Red

I am no expert in the theory of competition strategy. Nonetheless, maybe to your surprise, as an end user (yes, regrettably, we are all in one field of competition or another), I am in favour of the traditional Red Ocean strategy.

My argument is simple: There are easy-to-do and well defined steps as outlined by Michael Porter to excel in a conventional competition (either you achieve low cost or acquire a niche). Ordinary people, like me, could follow.

On the other hand, innovation is unreliable. As my friend VW pointed out some time ago, mutations are mostly detrimental, although the few successful ones would bear unbelievable fruit (see http://vwswong.blogspot.com/2009/02/mutation.html). No, we should not abandon innovation. But, neither should we rely our future entirely on generating freaky ideas with a shaky base - we test each of them after we are standing on a firm ground.

And, you know, that's another common psychological trap: For a particular task, which skill should we learn (and, from an administrator point of view, which skill should be publicly promoted) ? Is it a mediocre one that could be mastered by all and yield a reasonable result, or a difficult one that could only be handled by a few genius (or, even worse, a few with sheer luck) but the result is outstanding ?

It should always be the former.

Have you heard of the story Study the Walking of Handan (邯鄲學步) ?