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Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance |  | Author: Michael E. Porter
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
List Price: $37.50
Buy Used: $9.97
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Seller: penntext
Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 20,735
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 592
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.8
ISBN: 0684841460
Dewey Decimal Number: 658
EAN: 9780684841465
ASIN: 0684841460
Publication Date: June 1, 1998
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Product Description
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. With over 30 printings in English and translated into thirteen languages, this second volume in Porter's landmark trilogy describes how a firm actually gains an advantage over its rivals. 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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 46
 Strategy book of the 1980s - still a key reference guide April 11, 2005
Peter Leerskov (Denmark)
65 out of 68 found this review helpful
Michael Porter is the founding father for strategies in a competitive context. This pioneering book represents some of his best thoughts on business and corporate strategy.
Chapter 1 is a summary of his first landmark book - "Competitive Strategy". So if you just want to buy one of his bestsellers, then buy "Competitive Advantage".
The book's most important contribution is the concept of the VALUE CHAIN. Today, you won't find an MBA who doesn't know this idea. This book gives you all the details on the value chain. And it even tells you exactly how the value chain is translated into his two generic strategies: Cost Leadership and Differentiation. Most strategy books devote a separate chapter to this idea. If you want to get a more than a superficial understanding of the value chain, you simply have to read Porter's book.
This book also gets to the core of how synergies are created and when diversification might work. Curiously, Porter chooses the term interrelationships for synergies (you know, a term for a nice idea that rarely occurred in practice...).
Being a business development manager, I have strategic thinking as part of my key areas. This book is still a reference guide for me. Obviously though, Porter's views cannot stand-alone.
If you're looking for critical views on Porter's ideas, then consider buying Hamel & Prahalad's "Competing for the Future" (1994) or Kim & Mauborgne's "Blue Ocean Strategy" (2005).
Beware: You have to read Porter's Harvard Business review article "What is Strategy" from 1996, if you want his own response to the critics.
Warning: You cannot work seriously with strategy without having understood Michael Porter's core concepts. And the superficial introduction by most - even advanced - strategy books won't make you competent enough to apply his ideas skilfully. Let me give you two examples:
COST STRUCTURE:
Most MBAs have learned about the value chain and cost structure analysis. But in real life I've seen very few who combine these two concepts proficiently. The real beauty in benchmarking cost structures is when you skilfully apply it to the value chain. This book tells you exactly how to do this. In practice, I've seen this approach applied very few times (except advanced strategy consultants). It may be because people often use Porter's concepts too casually...
COST DRIVERS:
Most strategy books are on drivers of differentiation - the preferred strategy choice by management gurus. And Porter does indeed help you on this issue. More importantly, this book is one of the few to tell you about the cost drivers. How many books have you read on Cost Leadership? Porter elaborates on 10 cost drivers, such as economies of scale, learning, linkages, synergies, pattern of capacity utilization, integration, timing, policies, and location.
STRATEGY IS ABOUT BEING DIFFERENT. Start out personally by reading the real thing ... it's a bargain.
Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business
Framework for activities within a business December 28, 2000
Gerard Kroese (The Netherlands)
23 out of 28 found this review helpful
Michael Porter is a Harvard Business School professor and a leading authority on competition and strategy. This book builds on his initial 1980-book 'Competitive Strategy', which focuses on the industries surrounding businesses (summary of 'Competitive Strategy' is Chapter 1!). In this book, 'Competitive Advantage', Porter focuses on the business itself. The book is based on the activity-based theory of the firm. Activities are what generate cost and create value for buyers/customers, and are the basic units for competitive advantage.
'Competitive Advantage' consists of four parts - Principles of Competitive Advantage, Competitive Scope within an Industry, Corporate Strategy and Competitive Advantage, and Implications for Offensive and Defensive Competitive Strategy. Part I introduces the concept of the value, which is a general framework for thinking about the activities involved in any business and assessing their relative costs and role in differentiation. Then Porter explains the impact of the value chain on cost advantage, differentiation, technology and competitors. Part II discusses industry segmentation and substitution. Part III explains the interrelationships among business units and their impact on horizontal strategy, achievement of interrelationships, and complementary products. Part IV discusses industry scenarios under uncertainty, defensive strategy, and attacks on industry leaders.
