Competitive Advantage：Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance

COMPETITIVEADVANTAGEintroducesawholenewwayofunderstandingwhatafirmdoes.Porter'sgroundbreakingconceptofthevaluechaindisaggregatesacompanyinto'activities',orthediscretefunctionsorprocessesthatrepresenttheelementalbuildingblocksofcompetitiveadvantage.Nowanessentialpartofinternationalbusinessthinking,COMPETITIVEADVANTAGEtakesstrategyfrombroadvisiontoaninternallyconsistentconfigurationofactivities.Itspowerfulframeworkprovidesthetoolstounderstandthedriversofcostandacompany'srelativecostposition.Porter'svaluechainenablesmanagerstoisolatetheunderlyingsourcesofbuyervaluethatwillcommandapremiumprice,andthereasonswhyoneproductorservicesubstitutesforanother.Heshowshowcompetitiveadvantageliesnotonlyinactivitiesthemselvesbutinthewayactivitiesrelatetoeachother,tosupplieractivities,andtocustomeractivities.Thatthephrases'competitiveadvantage'and'sustainablecompetitiveadvantage'havebecomecommonplaceistestimonytothepowerofPorter'sideas.COMPETITIVEADVANTAGEhasguidedcountlesscompanies,businessschoolstudents,andscholarsinunderstandingtherootsofcompetition.Porter'sworkcapturestheextraordinarycomplexityofcompetitioninawaythatmakesstrategybothconcreteandactionable.