Searching for a Blue Ocean of Innovation in a Red Sea of Stagnation: Can Unconventional Approaches Win for DE?

Traditional DE marketing assumes that the market, consisting mostly of backup and baseload applications, is limited in size and scope, and therefore players are forced into bloody fights with each other for a finite opportunity. The authors of a new book, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, refer to this competitive marketing approach as a "red ocean" strategy. They argue that what's needed are innovative, unconventional, "blue ocean" approaches that create demand and expand markets. Perhaps the DE industry can take advantage of new strategies to redefine its value as concern for near-term grid problems is growing, especially in light of the massive damage caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.