Rating: 
Summary: The best ABC book about Business Strategy
Review: This book is a classic! It's concepts will last forever...Sun Tzu would have written a very similar book, if he would have written about businesses. If you want to introduce yourself to business strategy and understand the broad picture, this is the book you must read. The book lets you understand competitive forces within an industry and the strategic steps a company can take to enhance its competitive position. It also describes the main caractheristics of nacent, mature, and declining insutries and available strategies for each case. Although it is a easy to read (but not light) and is very well structured, you must first be familiar with some economics and business administration concepts. You CAN'T talk or even have an opinion (sounds exagerating but it's true... it's the ABC, remember?) about strategy if you have not read this book. A MUST for business analyst, strategist, managers and directors... (I think this phrase appears on the book, but it's true).I bought the spanish version, which is not very good. For spanish speakers....buy the english version if you can.
Rating:
Summary: The keystone
Review: This book is not the easiest to read, but it is the most well thought out book ever in the field of strategy. I use these ideas nearly every day and they shape my thinking in nearly every assignment I perform. I cannot think of another book that has powerfully influenced my mindset when it comes to understanding industries and competitiors. I recommend this highly!
Rating:
Summary: A book that should be referred to over and over again.
Review: This is one of the foundation books of the modern business education. Yes, it was written over twenty years ago and you cannot take a business course anywhere without the term "Porter's Five Forces" not at least being mentioned. But, really, this book is still completely relevant and should be on every businessperson's bookshelf, front and center. For a concept that has so much a place in b-school discussions, you might think the book focuses on the 5-forces, but it is only a small part of the book. It outlines the Generic Competitive Strategies (again, a now well known topic), Competitor Analysis (extremely valuable), Market Signals, Competitive Moves, and so much more. The book is in three parts, General Analytical Techniques, Generic Industry Environments, and Strategic Decisions. There is an appendix on Portfolio Techniques in Competitor Analysis, and a very useful appendix on How to Conduct an Industry Analysis. I think a lot of times this book is not given as active a place in the pantheon as it deserves because so many books and articles are recycling a lot of what was in this book and most don't add much to the discussion. Honestly, this book is worth referring to over and over and over again. It is a tool or a weapon in your competitive war chest that needs to be kept active and in play.
Rating:
Summary: A book that should be referred to over and over again.
Review: This is one of the foundation books of the modern business education. Yes, it was written over twenty years ago and you cannot take a business course anywhere without the term "Porter's Five Forces" not at least being mentioned. But, really, this book is still completely relevant and should be on every businessperson's bookshelf, front and center. For a concept that has so much a place in b-school discussions, you might think the book focuses on the 5-forces, but it is only a small part of the book. It outlines the Generic Competitive Strategies (again, a now well known topic), Competitor Analysis (extremely valuable), Market Signals, Competitive Moves, and so much more. The book is in three parts, General Analytical Techniques, Generic Industry Environments, and Strategic Decisions. There is an appendix on Portfolio Techniques in Competitor Analysis, and a very useful appendix on How to Conduct an Industry Analysis. I think a lot of times this book is not given as active a place in the pantheon as it deserves because so many books and articles are recycling a lot of what was in this book and most don't add much to the discussion. Honestly, this book is worth referring to over and over and over again. It is a tool or a weapon in your competitive war chest that needs to be kept active and in play.
Rating:
Summary: A book that should be referred to over and over again.
Review: This is one of the foundation books of the modern business education. Yes, it was written over twenty years ago and you cannot take a business course anywhere without the term "Porter's Five Forces" not at least being mentioned. But, really, this book is still completely relevant and should be on every businessperson's bookshelf, front and center. For a concept that has so much a place in b-school discussions, you might think the book focuses on the 5-forces, but it is only a small part of the book. It outlines the Generic Competitive Strategies (again, a now well known topic), Competitor Analysis (extremely valuable), Market Signals, Competitive Moves, and so much more. The book is in three parts, General Analytical Techniques, Generic Industry Environments, and Strategic Decisions. There is an appendix on Portfolio Techniques in Competitor Analysis, and a very useful appendix on How to Conduct an Industry Analysis. I think a lot of times this book is not given as active a place in the pantheon as it deserves because so many books and articles are recycling a lot of what was in this book and most don't add much to the discussion. Honestly, this book is worth referring to over and over and over again. It is a tool or a weapon in your competitive war chest that needs to be kept active and in play.
Rating: 
Summary: Still going strong and worth the read...
Review: This is Porter's classic work on business strategy, and the bible of the positioning school of strategy. Sure, the field of strategy has progressed significantly over the past two decades, but is "Competitive Strategy" therefore obsolete? Absolutely not! The models are still valid and highly relevant -- they just need to be augmented with additional new economy strategic concepts. To master a subject one must understand it in many different ways, and so every serious strategist must thoroughly digest this work.
Rating:
Summary: Good but take some of it with a pinch of salt.
Review: This is probably the most comprehensive book on the subject. However, there are a few areas where it's recommendations may not be entirely correct. For example, suppliers have been taken as one of the five competitive forces. After the success of several companies in becoming more competitive by building closer relations with their suppliers (e.g. in implementing JIT), is this still valid? For example, must companies increase the number of suppliers to reduce their power (when so many other companies have been able to reduce their costs by giving one supplier Economies of Scale)? Also, given that 'Quality is Free' (at least up to a point), are the strategies of 'Differentiation' and 'Cost Leadership' really mutually exclusive? Readers are advised to take some of the recommendations with a pinch of salt.
Rating:
Summary: Packed With Knowledge!
Review: This seminal book is a classic and ought to be read by anyone in business. Michael E. Porter's ideas on competitiveness have lost little relevance despite the fact that he first advanced them in this book in 1980. They have now become so much a part of business practice and business language that one reads the book more with a sense of recognition than a sense of discovery. His prose style is clear and straightforward, albeit somewhat plodding, and the book can tend to repeat itself. However, Porter's clarity is a welcome change from the murk you encounter in many other books on business strategy, and his repetition serves a useful pedagogical purpose. We highly recommend this excellent book. If you're in business, it's relevant.
Rating:
Summary: Useful
Review: Useful, but not exactly intellectually demanding. Is this all there is to the theory of business strategy? And how did someone with such lousy (in fact downright ungrammatical) prose land a chair at Harvard?
Rating:
Summary: Required reading for the strategist
Review: When I started as a strategy consultant, Porter's Competitive Strategy and the classic five forces model within provided me with a first look at the process and mindset of the pure strategist. A weekend spent reading this book gave me the framework to intelligently analyze company strategy. I've made it required reading for all new employees. If you are a business student (undergrad or MBA) and for some reason you have not read this, read it and assume everyone you interview with has read it. Use its basic principles in a case study interview and you'll pass with flying colors. Anyone in business of any sort should read this book and try applying it to your own business environment. Its pretty amazing how clear your business issues will appear. Now for the negatives. It is very out of date, so do not use any of his observations on any of the industries mentioned. His case studies towards the end of the book are so irrelevant they are not worth reading, just skimming. Read his justifications carefully, since you may find yourself disagreeing with a significant percentage. Despite its age, this is still the primer on strategy. Read this, and then read everything else.
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