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Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.

Michael Porter

Good leaders need a positive agenda, not just an agenda of dealing with crisis.
MICHAEL PORTER

Deal Goodness Leadership Need Positive
Sound strategy starts with having the right goal
MICHAEL PORTER

Goal Right Sound Start
A target should go with every goal. A target is the value that defines success.
MICHAEL PORTER

Definition Goal Success Target Value
Risk is a function of how poorly a strategy will perform if the ‘wrong’ scenario occurs.
MICHAEL PORTER

Function Performance Poor Risk Strategy Wrong
Strategic thinking rarely occurs spontaneously.
MICHAEL PORTER

Occur Rare Strategy
Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value.
MICHAEL PORTER

Activity Choice Competition Deliver Different Unique
Ultimately, health care fails the most basic test. It’s not organized around the needs of the patient.
MICHAEL PORTER

Basic Care Failure Health Need Patient
The best CEOs I know are teachers, and at the core of what they teach is strategy.
MICHAEL PORTER

Best Myself Strategy Teacher
A strategy delineates a territory in which a company seeks to be unique.
MICHAEL PORTER

Company Seek Strategy Territory Unique
If a strategy meets a goal: It’s working. If a strategy meets a target: It’s a success.
MICHAEL PORTER

Goal Inspirational Strategy Success Work
If your goal is anything but profitability – if it’s to be big, or to grow fast, or to become a technology leader – you’ll hit problems.
MICHAEL PORTER

Big Goal Leadership Problem Profit Yourself
Change brings opportunities. On the other hand, change can be confusing.
MICHAEL PORTER

Change Confusion Hands Opportunity
The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.
MICHAEL PORTER

Choice Essence Strategy Yourself
Strategy is choice. Strategy means saying no to certain kinds of things.
MICHAEL PORTER

Choice Decline Kind Strategy
I teach in the medical school, the School of Public Health, the Kennedy School of Government, and the Business School. And it’s the best perch… because most of my work crosses boundaries.
MICHAEL PORTER

Boundary Government Medicine Teaching
Health care historically has been a very siloed field that’s organized around medical specialties – urology, cardiac surgery, and so forth – and around the supply of these specialty services. The patient is the ping-pong ball that moves from service to service.
MICHAEL PORTER

Health History Medicine Organization Patient Service

Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.

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Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.

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