Name: Competitive advantage
ISBN: 9780684841465

What Hacker News says

vmurthyJul 2020

The second part of your need is interesting. I'm being a bit generic but to speak with CEOs, it would greatly help to know about strategy and competition. It's a loaded term and here's what I would recommend:

1. Michael Porter's Competitive Advantage [0] or Understanding Michael Porter [1]

2. One of the things that really applies well to tech businesses has been Platform Business Model. This book [2] is a good starting point

3. The Lean startup [3] and Hacking Growth [4] round up the tech books that I have benefited from.

3b. Warren Buffet's letters are a classic to learn about businesses and help when you are dealing with CXOs.

4. With these basics in place, I would recommend Stratecherry - the blog and Economist for keeping up with the current developments in the field.

Good luck!

[0] https://www.amazon.com.au/Competitive-Advantage-Creating-Sus...

[1] https://www.amazon.com.au/Understanding-Michael-Porter-Essen...

[2] https://www.amazon.com.au/Platform-Revolution-Networked-Tran...

[3] https://www.amazon.com.au/Lean-Startup-Innovation-Successful...

[4] https://www.amazon.com.au/Hacking-Growth-Fastest-Growing-Com...

FYI, I come from a similar background. Was a techie for 9+ years before switching to an MBA and can personally attest to the materials given above :)

thread

mindcrimeJun 2014

Wow, lots of good recommendations in this thread already... I skimmed them, but apologies in advance for any dupes:

I'd suggest some general "business strategy" works that will help you understand the context of how/why the very highest level business decisions are made, as well as some works that deal with tying together strategy and tactical execution (which includes technical initiatives).

1. Understanding Michael Porter - John Magretta. http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Michael-Porter-Essential...

Porter's framework is VERY influential in the business world, and having at least a passing familiarity with his work is important at the higher levels. Going straight to the primary sources (Porter's books) can be a bit daunting as they are big, dry, and academic and not exactly what you'd call "page turners". This book is a fairly solid overview of the key elements of Porter's approach, and a good read before diving into the meat of Porter's works.

2. Competitive Strategy - Michael Porter. http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Strategy-Techniques-Indust...

3. Competitive Advantage - Michael Porter. http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Advantage-Creating-Sustain...

4. On Competition - Michael Porter. http://www.amazon.com/On-Competition-Updated-Expanded-Editio...

5. Good Strategy, Bad Strategy - Richard Rumelt. http://www.amazon.com/Good-Strategy-Bad-Difference-Matters/d...

6. Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne. http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Ocean-Strategy-Uncontested-Compet... This book has its critics, but I think it's a worthwhile read. Some people argue against the whole idea of a "blu e ocean" market, but even if the authors aren't 100% right about everything, I think the lines of thinking this book fosters are valuable in a general sense.

7. The Discipline of Market Leaders. http://www.amazon.com/Discipline-Market-Leaders-Customers-Do... I think very highly of this book and the author's approach to strategy. It's not radically different from the Porterian approach in some ways, but I'd say it's narrower in focus and simpler. The big takeway is the idea (which should be obvious, but often isn't) that "you can't be everything to everyone". The authors push a model of choosing a market discipline to appeal to a certain type of customer, and making that discipline the core of your business.

8. The Machine That Changed The World. http://www.amazon.com/Machine-That-Changed-World-Revolutioni... Have you ever wondered what this "lean" stuff is all about? Or why Toyota is so revered by business leaders? Here's a good place to find the answer to those questions.

9. Working Knowledge- Davenport and Prusak. http://www.amazon.com/Working-Knowledge-Thomas-H-Davenport/d... Perhaps the seminal book on Knowledge Management, or at least one of them. If you want to understand the importance of knowledge in an organization, this is a very valuable read.

10. Outside Innovation - Patricia Seybold. http://www.amazon.com/Outside-Innovation-Customers-Co-Design...

11. The Future of Competition. http://www.amazon.com/Future-Competition-Co-Creating-Unique-...

12. The Balanced Scorecard. http://www.amazon.com/Balanced-Scorecard-Translating-Strateg...

13. Strategy Maps. http://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Maps-Converting-Intangible-Ta...

14. The Strategy Focused Organization. http://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Focused-Organization-Scorecar...

