Michael E. Porter

Now nearing its sixtieth printing in English and translated into nineteen languages, Michael E. Porter's Competitive Strategy has transformed the theory, practice, and teaching of business strategy throughout the world. Electrifying in its simplicity—like all great breakthroughs—Porter’s analysis of industries captures the complexity of industry competition in five underlying forces. Porter introduces one of the most powerful competitive tools yet developed: his three generic strategies—lowest cost, differentiation, and focus—which bring structure to the task of strategic positioning. He shows how competitive advantage can be defined in terms of relative cost and relative prices, thus linking it directly to profitability, and presents a whole new perspective on how profit is created and divided. In the almost two decades since publication, Porter's framework for predicting competitor behavior has transformed the way in which companies look at their rivals and has given rise to the new discipline of competitor assessment. More than a million managers in both large and small companies, investment analysts, consultants, students, and scholars throughout the world have internalized Porter's ideas and applied them to assess industries, understand competitors, and choose competitive positions. The ideas in the book address the underlying fundamentals of competition in a way that is independent of the specifics of the ways companies go about competing. Competitive Strategy has filled a void in management thinking. It provides an enduring foundation and grounding point on which all subsequent work can be built. By bringing a disciplined structure to the question of how firms achieve superior profitability, Porter’s rich frameworks and deep insights comprise a sophisticated view of competition unsurpassed in the last quarter-century.

Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors

Competitive Strategy

The essential complement to the pathbreaking book Competitive Strategy, Michael E. Porter's Competitive Advantage explores the underpinnings of competitive advantage in the individual firm. Competitive Advantage introduces a whole new way of understanding what a firm does. Porter's groundbreaking concept of the value chain disaggregates a company into "activities," or the discrete functions or processes that represent the elemental building blocks of competitive advantage. Now an essential part of international business thinking, Competitive Advantage takes strategy from broad vision to an internally consistent configuration of activities. Its powerful framework provides the tools to understand the drivers of cost and a company's relative cost position. Porter's value chain enables managers to isolate the underlying sources of buyer value that will command a premium price, and the reasons why one product or service substitutes for another. He shows how competitive advantage lies not only in activities themselves but in the way activities relate to each other, to supplier activities, and to customer activities. Competitive Advantage also provides for the first time the tools to strategically segment an industry and rigorously assess the competitive logic of diversification. That the phrases "competitive advantage" and "sustainable competitive advantage" have become commonplace is testimony to the power of Porter's ideas. Competitive Advantage has guided countless companies, business school students, and scholars in understanding the roots of competition. Porter's work captures the extraordinary complexity of competition in a way that makes strategy both concrete and actionable.

Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance

Competitive Advantage

Katherine M. Gehl

Our political system has become big business--and business is booming--yet solutions to big problems seem impossible. Behold, the political-industrial complex. Rampant lobbying and gerrymandering. Election spending rising exponentially with each cycle. The Democratic and Republican parties competing furiously against each other for advantage, while together--as a duopoly--having a lock on the entire industry. And yet, who is this system for? Citizens, of course. Tragically, as the political system has transformed into an industry, it has also become totally dysfunctional, incapable of delivering solutions to America's key economic and social challenges. Would-be reformers debate endlessly about various ways to "fix the system," such as term limits or revised campaign finance laws, but few of these have been seriously proposed, let alone implemented. In The Politics Industry, leading political innovation activist Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter take a radically different approach. They ingeniously apply the tools of business analysis--and Porter's distinctive Five Forces framework--to show how the political system functions just as every other competitive industry does. Even more importantly, they argue that the political system can be changed, just as industries can be changed, by adopting a new and different strategy, a clear set of choices of things to do--and not do--in four key areas: the election process, the legislative "machinery," the role of money, and the opening up of competition. The authors focus only on those solutions that are powerful and capable of having a significant impact, as well as achievable within a short period. The Politics Industry is an original and completely nonpartisan guide that will open any thinking citizen's eyes to the real dynamics and profound challenges of the American political system and provide powerful and practicable solutions for reshaping the system for the benefit of all.

