Books by Michael E. Porter

HBR at 100: The Most Influential and Innovative Articles from Harvard Business Review's First Century

by W. Chan Kim, Clayton M. Christensen, Harvard Business Review, Michael E. Porter, Renee A. Mauborgne

The most definitive management ideas of the century, all in one place.
Harvard Business Review is the foremost destination for smart management thinking. Now, at its 100th anniversary, this commemorative volume brings together the most influential ideas since its inception.
With an introduction written by editor in chief Adi Ignatius, HBR at 100 features business publishing's most influential voices on innovative topics, including: Michael E. Porter on competitive strategy Clayton M. Christensen on disruptive innovation Tim Brown on design thinking Linda A. Hill on being a first-time manager Daniel Goleman on emotional intelligence Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee on artificial intelligence Robert Livingston on racial equity at work Amy C. Edmondson and Mark Mortensen on psychological safety Robert B. Cialdini on the science of persuasion W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne on blue ocean strategy Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad on strategic intent Peter F. Drucker on managing yourself

Whether you're a longtime reader or you're picking up an HBR volume for the first time, this book offers all you need to understand the most critical ideas in management.

HBR's 10 Must Reads 2020: The Definitive Management Ideas of the Year from Harvard Business Review (with bonus article "How CEOs Manage Time" by Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria)

by Nitin Nohria, Harvard Business Review, Michael E. Porter, Katrina Lake, Paul R. Daugherty

A year's worth of management wisdom, all in one place.
We've reviewed the ideas, insights, and best practices from the past year of Harvard Business Review to keep you up-to-date on the most cutting-edge, influential thinking driving business today. With authors from Michael E. Porter to Katrina Lake and company examples from Alibaba to 3M, this volume brings the most current and important management conversations right to your fingertips.
This book will inspire you to: Ask better questions to boost your learning, persuade others, and negotiate more effectively Create workplace conditions where gender equity can thrive Boost results by allowing humans and AI to enhance one another's strengths Make better connections with your customers by giving them a glimpse inside your company Scale your agile processes from a few teams to hundreds Build a commitment to both economic and social values in your organization Prepare your company for a rapidly aging workforce and society
This collection of articles includes "The Surprising Power of Questions," by Alison Wood Brooks and Leslie K. John; "Strategy Needs Creativity," by Adam Brandenburger; "What Most People Get Wrong about Men and Women," by Catherine H. Tinsley and Robin J. Ely; "Collaborative Intelligence: Humans and AI Are Joining Forces," by H. James Wilson and Paul R. Daugherty; "Stitch Fix's CEO on Selling Personal Style to the Mass Market," by Katrina Lake; "Strategy for Start-Ups," by Joshua Gans, Erin L. Scott, and Scott Stern; "Agile at Scale," by Darrell K. Rigby, Jeff Sutherland, and Andy Noble; "Operational Transparency," by Ryan W. Buell; "The Dual-Purpose Playbook," by Julie Battilana, Anne-Claire Pache, Metin Sengul, and Marissa Kimsey; "How CEOs Manage Time," by Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria; and "When No One Retires," by Paul Irving.

HBR's 10 Must Reads 2019: The Definitive Management Ideas of the Year from Harvard Business Review (with bonus article "Now What?" by Joan C. Williams and Suzanne Lebsock) (HBR's 10 Must Reads)

by Joan C. Williams, Harvard Business Review, Thomas H. Davenport, Michael E. Porter, Marco Iansiti

A year's worth of management wisdom, all in one place.
We've reviewed the ideas, insights, and best practices from the past year of Harvard Business Review to keep you up-to-date on the most cutting-edge, influential thinking driving business today. With authors from Thomas H. Davenport to Michael E. Porter and company examples from Facebook to DHL, this volume brings the most current and important management conversations right to your fingertips.
This book will inspire you to: Make stronger connections and build greater trust among people who work on multiple teams Engage customers and employees alike with the help of artificial intelligence Channel your outrage about sexual harassment in the workplace into effective action Consider how CEO activism can generate goodwill for your company--and weigh its risks Pair data with qualitative research to increase diversity in your organization Remain competitive in a hub economy by using your company's assets and capabilities differently
This collection of articles includes: "The Overcommitted Organization," by Mark Mortensen and Heidi K. Gardner; "Why Do We Undervalue Competent Management?" by Raffaella Sadun, Nicholas Bloom, and John Van Reenen; "'Numbers Take Us Only So Far,'" by Maxine Williams; "The New CEO Activists," by Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel; "Artificial Intelligence for the Real World," by Thomas H. Davenport and Rajeev Ronanki; "Why Every Organization Needs an Augmented Reality Strategy," by Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann; "Thriving in the Gig Economy," by Gianpiero Petriglieri, Susan Ashford, and Amy Wrzesniewski; "Managing Our Hub Economy," by Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani; "The Leader's Guide to Corporate Culture," by Boris Groysberg, Jeremiah Lee, Jesse Price, and J. Yo-Jud Cheng; "The Error at the Heart of Corporate Leadership," by Joseph L. Bower and Lynn S. Paine; and "Now What?" by Joan C. Williams and Suzanne Lebsock.

Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors

by Michael E. Porter

Now nearing its sixtieth printing in English and translated into nineteen languages, Michael E. Porter's Competitive Strategy has transformed the theory, practice, and teaching of business strategy throughout the world.

