On Competition

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For the past two decades, Michael Porter's work has towered over the field of competitive strategy. On Competition, Updated and Expanded Edition brings together more than a dozen of Porter's landmark articles from the Harvard Business Review. Five are new to this edition, including the 2008 update to his classic "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy," as well as new work on health care, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, and CEO leadership. This collection captures Porter's unique ability to bridge theory and practice. Each of the articles has not only shaped thinking, but also redefined the work of practitioners in its respective field. In an insightful new introduction, Porter relates each article to the whole of his thinking about competition and value creation, and traces how that thinking has deepened over time. This collection is organized by topic, allowing the reader easy access to the wide range of Porter's work. Parts I and II present the frameworks for which Porter is best known--frameworks that address how companies, as well as nations and regions, gain and sustain competitive advantage. Part III shows how strategic thinking can address society's most pressing challenges, from environmental sustainability to improving health-care delivery. Part IV explores how both nonprofits and corporations can create value for society more effectively by applying strategy principles to philanthropy. Part V explores the link between strategy and leadership.About The Author Michael E. Porter (Shortlisted: 2011 Strategy Award) (Winner: 2005 Thinkers50) is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School, and one of the most influential management thinkers of his generation. Porter is considered by many to be the father of modern corporate strategy. Porter’s Five Forces Framework is taught in every business school in the world. The author of 18 books and over 125 articles, Porter co-founded the Monitor Group in 1983. Many of Porter's ideas have entered mainstream management practice. His seminal Harvard Business Review article “How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy,” (March/April 1979) introduced the Five Forces model for analyzing competitive position in an industry. His first widely read book Competitive Strategy, which followed soon after the 1979 article, is now in its 63rd imprint. From investigating corporate competition, Porter moved on to examine competition between nations in his book The Competitive Advantage of Nations (1990). He arrived at the Diamond Framework for National Competitive Advantage as a tool to help explain why some nations achieve greater productivity and higher standards of living than others. Since 2001, Porter has devoted considerable attention to competition in the health care system, with a focus on improving health care delivery. His work with Professor Elizabeth Teisberg, including the book Redefining Health Care (2006), is influencing thinking and practice not only in the United States but numerous other countries. More recently, Porter has examined the interaction between competition and society. In particular, he has explored the relationship between competition and environmental sustainability, and competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility, and proposed the concept of shared value, arguing that firms should generate value for society as well as shareholders. He has received six McKinsey Awards for the best Harvard Business Review article of the year.