Porter’s Five Forces – Competitor Analysis

2373 Words10 Pages
Michael Porter’s Five Forces Michael Porter’s five forces is a model used to explore the environment in which a product or company operates to generate competitive advantage. Five forces analysis looks at five key areas mainly the threat of entry, the power of buyers, the power of suppliers, the threat of substitutes, and competitive rivalry (advantage). New Entrants Suppliers Industry competitors and extent of rivalry & advantage Buyers Substitutes Introduction to Porter’s 5 forces The model of the Five Competitive Forces was developed by Michael E. Porter in his book “Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analysing Industries and Competitors” in 1980. Since that time the ‘five forces tool’ has become an important method for analysing an organizations industry structure in strategic processes. Michael Porter’s model is based on the insight that a corporate strategy should meet the opportunities and threats in the organizations external environment. Especially, competitive strategy should based on an understanding of industry structures and the way they change. Porter has identified five competitive forces that shape every industry and every market. These forces determine the intensity of competition and hence the profitability and attractiveness of an industry. The objective of corporate strategy should be to modify these competitive forces in a way that improves the position of the organization. Porters model supports analysis of the driving forces in an industry. Based on the information derived from the Five Forces Analysis, management can decide how to influence or to exploit particular characteristics of their industry. Overview of Porters 5 forces The Five Forces model of Porter is an “outside looking in” business unit strategy tool that is used to make an analysis of the attractiveness or value of an industry structure.
Open Document