Michael E. Porter

Strategy strategy strategy! Got strategy? Since i started reading this book i began using the word "strategy" every day in all kinds of conversations. Porter really got to me.
The way he talks about strategy is somehow different from the other authors i've read. With this book i can feel the need for strategy, the risks are real. You either set a viable strategy and claw your way to differentiation or you die a slow death of price wars and endless efficiency optimizations that are matched by show more competitors almost instantly. Porter paints a gruesome picture and it made me really think.
But all that is just the beginning of the book, probably the first couple of chapters. After reading those and feeling closure i wondered what was in the remaining dozen chapters. He talks about all sorts of subjects: the effect of the emergence of the internet on industries, corporate strategy in terms of mergers and acquisitions, competition across locations, globalization, competition of nations, policy, philantropy, social responsibility and ends with advice for new CEOs. Man, i did not expect that i would thorougly enjoy reading about each and every one of those subjects. But i did and it was amazing. show less

26 years later it's become a classic, and rightly so. Porter writes a comprehensive analysis of competitive strategy. He was apparently the first to write a comprehensive guide (in business), and thus provided a breakout point from previously static analysis. Though completely dry, his book is comprehensive and quite concise. He gets his points across without a lot of graphs. His examples are still familiar and illustrate his points efficiently. This book is a good reference, with easy show more sections and headings available to bring the reader back to key points. I have a respectable exposure to strategy, and this introduced me to a lot of concepts I hadn't considered in the course of practice. show less

Good look at the competitiveness of Japanese companies and arguments against the CW that state-run capitalism helped Japanese companies.

Taught me a lot about how to think of industries and business opportunities.