Michael Eugene Porter (born May 23, 1947) is an American businessman and professor at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

. He was one of the founders of the consulting firm

The Monitor Group Monitor Deloitte is the multinational strategy consulting practice of Deloitte Consulting. Monitor Deloitte specializes in providing strategy consultation services to the senior management of major organizations and governments. It helps its clien ...

(now part of

Deloitte Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...

) and FSG, a social impact consultancy. He is credited with creating

Porter's five forces analysis Porter's Five Forces Framework is a method of analysing the competitive environment of a business. It draws from industrial organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and, therefore, the attractive ...

, a widely used management framework. 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 A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

and universities.

Early life and education

Michael Porter's father was a civil engineer and Georgia Tech graduate who had also gone on to a career as an army officer. During Porter's childhood, his family moved around the United States, and to France and Canada. This contributed to Porter's interest in understanding the economic development of regions and countries, and the differences in economic outcomes and competitiveness across different regions. 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 received a BSE with high honors in aerospace and

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1969, where he graduated first in his class and was elected to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

and

Tau Beta Pi The Tau Beta Pi Association (commonly Tau Beta Pi, , or TBP) is the oldest engineering honor society and the second oldest collegiate honor society in the United States. It honors engineering students in American universities who have shown a ...

. He received an MBA with high distinction in 1971 from

(HBS), where he was a George F. Baker Scholar, and a PhD in business economics from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1973. Porter credits Harvard professor Roland "Chris" Christensen with inspiring him and encouraging him to speak up during class. Porter reached the top of his class by his second year at HBS.

Career

Porter developed the Porter five forces analysis framework for analyzing industries, inspired by classes in

industrial organization In economics, industrial organization is a field that builds on the theory of the firm by examining the structure of (and, therefore, the boundaries between) firms and markets. Industrial organization adds real-world complications to the per ...

economics that he took at Harvard. During his career, Porter has emphasized that 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. Porter is the author of 20 books and numerous articles including ''Competitive Strategy'', ''Competitive Advantage'', ''Competitive Advantage of Nations'', and ''On Competition'', and is the most cited author in business and economics.

Competition among nations

Competitive Advantage

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. During April 2014, Porter discussed how the US ranks relative to other countries on a comprehensive scorecard called "The Social Progress Index", an effort which he co-authored. This scorecard rated the US on a comprehensive set of metrics; overall, the US 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. He originally developed the Porter's Five Forces in 1979 which is still widely used as a model to analyse the industry and to estimate whether it would be profitable and ideal enough to enter the industry after carefully examining the bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, competition among existing firms and threat of substitutes. He first wrote and published about Porter's Five Forces in a 1979 article ''How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy'' and has further explained about the Five Forces in his 1980 article ''Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors.'' Porter introduced the concept of

competitive advantage In business, a competitive advantage is an attribute that allows an organization to outperform its competitors. A competitive advantage may include access to natural resources, such as high-grade ores or a low-cost power source, highly skille ...

in 1985. which later went onto become one of the key concepts in management science at present. He also published a book titled ''Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance'' in order to explain the concept of competitive advantage and the book which later went onto become a

bestseller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...

also focuses on

value chain A value chain is a progression of activities that a business or firm performs in order to deliver goods and services of Value (economics), value to an end customer. The concept comes from the field of business management and was first described ...

concept.

Value chain

Porter introduced the concept of value chain analysis in his 1985 book, ''Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance''. The value chain comprises each of the activities, from design through distribution, that a company performs to produce a product; these activities are viewed as the “basic units of competitive advantage".

Health care

Porter has focused on addressing pressing problems in health care delivery in the US 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 ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. Founded in 1812, the journal is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals. Its 2023 impact factor was ...

'' research article, "A Strategy for Health Care ReformToward a Value-Based System" (July 2009), lays out a health reform strategy for the US. His work on health care is employed to address the health care delivery problems in developing countries, in collaboration with Dr. Jim Yong Kim, Dr. Kevin J. Bozic, and others at the

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

and

Harvard School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school at Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Hong Kong entrepreneur Chan Tseng-hsi in 2014 following a US$350 ...

