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