Michael Porter

Porter appears across the wiki as the authority on competitive strategy and national competitiveness. In No Apology, Mitt Romney leans on Porter to make an economic argument: he quotes Porter’s claim that “National advantage is enhanced by stringent standards that are rapidly, efficiently, and consistently applied” (against the idea that standards drag on the economy), and cites The Competitive Advantage of Nations on education and training being “decisive in national competitive advantage.” Nathan Baschez reaches for Porter from a different angle: he argues that Porter’s “bargaining power of suppliers” reads very differently when the suppliers are workers — that decimating the labor movement cost workers compounding gains and a more equitable society, with disproportionate impact on Black Americans. Together the two references show Porter’s framework being used both to defend national-competitiveness policy and to critique labor-power dynamics.

Context: Michael Porter is a Harvard Business School professor whose work on the Five Forces, competitive advantage, and The Competitive Advantage of Nations is foundational to modern competitive strategy.

Where this appears

• No Apology — cited twice (stringent standards enhancing national advantage; education/training as decisive) as an authority in Romney’s economic argument.
• Nathan Baschez — invokes Porter’s “bargaining power of suppliers” to argue that weakening labor power cost workers compounding equity over time.
• Invisible Companies — his barriers-to-entry framework is cited (alongside Jay Barney’s) as one of the two classic explanations the piece argues can’t account for “invisible companies.”