"Blue Ocean Strategy" Selected as May eBook of the Month
Wall Street Journal Bestseller challenges everything you know about business

BOULDER, COLO.NetLibrary, in partnership with Harvard Business School Press, has selected Wall Street Journal bestseller "Blue Ocean Strategy" as the May eBook of the Month. Praised by business leaders worldwide, "Blue Ocean Strategy" argues that tomorrow's leading companies will succeed not by battling competitors, but by creating "blue oceans" of uncontested market space ripe for growth.

In a book that challenges everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success, Authors W. Chan Kim and Rene Mauborgne propose that the way to win is to stop competing. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than a hundred years and thirty industries, Kim and Mauborgne set out to find a systematic pattern for achieving high growth that any company could replicate.

From Ford's Model T to Apple's iPod, they identify 150 strategic moves that had one thing in common. All of them made the competition irrelevant and created an uncontested market space with the limitless potential of a blue ocean.

• Curves, the Texas-based women's fitness company, entered the oversaturated fitness market to acquire more than two million members in more than six thousand locations with total revenues exceeding the $1 billion mark.
• In less than twenty years, Cirque du Soleil grew to levels of revenue that took Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey over a hundred years to achieve.
• The [yellow tail] brand of Australian winery Casella Wines took only two years to skyrocket to #1 in the fiercely competitive U.S. market for imported wine.

While most companies make the mistake of battling for success in a bloody "red ocean" of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool, each of these companies created blue oceans that made the competition irrelevant. The strategies they used can be replicated in any industry and in every companystart-ups and established Fortune 100 companies alikewith the tools and principles presented in "Blue Ocean Strategy."

To help libraries promote May's eBook of the Month to their patrons, NetLibrary has developed a tool kit of free promotional materials that includes print-on-demand bookmarks, a sample press release, and electronic support materials. More information on May's eBook of the Month is available at:

http://library.netlibrary.com/eBookOfTheMonth.aspx

About the Authors

W. Chan Kim is the Boston Consulting Group Bruce D. Henderson Chair Professor of Strategy and International Management at INSEAD. Renee Mauborgne is the INSEAD Distinguished Fellow and Professor of Strategy and Management.

About Harvard Business School Press

Harvard Business School Press publishes the best thinking in the areas of business strategy, general management, technology, leadership, human resources, and innovation. The Press has consistently been the source of breakthrough ideasfrom core competencies to disruptive technologies to emotionally intelligent leadershipthat have had significant impact on the business world over the last twenty years. Visit the Harvard Business School Publishing website at www.hbsp.harvard.edu.

About NetLibrary

Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, NetLibrary is a division of Online Computer Library Center, Inc., a worldwide library cooperative. NetLibrary provides content and technical delivery solutions to institutional libraries, corporations and government agencies that facilitate the purchase, management and distribution of research, reference, digital learning, and general interest content via Web-based technologies. NetLibrary's eContent solution is the most broadly adopted in the market, making the content of more than 400 publishers and eContent providers available through more than 12,000 libraries worldwide.