Black Ocean Strategy - A Probe Into A New Type Of Strategy Used For Organizational Success

Strategic planning and decision making have an important role in organizational development and sustainability. Various types of strategies are used in strategic management such as Red ocean strategy, Blue ocean strategy, Green ocean strategy and Purple ocean strategy. These strategies are used in organizations by top level executive managers for long-term organizational sustainability and to face or deviate from the competition. Based on organizational analysis, it is observed that some of the organizations especially in developing countries use a new type of strategy for sustainability at least for short term to overcome their high intensity problems and to get quick relief from the problems. In this paper, we have generalized such a strategy and named it as "Black Ocean Strategy". Based on observation and focus group study we developed this concept and studied the conditions, characteristics and procedure of this model of decision making. We have studied the reasons why certain firms opt for Black ocean strategy while making decisions for sustainability and consequences of such strategic decisions through investment/perceived Risk Matrix. We have also compared the different strategic choices with that of Black ocean strategy. The details and consequences of such strategy followed in some organizations are also discussed.