Chapter 3: Evaluating a Company Companys External Environment

Screen graphics created by: Jana F. Kuzmicki, Ph.D. Troy University

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Chapter Learning Objectives

1. To gain command of the basic concepts and analytical tools widely used to diagnose a companys industry and competitive conditions. 2. To become adept in recognizing the factors that cause competition in an industry to be fierce, more or less normal, or relatively weak. 3. To learn how to determine whether an industrys outlook presents a company with sufficiently attractive opportunities for growth and profitability. 4. To understand why in-depth evaluation of specific industry and competitive conditions is a prerequisite to crafting a strategy well matched to a companys situation.
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Chapter Roadmap
 The Strategically Relevant Components of a

Companys External Environment  Thinking Strategically About a Companys Industry and Competitive Environment
 Question 1: What Are the Industrys Dominant Economic Features?  Question 2: How Strong Are Competitive Forces?  Question 3: What Forces Are Driving Industry Change and What Impacts Will They Have?  Question 4: What Market Positions Do Rivals Occupy Who Is Strongly Positioned and Who Is Not?  Question 5: What Strategic Moves Are Rivals Likely to Make Next?  Question 6: What Are the Key Factors for Future Competitive Success?  Question 7: Does the Outlook for the Industry Offer the Company a Good Opportunity to Earn Attractive Profits?
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Understanding the Factors that Determine a Companys Situation

 Diagnosing a companys situation has

two facets
 Assessing the companys external or macroenvironment
Industry and competitive conditions Forces acting to reshape this environment

 Assessing the companys internal or

micro-environment
Market position and competitiveness

Competencies, capabilities, resource strengths and weaknesses, and competitiveness

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Figure 3.1: From Thinking Strategically About the Companys Situation to Choosing a Strategy

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Figure 3.2: The Components of a Companys Macro-environment

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Thinking Strategically About a Companys Macro-environment

 A companys macro-environment includes all

relevant factors and influences outside its boundaries  Diagnosing a companys external situation involves assessing strategically important factors that have a bearing on the decisions a companys makes about its  Direction  Objectives  Strategy  Business model  Requires that company managers scan the external environment to  Identify potentially important external developments  Assess their impact and influence  Adapt a companys direction and strategy as needed
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Key Questions Regarding the Industry and Competitive Environment

What are the industrys dominant economic traits? How strong are competitive forces?
What market positions do rivals occupy? What moves will they make next?

What forces are driving change in the industry? What are the key factors for competitive success? How attractive is the industry from a profit perspective?
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Question 1: What are the Industrys Dominant Economic Traits?

 Market size and growth rate  Number of rivals  Scope of competitive rivalry  Buyer needs and requirements  Degree of product differentiation  Product innovation  Supply/demand conditions  Pace of technological change  Vertical integration  Economies of scale  Learning and experience curve effects
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Table 3.1: What to Consider in Identifying an Industrys Dominant Economic Features

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Learning/Experience Effects
 Learning/experience effects exist when a

companys unit costs decline as its cumulative production volume increases because of
 

Accumulating production know-how Growing mastery of the technology

 The bigger the learning or experience

curve effect, the bigger the cost advantage of the firm with the largest cumulative production volume
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Question 2: How Strong Are Competitive Forces?

 Objectives are to identify

 Main sources of competitive forces  Strength of these forces

 Key analytical tool

 Five Forces Model of Competition

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Figure 3.3: The Five Forces Model of Competition

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Analyzing the Five Competitive Forces: How to Do It

Step 1: Identify the specific competitive pressures associated with each of the five forces Step 2: Evaluate the strength of each competitive force fierce, strong, moderate to normal, or weak? Step 3: Determine whether the collective strength of the five competitive forces is conducive to earning attractive profits
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Competitive Pressures Among Rival Sellers

 Usually the strongest of the five forces  Key factor in determining strength of

rivalry
 How aggressively are rivals using various weapons of competition to improve their market positions and performance?  Competitive rivalry is a combative

contest involving
 Offensive actions  Defensive countermoves
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Figure 3.4: Weapons for Competing and Factors Affecting Strength of Rivalry

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Competitive Pressures Associated With Potential Entry

