Customer Reviews

On Competition

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Michael E. Porter is a Harvard Business School professor and a leading authority on competition. This book consists of three parts - Competition and Strategy: Core Concepts, The Competitiveness of Locations, and Competitive Solutions to Societal Problems - and each of these parts consists of 4-to-5 Harvard Business Review articles which were published between 1979 and 1998. "The study of competition, in its full richness, has preoccupied me for two decades."

In Part I, the five HBR articles outline Porter's strategic concepts. "I have sought to capture the complexity of what actually happens in companies and industries in a way that both advances theory and brings theory to life for practitioners. My goal has been to develop both rigorous and useful frameworks for understanding competition that effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice." In the 1979-article 'How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy', Porter introduces the monumental five competitive forces (from existing competitors, new entrants, customers, suppliers, substitution). This article has had an extensive impact on the field of strategy and is still a starting point for strategic management at any MBA-course. 'What is Strategy?' was published in 1996 and is, in my opinion, a reply to all the critics of his frameworks and models. The 1985-article 'How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage', Porter and co-author Victor Millar write how information technology influences competition. The current impact of Internet and e-commerce provide excellent examples for this article. In the 1993-article 'End-Game Strategies for Declining Industries', Porter lines up with Kathryn Rudie Harrigan to discuss the last stage/final phase of a industry. This articles is largely based on Harrigan's 1980 book 'Strategies for Declining Businesses' and is a chapter in Porter's 1980-book 'Competitive Strategy'. Part I is finalised with the magnificent 'From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy'. This article is truly a classic and discusses the radical rethinking of corporate strategy. "Corporate strategy is what makes the corporate whole add up to more than the sum of its business parts." This article is the basis of his book 'Competitive Advantage'.

In Part II, Porter kicks off with 'The Competitive Advantage of Nartions', which is also one of the titles of his books. In this 1990-article Porter argues that in a world of increasingly global competition, nations have become more, not less, important. In 'Clusters and Competition' (1998), Porter expands on the theme and discusses the new economics of competition - clusters. "A Cluster is a geographically proximate group of interconnected companies and associated institutions in particular fields, linked by commonalities and complementarities." Examples are the Italian fashion industry, the California Wine cluster, Silicon Valley's venture capital industry, and Massachusetts IT industry. In the next article, 'How Global Companies Win Out' (1992), Porter, Thomas Hout and Eileen Rudden discuss what a global industry is and how global companies can win out. In the next article, 'Competing Across Locations' (1995), returns on this subject and provides additional insights on global strategy, including a general framework.

Part III includes the latest works of Porter. Porter discusses environmental regulation and competition ('Green and Competitive', 1995), with a great case study of the Dutch flower industry, and the impact of these regulations on competition and industries. In the next article ('The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City', 1995), Porter introduces the economic distress of America's inner cities, whereby "the real need - and the real opportunity - is to create wealth" . In the 1990s, Porter also turned more towards government institutions. He discusses the American health care ('Making Competition in Health Care Work', 1994) and, the according to Porter, America's failing capital investment system ('Capital Disadvantage', 1992).

The advantage of this book is that it provides the a quick insight into the ideas and essential points of Porter's books 'Competitive Strategy', 'Competitive Advantage', and 'Competitive Advantage of Nations'. Part I and Part II are now essentials in the field of strategy and competition with fantastic frameworks and models. Part III are Porter's latest articles and discuss the connection between social issues and competition. A great book that is good to read (simple US-English).

This book is a collection of essays and articles by Michael Porter alone or with others. Most of them are collected from his writings in the Harvard Business Review although two are new to this book. Think of this as a "Porter's Greatest Hits" kind of thing. That is a bit misleading because his HBR articles are not exactly the same thing as his Competitive Advantage books although the topics are definitely related.

The essays are grouped into three broad sections: 1) Competition and Strategy: Core Concepts, 2) The Competitiveness of Locations, and 3) Competitive Solutions to Societal Problems. Will you find each article of the same high quality? Probably not (again, like a greatest hits collection), but you will find them informative and thought provoking. It is impossible to study for an MBA nowadays without invoking "Porter's Five Forces" in your discussions of competitive and marketing strategy.

This book can help add to your thinking and understanding of how every aspect of our life is in some way part of a competitive context and the ways it improves our standard of living. It will also help you improve your thinking in how to best strategize for and participate in competitive situations.

It would be a mistake to think that Porter advocates for a Hobbesian nightmare of life being nasty, brutish and short. Rather, he is more or less helping us think through the nature of the way competition arises and how to best think about its sources and how to manage it and the traps to avoid.

While Porter's model is used by some as a hammer that sees everything as a nail, it really needn't be used that way and, in its proper context, is very helpful.

'Porter On Competition' is 'lighter' to read than his 'Trilogy', but it nicely consists the core ideas of his work & how it evolved during the past decades. It provides reader a nice overview about how competitive strategy & competitive advantage are applicable to a wide range of areas: from corporation, industry & nation, to social issues such as health care & environment.

I read this book when it was first published (in 1979) and recently re-read it prior to reading his most recent work, Redefining Health Care which I will also review in the near future. In the Introduction (which then became the first chapter of Competitive Strategy, published in 1980), Porter observes that competition "has intensified over the last decades, in virtually all parts of the world." That is even more true of competition - especially global competition -- during the 27 years since Porter shared that observation. Nonetheless, the core concepts which he and his collaborators rigorously examine remain relevant...indeed, in my opinion, have become even more relevant. Consider these assertions:

1. Competition shapes strategy

2. Successful strategy creates a "fit" among all organizational activities

3. Information can provide a decisive competitive advantage

4. Declining industries require an "end-game" strategy

5. Successful corporate strategy "builds" on three premises: Competition occurs at the business unit level, diversification inevitably adds costs and constraints to business units, and, shareholders can readily diversify themselves.

