Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy

By Joan Magretta · Harvard Business Review Press · 2012

A concise summary of Michael Porter's frameworks (competitive advantage, the value chain, five forces, industry structure, differentiation and relative cost), written with Porter's cooperation by Joan Magretta, his former editor at Harvard Business Review. It corrects common misconceptions about his concepts, uses fresh examples, and adds an original Q&A with Porter answering managers' FAQs.

On the syllabus

Exam CP-311 — Chapters 1 to 7, each for outcomes 1a and 1b: Ch. 1 Competition: The Right Mind-Set; Ch. 2 The Five Forces: Competing for Profits; Ch. 3 Competitive Advantage: The Value Chain and Your P&L; Ch. 4 Creating Value: The Core; Ch. 5 Trade-Offs: The Linchpin; Ch. 6 Fit: The Amplifier; Ch. 7 Continuity: The Enabler.

1 Competition: The Right Mind-Set

2 The Five Forces: Competing for Profits

3 Competitive Advantage: The Value Chain and Your P&L

4 Creating Value: The Core

5 Trade-Offs: The Linchpin

6 Fit: The Amplifier

7 Continuity: The Enabler

Epilogue: A Short List of Implications

Sources

Understanding Michael Porter (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012), Open Library record 9781422160596 — the chapter titles, from the Library of Congress contents note the record carries (the catalogue prints them in sentence case; the syllabus's capitalisation is used), the publisher, year and ISBN
Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy (Google Books) — the publisher's description used for the lead, the imprint (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012) and the ISBN; the book itself has no free copy to read
CP 311 Syllabus, Nov 2026/Mar 2027 (SOA) — the citation, the seven assigned chapters and their learning outcomes