A new book on strategy recently crossed my desk, and I have to say it is an excellent read. It’s called Understanding Michael Porter, by Joan Magretta (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011). Porter’s ideas and concepts are foundational to the subject of competitive strategy, and it is always good to revisit them and clear away much of the confusion and downright nonsense that has been built up around the subject of competitive strategy and its formulation.

As Magretta notes in her book, while Porter’s ideas on competitive strategy have evolved over the years, he has remained true to a few basic and consistent principles—what he calls his frameworks. Furthermore, as a trained economist, Porter emphasizes that business strategy is, at its heart, the art and science of applied microeconomics.

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