This is the second of a two-case series. Cirque du Soleil very successfully entered a structurally unattractive circus industry. It was able to reinvent the industry and created a new market space by challenging the conventional assumptions about how to compete.

This case illustrates that if companies wish to tap into latent demand and create organic growth, they must learn from noncustomers. The case demonstrates that if Nintendo attempted to compete head-to-head against its Sony and Microsoft rivals they would be further marginalized in the game console industry.

This case focuses on Skype in the voice-over-IP (VoIP) industry. Its offering created such exceptional utility for users around the world that Skype has become a verb – to “skype” someone means to call someone using the Skype application. Yet despite explosive growth in demand, the company was not profitable in four out of the five years prior to its acquisition by Microsoft in 2011.

This is the first part of two-case series of Zappos's blue ocean strategic move as an innovative online shoe retailer. Part A focuses on how Zappos reconstructed the existing boundaries of the online footwear retail industry. It describes Zappos's distinctive value proposition that is neither an offline nor online shoe store in the conventional sense.

The second part of Zappos case focuses on Zappos's people proposition, which led to high performance and raised barriers to imitation. It demonstrates the importance of Fair Process that builds deep trust and commitment in the company, making it difficult for competitors to imitate Zappos.

The case describes a series of blue ocean strategic moves made by Salesforce.com in the CRM application market. In particular, the case addresses the concern of business executives over the applicability of blue ocean strategy in the B2B area. B2B managers often find that they are locked into providing products of certain types and specifications to their immediate customers.

This case introduces the application of blue ocean strategy in the context of managing a business portfolio at the corporate level. Apple created future profits and growth not by exploiting existing demand, but by reconstructing industry boundaries to create new market space and unlock latent demand.

This is the first of a two-case series. The first Case (A) discusses the evolution of the circus industry up until the emergence of Cirque du Soleil. This case provides a detailed discussion on the structure of the circus industry to make possible a rich analysis of how its industry attractiveness has changed over time and the challenges the industry now confronts.

This case is excellent for teaching both MBAs and executives how to create a blue ocean strategy that is hard to imitate and sustainable. It focuses on Wikipedia versus Britannica.com in the online encyclopedia industry.

One observes that despite the continued application of superior personal strategies and leadership throughout Napoleon's lifetime, success eluded him in the end. A pattern is observed of meteoritic rise in the early stages (victories in the battle of Lodi, Marengo, Austerlitz) and a downfall later (Russian invasion, Waterloo). What is behind this rise and fall?