Michael Porter Quotations

Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different.

The essence of strategy is that you must set limits on what you're trying to accomplish.

I teach in the medical school, the School of Public Health, the Kennedy School of Government, and the Business School. And it's the best perch... because most of my work crosses boundaries.

As a multisport athlete, I was always fascinated with competition and how to win. At HBS and later at the Harvard Department of Economics, I was drawn to the field of competition and strategy because it tackles perhaps the most basic question in both business management and industrial economics: What determines corporate performance?

Unfortunately, I'm an engineer. I'm always thinking about, what's the task and how do I get it done? And some of my tasks are pretty broad, and pretty fuzzy, and pretty funky, but that's the way I think.

In a period of economic downturn, the overwhelming instinct is to pare back, cut costs, and lay off. If you do that, do so with your strategy in mind. The worst mistake is to cut across the board. Instead, reconnect and recommit to a clear strategy that will distinguish yourself from others.

Sound strategy starts with having the right goal

The best CEOs I know are teachers, and at the core of what they teach is strategy.

Technology has given us this wonderful opportunity to have low energy costs. We have to seize that, rather than keep debating and discussing and fighting over it.

If your goal is anything but profitability - if it's to be big, or to grow fast, or to become a technology leader - you'll hit problems.

Change brings opportunities. On the other hand, change can be confusing.

The underlying principles of strategy are enduring, regardless of technology or the pace of change.

As minorities and other immigrant groups become more important to our economy, the inner city is a crucible that gives us an early look at phenomena that are going to be spreading more broadly in the economy over time.

A strategy delineates a territory in which a company seeks to be unique.

Good leaders need a positive agenda, not just an agenda of dealing with crisis.

Billions are wasted on ineffective philanthropy. Philanthropy is decades behind business in applying rigorous thinking to the use of money.

Ultimately, health care fails the most basic test. It's not organized around the needs of the patient.

Finally, strategy must have continuity. It can't be constantly reinvented.

Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity.

If all you're trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it's unlikely that you'll be very successful.

The thing is, continuity of strategic direction and continuous improvement in how you do things are absolutely consistent with each other. In fact, they're mutually reinforcing.

There's a fundamental distinction between strategy and operational effectiveness.

Strategy 101 is about choices: You can't be all things to all people.

So companies have to be very schizophrenic. On one hand, they have to maintain continuity of strategy. But they also have to be good at continuously improving.

I think that, too many times, business has been seen as acting in its narrow self-interest rather than, essentially, contributing more broadly to society. I think a lot of that is unintentional; I don't think that many managers are deliberately trying to be unethical or are not trying to be sensitive to social needs.

Millennials are more aware of society's many challenges than previous generations and less willing to accept maximizing shareholder value as a sufficient goal for their work. They are looking for a broader social purpose and want to work somewhere that has such a purpose.

We have to assume that Europe has more legs. As long as we have those pillars, we would expect an upward trend.

It is a real disappointment to see us make so many mistakes. The mistakes cost us the game. We were prepared, but mistakes cost us.

We'll be ready for Thursday's game, but I know I'm thinking of Branson on Saturday. The taste from last year's loss is still there. We want to see Branson again.

Too many academics and business managers are satisfied with the 'good feeling' as argument. I disagree completely.

Being an American doesn't mean that you're guaranteed a high wage. You have to be productive, and we have to create a very low-cost, efficient place to do business, and we've let all that slip in America.

Companies understand that if their employees are sick, it's really expensive. So despite the rhetoric I hear, thank God employers are still in the health-care system.

It's sobering. It suggests that there are relatively few inner cities that are thriving in the sense of job growth.

It's better that there aren't many people. You get more one?on?one time.

I'm really puzzled by why people in societies find it difficult to work collaboratively together with other people in societies.

In America, the problems of poverty and low income, particularly for minorities, are disproportionately focused in the inner cities. Shining a spotlight on the businesses growing in these communities is proof that any community has the potential for entrepreneurship.

In the future, ... buying a single country fund will be akin to buying an Iowa fund or a Massachusetts fund.

Investors need to do the same degree of comparison shopping they would normally do when choosing between funds, which means digging into things like expense ratios, historical performance and holdings.

Operational effectiveness and strategy are both essential to superior performance.

Apple does all of its research and development in America. It has all these brilliant people sitting in Silicon Valley. But until recently, Apple made nothing in America. Zero. And the jobs that were accessible to a good, well-trained worker that knew how to do welding or assembly, none of those jobs had stayed in America. We don't have the workforce.

Efforts to preserve all industries will lower the national standard of living.

The economic distress of America's inner cities may be the most pressing issue facing the nation. The lack of businesses and jobs in disadvantaged urban areas fuels not only a crushing cycle of poverty but also crippling social problems such as drug abuse and crime… A sustainable economic base can be created in the inner city, but only as it has been created elsewhere: through private, for-profit initiatives and investment based on economic self-interest and genuine competitive advantage.

Strategy is choice. Strategy means saying no to certain kinds of things.

Strategic thinking rarely occurs spontaneously

The chief strategist of an organization has to be the leader - the CEO.

The U.S. is facing a structural competitiveness problem that is leading to the weakest economy we have seen in generations.

In the vast majority of businesses, there is simply no such thing as ‘the best,’

You can't be all things to all people.

The ability to change constantly and effectively is made easier by high-level continuity.

Risk is a function of how poorly a strategy will perform if the 'wrong' scenario occurs.

Companies operating in urban communities have a tremendous ripple effect.

Without a goal analytics is aimless and worthless.

Competitiveness is defined as the ability of companies to compete while maintaining or improving the average standard of living. If you are cutting wages to become more competitive, that's not really more competitive. It's raising the skill and the efficiency of those workers so that they can support and sustain that higher wage.

A target should go with every goal. A target is the value that defines success.

Businesses must reconnect company success with social progress. Shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success. It is not on the margin of what companies do but at the center. We believe that it can give rise to the next major transformation of business thinking.

The company without a strategy is willing to try anything.

Health care historically has been a very siloed field that's organized around medical specialties - urology, cardiac surgery, and so forth - and around the supply of these specialty services. The patient is the ping-pong ball that moves from service to service.

The purpose of the corporation must be redefined as creating shared value, not just profit per se. This will drive the next wave of innovation and productivity growth in the global economy.

If a strategy meets a goal: It's working. If a strategy meets a target: It's a success.

The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.

Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value.

Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It's not a matter of being better at what you do - it's a matter of being different at what you do.

You can't have a healthy society unless you have healthy companies that are making a profit, that are employing people and that are growing.

America used to be a uniquely productive, low-cost place to do business. We had efficient infrastructure. We had limited regulation. We believed in the market.