Michael Porter
Encyclopedia
Michael Eugene Porter is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School
. He is a leading authority on company strategy and the competitiveness of nations and regions. Michael Porter’s work is recognized in many governments, corporations and academic circles globally. He chairs Harvard Business School's program dedicated for newly appointed CEOs of very large corporations.
in 1969, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi
. He received an M.B.A. with high distinction in 1971 from the Harvard Business School
, where he was a George F. Baker Scholar, and a Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University
in 1973.
Porter was an outstanding intercollegiate golfer while at Princeton.
article of the year, Professor Porter is the most cited author in business and economics.
Michael Porter’s core field is competition and company strategy. He is generally recognized as the father of the modern strategy field, and his ideas are taught in virtually every business school in the world. His work has also re-defined thinking about competitiveness, economic development, economically distressed urban communities, environmental policy, and the role of corporations in society.
Recently, Porter has devoted considerable attention to understanding and addressing the pressing problems in health care delivery in the United States and other countries. His book, Redefining Health Care (written with Elizabeth Teisberg), develops a new strategic framework for transforming the value delivered by the health care system, with implications for providers, health plans, employers, and government, among other actors. The book received the James A. Hamilton award of the American College of Healthcare Executives in 2007 for book of the year. His New England Journal of Medicine
research article, “A Strategy for Health Care Reform—Toward a Value-Based System” (June 2009), lays out a health reform strategy for the U.S. His work on health care is being extended to address the problems of health care delivery in developing countries, in collaboration with Dr. Jim Yong Kim and the Harvard Medical School
and Harvard School of Public Health
.
In addition to his research, writing, and teaching, Porter serves as an advisor to business, government, and the social sector. He has served as strategy advisor to numerous leading U.S. and international companies, including Caterpillar, Procter & Gamble, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Royal Dutch Shell, and Taiwan Semiconductor. Professor Porter serves on two public boards of directors, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Parametric Technology Corporation. Professor Porter also plays an active role in U.S. economic policy with the Executive Branch and Congress, and has led national economic strategy programs in numerous countries. He is currently working with the Presidents of Rwanda and South Korea.
Michael Porter has founded three major non-profit organizations: Initiative for a Competitive Inner City - ICIC in 1994, which addresses economic development in distressed urban communities; the Center for Effective Philanthropy, which creates rigorous tools for measuring foundation effectiveness; and FSG-Social Impact Advisors, a leading non-profit strategy firm serving NGOs, corporations, and foundations in the area of creating social value. He also currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Princeton University.
In 2000, Michael Porter was appointed a Harvard University Professor
, the highest professional recognition that can be awarded to a Harvard faculty member.
Michael Porter is one of the founders of The Monitor Group
, a strategy consulting firm that came under scrutiny in 2011 for its past contracts with the Muammar Gaddafi
-led regime in Libya
and alleged failure to register its activities under the Foreign Agents Registration Act
. He is a Senior Partner and Academic Director.
His main academic objectives focus on how a firm or a region can build a competitive advantage and develop competitive strategy. He is also a Fellow Member of the Strategic Management Society
. One of his most significant contributions is the five forces. Porter's strategic system consists primarily of:
Domestic Health Care
Global Health Care
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
. He is a leading authority on company strategy and the competitiveness of nations and regions. Michael Porter’s work is recognized in many governments, corporations and academic circles globally. He chairs Harvard Business School's program dedicated for newly appointed CEOs of very large corporations.
Early life
Michael Eugene Porter received a B.S.E. with high honors in aerospace and mechanical engineering from Princeton UniversityPrinceton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1969, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi
Tau Beta Pi
The Tau Beta Pi Association is the oldest engineering honor society in the United States and the second oldest collegiate honor society in America. It honors engineering students who have shown a history of academic achievement as well as a commitment to personal and professional integrity...
. He received an M.B.A. with high distinction in 1971 from the Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
, where he was a George F. Baker Scholar, and a Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1973.
Porter was an outstanding intercollegiate golfer while at Princeton.
Career
Michael Porter is the author of 18 books and numerous articles including Competitive Strategy, Competitive Advantage, Competitive Advantage of Nations, and On Competition. A six-time winner of the McKinsey Award for the best Harvard Business ReviewHarvard Business Review
Harvard Business Review is a general management magazine published since 1922 by Harvard Business School Publishing, owned by the Harvard Business School. A monthly research-based magazine written for business practitioners, it claims a high ranking business readership among academics, executives,...
article of the year, Professor Porter is the most cited author in business and economics.
Michael Porter’s core field is competition and company strategy. He is generally recognized as the father of the modern strategy field, and his ideas are taught in virtually every business school in the world. His work has also re-defined thinking about competitiveness, economic development, economically distressed urban communities, environmental policy, and the role of corporations in society.
