Understanding Michael Porter Hardcover – December 6, 2011

Michael Porter is considered one of the most important scholars in the field of strategy, and Ms. Magretta's book presents his ideas clearly and concisely. As a professor of strategy who has been teaching Porter's ideas to executives and students for more than 10 years, I enjoyed the book, even though I have read Porter's books and articles themselves. The book can be thought of as a more detailed yet accessible versions of two of his seminal articles, The Five Forces That Shape Competitive Strategy and What is Strategy.If you have not read any of Porter's work before, this book is probably the best vehicle to get introduced to his ideas, and you will gain valuable insights. Even if you have read the above articles however, the book will still be useful, because Ms. Magretta updates the examples, integrates material from other works by Porter and makes the material more accessible without watering it down. The last chapter on Continuity is quite fresh for example. The case study examples have been updated, which was important for me. The discussion of how the desire to grow detracts from strategy is especially insightful and eye-opening. The Q&A with Michael Porter is also unique to this book. Finally, Ms. Magretta presents a list of additional readings case studies for those who are interested in pursuing the material further. In short, there is enough material to satisfy even avid readers of Porter's ideas.One could of course point to some weaknesses as well. The strategy field has advanced quite a lot since Porter's ideas have been presented, and a full understanding of his concepts and views requires relating them to alternative views of strategy. For example, his 1996 article, What is Strategy, was written partly as a defense of his views vis-a-vis some of the alternative views. Furthermore, Porter's ideas are controversial and not universally accepted. Finally, one could argue that examples were picked conveniently to support Porter's views. However, these are more critiques of Professor Porter's views, rather than of the book itself.One word of caution: Porter's ideas are wide-ranging. He has written about diverse topics such as competitive advantage of nations, clusters and global strategy and health care. Those are not in this book. This book focuses on his ideas on the field of business strategy, which is where he made his biggest mark.The book will be most relevant and useful for practicing managers, especially senior managers or those who are part of the strategy formation process in their organizations. However, the general reader can also gain valuable insights. As someone who teaches and studies business strategy, I highly recommend this book.

Once again Joan Magretta produces a masterful synthesis of complex business ideas (her first being What Management Is). I'm well aware of Michael Porter's contributions to business thinking but I've been hesitant to read his work directly because it seemed so academic and specialized. But in this book, Michael Porter's ideas are laid out logically and explained clearly, with plenty of examples to support the ideas. A major key to understanding Porter is mastering the definitions of key words or phrases, such as "value proposition", "value chain", or even "strategy". Sometimes it's easy to recognize jargon but sometimes not, so you can be easily be confused or led down the wrong path if you're not paying attention closely. Magretta helps by repeating the definitions at key times to reinforce the ideas and ensure you don't get lost (plus there's a handy glossary at the back) and describes how to analyze or implement them step-by-step. It's so well written that I finished in a few days but I did have lots of questions, such as the relationship between business models and strategy or how do his ideas apply to non-profits (the field in which I work) and those were nicely addressed in the closing FAQ interview. If there are any problems, it's in the Kindle edition. The text and diagrams work out better than most Kindle ebooks (although the charts are at their minimum size limit; larger or zoomability would have been nice) but somehow the Kindle version reads the FAQ, Glossary, and Notes all as page 185 (even though it's simultaneously presented as Locations 2452-3092). That may not be a problem for most readers, but if you want cite a quotation from the book for a research paper or report, or want to jump to that section by page rather than location, you're dead in the water. This problem obviously lies with the publisher or Amazon, not the author.

Michael Porter has been regarded as a genius when it comes to marketing strategy. Though his work his considered very academic and often catered to certain fields the book present topics that are more general and explained with a more broad mindset. One special thing that I appreciated were that there were many examples to backup with what the text was referring to. This connections of discussion and examples made for a very easy to understand and read. Some examples that highlight his ideas are the explanations of values. Some examples include “value chain” one handy attribute was that many of these definitions were reinforced several times in order to help the reader understand. Magretta who uses this repetition in important moments helped me solidify the concepts, while also encouraging me to review in the glossary if needed. The importance here is that there is a breakdown of a step by step process in how to understand these ideas. Another example that was very insightful to read was based on the “0 sum competition”. This was related to not focusing on dominating the market share but rather focuses on developing competitive advantage. This seems to be his sole strategy. An interesting concept because no matter how a business often responds to another their competition between each other is often a “0 sum competition”.Though my only critic was that these solutions and discussions for strategy were often very vague in nature. Porter’s ideas are not accepted everywhere so there are critics on his view of strategy. Though Porter expressed ideas outside of strategy they are focused on his most influential work. I would say that those readers who will gain the most from this book are those looking to better manage teams and those who currently supervise a team. Though I gained adequate knowledge Porter idea in this text offers a highly insightful resource for anyone pursuing a future in business strategy and management.