On Porter's Sacred Power of Business Innovation
PROFESSOR PORTER'S SACRED POWER OF INNOVATION BY DAVID ARTHUR WALTERS Paralyzed executives might hang the sign INNOVATE! all over the place. Of course that commonplace sign, just like the Ten Commandments posted on the walls, will eventual be completely ignored. Harvard professor Michael Porter worships the idol Competition with his book, On Competition , a popular self-help business-success book designed for members of the dominant minority who lack the innovative powers of the active creative minority who established private capitalism. Professor Porter's collaboration with businessmen on practical projects has been fruitful; however, given the disjunction between words and deeds that plagues the race, it is doubtful whether Porter's book will have many positive results. The founding fathers of the first great businesses in America were men of deeds, not words. They certainly were not university professors. One or two of them had college degrees and a few were illite...