Recently, Porter has devoted considerable attention to understanding and addressing the pressing problems in health care delivery in the United States and other countries. His book, Redefining Health Care (written with Elizabeth Teisberg), develops a new strategic framework for transforming the value delivered by the health care system, with implications for providers, health plans, employers, and government, among other actors. The book received the James A. Hamilton award of the American College of Healthcare Executives in 2007 for book of the year. His New England Journal of Medicine
New England Journal of Medicine
The New England Journal of Medicine is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It describes itself as the oldest continuously published medical journal in the world.-History:...
research article, “A Strategy for Health Care Reform—Toward a Value-Based System” (June 2009), lays out a health reform strategy for the U.S. His work on health care is being extended to address the problems of health care delivery in developing countries, in collaboration with Dr. Jim Yong Kim and the Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
and Harvard School of Public Health
Harvard School of Public Health
The Harvard School of Public Health is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill, which is next to Harvard Medical School. HSPH is considered a significant school focusing on health in the...
.
In addition to his research, writing, and teaching, Porter serves as an advisor to business, government, and the social sector. He has served as strategy advisor to numerous leading U.S. and international companies, including Caterpillar, Procter & Gamble, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Royal Dutch Shell, and Taiwan Semiconductor. Professor Porter serves on two public boards of directors, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Parametric Technology Corporation. Professor Porter also plays an active role in U.S. economic policy with the Executive Branch and Congress, and has led national economic strategy programs in numerous countries. He is currently working with the Presidents of Rwanda and South Korea.
Michael Porter has founded three major non-profit organizations: Initiative for a Competitive Inner City - ICIC in 1994, which addresses economic development in distressed urban communities; the Center for Effective Philanthropy, which creates rigorous tools for measuring foundation effectiveness; and FSG-Social Impact Advisors, a leading non-profit strategy firm serving NGOs, corporations, and foundations in the area of creating social value. He also currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Princeton University.
In 2000, Michael Porter was appointed a Harvard University Professor
Harvard University Professor
At Harvard University, the title of University Professor is an honor bestowed upon a very small number of its tenured faculty members whose scholarship and other professional work have attained particular distinction and influence. This honor was created in 1935 by Harvard's President and Fellows...
, the highest professional recognition that can be awarded to a Harvard faculty member.
Michael Porter is one of the founders of The Monitor Group
Monitor Group
Monitor Group is a global management consulting firm headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States and with 27 offices in 26 major cities around the world. It provides strategy consultation services to the senior management of organizations and governments...
, a strategy consulting firm that came under scrutiny in 2011 for its past contracts with the Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
-led regime in Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
and alleged failure to register its activities under the Foreign Agents Registration Act
Foreign Agents Registration Act
The Foreign Agents Registration Act is a United States law passed in 1938 requiring that agents representing the interests of foreign powers be properly identified to the American public. The act was passed in response to German propaganda in the lead-up to World War II...
. He is a Senior Partner and Academic Director.
His main academic objectives focus on how a firm or a region can build a competitive advantage and develop competitive strategy. He is also a Fellow Member of the Strategic Management Society
Strategic Management Society
The Strategic Management Society is a professional society for the advancement of Strategic Management. The Society is unique in bringing together the worlds of reflective practice and thoughtful scholarship. The Society consists of nearly 3,000 members representing various backgrounds and...
. One of his most significant contributions is the five forces. Porter's strategic system consists primarily of:
- Competitive advantage
- Porter five forces analysis
- strategic groupStrategic groupA strategic group is a concept used in strategic management that groups companies within an industry that have similar business models or similar combinations of strategies. For example, the restaurant industry can be divided into several strategic groups including fast-food and fine-dining based...
s (also called strategic sets) - the value chainValue chainThe value chain, is a concept from business management that was first described and popularized by Michael Porter in his 1985 best-seller, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance.-Firm Level:...
- the generic strategiesPorter generic strategiesMichael Porter has described a category scheme consisting of three general types of strategies that are commonly used by businesses to achieve and maintain competitive advantage. These three generic strategies are defined along two dimensions: strategic scope and strategic strength. Strategic scope...
of cost leadership, product differentiationProduct differentiationIn economics and marketing, product differentiation is the process of distinguishing a product or offering from others, to make it more attractive to a particular target market. This involves differentiating it from competitors' products as well as a firm's own product offerings...
, and focus - the market positioning strategies of variety based, needs based, and access based market positions
- global strategyGlobal StrategyGlobal strategy as defined in business terms is an organization's strategic guide to globalization. A sound global strategy should address these questions: what must be the extent of market presence in the world's major markets? How to build the necessary global presence? What must be AND the...
- Porter's clusters of competence for regional economic developmentEconomic developmentEconomic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...
- Diamond modelDiamond modelThe diamond model is an economical model developed by Michael Porter in his book The Competitive Advantage of Nations, where he published his theory of why particular industries become competitive in particular locations...
