Abstract
The quotations above are as close as we can get to an intellectual ‘mano a mano’ between philosophers from different centuries. Woody Allen might be more entertaining, but Machiavelli is probably more accurate. About half of the success of a company is tied to the fate of the industry in which it operates.
I think it might be the case that Fortune is the mistress of one half our actions, and yet leaves the control of the other half, or a little less, to ourselves
(Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince1)
Eighty percent of success is showing up
(Woody Allen)
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References
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, The Harvard Classics, edited by Charles W. Elliot, LLD (New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1910) p. 84.
Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr, In Search of Excellence, Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies (New York: Harper & Row, 1982) pp. 13–15.
Excellent descriptions about the early years of the General Motors organization are those of R. D. Chandler, Jr, Strategy and Structure, Chapters in the History of the American Enterprise (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1980) (#37), and
Alfred P. Sloan Jr, My Years with General Motors, edited by John McDonald with Catharine Stevens (New York: Doubleday Anchor, 1972).
Federal Trade Commission, Report on Motor Vehicle Industry (Washington, 1939) pp. 29–31.
Edward L. Allen, Economics of American Manufacturing (New York, 1952), p. 293.
R. P. Rumelt, Strategy, Structure and Economic Performance (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974),
Michael Porter, ‘From Competitive Advantage to Corporate Strategy’, Harvard Business Review, May–June 1987, pp. 43–59.
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© 1993 Emilio Cvitkovic
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Cvitkovic, E. (1993). Competitive Positioning. In: Competition. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12857-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12857-0_3
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