ABSTRACT
The author of Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, Michael E. Porter, was born in 1947 in the city of Ann Arbor in the US state of Michigan. Porter's research has focused on competitive strategy and competitiveness. Competitive Strategy provides businesses with a strong framework for thinking about how to compete in their industries. This framework expands on a journal article Porter had written in the Harvard Business Review in 1979. In the first section of Competitive Strategy, Porter describes the five forces of competition: suppliers, buyers, substitute products, potential entrants, and industry rivals. This framework offers powerful tools for understanding a competitive environment. Since its publication in 1980, Competitive Strategy has remained an important text. At business schools throughout the world, it has been used to train business leaders to understand competitive markets, and has been a basis of Harvard Business School's own course for new chief executives of Fortune 500 companies.
