Competitive Strategy

Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors

By: Michael E. Porter

Narrated by: Scott R. Pollak

Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Now nearing its 60th printing in English and translated into 19 languages, Michael E. Porter's Competitive Strategy has transformed the theory, practice, and teaching of business strategy throughout the world.

Electrifying in its simplicity - like all great breakthroughs - Porter’s analysis of industries captures the complexity of industry competition in five underlying forces. Porter introduces one of the most powerful competitive tools yet developed: his three generic strategies - lowest cost, differentiation, and focus - which bring structure to the task of strategic positioning. He reveals how competitive advantage can be defined in terms of relative cost and relative prices, thus linking it directly to profitability and presents a whole new perspective on how profit is created and divided. In the almost two decades since publication, Porter's framework for predicting competitor behavior has transformed the way in which companies look at their rivals and has given rise to the new discipline of competitor assessment.

More than a million managers in both large and small companies, investment analysts, consultants, students, and scholars throughout the world have internalized Porter's ideas and applied them to assess industries, understand competitors, and choose competitive positions. The ideas in the audiobook address the underlying fundamentals of competition in a way that is independent of the specifics of the ways companies go about competing.

Competitive Strategy has filled a void in management thinking. It provides an enduring foundation and grounding point on which all subsequent work can be built. By bringing a disciplined structure to the question of how firms achieve superior profitability, Porter’s rich frameworks and deep insights comprise a sophisticated view of competition unsurpassed in the last quarter-century. Competitive Strategy is skillfully narrated by Scott R. Pollak.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2008 Free Press (P)2019 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

Excellent Book

The Best business book I have read so far. A must read for every entrepreneur.

Very well done

A Very well done work. A must read for any serious student of business strategy.

Competitive Strategy

Fantastic read for market insights and analysis. Definitely one to keep in the aresenal!

My best purchase yet!

Amazing job on every front! This book was definitely worth the credit I spent on it. It’s full of helpful information if you’re interested in the business world and it’s strategic functions.

Dated and slow reading

The book was cutting edge and its major points remain just as viable now 40 years later. However industries moved way beyond his examples from the late 70’s and the narration was slow and monotonous.

Academic but still helpful

A highly cited work on corporate strategy. Although dated it still provides valuable insights.

Best dang textbook you could read!

This book is extremely useful. It gives you the essential building blocks of how to compete in a business industry. However, it is DENSE. Information is packed in tightly with little practical examples and not a very entertaining narrative voice.

Great book, poor audio book

This is a very rich textbook, I bought it as an attempt to go around reading the entire huge textbook, but it just doesn't work, very hard to keep track of the context while listening.

Great Book

This is a great book on competition and entering or exiting a market. Other than my firm belief that a company should NOT try to make government a tool to stop or limit competition; (i.e. influencing laws) I think the book was awesome!

text book

hard to get through. written like a text book. examples are quite dated. very general. some gold in the nuggets of information but a lot of dedication and perseverance to find them.