1. Porter’s model of 5 competitive forces is one of the most often
Intra- Industry Rivalry
Strategic Business Unit
How strong is the rivalry among existing players? Does only one player dominate?
Bargaining
Power of the Buyers
How strong is the position of the buyers? Can we sell in large volumes? Do we need to discount heavily?
How easy or hard it is for new entrants to start and compete? Any barriers to their entry?
Potential New Entrants
How easy or hard it is for
a new product or service to replace what already exists?
Substitute Products and Services
Power of Suppliers
How strong is the position of the suppliers? Are there many? Few? Monopoly?
Porter’s model of 5 competitive forces is one of the most often
used business strategy tools
Source:
Michael E. Porter “Forces Governing Competition in
Industry (Harvard Business
Review, Mar.-Apr. 1979)

2. Porter’s Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy
Porter’s Competitive Forces
Michael Porter on why America needs an economic strategy

4. Generic Strategies and Industry Forces
Cost Leadership
Differentiation
Focus
Entry Barriers
Ability to cut price in retaliation deters potential entrants.
Customer loyalty can discourage potential entrants.
Focusing develops core competencies that can act as an entry barrier.
Buyer Power
Ability to offer lower price to powerful buyers.
Large buyers have less power to negotiate because of few close alternatives.
Large buyers have less power to negotiate because of few alternatives.
Supplier Power
Better insulated from powerful suppliers.
Better able to pass on supplier price increases to customers.
Suppliers have power because of low volumes, but a differentiation-focused firm is better able to pass on supplier price increases.
Threat of Substitutes
Can use low price to defend against substitutes.
Customer's become attached to differentiating attributes, reducing threat of substitutes.
Specialized products & core competency protect against substitutes.
Rivalry
Better able to compete on price.
Brand loyalty to keep customers from rivals.
Rivals cannot meet differentiation-focused customer needs. 4

5. Applying the Porter Competitive Model to Wal-Mart
Intra-Industry Rivalry
SBU: Wal-Mart
Rivals: Kmart, Target,
Toys R Us, Specialty Stores
Bargaining
Power of Buyers
Power
of Suppliers
Substitute
Products
and Services
Potential
New Entrants
Consumers in Small Town U.S.A.
Consumers in the Metropolitans Areas in the U.S.
Canadian and Mexican Consumers
Other Foreign Consumers
Mail Order
Home Shopping Network
Electronic Shopping
U.S. Product Manufacturers
Foreign Manufacturers
Local Governments
I/T Product and Service Suppliers
Foreign General Merchandisers or Discounters
Established Retailer Shifting Strategy to Discounting or Megastores
Telemarketing
Buying Clubs
Door-to-door Sales

7. Intra-Industry Rivalry Strategic Business Unit
Porter Competitive Model Education Industry: U.S. Universities
Potential
New Entrants
Foreign Universities
Distance Learning
Motorola University
Phoenix, DeVry, National
Bargaining
Power
of Suppliers
Bargaining
Power of Buyers
Intra-Industry Rivalry
Strategic Business Unit
Faculty and Staff
Equipment, Service, Suppliers
Alumni
Foundations, Business
Government
Students
Parents
Business
Employers
Legislators
Substitute
Products
and Services
Books and Videotapes
Computer-Based Training
Training Companies
Consulting Firms

8. Porter’s Model and the Role of the Government:
The government plays an important role in Porter’s diamond model. Like everybody else, Porter argues that there are some things that governments do that they shouldn't, and other things that they do not do but should. He says, "Government’s proper role is as a catalyst and challenger; it is to encourage - or even push - companies to raise their aspirations and move to higher levels of competitive performance …"
Governments can influence all four of Porter’s determinants through a variety of actions such as
Subsidies to firms, either directly (money) or indirectly (through infrastructure).
Tax codes applicable to corporation, business or property ownership.
Educational policies that affect the skill level of workers.
They should focus on specialized factor creation. (How can they do this?)
They should enforce tough standards. (This prescription may seem counterintuitive. What is his rationale? Maybe to establish high technical and product standards including environmental regulations.)
The problem, of course, is through these actions, it becomes clear which industries they are choosing to help innovate. What methods do they use to choose? What happens if they pick the wrong industries?

9. Criticisms
Although Porter theory is renowned, it has a number of critics.
Porter developed this paper based on case studies and these tend to only apply to developed economies.
Porter argues that only outward-FDI is valuable in creating competitive advantage, and inbound-FDI does not increase domestic competition significantly because the domestic firms lack the capability to defend their own markets and face a process of market-share erosion and decline. However, there seems to be little empirical evidence to support that claim.
The Porter model does not adequately address the role of MNCs. There seems to be ample evidence that the diamond is influenced by factors outside the home country.