The Strategy Book

Porter’s value chain

The ability of your company to compete successfully is a product of everything the company does and the way everything is organised. The value chain is a useful way of looking at the whole organisation. It divides the company into the primary and support activities.

How to use?

Use the model to understand your company as a chain of activities leading to overall results. Divide what your company does into primary activities – which directly produce and deliver products, and support activities – which make primary activities possible. Then start asking questions.

• How well do the individual functions perform?
• What could ...