Australia Missing Global Opportunities says World's Best Thinker on Strategy

Australia is not doing what it takes to position itself in the global economy, says Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, who is universally acknowledged to be the world's leading thinker on strategy.

The author of The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Porter says the "economic rationalist" style of economic management is not sufficient to leverage a country's competitive advantages.

In an interview in the June edition of Australian Institute of Management's Management Today magazine, Porter sets out the theory of "clusters" that is transforming industry policy in the United States, Europe and North Asia.

He describes how he discovered world-wide examples of clusters, and how he was commissioned by President Reagan to develop a more sophisticated understanding of industry formation in the late 1980s, when the US appeared to be losing ground to Japan.

His theory is now seen as a secret to competitive success - whether it be the electronics industry in Japan, the biotech industry in the US, the clothing and fashion industry in Italy or the emerging wine industry cluster in Australia.

"This has not been written in any of Porter's books previously and is now just being reported on a world wide level," said Carolyn Barker FAIM, Director of AIM and Managing Editor of Management Today.

In the interview, Porter also reveals some of the secrets of his exemplary success in management thinking. He is described in The Witchdoctors, an overview of management thinking, as the only person who "owns" an area - in this case strategy. Porter explains that he is both a management academic and an economist, and his ability to traverse both areas has been one reason for his far-reaching effect.

Ms Barker said, "Australian policy makers and enterprises must take Porter's ideas seriously in forming their strategies."

"Higher levels of change have made strategy more difficult, but not rendered it irrelevant. Just because business conditions are becoming more volatile, it does not mean that a key role of managers - thinking strategically - is no longer important," Ms Barker said.

For more information, please call the Australian Institute of Management
on 07 3227 4888.