Strategic Management and Michael Porter Over the last several decades, there have been a number of business strategies introduced. These are designed to help firms become more competitive and increase their profit margins. One of the more prominent thinkers is Michael Porter. However, some individual believe that his ideas and reputation are unfounded. This is because his philosophies are generally not used by a host of business professors. To fully understand what is taking place requires examining the article titled Strategic Management and Michael Porter. This will be accomplished by focusing on: key ideas from the article, analyzing its strengths / weaknesses and commenting about these areas. Once this happens, is when Michael Porter's contribution to the field of business management will be evident.

The Key Ideas

In the article Harfield (2003) believes that Michael Porter is receiving more credit than he actually provides to modern business philosophy. This was accomplished after...

Every single one of these scholarly sources is showing how Porter is not a major contributor. Instead, they are focused on introducing new theories and using other philosophies to improve a firm's competitiveness. (Harfield, 2003)
As a result, Harfield thinks that Porter's ideas are a myth. Evidence of this can be seen with him saying, "Strategic management, strategy and competitive strategy all seem to meet the criteria of a myth. This means that strategy is the word of choice, even though it has a range of interpretations. Practical guidance abounds in the literature, but somehow the new and improved models keep the field in constant motion." This is illustrating how the author thinks that the entire field of business strategy is nothing more than a fantasy. Therefore, anyone who…