What is the Red Ocean Strategy?

Recomended Reading: The VISUAL MBA BY JASON BRRON

Who is the author?

Jason Barron, an MBA, is a creative leader in digital product strategy and user experience. He founded LowestMed, acquired by RetailMeNot in 2018, and works for a nonprofit organization. Barron has a unique ability to simplify complexity and infuse creativity in business strategy. His Kickstarter for the original rendition of this book raised over 1,000% of his goal in 28 days from over 30 countries around the world

Why did the author write this book?

This book is designed to help individuals understand and recall the most important ideas from studying for a Master's of Business Administration degree. The author, Jason Barron, is an MBA creative leader and founder of LowestMed, a startup acquired by RetailMeNot in 2018. He has a unique ability to simplify complexity and infuse creativity in business strategy. The book is based on traditional business school classes and is packed with concepts accompanied by a written narrative. The author encourages readers to have fun, be curious, and discover on their own, as the only rules are to have fun and enjoy the knowledge

The book aims to help people understand, absorb, and recall the most useful ideas from studying for a Master's of Business Administration degree. The book uses illustrations, or "sketchnotes," to create visual aids for later consumption. The author, who attended the BYU Marriott School of Business, created the book with the goal of creating visual notes throughout the entire MBA program. Each chapter is based on traditional business school classes and is packed with concepts accompanied by a written narrative. The book encourages readers to have fun, be curious, and discover on their own, as the only rules are to have fun and discover.

Section I: AI book’s summary with few human questions.

Why should you read the book?

The Visual MBA is a comprehensive guide to business and management, presented in a visually engaging and easy-to-understand format. The book covers a wide range of topics, from marketing and finance to strategy and leadership, using a combination of illustrations, diagrams, and concise text.

The Visual MBA provides a comprehensive and accessible guide to business and management, making it an invaluable resource for students, entrepreneurs, and professionals alike.

What are the key takeaways?

The following are the key takeaways from The Visual MBA:

Business Model Canvas: The book introduces the Business Model Canvas, a strategic management template that outlines key elements of a business, including customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structure.

Marketing Mix: The Visual MBA explains the 4 Ps of marketing – product, price, promotion, and place – and how they interact to create a successful marketing strategy.

Financial Analysis: The book covers financial analysis, including financial statements, ratio analysis, and cash flow management, providing a solid understanding of financial management.

Strategy and Competitive Advantage: The Visual MBA discusses Porter's Five Forces, which analyze the competitive landscape of an industry, and the importance of creating a sustainable competitive advantage.

Leadership and Management: The book explores leadership styles, decision-making, and organizational design, highlighting the importance of effective leadership and management in achieving business success.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: The Visual MBA covers the principles of innovation and entrepreneurship, including design thinking, lean startup methodology, and the importance of innovation in driving business growth.

Key Concepts and Tools

The Visual MBA introduces several key concepts and tools, including:

SWOT Analysis: A framework for identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Value Chain Analysis: A tool for analyzing the activities involved in creating value for customers.

Break-Even Analysis: A method for determining the point at which revenue equals total fixed and variable costs.

Customer Journey Mapping: A visual representation of the customer's experience across all touchpoints.

Practical Applications

The Visual MBA provides practical applications for the concepts and tools presented, including:

Developing a Business Plan: The book outlines the key elements of a business plan, including market analysis, competitive analysis, and financial projections.

Creating a Marketing Strategy: The Visual MBA provides guidance on developing a marketing strategy, including target market selection, positioning, and messaging.

Managing Finances: The book offers practical advice on financial management, including budgeting, forecasting, and cash flow management.

Section II: Human book’s summary

Let us answer some questions with answers provided in the book:

What is Leadership?

• Leadership is about change and inspiration
• Motivating, engaging, and communicating with employees.
• Talent development and people development
• Personal integrity, social and emotional intelligence.
• Making bold decisions and cultivating trust.
• Building a leadership brand that gets results.

What are the five steps to building your Brand?

Leadership Branding Strategy is as follows

• Identify desired results for the next 12 months, considering customer, investor, employee, and organizational interests.
• Define what you want to be known for, using six descriptors: Humbly, Optimistic, Dedicated, etc.
• Combine these descriptors into three two-word phrases.
• Create a leadership brand statement and test it to ensure it represents you, creates value for stakeholders, and addresses risks.
• Share your brand with others and adjust as needed. Remember, your brand is a promise, so make it real and deliver.

What is Corporate Financial Reporting?

Understanding Business Accounting and Financial Statements

Assets, Liabilities, and Equity
• Assets equal liabilities plus equity.
• The accounting equation is used to determine assets, liabilities, and equity.

• Discusses the concept of financial ratios, which help compare companies in similar industries.
• Discusses the importance of debt to equity financial leverage, shareholder equity, and return on equity.
• Discusses the concept of shared work, where each share of the company equals a share of the company.
• The balance sheet is a snapshot of a business's net worth.
• Financial ratios are used to compare company performance over time.
• Return on equity is the profit generated with money invested by shareholders.
• Margin efficiency at cost control is crucial in converting revenue into profit.

