Michael Eugene Porter, popularly known as Michael Porter, was born on May 23, 1947, and died on October 23, 2020, a two-time cancer survivor. He was one of the most influential thinkers on Management and competitiveness. Broadly, he wrote about the theories of economics, business strategy, and social causes. His work has been recognized by governments, non-governmental organizations, and universities.
Professor Porter received a BSE with high honors in aerospace and mechanical engineering from Princeton University in 1969, an MBA with distinction in 1971 from Harvard Business School, and a PhD in business economics from Harvard University in 1973. He was a professor at Harvard Business School and one of the founders of the consulting firm The Monitor Group ( now part of Deloitte and FSG). Porter credits Harvard professor Roland Christensen for inspiring him to speak up during class at HBS.
People learn from experience and make reality checks to propound theories. His father was a civil engineer and, for a period, an army officer. The family moved around the United States, France, and Canada, which exposed him to diverse cultures and economic environments. This childhood lifestyle and academic training essentially led Porter to build an interest in understanding the economic development of countries.
At Harvard, Porter took classes in Industrial Organisation economics, where he modeled competitive forces’ effect on industries and their profitability, which inspired the Porter Five Forces Analysis framework in 1979 for analyzing industries. This model was instrumental in business strategy development. He also taught by using Porter’s Five Forces model, Porter’s Generic Strategies, and Porter’s Value Chain frameworks. He said strategy should not be based on votes but on choices. His diamond framework on the competitive advantage of nations was propounded in 1990. Porter also coined the concept of value chain analysis as a groundbreaking idea alongside the healthcare sector and non-profit organizations.
Porter is the author of 20 books and numerous articles on competitiveness, was a six-time winner of the McKinsey Award for the best Harvard Business article of the year, and was the most cited author. He is also criticized for inconsistent logical argument and critiqued for lacking empirical support and justification and postulates from pure microeconomic theory. Nevertheless, Michael Porter is recognized as a leading authority on strategy and competitiveness. His works have generated analytical tools used by business schools, managers, and public policymakers.