What Killed Michael Porter's Monitor - 企管

There is no silver bullet in doing business.

Not 100% agree with this article, but it's worthy to take a look and rethink
how we define "corporate strategy." What the author mentioned in this article
are not new insights at all -- five forces model is simply a static
generalization of status quo of external environment and a zero-sum
competition concept against real business logic. That’s why when doing
business analysis a simple SWOT analysis can always help understanding the
external environment, as well as how the company could utilize its resources
and core competencies to win in its business.

To be honest, I have no idea how monitor went bankruptcy at the end, but I
believe it’s not all because of the five forces model. I wouldn't say the
five forces model is not useful at all. It’s just an analytic tool, which is
simple and effective when observing status quo. Just like financial
statements. Investors may not be able to get any excess profits simply by
reading financial statements which simply summarize the past performance of
companies, but it’s always important to understand “what happened” to the
company.

On the other hand, although product innovation is important, it’s not silver
bullet either. Product innovations are usually not that successful except
those in some extraordinary companies such as Apple. Meanwhile, a company has
to overcome its institutionalization and bureaucracy when it’s getting
larger. In short, it would be very difficult for a company to keep its
momentum on promoting disruptive innovation during its lifespan.

Business is complicated. There is no silver bullet. However, I believe that
observation and plan are as important as execution and innovation. Period.

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