Michael Porter Quotes

The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.

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.

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

Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different.

If a strategy meets a goal: It's working. If a strategy meets a target: It's a success.

If all you're trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it's unlikely that you'll be very successful.

The purpose of the corporation must be redefined as creating shared value, not just profit per se. This will drive the next wave of innovation and productivity growth in the global economy.

Businesses must reconnect company success with social progress. Shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success. It is not on the margin of what companies do but at the center. We believe that it can give rise to the next major transformation of business thinking.

You can't be all things to all people.

A strategy delineates a territory in which a company seeks to be unique.

Operational effectiveness and strategy are both essential to superior performance.

Sound strategy starts with having the right goal

Strategic thinking rarely occurs spontaneously

The best CEOs I know are teachers, and at the core of what they teach is strategy.

Strategy is choice. Strategy means saying no to certain kinds of things.

Change brings opportunities. On the other hand, change can be confusing.

Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity.

The essence of strategy is that you must set limits on what you're trying to accomplish.

The company without a strategy is willing to try anything.

Without a goal analytics is aimless and worthless.

Good leaders need a positive agenda, not just an agenda of dealing with crisis.

Risk is a function of how poorly a strategy will perform if the 'wrong' scenario occurs.

In the vast majority of businesses, there is simply no such thing as “the best.”

Competitiveness is defined as the ability of companies to compete while maintaining or improving the average standard of living. If you are cutting wages to become more competitive, that's not really more competitive. It's raising the skill and the efficiency of those workers so that they can support and sustain that higher wage.

A target should go with every goal. A target is the value that defines success.