michael porter

Michael E. Porter (born 1947) is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, based at Harvard Business School where he leads the Institute for Strategy and Competitveness. Professor Porter is a leading authority on competitive strategy and the competitiveness and economic development of nations, states, and regions. He received a B.S.E. with high honors in aerospace and mechanical engineering from Princeton University in 1969, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi. He received an M.B.A. with high distinction in 1971 from the Harvard Business School, where he was a George F. Baker Scholar, and a Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University in 1973. He is a leading contributor to strategic management theory. His main objectives were to determine how a firm, or a region, can build a competitive advantage. Porter's strategic system consists primarily of:

5 forces analysis
strategic groups (also called strategic sets)
the value chain
the generic strategies of cost leadership, differentiation, and focus
the market positioning strategies of value based, needs based, and access based market positions.
Porter's clusters of competence for regional economic development

References

Porter, M. (1979) "How competitive forces shape strategy", Harvard business Review, March/April 1979.
Porter, M. (1980) Competitive Strategy, Free Press, New York, 1980.
Porter, M. (1987) "From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy", Harvard Business Review, May/June 1987, pp 43-59.
Porter, M. (1996) "What is Strategy", Harvard Business Review, Nov/Dec 1996.
Porter, M. (2001) "Strategy and the Internet", Harvard Business Review, March 2001.