Monsanto: Better Living Through Genetic Engineering

Porter’s Five Forces (1980), named after Michael E. Porter, is a critical framework to access the level of risk and degree of potential profitability of each industry in which firms are competing. Specifically, five forces are shown in Figure 1, are includes competition between rivalry, potential of new entrant, threat of substitute products, and pressure on bargaining power of suppliers and customers.

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3. Please apply Porter’s Five Forces model to the steel industry. While doing so, clearly identify who is behind each force – for instance Suppliers, Buyers, Substitutes, Competitors, etc. And what is the impact of each force on the profitability of the industry – in terms of the following levels - High/Medium/Low. At the end, also provide a summary of all the five forces and propose whether you think the steel industry is attractive industry or not an attractive industry.

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.

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Genetically modified Organisms (GMO’s) is any organism whose genetics have been modified by means of genetic engineering. The most common genetically modified organism is the food we eat on every day. Nearly 70% of foods on the shelves at your local supermarket are at least 1% genetically modified according to National Geographic. Scientist continue to find new ways to insert genes for specific traits into plant and animal DNA.

Porter’s model aims to enable managers not only to understand their industry environment but also to shape their firm’s strategy. The five competitive forces are threat of entry, power of suppliers, power of buyers, threat of substitutes, and rivalry among existing competitors. “As a rule of thumb, the stronger the five forces, the lower the industry’s profit potential- making the industry less attractive to competitors. The weaker the five forces, the greater the industry’s profit potential – making the industry more attractive” (Rothaermel, 2013, p. 65). It is recommended that managers position their company in an industry in such a way that relaxes the constraints of strong forces and

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I n t e r i m c h a n g e s . I n t e r i m c h a n g e s t o

i s d e f i n e d a s “ a re s e a r c h m e t h o d o l o g y b a s e d o n i n t e r v i ew s t h a t i s u s e d i n a

Porter’s five forces analysis is a tool is useful for us to analyse the threat of competition in an industry. Porter believed that the industries were influenced by five forces; competitive rivalry, threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, and the threat of substitutes. Analysing these areas can allow you to see attractiveness of the market and find a competitive advantage.

considered relative to those of close competitors and with one eye to the likely reaction of rival

Before this analysis will begin, it is vital to stress that this model is well-known as an effective instrument. An advantage of this model is that it captures the immediate environment in which the company competes. It allows to clearly understand the forces which

According to Michael Porter, “Every industry has an underlying structure, or a set of fundamental economic and technical characteristics, that give rise to these competitive forces” (Porter 1998:23). The forces mentioned above are: industry rivalry, threat of new entrants, threat of substitute products, bargaining power of suppliers and bargaining power of buyers. Additionally, Porter mentioned that: “Knowledge of these underlying sources of competitive pressure provides the groundwork for a strategic agenda or action” (Porter 1998:22).

Porter’s five forces analysis not only provides the ideas to create the strategic plan but also assesses the attractiveness of an industry.