Michael Porter

Michael Eugene Porter (born May 23, 1947) is an American academic known for his theories on economics, business strategy, and social causes.

He is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School, and was one of the founders of the consulting firm The Monitor Group (now part of Deloitte) and FSG, a social impact consultancy.

He is credited for creating Porter's five forces analysis, which is instrumental in business strategy development at present.

He is generally regarded as the father of the modern strategy field.

He is also regarded as one of the world's most influential thinkers on management and competitiveness as well as one of the most influential business strategists.

His work has been recognized by governments, non governmental organizations and universities.

Michael Porter's father was a civil engineer and Georgia Tech graduate who had also gone on to a career as an army officer.

Michael Eugene Porter received a BSE with high honors in aerospace and mechanical engineering from Princeton University in 1969, where he graduated first in his class and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi.

He received an MBA with high distinction in 1971 from Harvard Business School, where he was a George F. Baker Scholar, and a PhD in business economics from Harvard University in 1973.

His family moved around the United States, as well as to France and Canada, which exposed him to diverse cultures and economic environments.

This nomadic lifestyle of his childhood, in combination with his academic training, led Porter to develop a keen interest in understanding the economic development of regions and countries.

He was particularly intrigued by the differences in economic outcomes and competitiveness across different regions, and he sought to understand the underlying factors that contributed to these disparities.

Porter's interest in economic development led him to develop the concept of the "diamond" model of national competitive advantage, which highlights the interplay between a country's factor conditions, demand conditions, related and supporting industries, and firm strategy, structure, and rivalry.

This framework has been widely adopted by policymakers and businesses alike to understand the factors that contribute to a country's economic success.

In addition to his academic work, Porter has also been a consultant to numerous governments and businesses, providing them with guidance on how to improve their competitiveness and promote economic growth.

He has also been involved in several initiatives aimed at promoting sustainable economic development, such as the creation of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, which seeks to promote economic growth in poor urban areas.

Overall, Porter's childhood experiences of moving around the world, coupled with his academic training and consulting work, have greatly influenced his interest in understanding the economic development of regions and countries.

His contributions to the field of economics have had a significant impact on both theory and practice, and his work continues to shape our understanding of what drives economic growth and competitiveness.

Porter said in an interview that he first became interested in competition through sports.

He was on the NCAA championship golf squad at Princeton and also played football, baseball and basketball growing up.

Porter credits Harvard professor Roland "Chris" Christensen with inspiring him and encouraging him to speak up during class, hand-writing Porter a note that began: "Mr. Porter, you have a lot to contribute in class and I hope you will."

Porter reached the top of the class by the second year at Harvard Business School.

At Harvard, Porter took classes in industrial organization economics, which attempts to model the effect of competitive forces on industries and their profitability.

This study inspired the Porter five forces analysis framework for analyzing industries.

Michael Porter is the author of 20 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 Review article of the year, Professor Porter is the most cited author in business and economics.

Porter wrote "The Competitive Advantage of Nations" in 1990.

The book is based on studies of ten nations and argues that a key to national wealth and advantage was the productivity of firms and workers collectively, and that the national and regional environment supports that productivity.

He proposed the "diamond" framework, a mutually-reinforcing system of four factors that determine national advantage: factor conditions; demand conditions; related or supporting industries; and firm strategy, structure and rivalry.

Information, incentives, and infrastructure were also key to that productivity.

Porter stated in a 2010 interview: "What I've come to see as probably my greatest gift is the ability to take an extraordinarily complex, integrated, multidimensional problem and get arms around it conceptually in a way that helps, that informs and empowers practitioners to actually do things."

Outside In approach also known as Market Based View/Prescriptive approach which falls under the competitive positioning schools of thought are taught through using Porter's Five Forces model, Porter's Generic Strategies and Porter's Value Chain frameworks.

During his illustrious career, he has emphasized the fact that strategy should not be merely chosen based on the majority of votes in a popularity contest and instead termed the essence of strategy is about making choices.

He has delivered public speaking based on the importance of strategy formulation and has served as a consultant to many governments and NGOs devising strategy formulations.

During April 2014, Porter discussed how the United States ranks relative to other countries on a comprehensive scorecard called "The Social Progress Index", an effort which he co-authored.

This scorecard rated the U.S. on a comprehensive set of metrics; overall, the U.S. placed 16th.

Michael Porter defined the two ways in which an organization can achieve competitive advantage over its rivals: cost advantage and differentiation advantage.

Cost advantage is when a business provides the same products and services as its competitors, albeit at a lesser cost.

Differentiation advantage is when a business provides better products and services as its competitors.

In Porter's view, strategic management should be concerned with building and sustaining competitive advantage.