Blue Ocean Strategy Term - Pioneer-Migrator-Settler (PMS) Map

Pioneer-Migrator-Settler (PMS) Map - Blue Ocean Strategy Glossary

Pioneer-Migrator-Settler (PMS) Map is both a diagnostic and planning tool that helps managers assess and plan their future growth at the portfolio level. The PMS Map is a 3-by-2 matrix where each row represents a business category - pioneers, migrators and settlers. With respect to the two columns, the first represents the business situation today, while the second column represents the business situation in the future. Managers can use the PMS Map to plot either businesses in their portfolio, or the products/services they offer.

Pioneers are businesses or products/services that offer unprecedented value to buyers. Their value curve radically diverges from the competition, and they have a mass following of customers. These businesses are Blue Ocean Strategies; they are the most powerful sources of profitable growth.

Migrators are businesses or products/services that offer improved value over competition, but not innovative value: they give customers more for less, but do not radically change the key factors of competition of their industry.

Settlers are businesses or products/services that offer more or less the same value to buyers as the rest of the industry. These are me-too businesses. Although they are often today's cash cows, settlers will not generally contribute much to a company's future growth because they are stuck within the red ocean of competition.

To assess a company's profitable growth prospects, a company should plot each business or product/service as a circle on the map according to the criteria above.

The size of each dot should reflect the amount of revenue earned from each business or product/service. Hence a business with relatively large revenues would be plotted as a large circle on the map; a business with smaller relative revenues should be plotted as a small circle.

Source: Business Strategy Terms, Blue Ocean Strategy Glossary at Blueoceanstrategy.com