How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy

The Politics Industry

For the past two decades, Michael Porter's work has towered over the field of competitive strategy. On Competition, Updated and Expanded Edition brings together more than a dozen of Porter's landmark articles from the Harvard Business Review. Five are new to this edition, including the 2008 update to his classic "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy," as well as new work on health care, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, and CEO leadership. This collection captures Porter's unique ability to bridge theory and practice. Each of the articles has not only shaped thinking, but also redefined the work of practitioners in its respective field. In an insightful new introduction, Porter relates each article to the whole of his thinking about competition and value creation, and traces how that thinking has deepened over time. This collection is organized by topic, allowing the reader easy access to the wide range of Porter's work. Parts I and II present the frameworks for which Porter is best known--frameworks that address how companies, as well as nations and regions, gain and sustain competitive advantage. Part III shows how strategic thinking can address society's most pressing challenges, from environmental sustainability to improving health-care delivery. Part IV explores how both nonprofits and corporations can create value for society more effectively by applying strategy principles to philanthropy. Part V explores the link between strategy and leadership.

On Competition

Harvard Business Review

Articles previously published in Harvard Busines Review.

HBR's 10 Must Reads on AI, Analytics, and the New Machine Age

Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg

The U.S. health care system is in crisis. At stake are the quality of care for millions of Americans and the financial well-being of individuals and employers squeezed by skyrocketing premiums-not to mention the stability of state and federal government budgets. In Redefining Health Care, internationally renowned strategy expert Michael Porter and innovation expert Elizabeth Teisberg reveal the underlying-and largely overlooked-causes of the problem, and provide a powerful prescription for change. The authors argue that participants in the health care system have competed to shift costs, accumulate bargaining power, and restrict services, rather than create value for patients. This zero-sum competition takes place at the wrong level-among health plans, networks, and hospitals-rather than where it matters most, in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of specific health conditions. Redefining Health Care lays out a breakthrough framework for redefining health care competition based on patient value. With specific recommendations for hospitals, doctors, health plans, employers, and policy makers, this book shows how to move to a positive-sum competition that will unleash stunning improvements in quality and efficiency.

Creating Value-based Competition on Results

Redefining Health Care

Now beyond its eleventh printing and translated into twelve languages, Michael Porter’s The Competitive Advantage of Nations has changed completely our conception of how prosperity is created and sustained in the modern global economy. Porter’s groundbreaking study of international competitiveness has shaped national policy in countries around the world. It has also transformed thinking and action in states, cities, companies, and even entire regions such as Central America. Based on research in ten leading trading nations, The Competitive Advantage of Nations offers the first theory of competitiveness based on the causes of the productivity with which companies compete. Porter shows how traditional comparative advantages such as natural resources and pools of labor have been superseded as sources of prosperity, and how broad macroeconomic accounts of competitiveness are insufficient. The book introduces Porter’s “diamond,” a whole new way to understand the competitive position of a nation (or other locations) in global competition that is now an integral part of international business thinking. Porter's concept of “clusters,” or groups of interconnected firms, suppliers, related industries, and institutions that arise in particular locations, has become a new way for companies and governments to think about economies, assess the competitive advantage of locations, and set public policy. Even before publication of the book, Porter’s theory had guided national reassessments in New Zealand and elsewhere. His ideas and personal involvement have shaped strategy in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Portugal, Taiwan, Costa Rica, and India, and regions such as Massachusetts, California, and the Basque country. Hundreds of cluster initiatives have flourished throughout the world. In an era of intensifying global competition, this pathbreaking book on the new wealth of nations has become the standard by which all future work must be measured.

Competitive Advantage of Nations

H. James Wilson

Thomas H. Davenport

Paul Daugherty

Intelligent machines are revolutionizing business. Machine learning and data analytics are powering a wave of groundbreaking technologies. Is your company ready? If you read nothing else on how intelligent machines are revolutionizing business, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you understand how these technologies work together, how to adopt them, and why your strategy can't ignore them. In this book you'll learn how: Data science, driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning, is yielding unprecedented business insights Blockchain has the potential to restructure the economy Drones and driverless vehicles are becoming essential tools 3-D printing is making new business models possible Augmented reality is transforming retail and manufacturing Smart speakers are redefining the rules of marketing Humans and machines are working together to reach new levels of productivity This collection of articles includes "Artificial Intelligence for the Real World," by Thomas H. Davenport and Rajeev Ronanki; "Stitch Fix's CEO on Selling Personal Style to the Mass Market," by Katrina Lake; "Algorithms Need Managers, Too," by Michael Luca, Jon Kleinberg, and Sendhil Mullainathan; "Marketing in the Age of Alexa," by Niraj Dawar; "Why Every Organization Needs an Augmented Reality Strategy," by Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann; "Drones Go to Work," by Chris Anderson; "The Truth About Blockchain," by Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani; "The 3-D Printing Playbook," by Richard A. D’Aveni; "Collaborative Intelligence: Humans and AI Are Joining Forces," by H. James Wilson and Paul R. Daugherty; "When Your Boss Wears Metal Pants," by Walter Frick; and "Managing Our Hub Economy," by Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani.

