Busting Old Models

This article by Steve Denning in Forbes on Michael Porter’s company, Monitor Group is wonderfully enlightening in terms of how models get reified. It was gratefully passed on by John Thackara, had us jumping around, from that ‘I-knew-there-was-something-broken-about-that’

Basically, it debunks the notion that Porters 5 competitive forces had been used widely by business thinkers since the 90’s. It gained authority because people used it, yet was always managing to get businesses to look in one direction – just the competition – rather than creating something that people would want and pay for. Irony is that it still is used, and still held us as a valid business tool. Whilst it helps you look at competition, its value is limited to just that.

“even a blindfolded chimpanzee throwing darts at the Five Porter Forces framework can select a business strategy that performs as well as that prescribed by Dr. Porter and other high-paid strategy consultants?”

What’s amazing is how long they got away with using it!