PORTER’s FIVE FORCES MODEL

Michael E. Porter

Born in 1947. Professors in Harvard

Business School. Introduced Porter's 5

Forces Model. Written 18 books & over

125 Articles.

Porter’s Five Forces Chart

INTRODUCTION• The Five Forces model of Porter is an outside-

in business unit strategy tool that is used to make an analysis of the attractiveness (value...) of an industry structure.

• It captures the key elements of industry competition.

BuyersSuppliers

Substituteproducts

Potentialentrants

Industry competitors

Rivalry amongexisting firms

Threat ofnew entrants

Bargaining powerof suppliers

Bargaining powerof buyers

Threat ofsubstitutes

PORTER’s FIVE FORCES MODEL

Threat of New Entrants

Barriers to Entry

Government Policy

Expected Retaliation

Economies of Scale

Product Differentiation

Capital Requirements

Customer Switching Costs

Access to Distribution Channels

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Suppliers exert power in the industry by:

* Threatening to raiseprices or to reduce quality

Powerful suppliers can squeeze industry profitability if firms are unable to recover cost increases

Suppliers are likely to be powerful if:

Supplier industry is dominated by a few firmsSuppliers’ products have few substitutes

Buyer is not an important customer to supplier

Suppliers’ product is an important input to buyers’ product

Suppliers’ products are differentiated

Suppliers’ products have high switching costs

Bargaining Power of Buyers

Buyers compete with the supplying industry

by:

* Bargaining down prices

* Forcing higher quality

* Playing firms off ofeach other

Buyer groups are likely to be powerful if:Buyers are concentrated

Purchase accounts for a significant fraction of supplier’s sales

Products are undifferentiated

Buyers face few switching costs

Buyer presents a credible threat of backward integrationBuyer has full information

Threat of Substitute Products

Products with similar function limit the prices firms can charge

Keys to evaluate substitute products:Products with improving price/performance tradeoffs relative to present industry products

Example:

Electronic security systems in place of security guards

Fax machines in place of overnight mail delivery

Threat of Substitute: Examples

Rivalry Among Existing CompetitorsIntense rivalry often plays out in the following ways:

Using price competition

Staging advertising battles

Making new product introductionsIncreasing consumer warranties or service

Occurs when a firm is pressured or sees an opportunity

Price competition often leaves the entire industry worse off

Advertising battles may increase total industry demand, but may be costly to smaller competitors

Intensity of rivalry among established firms : Examples

Coca-cola• Traditional competition:

Prices of Pepsi, local brands Market share Promotional actions of competition

• New entrants: New “look-a-like” manufacturers

• Substitute products: Fashionable new drinks, milk drinks, coffee, beer, ...

Coca-cola• Suppliers:

Price and availability of ingredients on world market Quality speed safety, traceability, flexibility of supply

chain

• Buyers/consumers: High as a result of intense competition both

among branded and unbranded products. Combined purchase power of shops, bars, supermarkets

Strengths of five forces model:

The model is strong tool for competitive analysis at industry level.

It provides useful input for performing a SWOT analysis.

Limitations • Inside-out strategy is ignored (core competence)

• It does not cope with synergies and interdependencies within the portfolio of large corporations (parenting advantage)

• The environments which are characterized by rapid, systemic and radical change require more flexible, dynamic or emergent approaches to strategy formulation (disruptive innovation)

• Sometimes it may be possible to create completely new markets instead of selecting from existing ones (blue ocean strategy)

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGHTS:• good capabilities• capacities of producing good products• products• technologies• R&D efforts• human resources• demand from the client- from the • amount of knowledge • technical skills

WEAKNESS:• product mass become obsolete• technology has become obsolete• key management power may not be there• key man power may not be there

The point is not that the company is having weaknesses and that the company should closedown; the best part is that whether this company is able to trace this weakness and take the corrective measures or not.

CONT….

OPPORTUNITIES:• a company can identify new products• the company can go for new sectors• the company can go for new geography• new economy - the company can go and extend

their market• company can take the advantage of the changing

lifestyle• can go for the opportunities available technology

changing

THREATS:• political threats• legislative threat• environmental threat• technology threat• from the partners• joint venture alliances• from the buyers• from the suppliers• from the key staff How the company is take the advantage -

take care of these threats and go for a counter actions so that the threats are minimized.