HBR's 10 Must Reads on AI, Analytics, and the New Machine Age (with bonus article "Why Every Company Needs an Augmented Reality Strategy" by Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann)

What Is Strategy?

Daniel Goleman

Michael D. Watkins

Herminia Ibarra

Stay on top of your leadership game. Leadership isn't something you're born with or gifted as a reward for an abundance of charisma; true leadership stems from core skills that can be learned. Get more of the leadership ideas you want, from the authors you trust, with HBR's 10 Must Reads on Leadership (Vol. 2). We’ve combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you maximize your own and your organization's performance. With insights from leading experts including Michael D. Watkins, Herminia Ibarra, and Michael E. Porter, this book will inspire you to: Identify areas for personal growth Build trust with and among your employees Develop a more dynamic and sophisticated communication style Try out different leadership styles and behaviors to find the right approach for you--and your organization Transform yourself from a problem solver to an agenda setter Harness the power of connections Become an adaptive and strategic leader This collection of articles includes "Leadership Is a Conversation," by Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind; "How Managers Become Leaders: The Seven Seismic Shifts of Perspective and Responsibility," by Michael D. Watkins; "Strategic Leadership: The Essential Skills," by Paul J.H. Schoemaker, Steve Krupp, and Samantha Howland; "The Authenticity Paradox," by Herminia Ibarra; "'Both/And' Leadership," by Wendy K. Smith, Marianne W. Lewis, and Michael L. Tushman; "Are You a Collaborative Leader?" by Herminia Ibarra and Morten T. Hansen; "Cross-Silo Leadership," by Tiziana Casciaro, Amy C. Edmondson, and Sujin Jang; "How CEOs Manage Time," by Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria; "The Best Leaders Are Great Teachers," by Sydney Finkelstein; "Nimble Leadership," by Deborah Ancona, Elaine Backman, and Kate Isaacs; and "The Focused Leader," by Daniel Goleman.

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Leadership, Vol. 2 (with bonus article "The Focused Leader" By Daniel Goleman)

C. K. Prahalad

Harvard Business School Press

Harvard Business Review on Corporate Responsibility (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series)

Marcus Buckingham

Joan C. Williams

Frances X. Frei

Five years' worth of management wisdom, all in one place. Get the latest, most significant thinking from the pages of Harvard Business Review in 5 Years of Must Reads from HBR: 2022 Edition. Every year, HBR editors examine the ideas, insights, and best practices from the past twelve months to select the definitive articles that have provoked the most conversation and inspired the most change. From building trust as a leader, to creating a workplace where equity can thrive, to exploring how the work-from-anywhere future is now our present, the articles in this five-book collection will help you manage your daily challenges and meet the changing competitive landscape head-on. Books in HBR's 10 Must Reads series offer essential reading selected from the pages of Harvard Business Review on topics critical to the success of every manager. Each book is packed with advice and inspiration from leading experts such as Michael Porter, Frances X. Frei, Marcus Buckingham, Joan C. Williams, Roger Martin, Robert Livingston, and Katrina Lake. Company examples range from P&G, UPS, and Deloitte to Alibaba, Apple, and Stitch Fix. 5 Years of Must Reads from HBR: 2022 Edition brings the most current and important business conversations to your fingertips. HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever‐changing business environment.

5 Years of Must Reads from HBR: 2022 Edition (5 Books)

James C. Collins

W. Chan Kim

Renée Mauborgne

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy for Healthcare

Created Shared Value

Конкурентная стратегия

Though the cases in Cases in Competitive Strategy may be informative when studied on their own, they are designed to be read and analyzed in combination with the companion volume, Competitive Strategy. The conceptual materials and the cases are designed to reinforce each other, showing the connection between the theory and the practice of competitive strategy formulation.

Cases in Competitive Strategy

Clayton M. Christensen

Peter F. Drucker

You want the most important ideas on management all in one place. Now you can have them—in a set of HBR’s 10 Must Reads, available as a 7-volume paperback boxed set or as an ebook set. We’ve combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles on change, leadership, strategy, managing people, and managing yourself and selected the most important ones to help you maximize your own and your organization's performance. The HBR’s 10 Must Reads Boxed Set includes seven bestselling collections: HBR's 10 Must Reads on Leadership (ways you can transform yourself from a good manager into an extraordinary leader); HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself (the path to your own professional success starts with a critical look in the mirror and what you see there—your greatest strengths and deepest values—are the foundations you must build on); HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy (will help galvanize your organization's strategy development and execution); HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change (70% of all change initiatives fail, but the odds turn in your company's favor once you understand that change is a multi-stage process—not an event—and that persuasion is key to establishing a sense of urgency, winning support, and silencing naysayers); HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing People (will help you determine what really motivates people, how to deal with problem employees, and how to build an effective team); HBR's 10 Must Reads: The Essentials (which brings together the best thinking from management’s most influential experts); and HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Emotional Intelligence (the trait that is twice as important as other competencies in determining outstanding leadership). HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set with Bonus Emotional Intelligence also makes a smart gift for your team, colleagues, or clients. The ebook set is available in PDF, ePub and mobi formats.

HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set with Bonus Emotional Intelligence (7 Books) (HBR's 10 Must Reads)

Our political system in America is broken, right? Wrong. The truth is, the American political system is working exactly how it is designed to work, and it isn't designed or optimized today to work for us—for ordinary citizens. Most people believe that our political system is a public institution with high-minded principles and impartial rules derived from the Constitution. In reality, it has become a private industry dominated by a textbook duopoly—the Democrats and the Republicans—and plagued and perverted by unhealthy competition between the players. Tragically, it has therefore become incapable of delivering solutions to America's key economic and social challenges. In fact, there's virtually no connection between our political leaders solving problems and getting reelected. In The Politics Industry, business leader and path-breaking political innovator Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter take a radical new approach. They ingeniously apply the tools of business analysis—and Porter's distinctive Five Forces framework—to show how the political system functions just as every other competitive industry does, and how the duopoly has led to the devastating outcomes we see today. Using this competition lens, Gehl and Porter identify the most powerful lever for change—a strategy comprised of a clear set of choices in two key areas: how our elections work and how we make our laws. Their bracing assessment and practical recommendations cut through the endless debate about various proposed fixes, such as term limits and campaign finance reform. The result: true political innovation. The Politics Industry is an original and completely nonpartisan guide that will open your eyes to the true dynamics and profound challenges of the American political system and provide real solutions for reshaping the system for the benefit of all. THE INSTITUTE FOR POLITICAL INNOVATION The authors will donate all royalties from the sale of this book to the Institute for Political Innovation.

Competitive Advantage introduces a tool that may be used to diagnose and enhance competitive advantage: the value chain. Value-chain analysis allows the manager to separate the underlying activities a firm performs in designing, producing, marketing, and distributing its product or service. It is these activities from which competitive advantage ultimately stems. By showing how all the firm's activities can be examined in this integrated way, Porter provides a practical perspective on competitive strategy.

Jeffrey Sachs

Klaus Schwab

World Economic Forum

This year's Global Competitiveness Report appears at a time of exceptional uncertainty. Global economic activity has slowed substantially, stock markets have shown considerable volatility, and the world's major currencies have experienced significant fluctuations. In Europe, where the final steps toward monetary are being taken, output has declined considerably below the region's production potential. In Japan, there are serious concerns about a prolonged recession, and in several countries throughout the rest of Asia, industrial production has shrunk markedly. Other emerging market economies have been subject to financial turmoil that reminds us of the severe crises of 1997 and 1998. The greatest uncertainty, however, concerns the United States, whose economy had essentially come to a standstill in the second quarter of 2001. Coping with the enormous challenges currently facing the global economy requires pursuing a prudent and proactive macroeconomic policy stance. More importantly, it requires strengthening the cross-border networks that promote private investment, entrepreneurship, and social progress around the world. In this endeavor, The Global Competitiveness Report remains an invaluable tool by identifying existing impediments to economic growth and thus helping in the design of policy measures to remove such obstacles as a precondition for advancing human well-being across the globe. This year's Report appears in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States. The unprecedented tragedy that occurred - and the events these attacks have triggered - have profoundly affected the global economic outlook. In response to this extraordinary economic shock, the 2001-2002 Report includes a separate, shorter-term analysis of the world economy in the new Introduction. Based on responses from 90 senior executives whose companies are part of the World Economic Forum, this "flash survey" assesses the magnitude of the effects of September 11 over the coming months. In addition, no fewer than 17 countries have been added to the country profile analysis, reflecting the rising integration of developing countries into the global economy. It also ensures that The Global Competitiveness Report remains the most authoritative source for policymakers, the business community, and other key stakeholders. Data CD-ROM: For the first time ever, results from the World Economic Forum/Harvard University Executive Opinion Survey are available to researchers and policymakers on CD-ROM. This includes many of the same results used in the construction of the Growth Competitiveness Index and the Current Competitiveness Index.

Michael E. Porter

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