Part I Competitive Strategy: Core Concepts 1. The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy (January 2008 HBR Version) 2. What Is Strategy? 3. How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage 4. Strategy and the Internet (NEW TO THIS EDITION, 2001 HBR article) 5. From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy Part II The Competitiveness of Locations 6. The Competitive Advantage of Nations 7. Clusters and Competition: New Agendas for Companies, Governments, and Institutions 8. Competing Across Locations: Enhancing Competitive Advantage through a Global Strategy Part III Competitive Solutions to Societal Problems 9. Green and Competitive: Ending the Stalemate 10. The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City 11. Redefining Competition in Health Care (NEW TO THIS EDITION, 2004 HBR article) Part IV Strategy, Philanthropy, and Corporate Social Responsibility 12. Philanthropy's New Agenda: Creating Value (1999 HBR article) 13. The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy (2002 HBR article) 14. Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility Part V Leadership 15. Seven Surprises for New CEOs (2004 HBR article)
Michael E. Porter is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School. He is the author of seventeen books and numerous articles.
Porter (The Competitive Advantage of Nations, LJ 6/1/90), a professor at the Harvard Business School and premier investigator of corporate strategy, has collected ten previously published articles from the Harvard Business Review together with two new pieces on competition and competitive strategy. The essays are grouped into three categories: core concepts, location as a competitive advantage, and the competitive solutions to societal problems. While most of the book has a timeless quality, listing an essay's date of publication more prominently and perhaps including a postscript would have helped readers judge a strategy's success by giving it an appropriate context. For example, while its lesson is still valid, the essay "End-Game Strategies for Declining Industries" will perplex readers because it includes a discussion of the manufacture of cigars, now much in vogue. In the final analysis, though, this trenchant book will become a textbook for corporate strategy. Recommended for special collections.ÄSteven Silkunas, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Philadelphia
Twenty years of studying industry performance and competitiveness have convinced Porter, a professor at the Harvard Business School and a noted authority on competition and corporate strategy, that a successful company must not only adopt the best practices available but also differentiate itself from its rivals. In 13 essays, some of which have appeared elsewhere, Porter elegantly lays out a sophisticated analytical framework for assessing the challenges firms face in today's business environment. Although Porter offers no magic formula for success, as a starting point for developing a long-term strategy, he does recommend close scrutiny of "factor conditions," "demand conditions," other competing and supporting industries and existing strategies and structures. Porter shows how companies have bested international competitors by forging integrated global strategies, operating with a long-term outlook, investing aggressively and managing factories carefully. He has also come to see the growing importance of geographical location to specific companies and celebrates the benefits of clustersÄsystems of interconnected firms and institutionsÄfor increased productivity and innovation. On the societal level, Porter's work, with its emphasis on long-term planning, brings a welcome new perspective to perennially thorny policy issues such as environmental protection, inner-city development and universal access to health care. While this book requires a serious investment of time and effort, its expert dissection of a very complex phenomenon is worth it. Line drawings throughout. (Nov.)
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