• Emphasizes the importance of maximizing revenue and reducing friction points for receiving new products.

• Debt to equity ratios: The ratio of debt to equity.
• Shareholder equity: The ability to pay back short-term obligations.
• Return on equity: Profit generated with money invested by shareholders.


Why should we care about Entrepreneurial Management and Innovation?

• Innovation is the key to solving unknown problems (Pain) with Unknown solutions (Innovation)

• Identifying pain and identifying the right solution is key to finding the right solution.
• The key to success is to find the underlying principle of the problem and come up with a beautiful elegant solution.

What is Revenue Mapping and Pricing?

• Maximizing revenue by mapping out activities and customers.
• Reducing friction points for receiving is crucial.
• Pricing should be right to avoid losing customers.

How do empathy and problem solving relate?
• Empathy is the first step to understanding customers and building products or experiences that meet their needs.
• Focusing on solving pain points and actionable solutions is the key.
• Focus on solving issues and actionable solutions based on customer needs.
• Build a prototype to validate and test ideas, focusing on what works, what doesn't, and what learns.

• Building a prototype is a quick way to validate new innovations.

What is managerial Accounting?

• Tracks fixed and variable costs separately to inform decisions.
• Analyzes operating and revenue costs, sales contribution margin, and margin.
• Uses a profit-based approach to understand overhead costs in business.

What is business finance?

• Deploys and distributes financial capital, feeds to sub-voltables, uses natural resources, labor, and innovation.
• Analyzes how efficiently the capital chain is managed.
• Factors in future cash flows and risks, such as discount rates.

Why is marketing crucial in business?

• Promotes products and services by segmenting the market, targeting a segment, and positioning the product.
• Focuses on the target market and the most valuable potential customers.
•laddering is a great way to map out the product and connect it with the target.

•Understanding Product and Personal Benefits in Marketing

• Positioning marketing materials through love group, size wild targeting, and swing group can gain new customers.
• A lighter hierarchical value map can be created to identify patterns of responses and focus on the personal relevance bridge.
• The brand is more than logos, graphics, or slogans; it's about the core value that drives customers.
• The decision to brand should align with the core value of the business.

What should we understand about operations management?

• Ops management involves designing, managing, and improving activities that create products and services.
• It involves analyzing the process, reducing the cycle time, and reducing the capacity of the business.
• Capacity utilization is a key factor in ensuring efficient operations.

What is Strategic Human Resource Management?

• Most business problems are symptoms of deeper human organization issues.
• People management can be systematized to remove variability and increase predictability.
• Bias-proof hiring methods can be used to motivate employees.

What is business Negotiation?

• The negotiation framework is simple yet powerful.
• parties with more alternatives and lower needs have the most power.
• Companies should understand the potential score of employees and adapt to situations where the other party has more power.

What is Strategy?

• Companies can determine long-term profitability by identifying the threat, the the profits, and the competitive advantage.
• Differentiation requires creativity and adaptability.
• Companies can create a strategic advantage by having various connected activities that support their core differentiating value.
• Companies should consider the impact of competitors on their sales price and profits.
• Two types of strategy regarding competition are red and blue.

•A red ocean is an existing market with many competitors, while a blue ocean is a market yet to be discovered with no competitors.
• Ford created an uncontested market space with a cheap alternative and added value to expand their business.

What are Change and Organizational Change?

• Change is emotional and requires ending the past and settling in the new beginning.
• The process should be patient and help people understand the purpose, picture plan, and their part.
• Change needs to be strategic, calculated, and precise.
• Communication strategy is crucial, and the right people strategy should be planned.

What are the five stages of fundraising for new ventures?

1-Development: Seed financing

2-Start-up: Start-up financing

3-Growth: First-Round

4-Expansion: Liquidity stage

5-Maturity: obtaining bank loans, issuing bonds, issuing stoc

• The process of fundraising starts with initial development and seeding, with a focus on early maturity.
• VCS requires a three x6x return and requires a written agreement.
• In private equity, reputation is key and promises must be delivered.

Why do different thinking methods matter?

The Role of Different Thinking Methods
• Drawing to different perspectives can expand ideas and pool them dramatically.
• Leveraging teams can be beneficial as they can provide a life-saving solution.
• Dive into the complexity when solving problems.

What is the job to be done?

The Role of Job to Be Done
• Harvard business professor Clay Christensen's theory of the job to be done can be applied to business innovation.
• The job to be done involves understanding why the customer wants something that occupys them while they commit to work and keeps them full until lunch.

What is the competitive angle?

The Competitive Angle and Profitability:

• The competitive angle has three parts: Helps someone get over a hurdle, Be his distinct, and See creates a positive personal connection.
• Once a good idea is found, it is time to sharpen the competitive angle to make it profitable.
• Companies should focus on selling the benefits ,short potential customers, the idea and appeal to the emotions, creating a positive personal connection durations for the product.

What is The Process of Identifying Uses?
• Focus groups can help flesh out how customers are using the product for different reasons.
• The product idea should be positioned on the left with at least 10 different uses situations along the top.
• The focus should be on finding the most profitable customer with the most power and focus.