 Seriousness of threat depends on  Size of pool of entry candidates and available resources  Barriers to entry  Reaction of existing firms  Evaluating threat of entry involves assessing  How formidable entry barriers are for each type of potential entrant and  Attractiveness of growth and profit prospects
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Figure 3.5: Factors Affecting Threat of Entry

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Common Barriers to Entry

 Sizable economies of scale  Cost and resource disadvantages independent

of size
 Brand preferences and customer loyalty  Capital requirements and/or other

specialized resource requirements

 Access to distribution channels  Regulatory policies  Tariffs and international trade restrictions  Ability of industry incumbents to launch

vigorous initiatives to block a newcomers entry

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Competitive Pressures from Substitute Products Concept

Substitutes matter when customers are attracted to the products of firms in other industries

Examples
 Sugar vs. artificial sweeteners  Eyeglasses and contact lens vs. laser surgery  Newspapers vs. TV vs. Internet
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How to Tell Whether Substitute Products Are a Strong Force

 Whether substitutes are readily

available and attractively priced

 Whether buyers view substitutes

as being comparable or better

 How much it costs end users

to switch to substitutes
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Figure 3.6: Factors Affecting Competition From Substitute Products

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Competitive Pressures From Suppliers and Supplier-Seller Collaboration

 Whether supplier-seller relationships

represent a weak or strong competitive force depends on

 Whether suppliers can exercise sufficient bargaining leverage to influence terms of supply in their favor

 Nature and extent of supplier-seller collaboration in the industry

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Figure 3.7: Factors Affecting Bargaining Power of Suppliers

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Competitive Pressures: Collaboration Between Sellers and Suppliers

 Industry members often forge strategic

partnerships with select suppliers to

 Reduce inventory and logistics costs  Speed availability of next-generation components  Enhance quality of parts being supplied  Squeeze out cost savings for both parties
 Competitive advantage potential may accrue

to those industry members (sellers) doing the best job of managing supply-chain relationships
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Competitive Pressures From Buyers and Seller-Buyer Collaboration

 Whether the relationships between industry

members and buyers represent a weak or strong competitive force depends on

 Whether buyers have sufficient bargaining leverage to influence terms of sale in their favor  Extent and competitive importance of strategic partnerships between certain industry members and the buyers
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Figure 3.8: Factors Affecting Bargaining Power of Buyers

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Competitive Pressures: Collaboration Between Sellers and Buyers

 Partnerships between industry members

and some/many of their customers can impact competitive pressures  Collaboration may result in mutual benefits regarding
 Just-in-time deliveries  Order processing  Electronic invoice payments  Data sharing  Competitive advantage may accrue to

those industry members doing the best job of partnering with their customers
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Strategic Implications of the Five Competitive Forces

 Competitive environment is

unattractive from the standpoint of earning good profits when

 Rivalry is vigorous  Entry barriers are low and entry is likely  Competition from substitutes is strong  Suppliers and customers have considerable bargaining power
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Strategic Implications of the Five Competitive Forces

 Competitive environment is ideal from

a profit-making standpoint when

 Rivalry is moderate  Entry barriers are high and no firm is likely to enter  Good substitutes do not exist  Suppliers and customers are in a weak bargaining position
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Coping With the Five Competitive Forces

 Objective is to craft a strategy to  Insulate firm from competitive pressures  Initiate actions to produce sustainable competitive advantage  Allow firm to be the industrys mover and shaker with the most powerful strategy that defines the business model for the industry
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Question 3: What Forces Are Driving Industry Change and What Impacts Will They Have?
 Industries change because forces

are driving industry participants to alter their actions

 Driving forces are the

major underlying causes of changing industry and competitive conditions

 Where do driving forces originate?

 Outer ring of macroenvironment  Inner ring of macroenvironment

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Analyzing Driving Forces: Three Key Steps

STEP 1: Identify forces likely to exert greatest influence over next 1 - 3 years  Usually no more than 3 - 4 factors
qualify as real drivers of change

STEP 2: Assess impact  Are driving forces acting to cause market

demand for product to increase or decrease?  Are driving forces acting to make competition more or less intense?  Will driving forces lead to higher or lower industry profitability?