Electrifying in its simplicity—like all great breakthroughs—Porter’s analysis of industries captures the complexity of industry competition in five underlying forces. Porter introduces one of the most powerful competitive tools yet developed: his three generic strategies—lowest cost, differentiation, and focus—which bring structure to the task of strategic positioning. He shows how competitive advantage can be defined in terms of relative cost and relative prices, thus linking it directly to profitability, and presents a whole new perspective on how profit is created and divided. In the almost two decades since publication, Porter's framework for predicting competitor behavior has transformed the way in which companies look at their rivals and has given rise to the new discipline of competitor assessment.

More than a million managers in both large and small companies, investment analysts, consultants, students, and scholars throughout the world have internalized Porter's ideas and applied them to assess industries, understand competitors, and choose competitive positions. The ideas in the book address the underlying fundamentals of competition in a way that is independent of the specifics of the ways companies go about competing.

Competitive Strategy has filled a void in management thinking. It provides an enduring foundation and grounding point on which all subsequent work can be built. By bringing a disciplined structure to the question of how firms achieve superior profitability, Porter’s rich frameworks and deep insights comprise a sophisticated view of competition unsurpassed in the last quarter-century.

Competitive Advantage of Nations

by Michael E. Porter

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 transformed thinking and action in states, cities, companies, and even entire regions such as Central America.

Based on research in ten leading trading nations, The Competitive Advantage of Nations offers the first theory of competitiveness based on the causes of the productivity with which companies compete. Porter shows how traditional comparative advantages such as natural resources and pools of labor have been superseded as sources of prosperity, and how broad macroeconomic accounts of competitiveness are insufficient. The book introduces Porter’s “diamond,” a whole new way to understand the competitive position of a nation (or other locations) in global competition that is now an integral part of international business thinking. Porter's concept of “clusters,” or groups of interconnected firms, suppliers, related industries, and institutions that arise in particular locations, has become a new way for companies and governments to think about economies, assess the competitive advantage of locations, and set public policy.

Even before publication of the book, Porter’s theory had guided national reassessments in New Zealand and elsewhere. His ideas and personal involvement have shaped strategy in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, Portugal, Taiwan, Costa Rica, and India, and regions such as Massachusetts, California, and the Basque country. Hundreds of cluster initiatives have flourished throughout the world. In an era of intensifying global competition, this pathbreaking book on the new wealth of nations has become the standard by which all future work must be measured.

Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance

by Michael E. Porter

The essential complement to the pathbreaking book Competitive Strategy, Michael E. Porter's Competitive Advantage explores the underpinnings of competitive advantage in the individual firm.

Competitive Advantage introduces a whole new way of understanding what a firm does. Porter's groundbreaking concept of the value chain disaggregates a company into "activities," or the discrete functions or processes that represent the elemental building blocks of competitive advantage.

Now an essential part of international business thinking, Competitive Advantage takes strategy from broad vision to an internally consistent configuration of activities. Its powerful framework provides the tools to understand the drivers of cost and a company's relative cost position. Porter's value chain enables managers to isolate the underlying sources of buyer value that will command a premium price, and the reasons why one product or service substitutes for another. He shows how competitive advantage lies not only in activities themselves but in the way activities relate to each other, to supplier activities, and to customer activities. Competitive Advantage also provides for the first time the tools to strategically segment an industry and rigorously assess the competitive logic of diversification.

That the phrases "competitive advantage" and "sustainable competitive advantage" have become commonplace is testimony to the power of Porter's ideas. Competitive Advantage has guided countless companies, business school students, and scholars in understanding the roots of competition. Porter's work captures the extraordinary complexity of competition in a way that makes strategy both concrete and actionable.

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Leading with Purpose

by Adam Grant, Harvard Business Review, Michael E. Porter, Ranjay Gulati, Julie Battilana

Make work meaningful--and unleash your organization's full potential.

If you read nothing else on leading with purpose, read this book. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you define, communicate, and fulfill your organization's purpose--and deliver results.

This book will inspire you to:

• Connect the work to the "why"
• Bring people together in uncertain times
• Attract--and retain--the right talent
• Boost engagement, performance, and commitment
• Achieve mission-driven growth
• Create value for your business and society

This collection of articles includes "Put Purpose at the Core of Your Strategy," by Thomas W. Malnight, Ivy Buche, and Charles Dhanaraj; "What's the Purpose of Your Purpose?," by Jonathan Knowles, B. Tom Hunsaker, Hannah Grove, and Alison James; "Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization," by Robert E. Quinn and Anjan V. Thakor; "How Customers Can Rally Your Troops," by Adam Grant; "The Dual-Purpose Playbook," by Julie Battilana, Anne-Claire Pache, Metin Sengul, and Marissa Kimsey; "The New CEO Activists," by Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel; "Competing on Social Purpose," by Omar Rodriguez-Vila and Sundar Bharadwaj; "The Messy but Essential Pursuit of Purpose," by Ranjay Gulati; "From Purpose to Impact," by Nick Craig and Scott A. Snook; "Creating Shared Value," by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer; "How to Lead in the Stakeholder Era," by Hubert Joly; and "Use Storytelling to Explain Your Company's Purpose," by John Coleman.

HBR's 10 Must Reads are definitive collections of classic ideas, practical advice, and essential thinking from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Exploring topics like disruptive innovation, emotional intelligence, and new technology in our ever-evolving world, these books empower any leader to make bold decisions and inspire others.