel, Vice Chairman and former CEO of Wawa. The video can be downloaded from <a href=""https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/wawa/""target='_new'> https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/wawa/</a><br> It is also available in Chinese.

The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean explains one of the greatest turnarounds in modern business history. This case comes with a two-part video interview with then Marvel CEO Peter Cuneo who turned around the business and launched a blue ocean. Founded in 1939, Marvel Comics initially struggled in a red ocean producing primarily me-to knock-off comic books. In the early 1960's Marvel took a blue ocean turn by focusing on noncustomer college students. Marvel invented characters that were people first and superheroes second: Spider-Man, The Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men. The business thrived. By the 1980's value extractors took over Marvel, badly misaligning value, profit, and people. In late 1996 Marvel filed for bankruptcy, a victim of red ocean management practices. New management purchased the business out of bankruptcy in 1998 but faced a daunting task: Marvel owed $30 million in annual interest payments on a $250 million loan, cash was so tight that they almost missed payroll, and movie rights for many of their best characters were licensed to others. First managers stabilized the business then Marvel created a new type of blue ocean that went on to produce the most profitable movie franchise in history. Just over a decade after exiting bankruptcy a debt-free Marvel sold itself to Disney for $4.2 billion. Exclusive two-part video interview with CEO Peter Cuneo and Lecture Slides can be obtained from https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/marvel/ Available in English, Chinese, Spanish and Korean.