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Compare and Contrast: Michael Eugene Potter & Barbra Kellerman

Presented to

Perry Barton

Team project (MGMT2215-(41930))

By

Malika Zisengwe

Date

03/30/2015

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This essay is going to be a compare and contrast of Michael Eugene Potter
and Barbra Kellerman. I will begin by explaining the importance of the two as
individuals, Background, as well as my personal opinion on the two. After
elaborating on the two I will be able to tell you the difference between the two as
well as what I think makes them alike.
Michael Porter was born May 23,1947 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He went to
Princeton University in 1969 where he made high honors in aerospace and
mechanical engineering. In 1979 he received an MBA with high distinction from I
agree that unions are still needed today to help with the bargaining wages, benefits
and job security. I like the point that you made that we should keep unions Harvard
Business School. He was also a George F. Baker Scholar and a PHD in business
economics from Harvard in 1973. A fun fact about Michael Porter is that he is likes
sports such as golf and also played other sports while at Princeton while maintaining
above average grades. This motivates me because it shows anything is possible and
there can be no excuses because everyone gets the same 24 hrs. The difference is
what you do with that 24hrs.
Michael Potter is known for a lot of good things today. Through my research
Ive noticed that he has done a lot in his lifetime. Michael Porter is an author of
nineteen books mainly dealing with business. An example of a few are competitive
strategy, competitive advantage as well as on competition. Other than being an
author Michael porter is also an economist, researcher, advisor, speaker, as well as
a teacher. Michael Porter is currently working for Harvard Business School. From him
working there, he has brought economic theory and strategy to use on the most
difficult problems facing organizations, markets and civilizations. His great work and
in-depth studies is widely noticed in governments, organizations, and academic
circles around the world. Michael Porter has received rewards and is also the highest
cited scholar today in economics and business.
As I stated above Michael Porter has written nineteen books. The book on
competitive advantage was basically speaking on how our actions being selfjustifying or attacking can be used to create a defendable position in an industry,
you can catch the hang of it with competitive forces and generate a superior return
on investment. He made this competitive advantage model so that it can be used in
three ways; which were cost leadership, differential, and focus. With the cost
leadership approach it deals with a companys setting out to be a low cost producer
in its industry. The next step is a cost leader must achieve parity or at lease average
in the bases of differentiation, even though it relies on cost leadership for its
competitive strategy; if more than one company aim and is often achieved by
economies of scale. With differentiation, this is when an organization wants to be
unique in its industry along some dimensions that are widely by buyers.
Differentiation cannot ignore its a cost position and this is one of the main
difference from the first approach. Areas of differentiation can be product,
distribution, sales, and marketing, service, image and so on and so forth. The last
approach is focus. This is when an organization sets out to be best in an industry.

