Strategy fails most often when a company mistakes operational improvement for a position worth defending, and that distinction is what this collection keeps returning to.
The volume gathers influential Harvard Business Review articles on competitive positioning, trade-offs and the discipline of choosing what not to do, with Michael E. Porter's thinking at its centre. Each article is short, closely argued and built around examples from real companies, so the book serves as a course reader and as something to revisit before a planning cycle. What it supplies is frameworks and the reasoning behind them rather than prescriptions.
How the collection reads:
• Landmark articles on competitive advantage and strategic positioning
• The case for trade-offs and for deliberate choices about what a firm will not do
• Self-contained pieces that suit reading one at a sitting
• Material used widely in business school courses and management training
A practical choice for managers, founders and business students, available at Boipoka.