Understanding Michael Porter

Michael Porter, the father of strategy, is one of the most (if not the most) important business thinkers in the world.  Anyone in business uses Michael Porter's ideas concepts like competitive advantage, differentiation, value creation, industry structure, the value chain whether they know it or not.  These ideas form the foundation of all of strategy and competition today, and one cannot be conversant in business without understanding them.

But if anyone wanted to review or obtain a good overvivew of Porter's main ideas, they would have to read either all of his HBR articles or purchase several large, and quite densely written, books  (Porter's classic books On Competition, Competitive Advantage, and Competitive Strategy amount to 1500 pages of reading).

At last, The Essential Michael Porter provides a book-length executive summary of his core concepts, in about 200 pages, and makes these ideas accessible to everyone.  Short, concise, and written clearly and understandably by his trusted friend and long-time colleague (and former HBR strategy editor), Joan Magretta, this book will be a welcome addition to everyone's business bookshelf amd will be the new ""bible"" of strategy for years to come."