Michael Porter classics on Strategy and Competitive advantage..

It was about 3 weeks back that I was asked by Dr Sukanya, Area chair for Operations at Alliance School of Business Bangalore whether I could engage the subject of Competition and strategy for EPGDM students, a term 3 core paper. It was a challenge that I accepted with open hands. 

Immediately I got to the task of collecting the masterpiece reference books from the all-time strategy expert of the world, Prof. Michael Porter of Harvard Business School from Amazon.

1. Competitive Strategy, published in 1980 by Free Press, 

2. Competitive Advantage published in 1985 again by Free Press and  

3. Competitive Advantage for Nations, 1985, all written by Prof. Michael Porter of Harvard Business school in Boston USA.

Competitive Strategy, published in 1980, I have completed reading about 35% and it was getting tough to proceed and understand. In order not to waste time and acquire a rich different total strategy perspective, I started simultaneously with the second 1985 Porter magnum opus, Competitive Advantage.

I should admit both of the strategy classic books by Prof. Porter are not stuff for fast and easy reading. 500 to 600 page each, these are hard nuts to crack. Each line, each para and each page is heavy and powerful. Unless one reads each para a second or third time, one cannot understand the different concepts explained with great care, poise, detail and  attention by Porter.

I started reading the books by third week of October '22 and first week of November '22 respectively. They are real tough nuts for me to crack, but not others. But I am not going to leave it unread. Understand whatever I can, to whatever depth I can, the rest will follow. The perspective I get will be a great asset for me for the future. I look forward to meet Prof Porter, now 75, in the near future or listen to him in real life.

Today I will get the third volume in this series by Porter, Competitive advantage for Nations from Amazon.

Before the start of the term by mid November and through the next five weeks from 19 November '22, I intend to read the first two all time strategy classics by Porter. 

Once again a humble pranaam before this great Strategy Professor of all time. Though I have read a decently good number of books, including Homer's Illiad and partly Odyssey, of 800 BC which laid the foundation for the growth of western civilisation and the great Greek Plato classics of 350 BC, these two books also belong to the above classics list without any doubt.

George 

Chinnu assembles Kullen chest of drawers

We bought two sets of IKEA Kullen chest of drawers, one for master bedroom and the other for the guest room. I just prodded Chinnu to carry out the assembly at home yesterday. With a little help from us she did an excellent job. 

Our vacation in Wayanad Oct '22 ..

 

Our visit to Wayand from 22 Oct to 26 October was interesting and fun. With help from Prof. Alice Mani from Christ College Bangalore, who came with us, the stay and travel was previously arranged. Also the trips inside Wayanad were earlier arranged by Alice's students. In short, in just three days, we got to visit lot of places. Value for money !!

We as we could visit almost 15 places of interest starting from the Orthodox church in Sulthan battery to the numerous lakes where we did paddle boating, walked on bridges, glass bridges (first time in India), saw dams, waterfalls etc. We also visited the famous tribal settlement, En Ooru, (my village) where we could get in close touch with many tribal lifestyle, customs, foods and musical instruments, not tribals. They have all withdrawn deep inside the forests.

One tribal instrument for sale was the tribal flute, which does not have any holes punched to be covered by the fingers to give beauitiful sound. Instead, here instead of holes, the flute had to be swirled around catching at one end and it would produce a gentle sound that changes in frequency and pitch with the speed and direction.

The glass bridge at Thollaayiram Kandi was an unforgettable visit. After a very grueling climb inside a 4x4 drive jeep almost a distance of 8 kms uphill, we stepped on the glass bridge that gave us a bird's eye view of the surrounding valley. This is India's first and only glass bridge and a very interesting experience. For a person with acrophobia (fear of heights) it could be very dangerous and painful. Similar glass bridge videos I have seen coming out of China.

The food was good, we did same basic shopping,  saw lot of places, museums fish aquariums, the old Hindu temple under which Tippu is said to have escaped to Mysore and the Wayanad heritage museum. Though lot of zip rides, 500m, 1 km long, were available at all the bridge sites at heights of 100-200 ft, we did not undertake any due to lack of interest.

As the famous saying goes, a mind that is stretched by a new experience, be that from travel, visiting a place or reading a book, can never go back to its old state of existence. Our minds have been stretched by this experience and we are looking for more experiences and mind stretches in the coming days.

We undertook this visit for the experience of seeing Wayanad and places around. Even though I have been to Wayand at age 14, father working as Manager in SBI Kalpetta, the memories then were not strong and vivid, except for visits to Malayalam Plantations tea estates near Sulthan Bathery. Now when I visited the place with family, the stay and the moments spent there have become priceless. It has stretched my mind for ever and etched indelible impressions.

As different from earlier years, it is a good sign to understand that the government is taking many sincere efforts to promote tourism in Kerala, the people were friendly and helpful.

George..