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Porter Appointed to University Professorship Porter Appointed to University ProfessorshipHis books can be found on the shelves of CEOs, heads of state, academicians, and business school students alike. Countries and companies all over the world have embraced his theories on competition and strategy in the expanding global marketplace. His work has been applied to a variety of important social issues, from the economic development of U.S. inner cities to environmental concerns.
“It’s a great honor,” said Porter. “I am also proud to follow in the footsteps of my late HBS teacher, mentor, and friend, Chris Christensen, as a University Professor. This appointment is particularly important to me since the scope of my work has broadened considerably over the years.” Porter’s first area of interest examines how firms compete in industries and gain competitive advantage. The next focuses on locations and why some cities, states, or nations can be more competitive or prosperous than others. And the third area, which arose from the second, looks at ways to apply competitive thinking to social problems. “This University Professorship will multiply the opportunities I have for cross-disciplinary research and enable me to work with many other Harvard scholars,” commented Porter. Porter will hold the Bishop William Lawrence University Professorship, named after a member of the Harvard Corporation who played a key role in raising the funds from banker George F. Baker that led to the building of the HBS Soldiers Field campus in the 1920s. It is the twentieth in a line of venerable positions endowed at Harvard since 1936. University Professors are encouraged to cross over disciplinary boundaries in their research and often divide their time between their “home” departments or schools and other units. HBS Dean Kim B. Clark called the appointment “a wonderful tribute to Mike, who during almost three decades on our faculty has been a pioneer in using economic principles to solve important problems in competitiveness. In an array of groundbreaking books, articles, and papers that combine deep and rigorous scholarship with real-world relevance and applicability, he has created a body of work that is required reading for students, academicians, practitioners, and political leaders around the world,” Clark said. Clark noted that the impact of Porter’s ideas has long stretched beyond HBS to classrooms and boardrooms, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, and numerous nations abroad as well as U.S. inner cities. “As the fourth University Professor in the 93-year history of HBS — a group that includes Nobel laureate Robert C. Merton, the late C. Roland Christensen, and the late Sumner H. Slichter — he can now use his great skills in teaching and research to make important contributions throughout the University,” said Clark. Porter joined the HBS faculty in 1973 after earning his doctorate in business economics at Harvard, and he soon became one of the School’s youngest tenured professors. A prolific scholar, he has written 16 books and more than 75 articles. His 1980 volume Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, which has since been translated into nineteen languages, is considered the pioneering treatise on corporate competition and strategy. His Competition and Strategy course is a core requirement in the School’s MBA curriculum. “Mike Porter is probably the world’s most influential business academic and one of a handful of the most influential who has ever lived,” said HBS professor Thomas K. McCraw, Isidor Straus Professor of Business History. “His insights and models regarding competitive strategy have become the canon in this area of study and the starting point for a considerable amount of work by other scholars around the globe. In short, he has reconstituted the field of business strategy.” — Doug Gavel A version of this article was published in the December 7, 2000 edition of the Harvard UniversityGazette. RETURN TO THE TOP OF THE PAGE
New Fitzhugh Professorship Celebrated
Dean Kim B. Clark said that the new professorship is both a tribute to Fitzhugh’s career and a means for HBS to build upon his efforts by attracting and retaining faculty whose research focuses on issues of diversity. “Naylor Fitzhugh was a pioneer in his professional life,” Clark noted, “and his commitment to his community and to mentoring others makes him an inspiring example to all.” Professor David A. Thomas, the chair’s first incumbent, was among those attending the event. A noted authority on mentoring, executive development, and managing a diverse workforce, Thomas speaks movingly of the importance of Fitzhugh’s contribution to the advancement of African Americans in the business world. “Being the first Fitzhugh professor is a particular honor,” Thomas noted during a recent interview. “He spent much of his life trying to facilitate the creation of a more diverse and more integrated business world. When he attended Harvard College, it was at a time when African Americans were not even allowed to live on campus. When he graduated from HBS, no one would offer him a job. Yet throughout his life, his unwavering optimistic spirit brought him great success and placed him in a position to nurture many others who wanted to follow in his footsteps. His life exemplified the finest qualities of leadership.” Fitzhugh came to HBS after graduating with honors from Harvard College, where he was one of four African Americans in a class of one thousand. He excelled in his studies at the School but was shunned by recruiters who actively pursued his white classmates. His first job after graduation was as an independent salesman in his native Washington, D.C., working for several firms serving the black community. In Washington, Fitzhugh helped to establish the New Negro Alliance, which worked to change the policies of major companies that did business in black neighborhoods but refused to employ their residents. His involvement with the Alliance not only began his ongoing community activism but also served as his entree into academia, when a fellow volunteer offered him the opportunity to teach a business course at Howard University in 1934. Fitzhugh became engrossed in his experience at Howard, which stretched into the next three decades and left an indelible mark on the school and its business curriculum. He worked diligently to build Howard’s business program. Among other accomplishments, he instituted a marketing department, served as an advisor to a number of business and marketing clubs, and organized the school’s Small Business Center. In 1965, Fitzhugh left Howard to accept a position at Pepsi-Cola, where he developed the first marketing effort targeted to African Americans. He made history in this position by establishing the black community as a lucrative mass market and by developing the concept of targeted marketing in corporate America. Known throughout his life as a gifted mentor, Fitzhugh continued his practice of helping others during his years at Pepsi. Working with the Distributive Educational Clubs of America, he developed the award-winning “Learn and Earn” program, which introduces high-school students to business through hands-on economic education. As an HBS alumnus, he was the founding chairman of the Harvard Business School African-American Alumni Association and encouraged many black students to attend the School. Fitzhugh retired from Pepsi in 1974 but remained active with the company and within the community for many years. He was recognized for his achievements with numerous awards, including honorary doctoral degrees from Howard University and Virginia State University; the HBS Distinguished Service Award in 1987; and in 1990, the Executive Leadership Council Heritage Award for lifelong contributions to African-American Business Advancement. Fitzhugh died in 1992 at the age of 82. RETURN TO THE TOP OF THE PAGE |
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Michael E. Porter (MBA ’71), the C. Roland Christensen Professor of Business
Administration, whose prodigious research and course development efforts center on
both economic theory and business practice, has been appointed to a University
Professorship, the highest professional distinction for a Harvard faculty member.
In late November, a distinguished group of HBS alumni, faculty, and friends gathered
on campus at a celebratory dinner to pay tribute to the legacy of the late H. Naylor
Fitzhugh (MBA ’33). A leader of industry and a pioneer in business education,
Fitzhugh was one of the School’s first African-American graduates. The H. Naylor
Fitzhugh Professorship of Business Administration, the first chair at the School to
be named for an African American, was recently established in his honor with gifts
from more than three hundred individuals and companies.