Martin E. Porter and His Influence on Strategy
Martin E. Porter was a young economist who wrote the article How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy, which began a revolution in the strategy sector. Over the following decades, Porter continues to delve into this area further bringing in new ideologies. Porter's five forces of competition have had a big influence on academic research and the commercial enterprise world.
The Role of Competition in the Business World
In the business world, the function of strategy formula is dealing with competition. It may be easy to see competition as nothing, however, it has a huge influence in marketplaces. Additionally, following the scramble for market share, it is not simply the other players, but rather on different facets. These facets entail customers, suppliers, potential new entrants, and alternative products.
The Influence of the Five Forces of Competition
The broadened rivalry derived from all five forces describes the industry's makeup and influences the nature of competitive correlations within a given industry. Even though industries might seem different, they all have the same impetuses that drive profitability. As Porter puts it, there are five forces, namely the threats of new entrants, bargaining powers of suppliers and clients, rivalry among competitors, and the threat of substitution (Porter 1979, P.22). These are aspects which may not have been traditionally taken into account by strategists and economists. Porter's advice is very useful in any industry, and therefore many businesses apply it in their day-to-day activities.
The Threat of New Entrants
The first competitive force prevalent in any industry is the threat of new entries. New entrants that strategize well will have to take a share of the market at some point, and often they come with enough resources. A problem many businesses have is that they assume that the new entrants may not penetrate their current market since they are not well grounded yet. However, new entrants are often well-established and have done enough research before venturing out.
The Power of Suppliers and Buyers
The second force is the power of suppliers and buyers. Suppliers may apply bargaining power on the players in a given industry by increasing prices or tampering with the quality of the services rendered or products. Powerful suppliers, therefore, can shake an industry by squeezing out profitability hence driving it out of business since they would not be able to recover the expenses (Porter 1979, P.25). Clients also can force the prices down by failing to purchase products, ask for quality, or simply go to the competitors.
The Threat of Substitution
Another force is the threat of substitution. In the current world, technology has advanced greatly, giving room to a lot of invention and creation of substitute products. For instance, in the wake of the invention of high-quality camera smartphones, very few people purchase a camera (Schoenberger 1986, p. 326). Substitute products drive many businesses to enhance the quality of the products or differentiate their commodities.
Rivalry in Competition
The last force is rivalry in competition. Granted any business shall always have competition, the ways of handling competition, however, is what determines the profitability of that business (Azoev 1996, p. 15). Rivalry can take place in various forms such as price reductions, new product entrances, upgrading the quality of products or differentiating it, or through marketing.
The Importance of Understanding and Applying these Forces
These forces, as co-signed by many scholars, academicians, economists, and all players in the business world, are essential in the success and profitability of any business. They shall continue being applied even in the future. Businesses and industries that disregard this have seen a decline in their businesses or have even been completely phased out by their competition and new entrants. No matter how big and well-established a business is, if it does not have an ideal strategy for dealing with competition and inevitable changes like advancement in technology, it shall certainly decline in profitability.
References
Azoev, G.L., 1996. Competition: analysis, strategy and practice. Moscow: Center for Economics and Marketing, 2(08).
Porter, M. E. (1979). How competitive forces shape strategy. Harvard Business Review. 21-26.
Schoenberger, E., 1986. Competition, competitive strategy, and industrial change: the case of electronic components. Economic Geography, 62(4), pp.321-333.
