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Five Forces Model by Michael Porter 

Five Forces model of Michael Porter is a very elaborate concept for evaluating company's competitive position. Michael Porter provided a framework that models an industry and therefore implicitly also businesses as being influenced by five forces. Michael Porter's Five Forces model is often used in strategic planning.

Porter's competitive five forces model is probably one of the most commonly used business strategy tools and has proven its usefulness in numerous situations. When exploring strategic management models,

Why would I need to use Porter's Five Forces model?

In general, any CEO or a strategic business manager is trying to steer his or her business in a direction where the business will develop an edge over rival firms. Michael Porter's model of Five Forces can be used to better understand the industry context in which the firm operates. Porter's Five Forces model is a strategy tool that is used to analyze attractiveness of an industry structure.

What is the basic idea behind Porter's Five Forces model?

Porter's Five Forces model is made up by identification of 5 fundamental competitive forces:

Barriers to entry Threat of substitutes Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Rivalry among the existing players

Some later economists also consider government as the sixth force in this model.

When putting all these points together in a graphical representation, we get Porter's Five Forces model which looks like this:

Force 1: Barriers to entry

Barriers to entry measure how easy or difficult it is for new entrants to enter into the industry. This can involve for example:

Cost advantages (economies of scale, economies of scope) Access to production inputs and financing, Government policies and taxation Production cycle and learning curve Capital requirements Access to distribution channels

Patents, branding, and image also fall into this category.

Force 2: Threat of substitutes

Every top decision makes has to ask: How easy can our product or service be substituted? The following needs to be analyzed:

How much does it cost the customer to switch to competing products or services?

How likely are customers to switch? What is the price-performance trade-off of substitutes?

If a product can be easily substituted, then it is a threat to the company because it can compete with price only.

Ex.

Electric security system replaces a security guard

Digital camera replaces the need for film

Handy cam replaces need for digital camera

Questions?

1-how many substitutes' products/services have appeared in your industry in the last 5 years?

2-what are they? how different are the?

3-were they introduced by your origination or by others?

4-which organization in your industry dose the most R&D?

5-what happened to price, profit and MKT share when substitutes are introduced?

Force 3: Bargaining power of buyersNow the question is how strong the position of buyers is. For example, can your customers work together to order large volumes to squeeze your profit margins? The following is a list of other examples:

Buyer volume and concentration What information buyers have Can buyers corner you in negotiations about price How loyal are customers to your brand Price sensitivity Threat of backward integration How well differentiated your product is Availability of substitutes

Having a customer that has the leverage to dictate your prices is not a good position.

For Example,

P & G have online portal to ask the customer about their views and new ideas about the products of their desire

Force 4: Bargaining power of suppliers

This relates to what your suppliers can do in relationship with you.

How strong is the position of sellers? Are there many or only few potential suppliers? Is there a monopoly? Do you take inputs from a single supplier or from a group?

(concentration) How much do you take from each of your suppliers? Can you easily switch from one supplier to another one? (switching costs) If you switch to another supplier, will it affect the cost and differentiation

of your product? Are there other suppliers with the same inputs available? (substitute

inputs)

The threat of forward integration is also an important factor here.

For Examples,

The bargaining power of Microsoft and Intel in more because they are the huge suppliers of software and hardware. Microsoft enforces computer manufacturers to load Windows in their computers and place their logo on laptops, desktops and server machines. Intel on the other hand also demands computer manufacturers to place their logo on machines using Intel processor. Intel and Microsoft are enforcing their terms and conditions also charging high cost from the computer manufacturing companies.

Manufacturer needs to build relationship with the supplier to improve the quality and reduce the prices of the product by working together for improvement in processes and reduce time to market by implementing just-in-time inventory.

For Example,

Dell computer known for low cost and best quality computer, laptop and server manufacturer in the industry. The key behind dell success is maintaining better relationship and collaboration with the supplier of computer hardware and software.

Force 5: Rivalry among the existing players

Rivalry among competing firms is the most powerful of the five competitive forces. The ongoing war between firms competing in the same industry for

gaining customer share to increase revenues and profits. The competition is more intense if firm pursue strategies that gives competitive advantage over the strategies pursued by rivals.

Finally, we have to analyze the level of competition between existing players in the industry.

Is one player very dominant or all equal in strength/size? Are there exit barriers? How fast does the industry grow? Does the industry operate at surplus or shortage? How is the industry concentrated? How do customers identify themselves with your brand? Is the product differentiated? How well are rivals diversified? Price competition Advertising battles

Rivalry is the fifth factor in the Five Forces model but probably the one with the most attention

Examples, .

In telecommunication industry firms are lowering their prices to increase consumer call ratio by minimize per minute profit margin but increasing overall company revenues.

- In the past few years number of new features were added in the mobiles now it not only give the functionality of cell phone but able to take pictures, make videos, watch streaming and use Internet. The firms like Nokia, Siemens, Samsung and other are following each other strategies to minimize the differentiation in the product so customer can easily switch brands.

- In the past television companies offer maximum one year warranty but now competition is tough other market player Samsung, LG, Haier, Philips and others enter in the market with their high quality products to compete Sony, that’s the reason customer is getting more services in the form of extended warranty periods.

- Pepsi Vs Coca Cola are competing by increasing advertising and offering new beverages in the market

We discuss about offline business when it comes to online business on Internet the competition is more fierce, consumer get more control over its purchasing by sitting at home on computer and comparing the similar and substitute products on bases of features and prices.

Amazon.com is the best selling online book store offering huge library containing millions of books on variety of subjects. People come to amazon because they enjoy user friendly design, products, books and search capability of the site but when it come to purchase the product customer move to other site such as buy.com for purchase on discounts. Buy.com CEO says, ” The Internet is going to shrink retailers margins to the point where they will not survive.” 

Examples,

- Dell.com offer computers and laptops of high quality at low prices as compared to the competitors.

- EBay.com is a place where people like to go to purchase products online at low price.

The rivalry among competing firm increase as the number of competitors increases, as competitors more equal in size and capability, as demand for the company products decline, products are undifferentiated, product prices decline, consumer brand switching cost is less, number of supplier available for raw material, low price substitute products are available and entry into market is easy due to less constraints. As rivalry among competing firms intensifies, industry profits decline, in some cases to the point where an industry becomes inherently unattractive.