DEFINITION OF 'PORTER'S 5 FORCES'
Named after Michael E. Porter, this model identifies and analyzes 5 competitive forces that shape every industry, and helps determine an industry's weaknesses and strengths.
1. Competition in the industry
2. Potential of new entrants into industry
3. Power of suppliers
4. Power of customers
5. Threat of substitute products
The Porter's Five Forces tool is a simple but powerful tool for understanding where power lies in a business situation. This is useful, because it helps you understand both the strength of your current competitive position, and the strength of a position you're considering moving into.
Porter five forces analysis is a framework to analyse level of competition within an industry and business strategydevelopment. It draws upon industrial organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market. Attractiveness in this context refers to the overall industry profitability. An "unattractive" industry is one in which the combination of these five forces acts to drive down overall profitability. A very unattractive industry would be one approaching "pure competition", in which available profits for all firms are driven to normal profit. This analysis is associated with its principal innovator Michael E. Porter of Harvard University (as of 2014).
Five Forces Analysis assumes that there are five important forces that determine competitive power in a business situation. These are:
1. Supplier Power: Here you assess how easy it is for suppliers to drive up prices. This is driven by the number of suppliers of each key input, the uniqueness of their product or service, their strength and control over you, the cost of switching from one to another, and so on. The fewer the supplier choices you have, and the more you need suppliers' help, the more powerful your suppliers are.
2. Buyer Power: Here you ask yourself how easy it is for