Most organizations compete head-to-head within a defined market sector. Attempting to outperform the competition is most often based on either improving existing products and/or developing new products. Based on their research over the last decade of companies that have created "fundamentally new and superior value", W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne* suggest an alternative strategy, one that focuses on "creating new market space". Thinking strategically, this alternative breaks out of accepted market boundaries.

The objective is to find unoccupied market space within which a real breakthrough in value can be achieved. Among others, Kim and Mauborgne use the examples of Home Depot and Intuit, both of which looked systematically across their "home" market sectors to create new market space, Home Depot by teaching do-it-yourselfers and Intuit by offering affordable speed and accuracy of computer based financial software to homes and small businesses.

Winslow has adapted the Kim-Mauborgne approach to help its clients think strategically across market segments and "substitute industries,"i.e., other industries that produce substitute products or services. Winslow uses this approach to help its customers think "out of the box" to create new market space and produce superior value.