A small fragment from the summary "Competitive Strategy" (Michael Porter)

This book is a study of what a modern market competition looks like. It provides a reader with valuable information of how to position a company so that it doesn’t lose a fight. Moreover besides learning how this competition works and what steps you should take in order to succeed it also shows how to use your competitor’s actions to benefit yourself.

The main idea is that there is always work to do and that there is no time for rest. You need to be on guard all the time. And even after coming up with an innovative product that meets your customers’ requirements and a strategy of how you are planning to sell it and make people buy it, you still need to learn how to beat all the other firms. The competitive strategy presents all the main aspects of the challenges you might face and of how to overcome them.

You will learn that:

• five main strengths that are the foundation of any competition on the market: the threat of entry, the intensity of rivalry among exciting competitors, the pressure from substitute products, the bargaining power of buyers, and the bargaining power of suppliers;
• three methods one should consider if he wants to win this competition are the pursuit of overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus.
• your competitor’s announcements can be used by you as well;
• starting up in a newly introduced area might be even more challenging etc. 

You can read the whole summary  "Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors"  (online)  here.