Case Study On Industry Attractiveness

Porter has identified five (5) competitive forces that shape every industry and every market. The forces determine the intensity of competition and hence the profitability and attractiveness of an industry. Based on the information derived from this analysis, management can decide how to influence or to exploit particular characteristics of this industry.

Competitive environments are defined by the identity, track record, financial strength and market share of key competitors. Harvard Professor Michael Porter 's Five Forces model can be used to evaluate a company 's competitive position. These five forces are barriers to entry (the ability of new players to enter the market), buyer power (the ability of customers to influence price),

The intensity of rivalry, which is the most obvious of the five forces in an industry, helps determine the extent to which the value created by an industry will be dissipated through head-to-head competition. The most valuable contribution of Porter's “five forces” framework in this issue may be its suggestion that rivalry, while important, is only one of several forces that determine industry attractiveness.

Porter’s Five Forces is defined as threats of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, power of buyers, the threat of substitutes and rivalry among existing competitors. New entrants into the industry aim to gain market share from rivals, so the intensity of competition may require to make changes on current strategy of marketing to maintain existing market share. The bargaining

Michael Eugene Porter is an economist, author, advisor and a researcher. He is the creator of Porter Five Forces theory, which is a framework for a business. The model “identifies and analyzes five competitive forces that shape every industry, and helps determine an industry 's weaknesses and strengths” (Investopedia LLC, 2016). The five forces are competitive rivalry, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entry, and threat of substitution. This is a very important theory which a business can strengthen their position.

This analysis is conducted on the Porters Five Forces theory that is crucial for effective strategic decision-making, the five forces that shape industry competition are:

Operation of Unilever around the world starts fragmenting, but Unilever continues to expand globally and investment made in R&D is increased.

Defining an industry can be described as drawing a line between the established competitor and the substitute products offered by competitors outside the industry (Porter 1998). “Porter’s five forces provide a framework for an industry and business strategy development to drive the five forces that determine the competitive intensity and attractiveness of a market. The Porter’s Five Forces model helps identify where improvement can be made regarding competitive forces, threat of potential entrants, bargaining power of buyers, and bargaining power of suppliers and threats of substitute products.

This report aims to analyse the financial position of Unilever PLC within its daily operating activities and it also compares the company’s performance with its key competitor, the Proctor and Gamble Company (P&G). The report also includes background of both the companies and an industry overview. To better understand the performance of both the companies, the segmental analyses have been done for both region and products. Due to the global crisis, Unilever and P&G both are facing price rise and inflation pressures, also instability in the Eurozone. All these factors are strongly impacting their operation activity and long-term growth decision plan. Finally After a careful examination of the financial ratios of both the companies, we recommend Unilever as a good company to invest as compared to P&G .The reasons for the following can be seen in the report below.

Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model is a useful tool for such a purpose. The ability of the company to address the Model will be helpful in understanding the strengths of their current market position and their profitability in the industry. This model acts as an analytical tool and examines the competitive environment and identifies the external factors that affect the business. It examines the five forces that drive the industry competition: 1) potential entrants, 2) buyers, 3) suppliers, 4) substitute, and 5) the industry competitors (Lumpkin et al.

The five forces model helps determine an industry’s attractiveness and long-term profitability. The five forces are: degree of rivalry within the industry, the threat of substitutes, the threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, and bargaining power of supplier.

Competition is a fundamental factor in whichever industry. Hill and Jones (2007) note, “the power wielded by suppliers, the influence of the customers, and the threat posed by new and existing competitors determine the profitability levels in a company”. Besides, the forces support the decisions made by firms in order to improve their competitive position. In this regard, it is essential to review these forces either individually or as a combination to arrive at an informed decision on the industry choice. Further, it is fundamental to note that a force is either classified as strong or weak and, as a result, is a threat or opportunity respectively.

Porter's Five Forces can be applied to particular companies, market segments and industries with the step-by-step analysis of market structure and competitive situation. First of all, when implementing this module in organizations, it is necessary to determine the scope of the market to be analyzed. Following, all relevant forces for this market analyzed and key forces are identified (Gerry and Kevan, P.117). Actually some organizational strategy and the longer-term goals are mainly based on or consistent with the key forces. Hence, it is not necessary to analyze all elements of all competitive forces with the same depth. Moreover, the key forces in the competitive environment will vary in different industry. Different forces take on prominence in shaping competition in each industry (Porter,

This article summarizes the key ideas and gives an overview of how this concepts works. Describes, how this five competitive forces shape every organization and every market. Summarizes how these forces will define the power of profitability, competitiveness, and attractiveness of the industry. Depending on the facts which is derived from the five forces analysis, the management of organizations will decide how to effect or abuse specific features of their industries.

UFS is focused on industrial marketing as they do business to business sales (B2B) where as they do not offer readymade food solutions to consumers. Looking at the current strategic scope of UFS they do not compete in the consumer market. They mainly target Hotels, Restaurants and Caterers which are falling in to ‘premium’ category.