What are the risks associated with implementing the Blue Ocean Strategy?

The Blue Ocean Strategy influences a company's strategic planning by encouraging them to shift from traditional competitive strategies to innovative ones. Instead of engaging in head-to-head competition for market share, companies are encouraged to create new, uncontested market spaces (blue oceans) through innovation. This approach allows companies to make competition irrelevant and create new demand, leading to potential high growth and profits.

The potential challenges in implementing the Blue Ocean Strategy in highly competitive industries include the difficulty in finding untapped markets, the risk of creating a market that may not be sustainable or profitable, the challenge of changing the mindset of the organization from competition to creation, and the possibility of facing resistance from stakeholders who are comfortable with the existing competitive strategies.

The Blue Ocean Strategy changes a company's relationship with its competitors by shifting the focus from competing in a saturated market to creating new, uncontested market spaces through innovation. This reduces direct competition and makes the competition irrelevant.