Competitive Strategy

What Is Strategy

By: Michael Porter

Narrated by: Deaver Brown

Length: 1 hr and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

This audiobook was created based on Michael Porter's landmark book Competitive Strategy. This was Mr. Porter's synopsis of his book for the Harvard Business Review. This audiobook emphasizes that operational effectiveness is not strategy, that strategy rests on unique activities done by the organization, strategic positioning, the entrepreneurial edge, generic and specific strategies, that sustainable strategic positions require trade offs, that proper fit drives both competitive advantage and sustainability, rediscovering focused strategies, the failure of blurred and straddled strategies, the growth trap, that profitable growth is often niche oriented, the role of leadership in creating and maintaining clear strategies, and that the new entrant and new company advantage is executing clear strategies.

©2010 Michael Porter (P)2010 Christina Brown

Mediocre narration

The book is a classic, although this audiobook is just a summary, the narration was sleep-inducing. It was hard to pay attention.

Read the article!! Do not listen!!

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Recording is not produced well and echos. Narrator's overall rhythm and delivery of well-written sentences is poor and almost impossible to get passed in order to absorb content.

Too Noisy

Background noise is really annoying. You can not focus on the book and it is just 94 minutes (not the whole book)

Poor quality recording, unbearable in headphones

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

I cannot finish listening to this book - compared to the several other books I have listened to via audible, this one stands out in poor quality of the record, for two reasons: First, and mainly, there is an issue with the volume of the narrator's voice. It has not been adjusted in post-production for a uniform level of 'loudness' it seems. So, with a new chapter for example, the narrator starts rather loud and later quiets down a bit - so you adjust your volume settings - and then you get 'screamed at' in loud volume again at the beginning of the next chapter, or where there is a cut in the record when the narrator started again after a break or so. This is very annoying, especially if you are listening to this in headphones.Second, The narrator's performance is just worse than any other I have come across so far. His presentation is a lot more monotonous, making it harder to stay focused on what he is saying. It sounds as though he is totally disengaged with the content of what he is saying.I am going to have to look for another source on Porter.

Any additional comments?

I do not recommend this particular item.

Worst purchase ever

The narrator can't read and doesn't seem to understand what he is reading
The quality is awful
This book was terrible

Mediocre at best

What disappointed you about Competitive Strategy?

Not very insightful, and it seemed to rarely finish a full thought and dive deeply into the subject at hand.

How could the performance have been better?

The recording quality is terrible. It sounds like the it was recorded in the narrator's kitchen. It was a chore to just get through the book.

Any additional comments?

"Start With Why" is a more indepth and much better performed book that covers all of the same ideas with more fleshed out thoughts and follow-up.

Tough to listen to this one

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I struggled to listen all the way to the end of this book. The subject matter is presented pretty dryly- more like a college thesis paper- and clearly not a

What do you think your next listen will be?

Blue Ocean Strategy

Do you think Competitive Strategy needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No.

Boring

The narrator was awful. He did not know how to pronounce Ikea, snoozer! The content was outdated, using JCPenny as a positive example.

Voice is very annoying.

Voice is very annoying. Not entertaining at all. Barely finished listening. Better read paper based book.

basic stuff.

nothing great as such
.expected depper insights..struggling to finish..... narration quality too is average. ..