Understanding Michael Porter
by Joan Magretta, Don Hagen, Erik Synnestvedt · first published 2011
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Clear summary of Michael Porter's core strategy ideas, useful as a grounding introduction for MBA students, people new to business strategy, and engineers who need to talk with executives.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Understanding Michael Porter on Strategy by Magretta. Porter is a well known thinker on business strategy but most people misunderstand him. He has also been derided because his own company (Monitor) failed but his work in strategy…
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2013?” ↗…than Thiel's been in business (i.e. before the late 1980s). The two most prominent are Michael Porter and Warren Buffett. Buffett's annual letters to shareholders make excellent reading, and the book Understanding Michael Porter is a very good summary of Porter's thoughts.
on “Lecture 5, How to Start a Startup: Peter Thiel” ↗Professionally influential: - High Growth Handbook (general company building tips) - Traction (the one by Weinberg and Mares; engineer-friendy guide to marketing and growth) - Understanding Michael Porter (great intro to business strategy) - Monetizing Innovation (pricing advice) Personally influential: - Thinkertoys and Cracking Creativity (how to be more creative) - Atomic Habits (how to establish…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗…or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition - Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant - W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne Understanding Michael Porter - Joan Magretta Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters - Richard Rumelt Hide a Dagger Behind a Smile: Use the 36 Ancient Chinese Strategies to Seize the Competitive Edge - Kaihan…
on “Ask HN: How to enter a highly competitive market?” ↗…sort of a riff on Porter's ideas, albeit more focused. I'm actually a big fan of their approach, and that's really why I put that instead of saying "go read Michael Porter". All of that said, the book Understanding Michael Porter is a good introduction to his approach, and is probably more accessible than jumping right into Competitive Strategy or the others.
on “Ask HN: How can a non-technical co-founder add value?” ↗…read by people who want to do a startup, so that may explain why this idea seems so new to people. P.S. if you're interested in reading more about Porter's ideas I can recommend two books. The first is Understanding Michael Porter, which gives a good summary of the main ideas of his works. The second is Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd, which doesn't address Porter specifically, but covers similar ground.
on “Peter Thiel's Zero to One Might Be the Best Business Book I've Read” ↗…bit generic but to speak with CEOs, it would greatly help to know about strategy and competition. It's a loaded term and here's what I would recommend: 1. Michael Porter's Competitive Advantage [0] or Understanding Michael Porter [1] 2. One of the things that really applies well to tech businesses has been Platform Business Model. This book [2] is a good starting point 3. The Lean startup [3] and Hacking Growth [4] round up…
on “Ask HN: What are some good resources to learn business administration/finance?” ↗Understanding Michael Porter by Joan Magretta and Co-opetition by Barry Nalebuff and Adam M. Brandenburger are the two best books I've ever read about business and strategy in my life... and 20+ years in tech tells me these are relevant…
on “The Irrelevance of Porter’s Five Forces for the B2B Software Industry” ↗Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy This is a commonly cited book about “strategic thinking”. But despite that, it’s one of the few business books that I actually read every page (as opposed…
on “Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?” ↗…the context of how/why the very highest level business decisions are made, as well as some works that deal with tying together strategy and tactical execution (which includes technical initiatives). 1. Understanding Michael Porter - John Magretta. http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Michael-Porter-Essential... Porter's framework is VERY influential in the business world, and having at least a passing familiarity with his work…
on “Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?” ↗The book Understanding Michael Porter was a good introduction to strategy for me. I used it in my EMBA program when I was struggling to grasp business strategy. That gave me a solid grounding in how to think about it and some of the basic…
on “Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?” ↗Some books that I liked: - “Good Strategy / Bad Strategy” : it’s an introductory book to business strategy with tons of examples in the software/hardware business. - “Understanding Michael Porter” is another one about business strategy that I enjoyed. - “Well-Designed: How to Use Empathy to Create Products People Love”, a book about product design with some interviews from the industry (I enjoyed…
on “Ask HN: Learning the business-side of things as a developer?” ↗I compare the article with what I learned from the book “Understanding Michael Porter”, and I wonder if the article talks about the same thing: > “Porter's aggressive modeling around "competition" has misguided organizations into becoming obsessed with destroying the competition.” My…
on “The Irrelevance of Porter’s Five Forces for the B2B Software Industry” ↗