6. "Moving from competitive strategy to corporate strategy is the business equivalent of passing through the Bermuda Triangle."

Porter carefully organizes the material within three Parts: First, he focuses on competition and strategy for companies at both the level of a single industry and then for multinational or diversified companies; next, he addresses the role of location in competition; and then he Part III, he addresses some important societal issues (e.g. environment, urban poverty, health care, and income inequality), each of which he asserts - and I wholly agree - is "inextricably bound up with economics and, more specifically, with competition."

All but two of the articles originally appeared in Harvard Business Review, the exceptions being "Clusters and Competition: New Agendas for Companies, Governments, and Institutions" and "Competing Across Locations: Enhancing Competitive Advantage through a Global Strategy." In the former, Porter explains his concept of clusters, clusters which are geographic concentrations of firms, suppliers, related industries, and specialized institutions that occur in a particular field in a nation, state, or city. In the latter, Porter brings together the two dimensions of international strategy - location and global networks. As he observes, "The concept of activities, so important to understanding competitive advantage in general terms, provides the basic framework for international strategy as well."

This is by no means an "easy read" but it will generously reward those who read it with appropriate care. By all accounts, Michael Porter is among the most influential and productive knowledge leaders, justly renowned for his cutting-edge thinking on the subject of strategy formulation and implementation but in this volume and in countless others, he also has much of great value to say about competitive and corporate strategy insofar as their global impact is concerned. That said, many of his greatest concerns are those specifically related to the U.S. economy. Hence the importance to me of what he and his collaborators (Claas van der Linde, Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg, and Gregory B. Brown) have to say in Part III: "Competitive Solutions to Societal Problems."

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Porter's other works as well as two recently published books: Kenichi Ohmae's The Next Global Stage and C.K. Prahalad's The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

This is a brilliant collection of Michael Porter's work and should be the first stop for anyone interested in competition, competitive strategy, and competitive advantage. For nearly three decades, Porter has been the leading thinker in this area, and On Competition publishes his 11 greatest articles on this subject--plus two new ones--and an introduction that ties all of his work together.

From his early work on competition among companies and within industries to his later work on the competitive advantage of locations, to his most recent work on competitive solutions to societal problems such as the distress of inner cites, On Competition covers it all in a clear, easy-to-follow sequence.

I'm a great fan of Porter's works, but was disappointed that something published in 1998 wasn't updated to the impact of the internet on competition. The net is the greatest inflection point in competitive activity in business history, IMO. Not only is the impact great on nearly all aspects of Porter's 5 forces, but changes are happening blazingly fast. To be sure many of MP's concepts help one predict and understand Dell's cleaning of Compaq's clock and many other happenings, but none of this is dealt with explicitly. How tough would it have been to update, or even just add a blurb at the end of chapter's like "How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage". But no, it's the same as when it was written in mid-1985...a lifetime ago in terms of information technology. $35.95 should entitle the reader to bit of updating, but the internet doesn't appear in the index and I only saw the word once in the text of one article. Had the book and articles had a bit of an update, I would definitely give it 5 stars...and for those who haven't read Porter's articles I would highly recommend it. But for those expecting a 1998 book should carry a more recent perspective, it's a bit of a disappointment.

This book is well known in Consulting circles, Ivy league schools & CEO circles to be THE Competition bible. The Why:

1- each chapter has a clear framework, with not just examples, but bullet proof proving arguments

2- the frameworks are not just sharp and clear, they also provide the complete Big picture, generating powerful insights

3- Following an incredibly successful professional path as a consultant, M. Porter is the leading authority in Competition and advisor of numerous Fortune 500 CEOs...

Mr. Porter is an expert on competition. As a professional investor, I evaluate competitive strengths and weaknesses of companies on everyday basis. I cannot overemphasize how important Mr. Porter's writings are to my ability to pick investments that perform well. In my opinion, the first chapter is the most important one. Mr. Porter writes about five forces:

* Threat of new entrants
* Intensity of rivalry among existing competitors
* Pressure from substitute products
* Bargaining power of buyers
* Bargaining power of suppliers

These five forces can be a roadmap to determining the competitiveness of individual companies. Mr. Porter's books are long, but I highly recommend this book or any other book written by the author.

Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

Remember when you were a youthful entrepreneur operating a neighborhood lemonade stand? If author Michael E. Porter had walked up to buy a cup of punch from you, he probably would have asked about your business strategy. While you poured, he would have questioned what made your lemonade different from anyone else's. If he liked your lemonade, he'd no doubt give you suggestions on how to earn millions competing in the global marketplace. Ah, if only you had listened... The author, America's dean of competition, has spent two decades asking seminal questions such as, "What is competition? What are its effects? How can society benefit?" The Harvard Business Review previously published 11 of the 13 articles collected in this book. In the two new essays, Porter serves up invaluable concepts. His take on the growing importance of location, despite rising globalization, is a tour de force. Oddly, Porter sees no inconsistency in encouraging "productive competition" in the health care industry while advocating universal health care. For Porter, competition is the ingredient that turns lemons into lemonade. We recommend his latest book to any corporate strategist who seeks ideas on becoming more competitive, starting in your own neighborhood.

Michael Porter clearly explains why having competitors is good, and why having them closer is better! Society improves by innovations caused by competition, and this happens faster and farther in clusters. This book also explains why joint ventures will become a more important business structure. I especially like the the idea that a better future depends on matching the culture of the business and the values of the people to foster more opportunity. Every executive in a consolidating industry should read this book.