Choosing ‘Blue Ocean’ Tech Partners for Ready Mixed Concrete

Artificial intelligence ushers dispatch products back into a market of exploration and innovation.

Before we get into concrete, let’s discuss shoes. A familiar example of a known market space, the shoe market has well-defined boundaries and competitive “rules” understood by all. Shoemakers compete in a zero-sum game—a market of fixed size where gaining share means taking it from others. This relentless head-to-head competition drives prices lower, squeezing profits. Business theorists W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne define such markets as “red oceans”: Overcrowded, shark-infested waters where aggressive competition turns the ocean bloody.

“Blue oceans,” on the other hand, represent untapped market spaces—technologies and opportunities not yet discovered. Demand is created rather than fought over, leaving ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. Companies operating in blue ocean markets make competition irrelevant by delivering a leap in value for themselves and their customers, sparking innovation and unlocking new opportunities.

Take Tesla as an example. While traditional automakers were entrenched in the red ocean of internal combustion vehicles and price-based competition, Tesla redefined the electric vehicle experience. The company created new value by combining high-performance engineering, sleek design, and cutting-edge technology, offering an entirely new customer experience. By doing so, Tesla didn’t just compete within the existing auto market; it expanded and reshaped it.

Sailing in open waters

The blue ocean strategy, championed by Kim and Mauborgne, shows how organizations can break free from the constraints of traditional competition and explore untapped markets. It’s about moving beyond overcrowded, zero-sum battles and setting sail in open, calm waters where potential thrives.

Consider the goals of your organization and how they relate to technology providers. If your goal is to compete head-to-head with the best price winning, you are perfectly aligned with red ocean providers. However, if you seek to break the cycle and offer new value to your customers, even with same core products, then it’s the blue ocean you are seeking.

Dispatch systems: from blue to red to blue again

As consolidation rapidly engulfed the United States ready mixed concrete market in the 1980s, growing enterprise producers needed a better way to manage logistics for a perishable and structural product. The need was unmet until a few innovators combined the financial and operational management worlds to provide a vertically focused enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which in our industry is called dispatch.

Initially, these dispatch products thrived in a blue ocean. The newly created market couldn’t keep up with demand, offering substantial margins and growth to new entrants. However, as competitors entered the space, the market quickly transitioned into a red ocean of price-based competition.

Enter Steve Jobs in 2008 with the iPhone. Built on the power of the “cloud” and technologies like software as a service (SaaS) and service-orientated architecture (SOA), the iPhone laid the groundwork for enterprise digitization in dispatch. A few inventive providers seized the opportunity to once again create blue ocean value for producers. But as before, the profitability and growth potential attracted competition, eventually steering the market back into red ocean territory.

Now the cycle is repeating with artificial intelligence (AI). A few enterprising entrepreneurs are integrating AI into dispatch and creating new, additional value for producers. Once again, we are in the blue ocean phase.

A cycle of innovation

If you think this seems repetitive, you are correct. Blue oceans are destined to become red as competition intensifies in maturing markets—until an additional technological shift ushers in the blue again. While it is true that red ocean products will have more “creature comfort” features, they can only optimize what already exists. They will never provide the boost needed to catapult your business over your competition to higher margins and growth.

Choosing the right tech partner

So how do you pick a blue ocean partner to get ahead and stay ahead? Look for restless, edgy technology partners that are focused on creating customer value as opposed to optimizing profit. Companies that traditionally grow by acquisition and subordination of existing technology are almost always red ocean strategists. Companies that grow by innovation are almost always blue ocean and forward-thinking.

Break free from those well-worn, inexpensive comfortable red shoes and choose a blue pair designed to win the race!

Published in Concrete Products.