Science & Tech Quote by Michael Porter

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?