Biography

Michael PORTER

2003 ranking: 2

Michael Porter (b. 1947) is the benchmark: someone with high academic credibility who has managed to create a successful business. But, Porter was always destined to over-achieve - an aeronautical engineer, economist, best-selling author and one of Harvard's youngest tenured professors.

Porter's genius has lain in producing brilliantly researched and cogent models of competitiveness at a corporate, industry-wide and national level. He took an industrial economics framework - the Structure-conduct performance paradigm (SCP) - and translated it into the context of business strategy. From this emerged his best known model: the five forces framework.

His books include Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors (1980); Competitive Advantage (1985); The Competitive Advantage of Nations (1990); and, most recently, Can Japan Compete? (with Hirotaka Takeuchi and Mariko Sakakibara, 2000).

Porter launched his own consulting business Monitor in 1983. Porter was one of the first gurus to refer to himself as a brand. He has managed that brand carefully. His brand - made up of his academic reputation, best-selling books, high credibility - is the cornerstone of the business; but it isn't all of the business. Monitor basically allows Porter to do what he wants. He closes deals and maximizes his appearances. In October 2002, for example, Porter was invited by the government of the UK to prepare a report on UK competitiveness. He delivered his verdict early in 2003.

Porter's five forces framework is part of every MBA program and is b-school fodder. Every five forces flip chart is an ad for Monitor. At a macro level, Monitor's clients have included AT&T and it was involved in Sears' ill-fated move into "everyday low pricing". A day with Michael Porter in the flesh would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. One ranking put Monitor as the 49th biggest consulting firm in the world - just behind Perot Systems.

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