Consulting

Porter acting as a consultant to business, government, and the

social sector In relation to public services, the voluntary sector is the realm of social activity undertaken by non-governmental, not for profit organizations. This sector is also called the third sector (in contrast to the public sector and the private sector ...

. He has been a strategy advisor to US and international companies, including

Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...

, Scotts Miracle-Gro,

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...

, and Taiwan Semiconductor. The Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración of Venezuela was influenced under the guidance of Porter, taught American business administration. Porter has served on two public boards of directors, those of

Thermo Fisher Scientific Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is an American life science and clinical research company. It is a global supplier of analytical instruments, clinical development solutions, specialty diagnostics, laboratory, pharmaceutical and biotechnology s ...

and

Parametric Technology Corporation PTC Inc. (formerly Parametric Technology Corporation) is an American computer software and services company founded in 1985 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was a pioneer in parametric, associative feature-based, solid com ...

. He influence

economic policy ''Economic Policy'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Oxford University Press, Oxford Academic on behalf of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the Center for Economic Studies (University of Munich), and the Paris Scho ...

, working with the

Executive Branch The executive branch is the part of government which executes or enforces the law. Function The scope of executive power varies greatly depending on the political context in which it emerges, and it can change over time in a given country. In ...

and with

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

, and has led national economic-strategy programs in other countries. , he was working with the presidents of Rwanda and South Korea. In 1983, Porter co-founded the

Monitor Group Monitor Deloitte is the multinational strategy consulting practice of Deloitte Consulting. Monitor Deloitte specializes in providing strategy consultation services to the senior management of major organizations and governments. It helps its cl ...

, a strategy-consulting firm acquired by

Deloitte Consulting Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wit ...

in 2013 through a structured bankruptcy proceeding.

Non-profit

Michael Porter has founded four major

non-profit organizations A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

: Initiative for a Competitive Inner City – ICIC, founded in 1994, and which he still chairs, which addresses economic development in distressed urban communities; the Center for Effective Philanthropy, which creates rigorous tools for measuring foundation effectiveness; FSG Social Impact Advisors, a leading non-profit strategy firm which he co-founded with Mark Kramer, serving NGOs, corporations, and foundations in the area of creating social value; and International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurements (ICHOM), which he co-founded in 2012 with Stefan Larsson and Martin Ingvar. ICHOM supports the key strategic agenda items in Porter's Value-Based Health Care Delivery framework by working with patients and leading healthcare providers to create a global standard for measuring health outcomes. He also currently serves on the Board of Trustees of

Politics

An analysis by Porter in collaboration with Katherine Gehl frames the US two-party system as a

duopoly A duopoly (from Greek , ; and , ) is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market, and most (if not all) of the competition within that market occurs directly between them. Duopoly is the most commonly ...

, a business best described as a "political industry", that competes in ways that serve the parties' interests rather than the public good. Gehl and Porter published a Harvard Business School report on the topic, "Why Competition in the Politics Industry is Failing America" (2017), and later a book, ''The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democrac''y (2020).

Honors and awards

In 2000, Michael Porter was appointed Bishop William Lawrence

University Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

, the university's highest recognition awarded to Harvard faculty. He is a six-time winner of the McKinsey Award for the best ''

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a not-for-profit, independent corporation that is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. ''HBR'' is published six times a year ...

'' article of the year.

Criticisms

Porter's work has received criticism from peers within academia for inconsistent logical argument in his assertions. Porter's conclusions have been critiqued as "lacking in empirical support" and as "justified with selective case studies". These critiques assert that Porter fails to credit original creators of his postulates originating from pure microeconomic theory.

Legacy

He has written numerous books on modern competitive strategy for business. His concepts and theories with regards to strategic management, such as Porter's Five Forces, Porter's Diamond model, Porter's Generic Strategies and Porter's Value Chain, are widely taught in universities. 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."

Work

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. The book was voted the ninth most influential management book of the 20th century in a poll of the Fellows of the

Academy of Management An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the g ...

. * * 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", ''

'', Nov/Dec 1996. * Porter, M.E. (2017
"Michael Porter on Creating Competitive Advantage for Yourself"
''HBR Ascend'' * 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 The Strategic Management Society (SMS) is a professional society for the advancement of strategic management. The society consists of nearly 3,000 members representing various backgrounds and perspectives from more than eighty different countries ...

