I love the illustration and the humor in this book. It was able to present the critical ideas of Michael Porter in a concise and entertaining way.

Business professionals who are pressed for time and wanted to understand strategy will benefit from this book.

Since this is like a graphic novel, the story makes it easy to understand the main lessons. If I ever get a chance to read something about the Five Forces I would definitely remember the characters in this book.

Kudos as well to HBR Press for coming up with this publication. It’s unique.

WHAT IS STRATEGY?

Where business books are concerned, business strategy is a very crowded space. So vital is the subject that there is no shortage of material on the matter, making it all the more challenging to identify genuinely good contributions to the literature.

It’s with this in mind that Joan Magretta, Emile Holmewood, and Heinrich Zimmermann’s What is Strategy? An Illustrated Guide to Michael Porter will likely stand out. On the one hand, it promises to be an essential reader on those concepts of competitive strategy developed by the esteemed Michael Porter, distilling these to their simplest. On the other hand, the book seeks to accomplish this feat by basically presenting competitive strategy in...comic book format.

Sort of. It’s not exactly a comic book, but it’s close enough. Still, don’t knock it. From the author’s note contained in the book:

This is not your father’s business book. It’s aimed at readers in all types of organizations who learn visually as well as verbally. It’s aimed at time-starved readers who want to absorb important content fast. It’s aimed at readers who are serious about learning but who also enjoy a good laugh.

For such a use case, the book certainly works. It takes Porter’s hallmark concepts of competitive strategy (with his blessing and guidance) and packages them in a way that’s easy to grasp even by those without a business background. In fact, the book itself is something that can be browsed in one short sitting (or a few, if you want to take your time).

If anything, the illustrations could have benefited by being more comic book-like in terms of layout. Occasionally the sequencing of the text is non-intuitive, as anyone who has ever spent time reading comics can readily point out. Nevertheless, these do not diminish in any way the book’s ability to convey the concepts of competitive strategy contained therein in a cogent manner.

Surely, there are those who will find this book strange, if not off-putting. Doesn’t it dilute too much? Why illustrations and not, say, infographics? By way of rejoinder: with regard to the former, it dilutes just enough; with regard to the latter, well, it works fine as it is.

Other books have shown how a less straight-laced perspective and a more visual approach can be effective at conveying the basics of complex subjects. What is Strategy? carries on in that tradition as a book from which the uninitiated can quickly grasp the rudiments of competitive strategy—and from which the more experienced can be reminded of the core concepts that really matter.

I am happy that I read this book. This is really very good with nice illustrations for explaining. Anyone who is a beginner in a business who thinks of competition and just winning it should read it. The explanation about strategy and other concepts were very easy to understand. I don't want to give any spoilers. This is a very short book and an easy read.

My goodreads review is online: Through a Netgalley read, I had access to this book. I think it is a very clear and straight to the point book presented in a different way. I would suggest to include a bit more concepts

Loved the idea but hard to read once diving in — the cartoon format just didn’t work for me as far as really bringing the material to life. Glad to have had the chance to check it out though!

Micheal Porter is a giant in the business world and the strategic planning / competitiveness world. This short graphic novel is a great introduction and overview to his works. The animal characters are endearing, but at times a little distracting, and I loved the blocky infographic art style. It really worked well to help visualize these somewhat abstract ideas. A lot to chew on here for executives and entrepreneurs (especially how a lot fo received wisdom - like shareholder value! - is misguided).

I just loved the idea of communicating to the business audience using an easy-to-understand graphic format. Capturing the intangibles of business is certainly challenging and I found the illustrations to be a great framework for the reader to better understand what strategy is and why it's such an important business concept. I can definitely see the graphics being used to help strategists explain critical issues to their colleagues (or clients) who are confused by, or less familiar with, this content.

I found the conversations that ran through the story allowed various perspectives to be aired and common misconceptions dealt with by Prof. Porter. Eg: his starting point when presented with the company's strategy was,” Sorry to disappoint you folks, but that’s not a strategy not even close.”

I’ve found that strategy is one of those words.

it's used in so many different ways.

Here Prof. Porter differentiates corporate strategy from competitive strategy then unpacks the latter. In many instances the incorrect use of the word muddies the waters rather than creating a common framework for everyone to work to.

There are so many examples where the author and illustrator communicate difficult thoughts and common mistakes in smaller, bite-sized pieces. This makes them so much easier to digest. Eg: the importance of, “..creating unique value for the customers you seek to serve is contrasted with a widely held practice of “..competing to be the ‘best’ which the Professor emphasises is, “not a strategy. It’s a trap.” Whereas the consequences of setting a goal of being the best is that businesses chase the same customers, compete on the same dimensions, all look very similar to customers and so buying decisions are based on price with profits plummeting) the opposite is true if the goal is to invest in creating unique value (ie: the customer profile will be different, different dimensions will appeal, the product offering will look different and so prices will vary and so too the profitability).
.
Michael Porter is world-renowned for his strategic thinking and this format is likely to introduce his work to a new audience, which will be the benefit of many businesses. I do hope it increases the reader's curiosity and that it encourages them to dig deeper into this subject matter. I’m not confident though that it can be a stand alone resource for a new manager about to lead their first strategy.

I hope to see more of this approach going forward as I think there is a place for a different style of business book; one that is not so copy intensive, one for visual readers. Well done to author Joan Magretta, and illustrator Emile Holmewood for creating something new and piquing my interest. I really do hope to see more from you.



I can’t claim that I really related to the animal characters, but they are fun.

I think it would be probably easier to read/follow the story in a hard copy rather than as an e-book.

I highly recommend this book!

With thanks to #NetGalley, Harvard Review Press and the author for my free advanced reader copy to review in exchange for an honest opinion.

Loved the book. This is one of the examples of new way to read about business. Interesting examples and very straightforward explanation of business concepts.