AT & T Porter's 5 Forces

The power of buyers in the industry varies at different levels depending on the field. For pharmaceutical drug companies, which have thousands of patients, customers have lower price sensitivity as they are rarely able to refuse the treatments they need and they have low bargaining leverage due to commonly lack of information as well as knowledge on the drugs. For biotech firms that distribute specialized products to the government and hospitals, their customers actually have more of a bargaining power due to being the sole consumer sources

The case is about Loblaw companies Inc., a highly successful grocery chain in Canada. Loblaw is Canada’s largest food distributor. The major issue is the emergence of Wal-Mart, who is looking to pursue expanding their grocery line chain in the Canadian market. According to Yunna (2014), porter’s five forces model has been widely applied to analyze industry competition in various markets. Using Porter’s 5 Forces to analysis the issues of the case can be a useful tool in summarizing the attractiveness of the market or industry. According to Dobbs (2012), the five forces are the threats posed by competitive rivalry, powerful buyers, powerful suppliers, potential new entrants, and substitute products. The analysis of Porter’s five forces framework can be viewed in figure 1. The case describes the retailer-supplier relationships as power plays. As the scale would tilt in favor of the one wielding the most clout at a point in time. There are numerous manufacturers with various substitutions among the grocery store. However, a supermarket would lease out shelf space for rent. The manufacturers would pay the grocery store a combination of different allowance to obtain secure shelf and warehouse positions for its products. Ultimately the category manager had the final word, which left the manufacturers with little to no bargaining power.

customers with them for a longer time. AT&T believes that by having properly trained employees and by providing the most advanced technology

Monopolistic competition and Oligopoly are considered imperfectly competitive markets that are a result of few to many firms offering differentiated products. Differentiation of products impede substitution, which allow producers to earn higher than normal profits and thereby enhance shareholder wealth (Byrd, J., Hickman, K., & McPherson, M., 2013). Oligopolies are highly interdependent, with actions of one firm will resulting in a reaction from another. The interdependence results in higher efficiency as a necessity to compete with rivals. According to Claessens "greater development, lower costs, enhanced efficiency and a greater and wider supply resulting from competition will lead to greater [financial] access (2009).

I was once asked, if I thought the decision to reorganize of the state was right. Specially taking about creating the JDOC command structure, I said, “who else is going to do what we are doing?” The job of domestic operations has always been an additional duty, with very little time for planning or preparing for upcoming events. We are a reactive organization and I can see how that can kill us in the end. Our focus in the past 15 years has been on how prepare to go to war, which is our federal mission, and we have forgotten how to take care of our citizens in our own back yard which is our state mission. This reorganization has forced us to look to our left and right, and view the Oregon National Guard a one force both Army and Air. We as an organization are learning each other’s capabilities, strengths, weaknesses, and how we can better support each other in the

firms have the ability to steal some of the market share since a consumer can

AT&T does not seek competitive advantages through illegal or unethical business practices, meaning that no employee, officer, or director

Yes, the AT&T company is a near monopoly conditions that exist many public utilities. It is impossible for other firms to overcome barriers to entry such as legalizing, franchising, patent, and licensing. The near-monopoly allow AT&T to earn profits and keep their customer by increasing prices to the highest regulated price (Sexton, 2012, p. 354 - 366).

Regulators prohibit entry into other related markets such as PCS or local telephone service in return for letting the acquisition go through.

I. BACKGROUND: CelluComm and GMCT and the Industry AT&T’s Bell Laboratories cellular telephone networking innovation had enabled several cellular network operators to get licenses from the FCC to operate in separate license territories right about the same time AT&T was broken up in early 1980s. These operators were either companies like Cellular Communication Services, Inc. (CelluComm) or small entrepreneurs who had won license territories through the lottery system. CelluComm’s  president  and  founder  Ric  Jenkins  was  known  for  being  an  aggressive businessman  who  had  extended  it  to  a  200  million  dollar  enterprise  ranking  in  the  top  20  of  the industry.  Key  to

on its IR not only for running its business on a daily basis, but also for differentiating itself from its

This market allows organization a free long term ability to adjust their good services and prices with the changes in the market conditions. Thus AT&T should take advantage of the freedom in this market structure and ensure that their supply and prices are correlated to their demands.

If the business is a monopolist, then it has price-setting power. At the other extreme, if a firm

Barriers to entry and exit are also likely to exist. In oligopoly markets there is product differentiation, the extent of which depends on the type of product produced. This leads to interdependency, as the actions of one large firm will directly affect another large firm. Therefore, firms are said to be operating under conditions of

AT&T was broken up into the Bell companies in “1974 by the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against the monopoly” (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Today AT&T has become a competitor vying for control of the telecommunications industry. “In monopolistic competition, there are many firms vying for control of one market. Each firm offers a different type of product, as opposed to perfect competition in which all offer the same product. Each firm, then, has a monopoly in the market of their own product”(Oracle ThinkQuest Education Foundation) AT&T in 1988 began purchasing stock in Sun Microsystems to begin its diversity in product services. Throughout the 90s AT&T continued purchasing more computer companies and cell phone companies to gain market share in the growing telecommunication industry (CyberStreet). Good pricing structures align with costs. AT&T Wireless realized that the marginal cost of a cellular minute was small compared to the cost of acquiring and maintaining customers. Their switch to a flat fee “One-Rate” plan was a huge success, stealing heavy users away from the competition. Prices increased for light users and many became hooked on the cellular lifestyle (Lake Partners Strategy Consultants, Inc. [LPSCI], 2001-2004). AT&T has seen that the ability to change quickly in the ever-evolving telecommunications market will help in gain market share. Its ability to see the value in keeping customers rather