Although some parts of the book are somewhat outdated, I would say that many modern management books are based on or around this book. This book provides through the use of the value chain a very useful introduction into activities within businesses. I recommend readers to complement this book with Michael Porter's 1996-Harvard Business Review-article 'What is Strategy?' which is available as a e-book (pdf-file) at Amazon.com. Highly recommended to anyone interested in management and business activities.
A Must Read For Any Senior Manager or Business Owner August 26, 1998
TOMASAL@BELLSOUTH.NET (UNITED STATES)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Mr. Porter's book did an excellent job in outlining all the key areas that matter in the real world. Mr. Porter takes you through the exercise of properly choosing strategies (price, differentiation, technology) while focusing on buyer values to create sustainable competitive advantages and barriers. His outline of industry segmentation helps to keep readers focused on properly using capital to maximize earnings and competitive positions (a common mistake in the business world). I found the read most helpful in structuring a much more sound strategic plan for my own company. Thank you to Mr. Porter for providing such a wonderful strategic guide. CEO Profit Line of America, Inc.
Essential reference book on strategy January 2, 2006
Elijah Chingosho (Nairobi, Kenya)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
The book "Competitive Advantage" describes how a firm can gain an advantage over its rivals. Michael Porter introduced the concept of the "value chain" that breaks down a company into "activities" or the discrete functions or processes that represent the elemental building blocks of competitive advantage. Such discrete activities include order processing, producing products or services, training people, advertising or transporting goods. The value chain concept allows firms to isolate the underlying source of buyer value that will enable a firm to charge a premium price and explains the reasons why one product or service substitutes for another.
Competitive advantage is the key to a company's performance in competitive markets. This is very important in today's global markets when firms face global competition. The book explains how a firm can create and sustain a competitive advantage. It discusses the need for firms to effectively translate their broad competitive strategies into specific action steps required to gain competitive advantage. In particular, the book bridges the gap that many firms have between strategy formulation and implementation and treats the two subjects together.
Porter describes how a firm can put the three generic competitive strategies of cost leadership, differentiation and focus into practice. It highlights, for example, how a firm can differentiate itself from its rivals or how a firm can gain a cost advantage.
The book highlights the need for all the functions of an organization to play their role in creating competitive advantage. Production, marketing, finance, human resources and others all play essential roles for a firm in a combined and integrated way.
The book is critical reading for managers who play a part in a firm's strategy (that means all managers). Students studying strategic management will find the book very informative and easy to follow.
A vital classic that rewards careful reading and re-reading September 30, 2004
Craig Matteson (Ann Arbor, MI)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is the second of the classic volumes by Michael Porter. The first was Competitive Strategy and it outlined the general methods and industry analysis. This volume, Competitive Advantage, is more complex and offers methods for understanding what a firm is and does and how it creates value. We all know the term value-chain; it was introduced here.
The complexity comes from trying to define firms when no two businesses (firms) are alike. Then add to that considerations about how do these firms compete with each other, to what degree, and in which ways?
The book is 15 chapters grouped in four parts. The four parts are:
1)Principles of Competitive Advantage
2)Competitive Scope Within an Industry
3)Corporate Strategy and Competitive Advantage
4)Implications for Offensive and Defensive Competitive Strategy
Chapter 15 is entitled "Attacking an Industry Leader". This is the culmination of the book and lets you know that it does have a practical focus. Of course, as a more practical book of theory (seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it?), it cannot discuss every situation or approach. Nevertheless, this is an important book. It not only deserves a place on every businessperson's shelf, it rewards careful reading and re-reading.
This is the second of the classic volumes by Michael Porter. The first was Competitive Strategy and it outlined the general methods and industry analysis. This volume, Competitive Advantage, is more complex and offers methods for understanding what a firm is and does and how it creates value. We all know the term value-chain; it was introduced here.
The complexity comes from trying to define firms when no two businesses (firms) are alike. Then add to that considerations about how do these firms compete with each other, to what degree, and in which ways?
The book is 15 chapters grouped in four parts. The four parts are:
1)Principles of Competitive Advantage
2)Competitive Scope Within an Industry
3)Corporate Strategy and Competitive Advantage
4)Implications for Offensive and Defensive Competitive Strategy
Chapter 15 is entitled "Attacking an Industry Leader". This is the culmination of the book and lets you know that it does have a practical focus. Of course, as a more practical book of theory (seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it?), it cannot discuss every situation or approach. Nevertheless, this is an important book. It not only deserves a place on every businessperson's shelf, it rewards careful reading and re-reading.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 46
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