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Five Forces Shape Strategy Analysis

Decent Essays

Introduction In 1979, Professor Michael Porter wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review titled “How competitive forces shape strategy” which was retitled and updated in 2008 as "The five competitive forces that shape strategy". In this article, Mr. Porter introduced a five forces model to evaluate level of competition within an industry and therefore its attractiveness in terms of the overall industry profitability. He claimed that industry structure is the main driver of profitability and competition and successful analysts can use the five forces model to help them in identifying "an industry with a good future" ahead of time. Summary of the Article’s Main Points Mr. Porter started his article claiming that regardless of the industry, …show more content…

Porter developed and introduced five forces, namely, "Threat of New Entrants, Threat of Substitute Products or Services, Rivalry among Existing Competitors, Bargaining Power of Suppliers, and Bargaining Power of Buyers." He stated that, in any industry, if these forces are strong, the overall attractiveness of the industry will be low and if they were weak, companies in that industry would be profitable. However, Mr. Porter pointed that the impact of these forces differs from one industry to another and it is very critical to know what forces are the strongest ones for "strategy formulation". In addition, he stated that the strength of each competitive force and hence industry structure are determined by "a set of economic and technical characteristics." Then, Mr. Porter started to explain how the five forces could affect the attractiveness of an industry. Starting with the "Threat of New Entrants", he explained the risk associated with new entrants on already existed companies or "Incumbents" such as the pressure on prices, costs, and lower market share. He believes that the threat of new entrant is dependent on two factors, the size of "barriers to entry" and the reaction of incumbents to newcomers "expected …show more content…

Porter explained the other side of powerful suppliers, "bargaining power of buyers". He mentioned that powerful buyers could lower the attractiveness of an industry by lowering prices or raising costs. He believes that power of buyers are magnified in situations where buyers are few, buyers can produce the industry’s product themselves, or industry’s products are standardized. In addition, je pointed that, the more sensitive to price buyers are, the more they will focus on price rather than quality. Moving to the "threat of substitute products or services ", Mr. Porter pointed out that high threat of substitute could put a limit on the price an in industry can charge for its products and services. He believes this threat is triggered when substitutes offer "an attractive price-performance trade-off to the industry’s product" or by a lower switching cost for the buyer. Finally, Mr. Porter identified the forms of "rivalry among existing competitors" such as cutting prices, development of new products, and improving services. He believes that the impact of rivalry is dependent on two factors, "intensity" and "basis" of

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