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The competitive strategy book touched on three things which are General
analytical techniques, Generic industry environments, and Strategic decisions. This
book touches on the five forces of competition and generic competitive strategies.
The five forces of competition are the buying power of customers. This basically is
one of the sources that determine industry profitability. Buying power consist of the
buyers concentration to organization concentration ratio, bargaining leverage,
buyer volume, buyer switching costs relative to organization, buyer information
availability, threat of backward integration, availability of existing substitute
products , buyer price sensitivity, and differential advantage of industry products.
BY using the steps of buyer power you using your bargaining power as a powerful
buyer.
The next factor in the five forces of competition is the power of suppliers. This
step is quiet similar to the power of the customer factor. Supplier power consist of
the supplier switching cost relative to organization switching cost. It also looks at
the degree of differentiation of inputs presence of substitute inputs, Supplier
concentration, Threat of forward integration, cost of inputs relative to selling price of
the product. Power suppliers can crowd revenues out of consumers and the
purchasers consumers by creating a leading point which gives most important
intentional control over the entire industry. Power of suppliers can be used to
increase your profitability but can be used against you to steal your profit. To
increase your profitability using power of supplier you can increase your prices and
capture more margin from customers without losing sales to lower priced
competitors or you can stop the competitive process forcing down prices.
The next factor is the threat of new entrants coming into the industry. Threat
of new entry consist of supplier concentration, switching costs or sunk cost, Threat
of forward integration, Capital requirements, Access to distribution, Absolute cost
advantages, Learning curve advantages, Expected retaliation by incumbents . This
does not only apply to big business but also small businesses as well. This can be
injuring if your market is fixed size and suddenly you find that you have to share it
with a competitor who has decided that they see an opportunity. New entrants will
be attracted to a market because when there is an indication that a market is
growing that will trigger interest from an entrepreneur who believes that there is
money to be made from taking part in your market. Businesses making good profits
will persuade entrepreneurs that this as an opportunity too good to miss.
There are also several barriers to entry. These include Entrants have to make
a big financial investment to buy equipment, in research and development in stocks
to build a brand. This means that you must have capital in order for it to work
properly. The next barrier is that established firms have cost advantages unavailable
to new entrants. The third barrier is there are supply restrictions, either from
suppliers or outgoing to customers which make it more difficult for new entrants to
become established. The fourth barrier is high customer loyalty from buyers makes
it much harder for new entrants to attract customers or even low cost trails. This is
because people usually stick with what they are used to if the product is good. The
fifth barrier is legal barriers and patents which commonly experienced in all

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industries. The last common barrier is the threat of retaliation from existing
competitors.
These barriers can be reduced as well. As I discussed above in the first barrier
is that you must have a large financial investment before the new business can
start. Investments can be in plant and equipment, you may also lease commitments
for building, and investments may also be in research and development and last but
least in inventory. The reason why this method works is because some potential
competitors wont be able to raise the funds and others wont be prepared to risk so
much on a new venture which may not succeed. On the other hand you may be able
to find industrys that may not require no financial investment which makes entry
into those markets look very attractive for any cash poor entrepreneur.
The next factor is the threat of substitute products. Michael porter explained
the threat substitution consisted of the buyer propensity to substitute. Relative price
performance of substitutes, Buyer switching costs, and perceived level of product
differentiation. One of the main issues is that the existence of substitute products
and services place a ceiling on the price a market and companies with market can
sustain. The main issues on the threat of substitutes are the willingness of
customers to switch across different products and the relative price offered by the
different substitutes.
The final force in the five forces of competition is the rivalry between current
entrants. The competitive rivalry consist of the rate of industry growth, industry
concentration, intermittent industry overcapacity, exit barriers, diversity of
competitors, fixed cost allocation per value added, level of advertising expense, and
last but not least economies of scale. Competitive rivalry become extreme when
one or more entrants either sees an opening to grow and secure the customers of
entrants or feels the need to appeal additional consumers because of small
productivity. In manufacturing where competitive rivalry is a most important
problem will usually have many entrants who are hostile to make a sufficient return
on stock so productivity will commonly be small. A few entrants will make a
treasonable return but, intense economical conflict means a competition to break
even and create enough money to live. Competitive rivalry build up through
vengeance as entrants react to hostile tactics with their individual forceful or selfjustifying approaches.
This competition is regularly made over expressions of reduced expenses, as
entrants use borderline quotation to validate an input to disbursements. Economical
conflict can also come in the form of advertising, product introductions and
customer service battles. It is also damaging to lengthy effectiveness in the
business since it raises customer expectations of value for money although
advertising can expand the market or establish differentiation through branding.
This also increases with goods products and lowers if there is current variation.
Consumers have an incentive to stay loyal rather than shop around for the lowest
price for example some customers may chose to shop at Publix other than Walmart
because they have fresher food and better service so this keeps them loyal because
thats something they defiantly wont get at Walmart.