15. If Only We Knew What We Know. http://www.amazon.com/Only-Knew-What-Know-Knowledge/dp/14516... Another seminal title in the Knowledge Management world.

16. Common Knowledge - Nancy Dixon. http://www.amazon.com/Common-Knowledge-Companies-Thrive-Shar... Another seminal title in the Knowledge Management world.

17. Winning The Knowledge Transfer Race. http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Knowledge-Transfer-Michael-Eng...

thread

mindcrimeApr 2013

Is it possible? Yes. Is it easy? No. How do you do it? If I had a magic formula for that, I'd be rich. But...

There is a large body of work "out there" on competitive strategy, differentiation, positioning, market segmentation, etc. I hate to say "go off and read this list of 15 books" but I don't think I can do justice to this topic in a HN comment. So, I will, indeed, just give you a list of books to consider.

Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore

The Four Steps To The Epiphany - Steve Blank

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind - Al Ries, Jack Trout and Philip Kotler

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - Al Ries, Jack Trout

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding - Al Ries, Laura Ries

REPOSITIONING: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis - Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin

Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition - Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant - W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne

Understanding Michael Porter - Joan Magretta

Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters - Richard Rumelt

Hide a Dagger Behind a Smile: Use the 36 Ancient Chinese Strategies to Seize the Competitive Edge - Kaihan Krippendorf

Outthink the Competition - Kaihan Krippendorf

Competitive Strategy - Michael Porter

Competitive Advantage - Michael Porter

On Competition - Michael Porter

Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value With Customers - C. K. Prahalad, Venkat Ramaswamy

Yeah, it's a lot of stuff. I won't say you need to read all of that, but everyone of those books is something that's influenced my thinking, and that I've learned a lot from. If I had to pick one to start with, I'd say the Steve Blank book - The Four Steps to the Epiphany. He does a pretty good job of giving an overview of market segmentation strategies, which you'll probably want to pursue if you're entering a crowded market.

After reading Blank, I'd go for Crossing the Chasm next, then the whole series by Trout, Ries and Rivskin, etc. The Michael Porter stuff is good, but somewhat dry and academic. The Understanding Michael Porter book is a good introduction to his stuff that is a little easier to digest.

Also note a subtle, but important point... there are two different kinds of "positioning* you'll hear people talk about in these kinds of discussions. On the one hand, you have "marketing positioning" as described in the books by Ries, Trout, et al. This is more about the message you send to the market about your firm and your offerings. Then you have Michael Porter "structural positioning" stuff that relates to how your firm "fits" in with your competitors vis-a-vis the "five forces" and the rest of Porterian strategic analysis. One will influence the other, but they are really two different things. Note that anytime somebody starts telling you anything about your "positioning".

And then you have what Bob Parsons (of GoDaddy fame) said "Don't be afraid to enter a crowded market, just be better than everybody else".

thread

brentApr 2008

http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Advantage-Creating-Sustain...

Should I send a copy of this to 37 signals? I thought this was business 101. If you don't have a sustainable competitive advantage you will undoubtedly suffer. 37 signals doesn't have said advantage.

thread

jacques_chesterMar 2015

> one of the most profound insights in Thiel's excellent book, Zero to One.

Which was an insight in Blue Ocean Strategy (Kim & Mauborgne, 2005).

And before that, if you squint, in Competitive Strategy (Porter, 1980) and Competitive Advantage (Porter, 1980).

And the B-school theorists basically got their ideas by peeking over the fence of the Economics dept at how monopolies are formed and abuse their power and saying "hey, let's teach that to our students".

thread

chegraOct 2010

This is a paraphrase of some of the things Michael Porter said in his book,Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance - http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Advantage-Creating-Sustain... : There is not much gain in having a first mover advantage by itself. But, if the first mover locks up key resources for success then that gives a sustainable advantage. This can be done by fast followers also. The competitive advantage strategy should be to capture resources so that competitors can't access them. For instance, he mentioned Walmart strategy of buying key locations before their competitors figure out that these location were necessary for success.

Other means of locking in resources may include contracts with suppliers and with authorities or patents. The main theme is to block competitors from resources they need for success.

thread