'', 12 (Winter Special Issue), pp. 95–117. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.4250121008/abstract * McGahan, A.M. & Porter, M.E. Porter. (1997) "How Much Does Industry Matter, Really?" ''

'', 18 (Summer Special Issue), pp. 15–30. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(199707)18:1%2B%3C15::AID-SMJ916%3E3.0.CO;2-1/abstract * Porter, M.E. (2001) "Strategy and the Internet", ''

'', 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 2069, pp. 78–92. * Porter, M.E. (2008) "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy", ''Harvard Business Review'', January 2008, pp. 79–93. * Porter, M.E. & Kramer, M.R. (2011) "

Creating Shared Value Creating shared value (CSV) is a business concept first introduced in a 2006 ''Harvard Business Review'' article, ''Strategy & Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility''. The concept was further expanded i ...

", ''Harvard Business Review,'' Jan/Feb 2011, Vol. 89 Issue 1/2, pp. 62–77 * Porter, M.E. & Heppelmann, J.E. (2014
"How Smart, Connected Products are Transforming Competition"
''Harvard Business Review,'' November 2014, pp. 65–88 * Porter, M.E. & Heppelmann, J.E. (2015)
How Smart, Connected Products are Transforming Companies"
''Harvard Business Review,'' October 2015, pp. 97–114 * Porter, M.E. & Heppelmann, J.E. (2017)
Why Every Organization Needs an Augmented Reality Strategy"
''Harvard Business Review,'' November 2017, pp. 46–62 * Porter, M.E. & Kaplan, R.S. (2019)
Measuring Healthcare Outcomes to Deliver Value and Lower Costs"
''HealthManagement.org - The Journal,'' November 2019, pp. 466–467

US political competitiveness

* Gehl, K.M. & Porter, M.E. (2017)
Why Competition in the Politics Industry is Failing America
, ''Harvard Business School'', September 2017.

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. * 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". ''Global Public Health''. 2010 Mar; 5(2):181–88. * 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.

Books and commentaries

* ''Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy''. Magretta, Joan. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2012. * '' The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World.'' Kiechel, Walter III. Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, 2010. * ''The Porter Hypothesis After 20 Years: How Can Environmental Regulation Enhance Innovation and Competitiveness?'' Stefan Ambec, Mark A. Cohen, Stewart Elgie, and Paul Lanoie. Resources for the Future Discussion Paper, Washington DC, 2011. * ''Well-Designed Environmental Regulations will Strengthen Companies' Competitiveness: Reviewing the Porter Hypothesis''. Mitsuhashi Tadahiro (ed.) Japan, 2008. * ''From Adam Smith to Michael Porter: Evolution of Competitiveness Theory.'' Cho, Dong-Sung Cho and Hwy-Chang Moon. Asia-Pacific Business Series, Korea, 2000. * “Retrospective: Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy.” ''Academy of Management Executive,'' May 2002, Vol. 16, No. 2 * ''Perspectives on Strategy: Contributions of Michael E. Porter'', F.A.J. van den Bosch and A.P. de Man (eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1997. * ''O Projecto Porter: A aplicação a Portugal 1993/94''. Lisbon, Portugal: Ministério da Indústria e Energia, May 1995. * Sölvell, Ö. (2015), "The Competitive Advantage of Nations 25 years – opening up new perspectives on competitiveness". ''Competitiveness Review'', Vol. 25 No. 5, pp. 471–481. https://doi.org/10.1108/CR-07-2015-0068. * ''The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democrac''y, Katherine M. Gehl, Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business Review Press, 2020,

References

External links

* Michael Porter currently leads th
Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School
– Accessed October 15, 2012
Porter proposals for reforming the delivery of health care
– Accessed October 15, 2012
Biography at Harvard Business School Faculty Pages
– Accessed October 15, 2012

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, Michael Michael Porter Innovation economists American business theorists American aerospace engineers American educators American academics American economists Writers from Ann Arbor, Michigan Princeton University alumni Harvard Business School alumni 1947 births Living people Harvard Business School faculty Marketing theorists Business educators