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This is also a task of the entrants in the industry. The majority of organized
industry have a habit of to be wherever one has recognized a pure leadership site
and others are placed in after. Taking improvement of the charge authority
recognized by the leader. These organizations are able to live together if they know
their position in the industry and are firm with it. If there are many fighting for the
lead role in the industry and the industry stake gives financial prudence of balance
and knowledge curve savings then opposition increases? What makes it bad is if
entrants dont recognize each other and find it challenging to interpret the
intentions of each other because of different goals. Competitors from different
nations and beliefs can make the current corporations mainly sensitive because of
fears over low cost competition. Rivalry makes it problematic for the frail
organizations to make a profit. That is why it is always important that the loss
making organizations can leave the industry easily.
Now we move onto the second portion of the book which was generic
strategies. This consist of three generic competitive strategies which I will further
elaborate on. These three strategies are cost leadership, differentiation and focus.
These three strategies I discussed on when it came to Michael Porters Competitive
Advantage book so I will not need to elaborate as much. Cost leadership is when
you have the lowest cost for example at Walmart they are world widely known for
their lower prices and to keep the competitive advantage they match the price if
there competitor is lower there their price. Differentiation is basically your
uniqueness and what makes your product different to make it superior. For example
you and another competitor may sell the same thing but what may make you
different is that you provide the best quality. The last being focus which is when you
concentrate on a small group of customers and provide them with the price
combination they want.
Now that we have touched on Michael Porter and some of his achievements,
we will go over Barbara Kellerman. Barbara Kellerman born June 10 th 2939.
Received her B.A from Sarah Lawrence College and her M.A and Ph.D. degrees from
Yale University. She also served as dean of graduate studies and research at
Fairleigh Dickinson. Barbara was also a director of the center for the advanced study
of leadership at the academy of leadership. In recent years Barbara has become
interested in followership as in leadership. She is all about empowering women and
women and leadership. Her approach to leadership and fellowship is
interdisciplinary and instead of being primarily practice based, it in the venerable
tradition of the liberal arts.
Barbara Kellerman has appeared often on media outlets such as CNN, NBC,
CBS and BBC. This shows that she is known worldwide. She has contributed articles
and reviews to the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and
Harvard Business review. She is on the advisory panel of the white house leadership
project report, on the editorial board of leadership quarterly, and on the publications
committee of the international leadership association. Kellerman has also received
several awards such as ranked by leadership excellence as top 15 Best minds on
leadership , Ranked by Forbes.com as among Top 50 Business thinkers .

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Barbara Kellerman is also the author to 15 books. The names of these books
are The end of leadership, Leadership: Essentials selections on power, authority,
and influence, Followership: How followers are creating change and changing
leaders, Women and Leadership: The state of ply and strategies for change, Bad
Leadership: What it is, how it happens, why it matters, Reinventing Leadership:
Making the connection between politics and business, Cutting edge: Leadership
2000, The president as world leader, Leadership and negotiation in the middle east,
Political leadership, Women leaders in American politics, The political presidency:
Practice of leadership, All the presidents Kin: Their political roles and last but not
least Making Decisions.
As of current Barbara Kellerman is the James MacGregor Burns Lecturer in
public leadership at Harvard Universitys John F. Kennedy School of Government.
She was the founding executive director of the Harvard Kennedy Schools center for
public leadership as well as served as a research director. Kellerman speaks to
audiences all over the world in recent years, Berlin, London, Moscow, Rome and the
list goes on. Barbara Kellerman welcomes inquires on topics such as Business,
Business leadership, Cultural Barriers to Women, Judgment and decision making,
Leadership, political, Presidency, Women and women in politics. That shows that she
is widely knowledgeable in these areas and is very influential in the world we live in
today.
Looking into to one of her books on bad leadership it helped me learn that
bad leadership is an element of leadership which should not be overlooked in any
course on leadership. Also that bad leaders are still leaders. The role that follwers
play in bad leadership is pointed out throughout the book. In the book Kellerman
organizes the leaders into seven different types of bad leadership. These being
Incompetent, rigid, intemperate, callous, corrupt, insular, and evil. In this book
Kellermans focus was highlighting that the leadership industrys current focus on
teaching leadership is biased towards teaching that only define leadership and
leaders as good and widely disregard examination of bad leadership. She also looks
at the point that you cannot have a bad leader without bad followers, followers who
either collude with the leader or refuse to acknowledge their bad leadership or do
anything about it.
This book also goes in depth on the seven types of bad leaders. For
incompetent this is basically leaders and some followers unable to make or create
positive change. For rigid this is leaders and some followers are unwilling to adapt
innovation, information, or ignore changes around them. The next type was
intemperate which is when leaders are out of control and followers do nothing to
stop it. The next steps are unethical types of bad leaders. Callous is the leaders and
at least some followers are mean and the needs of most followers are discarded.
Corrupt are the corrupt leader and his or her followers being liars, cheaters, or
thieves. They are destructively selfish in regards to the interests of their followers.
Insular is the leader and at least some followers who refuse or fail to acknowledge
the destruction, genocide, undoing of those outside their group. The last type of bad
leader was evil and this is when the leader and at least some followers use evil
means to cause atrocity physical or mental harm to their followers and others.

