Michael E. Porter quotes - page 2

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. (Michael E. Porter)

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

Michael E. Porter

Companies operating in urban communities have a tremendous ripple effect.

Michael E. Porter

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.

Michael E. Porter

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

Michael E. Porter

If people in the organization don't understand how a company is supposed to be different, how it creates value compared to its rivals, then how can they possibly make all of the myriad choices they have to make? Every salesman has to know the strategy - otherwise, he won't know who to call on. Every engineer has to understand it, or she won't know what to build.

Michael E. Porter

The firm achieving focus may also potentially earn above-average returns for its industry. Its focus means that the firm either has a low cost position with its strategic target, high differentiation, or both.

Michael E. Porter

The success of a strategy depends on doing many things well – not just a few – and integrating among them.

Michael E. Porter

The essence of formulating strategy is relating a company to its environment.

Michael E. Porter

The essential complement to the path-breaking book Competitive Strategy, Michael E. Porter's Competitive Advantage explores the underpinnings of competitive advantage in the individual firm.   Competitive Advantage introduces a whole new way of understanding what a firm does. Porter's groundbreaking concept of the value chain disaggregates a company into "activities,” or the discrete functions or processes that represent the elemental building blocks of competitive advantage.

Michael E. Porter

The grandfather of concepts for predicting the probable course of industry evolution is the familiar product life cycle. (Michael E. Porter)

The essential complement to the path-breaking book Competitive Strategy, Michael E. Porter's Competitive Advantage explores the underpinnings of competitive advantage in the individual firm.

Michael E. Porter

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.

Michael E. Porter

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.

Michael E. Porter

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.

Michael E. Porter

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.

Michael E. Porter

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

Michael E. Porter

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.

Michael E. Porter

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.

Michael E. Porter

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.

Michael E. Porter

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. (Michael E. Porter)

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.

Michael E. Porter

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.

Michael E. Porter

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.

Michael E. Porter

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

Michael E. Porter

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Michael E. Porter

Michael E. Porter - Image

Photo: World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0

Occupation: American Educator
Born: May 23, 1947
Quotes count: 65

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