Blue oceans, temporary monopolies, and lessons from practice

This report on the Fifth Annual Conference of the Association of Strategic Planning (ASP), “Strategy in action: lessons from practice,” was held in Long Beach, California. This report covers the two keynote speakers plus highlights from a selection of the presentations (for more information see the ASP website: www.strategyplus.org). Purpose – The article summarizes the highlights of the Association for Strategic Planning's 2006 Annual Conference held on February 28, 2006 in Long Beach, California, one of the premier strategic‐planning conferences in the US. Design/methodology/approach – This is reportage on the annual ASP conference. Findings – The remarks of the two keynote speakers are summarized: W. Chan Kim's on “blue ocean strategy” that makes the competition irrelevant, and Milind Lele's remarks on situational monopolies that also, for a time, gets rid of competition. Both authors' remarks were based on recently published best selling books. In addition, of 40 other presentations offered in concurrent sessions, the article highlights a select few, enough to give a flavor of the conference theme of “Strategy in action – lessons from practice”. Practical implications – The actual conference (and this report) was targeted both to practitioners and strategic consultants eager to learn about the latest methods and pitfalls in doing strategic planning. Originality/value – Both audiences will benefit from reading this article principally by learning about the experiences, experiments, and successes of other companies' and consultants' efforts in actually doing strategic planning.