The document discusses how the hotel industry can employ a Blue Ocean strategy to carve out uncontested markets with no competition. It explains that the Blue Ocean strategy involves using tools like the ERRC Grid and Strategy Canvas to eliminate, reduce, raise or create new offerings that competitors are not providing. Specifically, the ERRC Grid is used to determine what to eliminate, reduce, raise or create in a hotel's offerings, while the Strategy Canvas tracks the progress of those changes over time to create a blue ocean of no competition. An example hotel chain, CitizenM, is provided that successfully used these Blue Ocean strategy tools to differentiate itself.

1. Blue ocean strategy for the
hotel industry: a way to carve
out new market

2. TheideaoftheBlueOceanstrategycomesfromHarvard
press’ bestseller book, Blue Ocean Strategy - How to
create uncontested markets and make the compe��on
irrelevant,wri�enbyKimandReneeMauborgne.
The authors believe with BOS, you can “Discover a new
way of thinking that allows you to break away from the
pack while simultaneously reducing your costs, se�ng
youonthepathtoprofitablegrowth."
Blue ocean strategy
for the hotel
industry: a way to
carve out new
market

3. What is an uncontested market?
The Blue ocean's strategy is all about crea�ng an uncontested market. What defines an uncontested
market,then?It'sbasicallycrea�ngamarketbycapturingdemandforthethingsthatalreadyexist,butno
one in your compe��on is offering products or services to leverage that demand. Once you do, you have
almostamonopolyonthatdomain.Evenifsomeonetriestoimitateyou,youwillbesofaraheadinsolving
thatproblemthattherewillbeanegligiblecontestbetweenyouandyourcompe��on.
However, the ques�on erupts here - Can you create uncontested markets in the hotel industry? Where
therearealreadytoomanyplayerscompe�nginthesamemarketspace.Theanswertoitisyes.Ci�zenM,
a hotel chain, used one of the tools (ERRC) of the strategy to carve out an uncontested market for
themselves.Asweadvanceinthisar�cle,wewilldiscussthetoolsandimplementa�onstrategy.Butbefore
that,let'sclearthebasicsfirstandunderstandthecoreprincipleofthestrategy.

4. How to employ the blue ocean strategy in the
hotel industry?
The creators of the blue ocean strategy, Kim and Mauborgne put together over 20 tools to employ the blue
ocean strategy in businesses and leadership; you don't need all those tools to create a blue ocean in the hotel
industry.Youneedonlytwo-theERRCGridandStrategyCanvas.Let’sfirstunderstandthesetools,thenfurther
explorehowyoucanusethemtocreateablueocean–nocompe��onzoneinthehotelbusiness.
ERRC Grid Strategy Canvas

5. ERRC Grid
Eliminate what others are doing. Suppose everyone has bigger lobbies, full-service restaurants, and bars. You
eliminate that aspect from your business and -
Reduce focus on services that everyone else is offering. Now you -
Create what nobody else is crea�ng, like KIOSK for a 2-minute self-check-in, 24/7 pantry, and bar. Or whatever value
proposi�on you think your business has that no other en�ty in the hotel industry is leveraging it. That is where you
can create the final block of the Grid.
Raise the quality of services that everyone is not focusing on, like eleva�ng the sleeping environment for guests,
providing quick access to a high-speed internet connec�on, etc. And then, with the final block of the Grid you -
ERRC stands for eliminate – reduce - raise - create Grid. The principal thought behind ERRC Grid
is as simple as its expansion says. Let's put it into a broader perspec�ve concerning the hotel
industry.

6. Strategy Canvas
The strategy canvas is the extension of the ERRC tool. In the strategy
canvas, all those factors that you eliminated, reduced, raised, or
created through ERRC, you put them on the X-axis. In comparison,
you keep all the compe�ng elements on the Y-axis. And measure
your progress on each of those offerings. The strategy canvas allows
you to track the progress of the variables you decided to change in
the ERRC grid. Such as, the rate of services you chose to reduce
should gradually decrease. The quality of services that you decided
to raise should steadily go up. If that is happening, you are certainly
on the way to crea�ng your blue ocean strategy or the market where
there's no one contes�ng you.

7. Wrapping up!
Every business dream of crea�ng a monopoly in the market they
operate in. So, if you can carve out a market where there is no or
less compe��on, there's nothing be�er you can do for your
business. And the blue Ocean strategy leads you towards that. At
the start of this ar�cle, you may have thought there's no way you
could have an uncontested market in the hotel industry, but the
tools we described in the Blue Ocean strategy are definitely
employable. And as we men�oned, hotel chains like Ci�zenM have
successfully implemented it. So, why not you?
prashant@vervotech.com
PrashantChouhan
Publisher:
www.vervotech.com