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Another book of hers that I reviewed was the end of leadership. Which is said
to be the most important leadership book of the past decade. In this book she
makes it clear that leadership should be ethical as well as effective. She
incorporates values into leadership both implicitly and explicitly a bit more than she
has in earlier positions when she complained that the majority of leadership
scholars were mesmerized by the ideal of moral leadership. The leadership that
Kellerman sees coming to an end is a product of the leadership industry, which is
the countless leadership centers, institutes, programs, courses, seminars,
workshops, videos, conferences, coaches and so forth. The leadership industry
promotes leadership as more consequential than followership
Now that we have discussed a bit on both individuals now we can compare
what I thought they had in common. The first thing that I found they had in common
is that they are both employed at Harvard University. Both Michael Porter and
Barbara Kellerman are known worldwide for the great information they are able to
put out into the world. Both are authors to several books. Michael Porter is the
author to 19 books in counting and Barbara Kellerman is the author to 15 in
counting. They are both noticed by the government as they also have books on
political issues as well. Both Michael porter and Barbara Kellerman are advisors and
they advise people at the school in which they work for. They both have received
several awards for the good they have done. Also both have been on the deans list
during the time they were in college. They are both very influential individuals and
give valid points that can be used by current and future leaders.
Another point about the two is that they were and may even still be
researchers. I know when reading about both Michael Porter and Barbara Kellerman
it stated they were researchers in their earlier years. Apart from that they are both
speakers and as I stated above they do welcome people if they need on topics
related to leadership, business, economy and politics. Which brings me to the next
thing that both have in common which is business. They both have studies that deal
with business, leadership, economy, politics and ways to overcome these situations
and strategies to improve your business or stay competitive. They both have M.B.A
and PH.Ds that they have received along the years and are both still currently
working for Harvard as I stated above.
The difference between the two is that Michael Porter works for Harvard
Business School and Barbara Kellerman works for Harvard Kennedy School. The next
main difference is that Michael porter focuses more on economic theories whereas
Barbara Kellerman is more focused on Leadership. Also Michael Porter books are
mainly on competitiveness, strategy and economic development. While on the other
hand Barbara Kellermans books are mainly on Leadership, women in leadership, and
politics.
In conclusion I would say that as individuals both Michael Porter and Barbara
Kellerman are very influential individuals in our society and the books that they
make will really help all future business students as well as current business people.
They both provided steps to help any determined individual to succeed in life. From
reading I noticed that both members have a lot in common. Both Michael porter and

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Barbara Kellerman are professors at Harvard. They both have received several
awards for their contribution and influence. They are both advisors and advice
people at the school they work at. They are both known worldwide and have
appeared on the media on several occasion. Both members are book writers.
Barbara is the writer of 15 books and Michael is the writer of 19 books. Michael is
main focus is on economic development and competitive strategies while on the
other hand Barbara is more concerned on leadership and empowering women as
well as politics. They are very influential individuals and I do plan on reading some
of their books in the future.