Slade Plating Department

Analyze Scharffen Berger’s industry, competitive landscape and pricing power within its industry - using Porters 5 Forces.

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.

Clark’s group also sought social contact with the Sarto group and hanged out together sometimes. On the other hand, other workers outside the groups tended to perform poorly. For example, Herman Schell, an old and experienced employee, had lowest productivity skill rating. He demotivated others, had bad attitude and had not built informal relationship with anyone in the department. However, Bob Pearson was an exception.

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.

As a result of the approach, there was high turnover of staff and there was very little initiative amongst the remaining staff. Individuals were initially reported as being highly competent but later were blamed for things going wrong, shortly before they left. The team was very tightly knit and generally appeared supportive of the team leader.

The working culture that was accepted in Hickling’s Associates also came as a shock as they were deemed unprofessional by Tony. Furthermore, Tony did not engage in much communication with his colleagues, as he did not approve of certain social behaviour portrayed by them. This was also partly attributed to Hickling’s disdain for employees’ discussion regarding work issues. Additionally, despite his good performance, Tony did not receive the amount of bonus that was assured to him by Hickling. Accumulatively, these problems led to the loss of motivation in Tony and his eventual resignation.

Porters Five Forces model evaluated Actual competition, Threat of new entrants, Threat of Substitute Products, Bargaining Power of Suppliers, and Bargaining Power of Customers. Actual Competition in the Luxury Recreational Vehicle industry is mixed due to low switching costs, constant growth, and high differentiation among products in the industry. Threat of New entrants in

In the Romano Pitesti case, Tickton-Jones’ Management Team is faced with a situation that is not altogether uncommon in the business world, in that some employees feel that members of the Sales staff are being given “special” treatment by the company. Romano’s actions have probably not been as bad as what has been described to Management, but due to the fact that employees are still trying to find their place in the new, combined company, any hint of “unfairness” is immediately put under a microscope by other employees, and therefore, Management will have to take some sort of action, in order to show the other employees that their concerns are being taken seriously.

The Porters model is built upon the assumption that strategy development is significantly influenced by the external environment. The Porters five forces are the threat of new entrants, the intensity of rivalry, the threat of substitutes, bargaining power of buyers and the bargaining power of suppliers (Magretta, 2012). The threat of new entrants in the motorcycle industry is moderate due to the moderate industry growth and high entry barriers. The industry is based on moderated economies of scale, moderate switching costs and the high cost of developing and promoting brands. The high barriers to entry are due to the required high initial capital and high fixed costs to set-up the provider and production facilities. The overall threat of new entrants in this industry is moderate.

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.

The subteams continued to fall behind schedule, but the delivery date remained firm. The timeline slippages were obvious, but almost no one was willing to discuss them openly—least of all the Americans on the core team. According to Mike Powell, there was nothing subtle about the mounting stress and confusion: “Tensions had gotten to the point where people were actually storming out of meetings because they were frustrated by what they were being asked to do on short notice or without sufficient information.”

While being a receptionist, Scott may not have noticed the informal network between men within the organization she works for. Such informal networks provide men with information on advancement opportunities and career tips given by senior (male) members. Now that she is beginning a career where she may encounter such groups, Scott must be prepared to deal with such networks between her male co-workers.

Porter’s Five Forces is used to assess the attractiveness of the market. The market environment forms part of the external environment. Mr Price has no control, but some influence on the market environment. Porter’s looks at: The level of rivalry in the market, the threat of new entrants that may join the market, the power of suppliers and the power of buyers.

Porter’s Five Forces model is used to evaluate the degree of rivalry between competitors in a given industry through assessing the four forces that lead to this outcome. These forces are the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of buyers, and the threat of substitute products.

The latter includes (4) bargaining power of suppliers; and (5) bargaining power of buyers. ‘The strength of each of these competitive forces is determined by a number of key structural variables’ (Grant, 1998 in Mazucatto, 2002). The importance of this framework is emphasised by Porter who argues that ‘Understanding the forces that shape industry competition is the starting point for developing strategy. Every company should already know what the average profitability of its industry is and how that has been changing over time” (Porter, 2012, p.235). In the context of the building materials industry, the application of Five Force analysis indicates that the industry has growth rates that are mostly lower than the GDP growth across regional economies. It is cyclical in nature and fragmented in structure with a large number of small and mid-sized firms that create micro-markets and heterogeneous customer needs in different geographies. This becomes a big deterrent for any member firm that intends to exploit and enjoy economies of scale beyond a limit. What’s more, commoditization and lack of differentiation erode any scope for healthy margins. High weight to value ratio of ‘heavyside’ building products renders global sourcing ineffective. Entry barriers are virtually non-existent owing to the standardised, low technology nature of products that are devoid of patents and produced with non-proprietary technologies, and this particular industry attribute strips