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Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance
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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 transf
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Start your review of Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance
Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:
1- "Both industry attractiveness and competitive position can be shaped by a firm, and this is what makes the choice of competitive strategy both challenging and exciting. While industry attractiveness is partly a reflection of factors over which a firm has little influence, competitive strategy has considerable power to make an industry more competitive strategy has considerable power to make an industry m( or less attrac ...more
1- "Both industry attractiveness and competitive position can be shaped by a firm, and this is what makes the choice of competitive strategy both challenging and exciting. While industry attractiveness is partly a reflection of factors over which a firm has little influence, competitive strategy has considerable power to make an industry more competitive strategy has considerable power to make an industry m( or less attrac ...more
Dry and dated..... Reads like an old textbook. Some useful concepts illustrated with examples from companies that are no longer part of today's world.....making its content harder to apply.
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Understanding competition in the business world is what this Harvard Professor is all about, he believes capitalism is our best benefactor and our savior in the future. This is the book for understanding what business is all about. Though a bit dated, if combined with his new writings it gives you an overall picture of business, while portraying what an individual can do also...A must read for any businessman, from student to senior leader.
All the best,
Donald
All the best,
Donald
Michael Porter has unquestionably been to corporate strategy what Mendelejev was to chemistry with the periodic table or von Linné to botany with the taxonomy system. But perhaps different from these two, for our purposes here it is a tricky task indeed to separate one piece of Porter ́s work to review. The sum of value of Competitive Strategy, Competitive Advantage, The Competitive Advantage of Nations, On Competition and numerous groundbreaking papers, is simply greater than the individual par
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If they were ever relevant, this book's theories are almost completely outdated and misleading now.
Still the core concepts are useful to understand, because they've been drilled into the heads of most MBA's – and many haven't learned to question Porter's dangerously misleading precepts. Learning them will reveal a set of blind spots that afflict many of your partners, clients and competitors. (In fact, "blind spots" may be too mild. For some they're an Achilles Heel.)
Awareness of these common d ...more
Still the core concepts are useful to understand, because they've been drilled into the heads of most MBA's – and many haven't learned to question Porter's dangerously misleading precepts. Learning them will reveal a set of blind spots that afflict many of your partners, clients and competitors. (In fact, "blind spots" may be too mild. For some they're an Achilles Heel.)
Awareness of these common d ...more
I'd be loathe to recommend this book to anyone outside of a business degree or the financial industry. It certainly reads like a theory dug up from the schools of higher education. Of course, we can't forget how some of the best stories and legends deal with competition and leaders.
Why would people be a competitive advantage?
It would likely feed into the notion that everyone is a risk manager and called to be leaders. This, in turn, leaves us vulnerable to attack if some agents become outed as p ...more
Why would people be a competitive advantage?
It would likely feed into the notion that everyone is a risk manager and called to be leaders. This, in turn, leaves us vulnerable to attack if some agents become outed as p ...more
Michael Porter is obviously a brilliant mind in the line of business strategy, but I did find this book very hard to read. It seemed to jump from points to point and unfortunately the examples cited are somewhat lost on a younger generation lacking the historical context of the firms mentioned. Content is a 5 but readability was a 3 for me.
Even if at some elements slightly outdated and too focused on deep analysis, this is still such a valuable guidebook on thinking about competition and forming competitive advantage.
And i’ve finally managed to finish reading it! Took me years
And i’ve finally managed to finish reading it! Took me years
Good info, gets into very specifics - really at a CEO level of running a business, a fairly large business. It seems less appropriate for the entrepreneur/small business owner, though there are lessons to learn for everyone.
A timeless classic on corporate strategy. There'll always something new to be interpreted and learnt, that can be applied in the workplace. Definitely a book that I'll be re-reading again, and one that's highly recommended for those in the strategy space.
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Masterpiece. Everytime i read i find something useful.
too much technical
A must-read for those interested in strategic planning subject.
Excellent book to read for historical purposes. It's outdated in many aspects. Worth checking out at the library.
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Extremely repetitive.
Difficult read but worth the effort. Must read for business executives
New way to look at the economic world
Jan 16, 2016
Nigel Street
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
business-strategy,
strategy,
business,
competition,
strategy-consulting,
core-consulting,
porter,
expert,
management
Good rigorous overview of how to go about appraising a market and in particular the competition that will be faced and the considerations that need to be made in face of the identified and also less obvious competition (e.g. from adjacent markets/technologies). The process is sound although where the book is of course now struggling is in it's age; it was written and published in the mid '70's and of course much has chnaged since then in how fast a market moves and in the tools available to make
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A quite detailed exploration on competition, and stuffs behind it, either in conceptual or practical way. It also offers a very helpful model to understand how those stuffs work in forming something called: competition, and of course how to win it using the title of this book: competitive advantage.
A very comprehensive discussion on strategy development. The core concepts for building competitive advantage are still relevant even though the book was published back in 1985. It serves as a great reference for anyone who is involved in strategy work.
One of those must-reads. You have to know the forces. But not, unlike Drucker, something I looked back to.
The classic foundation of business theory, impervious to trends and fads in business theory.
Very technical but truly the go-to book if you're an executive looking to improve your firm.
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So long ago I hardly remember
this is a GREAT book.
Feb 06, 2014
يوسف زهدى
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
business-and-economics
"A very good and will structured strategy book, I'd give it 5 stars except for the too much details it includes that turns it to be more of an academic reference than a practical book"
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good book for business
GOOG
Long read but worth it.
Is A MUST
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Michael E. Porter is the leading authority on competitive strategy, the competitiveness and economic development of nations, states, and regions, and the application of competitive principles to social problems such as health care, the environment, and corporate responsibility.
Professor Porter is generally recognized as the "Father of Strategy", as has been identified in a variety of rankings and ...more
Professor Porter is generally recognized as the "Father of Strategy", as has been identified in a variety of rankings and ...more
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“Strategy becomes the particular array of activities aligned to deliver a particular mix of value to a chosen array of customers.”
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“A strategy is an internally consistent configuration of activities that distinguishes a firm from its rivals.”
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