- Porter's four corners modelPorter's Four Corners ModelPorter’s four corners model is a predictive tool designed by Michael Porter that helps in determining a competitor’s course of action. Unlike other predictive models which predominantly rely on a firm’s current strategy and capabilities to determine future strategy, Porter’s model additionally...
Works
Competitive Strategy- Porter, M.E. (1979) "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy", Harvard Business Review, March/April 1979.
- Porter, M.E. (1980) Competitive Strategy, Free Press, New York, 1980.
- Porter, M.E. (1985) Competitive Advantage, Free Press, New York, 1985.
- Porter, M.E. (ed.) (1986) Competition in Global Industries, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1986.
- Porter, M.E. (1987) "From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy", Harvard Business Review, May/June 1987, pp 43-59.
- Porter, M.E. (1996) "What is Strategy", Harvard Business ReviewHarvard Business ReviewHarvard Business Review is a general management magazine published since 1922 by Harvard Business School Publishing, owned by the Harvard Business School. A monthly research-based magazine written for business practitioners, it claims a high ranking business readership among academics, executives,...
, Nov/Dec 1996. - Porter, M.E. (1998) On Competition, Boston: Harvard Business School, 1998.
- Porter, M.E. (1990, 1998) "The Competitive Advantage of Nations", Free Press, New York, 1990.
- Porter, M.E. (1991) "Towards a Dynamic Theory of Strategy", Strategic Management Journal, 12 (Winter Special Issue), pp. 95-117.
- McGahan, A.M. & Porter, M.E. Porter. (1997) "How Much Does Industry Matter, Really?" Strategic Management Journal, 18 (Summer Special Issue), pp. 15-30.
- Porter, M.E. (2001) "Strategy and the Internet", Harvard Business ReviewHarvard Business ReviewHarvard Business Review is a general management magazine published since 1922 by Harvard Business School Publishing, owned by the Harvard Business School. A monthly research-based magazine written for business practitioners, it claims a high ranking business readership among academics, executives,...
, March 2001, pp. 62-78. - Porter, M.E. & Kramer, M.R. (2006) "Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility", Harvard Business Review, December 2006, pp. 78-92.
- Porter, M.E. (2008) "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy", Harvard Business Review, January 2008, pp. 79-93.
Domestic Health Care
- Porter, M.E. & Teisberg, E.O. (2006) "Redefining Health Care: Creating Value-Based Competition On Results", Harvard Business School Press, 2006.
- Berwick, DM, Jain SH, and Porter ME. "Clinical Registries: The Opportunity For The Nation." Health Affairs Blogs, May 2011.
Global Health Care
- Jain SH, Weintraub R, Rhatigan J, Porter ME, Kim JY. Delivering Global Health. Student British Medical Journal 2008; 16:27.[1]
- Kim JY, Rhatigan J, Jain SH, Weintraub R, Porter ME. From a declaration of values to the creation of value in global health: a report from Harvard University's Global Health Delivery Project. Glob Public Health. 2010 Mar;5(2):181-8.
- Rhatigan, Joseph, Sachin H Jain, Joia S. Mukherjee, and Michael E. Porter. "Applying the Care Delivery Value Chain: HIV/AIDS Care in Resource Poor Settings." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 09-093, February 2009.
Criticisms
Porter has been criticized by some academics for inconsistent logical argument in his assertions. Critics have also labeled Porter's conclusions as lacking in empirical support and as justified with selective case studies.See also
- Cluster developmentCluster developmentCluster development is the economic development of business clusters. The cluster concept has rapidly attracted attention from governments, consultants, and academics since it was first proposed in 1990 by Michael Porter...
- Competitive advantage
- Marketing strategies
- National DiamondNational DiamondStrategic analysis typically focuses on two views of organization. The industry-view and The Resource-Based View . These views analyse the organisation without taking into consideration relationship between the organizations strategic choice and institutional frameworks. The National Diamond is a...
- Porter 5 forces analysisPorter 5 forces analysisPorter's five forces analysis is a framework for industry analysis and business strategy development formed by Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School in 1979. It draws upon industrial organization economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore...
- Strategic planningStrategic planningStrategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. In order to determine the direction of the organization, it is necessary to understand its current position and the possible avenues...
- Strategic managementStrategic managementStrategic management is a field that deals with the major intended and emergent initiatives taken by general managers on behalf of owners, involving utilization of resources, to enhance the performance of firms in their external environments...
- Techno cluster
External links
- Michael Porter currently leads the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School
- Porter proposals for reforming the delivery of health care
- Summary Biography from Global Leaders
- Biography at Harvard Business School Faculty Pages
- Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer's latest article and winner of the 2006 McKinsey Award for the Best Harvard Business Review Article
- Michael Porter Biography at non-profit consulting firm that he co-founded
- Porter Prize
- Michael Porter's Author profile and bibliography from Shelfari
- Michael Porter's Thought Leader profile and bibliography from Monitor China
- Michael Porter's Talent profile from Monitor Talent