Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors | Michael E. Porter

Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors | Michael E. Porter | the bluest of the blue

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Competitive Strate...

	Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors Michael E. Porter Free Press, 1998 - 397 pages average customer review:based on 44 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A book that should be referred to over and over again.

This is one of the foundation books of the modern business education. Yes, it was written over twenty years ago and you cannot take a business course anywhere without the term "Porter's Five Forces" not at least being mentioned. But, really, this book is still completely relevant and should be on every businessperson's bookshelf, front and center.

For a concept that has so much a place in b-school discussions, you might think the book focuses on the 5-forces, but it is only a small part of the book. It outlines the Generic Competitive Strategies (again, a now well known topic), Competitor Analysis (extremely valuable), Market Signals, Competitive Moves, and so much more.

The book is in three parts, General Analytical Techniques, Generic Industry Environments, and Strategic Decisions. There is an appendix on Portfolio Techniques in Competitor Analysis, and a very useful appendix on How to Conduct an Industry Analysis.

I think a lot of times this book is not given as active a place in the pantheon as it deserves because so many books and articles are recycling a lot of what was in this book and most don't add much to the discussion. Honestly, this book is worth referring to over and over and over again. It is a tool or a weapon in your competitive war chest that needs to be kept active and in play.

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the bluest of the blue

Simply put, if you haven't read Competitive Strategy yet, you are unfit to talk about business strategy.

And only after reading it, are you fit to read the sequel, Competitive Advantage, which if you haven't read till now, makes you unfit to talk about business tactics.

These two books are the Old and New Testaments of business.

A must have for beginners

A must have. Porter provides students with a great place to start for understanding strategy. While you must know the basics in this book to understand the foundation of strategy,it will not provide you with a dynamic and cutting edge strategic framework that many of today's industries need.

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Packed With Knowledge!

This seminal book is a classic and ought to be read by anyone in business. Michael E. Porter's ideas on competitiveness have lost little relevance despite the fact that he first advanced them in this book in 1980. They have now become so much a part of business practice and business language that one reads the book more with a sense of recognition than a sense of discovery. His prose style is clear and straightforward, albeit somewhat plodding, and the book can tend to repeat itself. However, Porter's clarity is a welcome change from the murk you encounter in many other books on business strategy, and his repetition serves a useful pedagogical purpose. We highly recommend this excellent book. If you're in business, it's relevant.

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Seminal, But Academic

When this book was published for the first time over twenty years ago, it changed the way that people thought about strategy in business, and it gave us what has become a common language for discussing strategic situations. That's why you should consider buying the book. Without an understanding of the terminology that Michael Porter developed originally in Competitive Strategy, you won't be able to follow many of the arguments that other people use when they're talking about the subject.

When you get past that, you need to ask yourself your primary reason for reading any book on strategy. If you're looking for a "how-to" book, one with ideas that you can implement reasonably quickly, this is not the book for you. This is written by a professor and the presentation is academic. That doesn't make the insights any less valuable, but often it makes them harder to unearth.

Here's my recommendation. You should be familiar enough with Porter's basic methods and terminology to recognize and understand them in other books, articles, and discussions. If you don't have that knowledge now, buy this book and develop that understanding.

If you already have a basic knowledge of some of Porter's terminology and concepts, then this book will give you an excellent structural underpinning to take to the other books about strategy. But, if you're looking for something that you can dip into quickly to work on your company's strategic plan, find something a little less dense and academic.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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