Understanding Michael Porter

The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy

By: Joan Magretta

Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt

Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

A Distillation of The Most Important Business Thinking of Our Time

Michael Porter’s groundbreaking ideas on competition and strategy have unfolded over three decades and are spread across a dauntingly long list of publications. Every manager can name individual pieces of his work - competitive advantage, the value chain, five forces - but no one, not even Porter himself, has put the entire puzzle together to reveal it as an integrated whole. This lucid, concise audiobook does just that. Written with Porter’s full cooperation by Joan Magretta, his former editor at Harvard Business Review, this book provides an engaging summary of Porter’s ideas and an invaluable synthesis of this important body of work, making clear how each of Porter’s powerful concepts relates to the others and, most important, to the practical realities managers face.

Modern thinking about competition and strategy begins with Porter’s frameworks. They are the most widely used in practice by managers around the world. But as Magretta points out, Porter is often misunderstood and his frameworks misapplied. Magretta’s own wide-ranging business experience allows her to identify the most common of these misconceptions - among them, the deeply held but dangerous belief that competition is about being the best. Understand Porter and you will see why competing to be the best sparks an inevitable race to the bottom.

Understanding Michael Porter will enable all leaders throughout any organization to grasp Porter’s seminal ideas about competition and strategy and deploy them to achieve competitive success.

©2011 Joan Magretta (P)2011 Gildan Media Corp

Fantastic distillation and explanation!

What made the experience of listening to Understanding Michael Porter the most enjoyable?

Michael Porter is one of the most influential business thinkers of the past 40 years. His thinking on the Five Forces and other aspects of both competitive and business strategy are widely studied and used across the world. That said, Dr. Porter's writing IS academic and he has expanded and revised some of his older thinking. The author of this book is a fellow academic and (dare I say?) protege of Dr. Porter.

She has done a masterful job of making his work more accessible and easier to understand PLUS she's indicated when he has revised his thinking over the years. Invaluable book if you want to apply Dr Porter's analytical templates to your business.

Any additional comments?

The voice artist was clear and easy to understand. I listen to my books at about 1.25 speed and even at the higher speed he was easy to follow.

Essential if you want to assimilate Porter quickly

Overall I found this book well written and interesting. It gives the reader a quick and clear understanding of Porter's theories.

Excellent book... but the narrator kills it

Any additional comments?

The content of this book is excellent and it is one of the best books I have read on commercial strategy in a long time. It is a really thorough and clever summary of Porter's work, presented in a really accessible way. I have read a lot of Michael Porter's work previously but I still found that I got a lot out of this in the more 'macro' form it is presented in here. Unfortunately, the narrator makes it really hard to follow at some parts which in my view made this hard to get through. I nearly abandoned the audio and bought the kindle version just so i could stop listening to him.

Horrible and pompous narration

What made the experience of listening to Understanding Michael Porter the most enjoyable?

The book is compelling and full of great information

Would you be willing to try another one of Erik Synnestvedt’s performances?

I would rather get kicked in the head by a horse ... A horse that was formed by merging several horses into one, such that the leg that kicks me made of 10 horses.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The narrator made me want to punch babies and then set the world on fire just to watch it burn.

Awesome book

This is a great book! However, the narrator is not the best. After a while, I became accustomed to the accent and it stopped bothering me.

Strategy 101 - foundational for business people

It is hard to dispute Michael Porter is the master of strategy theory.

For most, his books are dense and hard to read. not because they are poorly written, but because they intellectually profound and full of knowledge. Jon Magretta has succeeded in creating a 'Porter for the rest of us' that makes the teachings of Michael Porter accesible and easy to understand. It is not really 'Strategy for dummies' as the book assumes a good level of business acumen.

While I was already familiar with most of Michael Porter's thoughts I found this book to be entertaining and enlightening. This is not a book I want to listen to during my commute as it would make it impossible or dangerous to take notes. And I took plenty.

The book is well organized and well summarized. I particularly liked the summary at the end and and the FAQs.

Absolutely must read for anyone leading a business.

if you love Porter's work, you'll enjoy this book

excellent summary of Porter's body of work. I listen to it regularly when thinking about strategic issues

Best strategy book you could buy

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have already purchased 5 extra editions for colleagues and friends as a must read. This book greatly links strategy and the daily decisions we make on what to do.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Understanding Michael Porter?

I never experienced strategy work to provide value - it has seemed more as management exercises than a roadmap for the organisation. I always felt that Lean, Process optimization etc. was overkill. Rather my focus has been on delivering value to customers with a pragmatic approach.
This book - through a well communicated explanation of Porters strategy work - makes a compelling case for strategy work with its clear link between customer value, activities performed and company profitability. The concepts of Trade-off and fit are extremely powerful-
A must read for anyone genuinely interested in understanding the links between company profitability, customer value and activities performed within the organisation.

Have you listened to any of Erik Synnestvedt’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I really dislike the narration.

Great information.

Great information. But, an incredibly annoying narrator whose style becomes more and more annoying as time goes by.

excelente audiolibro. lo recomiendo ampliamente.

contiene lo más importante del libro de Porter y además complementa el libro con información actual muy valiosa