Science & Tech Quote by Michael Porter

"If your goal is anything but profitability - if it's to be big, or to grow fast, or to become a technology leader - you'll hit problems"

Michael Porter, Educator

About this Quote

Porter’s line is a clean shot across the bow of Silicon Valley’s favorite alibis. It’s not anti-innovation or anti-growth; it’s anti-confusion. The phrasing matters: “anything but profitability” isn’t a moral claim, it’s a diagnostic one. Profit isn’t framed as greed, but as the scoreboard that forces coherence. When a company says its “goal” is to be big, to grow fast, or to be a “technology leader,” Porter hears a strategy without a business model - motion mistaken for direction.

The subtext is classic Porter: competitive advantage comes from trade-offs, not vibes. “Big” and “fast” are outcomes, not strategies; “technology leader” is often a proxy for building impressive things without deciding who will pay, why they’ll stick around, and what the firm will refuse to do. Profitability, in this view, is discipline. It compels hard choices about positioning, pricing power, and differentiation. Without it, the organization optimizes for vanity metrics, internal prestige, or investor narratives, and those incentives eventually collide with reality: unit economics, customer acquisition costs, commoditization.

Contextually, Porter is pushing back against eras of capital-fueled growth that treat losses as proof of ambition. He’s also quietly warning incumbents: “innovation” isn’t a strategy either if it doesn’t connect to value creation and capture. The sting in the quote is that it strips away noble-sounding missions and asks a blunt question: are you building a durable enterprise, or performing success until the funding cycle ends?

Quote Details

Topic	Vision & Strategy
Source	Verified source: Michael Porter on the Importance of Strategy (Michael Porter) Text match: 95.00% Provider: Cross-Reference Evidence: Sound strategy starts with having the right goal. And I argue that the only goal that can support a sound strategy is superior profitability. If you don't start with that goal and seek it pretty directly, you will quickly be led to actions that will undermine strategy. If your goal is anything but profitability , if it's to be big, or to grow fast, or to become a technology leader , you'll hit problems.. I was able to verify the quote text in a transcript-style page that presents it as Michael E. Porter speaking (with the section header “Technology changes, strategy doesn’t.”). I also found the identical wording reproduced in other non-primary locations (e.g., ZenBusiness blog, quote-aggregation sites) that do not establish first publication. A Scribd-hosted document titled “Michael Porter on the Importance of Strategy” contains the same passage, but Scribd is not a reliable indicator of original publication details. I could not, from accessible primary material in this search, confirm the FIRST place this was published/spoken (exact HBR issue/article title/date, event, or interview venue), nor a publication year or page number. The most responsible conclusion is that the quote is real (verbatim match exists in transcript form), but the earliest authoritative source could not be pinned down here without locating the original HBR interview/article or an official transcript. Other candidates (1) The Great Management Reset (Leslie Kaminoff, 2016) compilation97.8% ... If your goal is anything but profitability — if it's to be big , or to grow fast , or to become a technology lead...
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