--- product_id: 52232646 title: "Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy" price: "NT$2013" currency: TWD in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.tw/products/52232646-understanding-michael-porter-the-essential-guide-to-competition-and-strategy store_origin: TW region: Taiwan --- # Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy **Price:** NT$2013 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy - **How much does it cost?** NT$2013 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tw](https://www.desertcart.tw/products/52232646-understanding-michael-porter-the-essential-guide-to-competition-and-strategy) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Competitive advantage. The value chain. Five forces. Industry structure. Differentiation. Relative cost . If you want to understand how companies achieve and sustain competitive success, Michael Porter’s frameworks are the foundation. But while everyone in business may know Porter’s name, many managers misunderstand and misuse his concepts. Understanding Michael Porter sets the record straight, providing the first concise, accessible summary of Porter’s revolutionary thinking. Written with Porter’s full cooperation by Joan Magretta, his former editor at Harvard Business Review , this new book delivers fresh, clear examples to illustrate and update Porter’s ideas. Magretta uses her wide business experience to translate Porter’s powerful insights into practice and to correct the most common misconceptions about them—for instance, that competition is about being unique, not being the best; that it is a contest over profits, not a battle between rivals; that strategy is about choosing to make some customers unhappy, not being all things to all customers. An added feature is an original Q&A with Porter himself, which includes answers to managers’ FAQs. Eminently readable, this book will enable every manager in your organization to grasp Porter’s ideas—and swiftly deploy them to drive your company’s success. Review: A thoughtful summary of much of Porter's work - This book provides a thoughtful summary of much of Porter's work. It describes and evidences what he meant, and didn't mean. Key contributions include the review of the five forces model, and Porter's five criteria for good strategy. There is also a transcript of an interview in which Porter reflection his own work and answers questions on how it should be applied in different circumstances. The book concludes with a useful glossary of some of the key terms and concepts underpinning Porter's work. Review: Great book - Great book with insight outside the theory Gives a great model of business analysis to pirterscire text. ## Features - Pages Count - 256. Binding type - Hardcover. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | 65,456 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 4,014 in Business, Finance & Law | | Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 912 Reviews | ## Images ![Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71lTvDTij-L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A thoughtful summary of much of Porter's work *by M***X on 28 June 2020* This book provides a thoughtful summary of much of Porter's work. It describes and evidences what he meant, and didn't mean. Key contributions include the review of the five forces model, and Porter's five criteria for good strategy. There is also a transcript of an interview in which Porter reflection his own work and answers questions on how it should be applied in different circumstances. The book concludes with a useful glossary of some of the key terms and concepts underpinning Porter's work. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great book *by R***E on 30 July 2018* Great book with insight outside the theory Gives a great model of business analysis to pirterscire text. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ An easy to understand introduction to the main strategy guru *by P***R on 19 May 2015* Michael Porter shook up the world of strategy and big business with two books - Competitive Strategy in 1980 and Competitive Advantage in 1985. Since then, he has become the established view and other experts have tried to make their names by misrepresenting his work and arguing against these misrepresentations. What's covered in the book will be taught in every business school and it certainly was in my MBA studies although, by then, I'd read the original books. He fought back against his critics with a famous article in the Harvard Business Review called "What is Strategy" and also updated his five forces commentary in another article. This book summarises his main ideas in a very easy to read format that avoids much of the detail that made the original books a chore for all but the most interested or dedicated. It helps to answer the big question of why consistent profit performance varies across industries and within industries. His five forces model explains how some industries find their profits competed away by companies they buy from or sell to, by substitute products that achieve the same goals, by new entrants who appear at the first sign of excess profits or by competitive rivalry that forces down prices and forces up costs to serve. His work on competitive advantage through the value chain analyses how firms can achieve cost advantages or differentiation so that profitability between companies within an industry varies from the strongest to the weakest. These are explained in the book along with the latest ideas on differentiation and positioning that come from the "What Is Strategy article. It also includes a 20 plus page interview between the author and Michael Porter. There is no substitute for going back to his original works that still stand up remarkably well except for outdated examples. However those books are demanding to read and this makes the ideas much more approachable. It's an excellent summary for an MBA student or a senior manager in a good sized business who gets involved in strategic planning sessions. It's also a good refresher for anyone who has formally studied strategy. I'm less ready to endorse it for entrepreneurs and small business owners. If that's you, then I think you need both a wider context and a deeper understanding of what's involved in finding a niche and differentiating the business from competitors. One option is to go and hire an expert but I'd like to be able to point you towards a book first so that you can properly engage in any debate. At the moment, I can't think of one which is frustrating. About my book reviews - I aim to be a tough reviewer because the main cost of a book is not the money to buy it but the time needed to read it and absorb the key messages. 4 stars means this is a good to very good book. Paul Simister, a business coach who helps business owners who are stuck, get unstuck. ## Frequently Bought Together - Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy - 7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy - Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.tw/products/52232646-understanding-michael-porter-the-essential-guide-to-competition-and-strategy](https://www.desertcart.tw/products/52232646-understanding-michael-porter-the-essential-guide-to-competition-and-strategy) --- *Product available on Desertcart Taiwan* *Store origin: TW* *Last updated: 2026-05-30*