STEP 3: Determine what strategy changes are needed to prepare for impacts of driving forces
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Table 3.2: The Most Common Driving Forces

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Question 4: What Market Positions Do Rivals Occupy?

 One technique to reveal different

competitive positions of industry rivals is strategic group mapping

 A strategic group is a cluster of firms in an

industry with similar competitive approaches and market positions

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Strategic Group Mapping

 Firms in same strategic group

have two or more competitive characteristics in common

 Have comparable product line breadth  Sell in same price/quality range  Emphasize same distribution channels  Use same product attributes to appeal to similar types of buyers  Use identical technological approaches  Offer buyers similar services  Cover same geographic areas
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Procedure for Constructing a Strategic Group Map

STEP 1: Identify competitive characteristics that differentiate firms in an industry from one another STEP 2: Plot firms on a two-variable map using pairs of these differentiating characteristics STEP 3: Assign firms that fall in about the same strategy space to same strategic group STEP 4: Draw circles around each group, making circles proportional to size of groups respective share of total industry sales
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Example: Strategic Group Map of Selected Automobile Manufacturers

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Guidelines: Strategic Group Maps

 Variables selected as axes should not be highly

correlated  Variables chosen as axes should expose big differences in how rivals compete  Variables do not have to be either quantitative or continuous
 Drawing sizes of circles proportional to

combined sales of firms in each strategic group allows map to reflect relative sizes of each strategic group
 If more than two good competitive variables can

be used, several maps can be drawn

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Interpreting Strategic Group Maps

 The closer strategic groups are

on the map, the stronger the cross-group competitive rivalry tends to be

 Not all positions on the map

are equally attractive

 Driving forces and competitive pressures often favor some strategic groups and hurt others  Profit potential of different strategic groups varies due to strengths and weaknesses in each groups market position
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Question 5: What Strategic Moves Are Rivals Likely to Make Next?

 A firms best strategic moves

are affected by
 Current strategies of competitors  Future actions of competitors  Profiling key rivals involves gathering

competitive intelligence about

 Current strategies  Most recent actions and public announcements  Resource strengths and weaknesses  Efforts being made to improve their situation  Thinking and leadership styles of top executives
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Competitor Analysis
 Sizing up strategies and competitive

strengths and weaknesses of rivals involves assessing

 Which rival has the best strategy? Which rivals appear to have weak strategies?  Which firms are poised to gain market share, and which ones seen destined to lose ground?  Which rivals are likely to rank among the industry leaders five years from now? Do any up-and-coming rivals have strategies and the resources to overtake the current industry leader?
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Things to Consider in Predicting Moves of Rivals

 Which rivals need to increase their unit sales

and market share? What strategies are rivals most likely to pursue?
 Which rivals have a strong incentive, along with

resources, to make major strategic changes?

 Which rivals are good candidates to be

acquired? Which rivals have the resources to acquire others?

 Which rivals are likely to enter new geographic

markets?
 Which rivals are likely to expand their product

offerings and enter new product segments?

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Question 6: What Are the Key Factors for Competitive Success?

 Key Success Factors (KSFs) are competitive

factors and attributes that affect every industry members ability to be competitively and financially successful  KSFs are those particular attributes that are so important that they spell the difference between
 Profit and loss  Competitive success or failure

 KSFs can relate to  Specific strategy elements  Product attributes  Resources  Competencies  Competitive capabilities  Market achievements
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Identifying Industry Key Success Factors

 The answers to 3 questions often help pinpoint

an industrys KSFs
 On what basis do customers choose between competing brands of sellers?  What resources and competitive capabilities does a company need to have to be competitively successful?  What shortcomings are likely to place a company at a significant competitive disadvantage?

 Rarely are there more than 5 - 6

factors that are truly key to the future financial and competitive success of industry members
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Table 3.3: Common Types of Industry Key Success Factors

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Question 7: Does the Outlook for the Industry Offer an Attractive Opportunity?
 Involves assessing whether the industry and

competitive environment presents a company with an attractive or unattractive opportunity for earning good profits  Factors to consider:
 Industry growth potential  Whether competitive forces are growing stronger/weaker  Whether driving forces will favorable/unfavorably impact industry profitability  Degree of risk and uncertainty in industrys future  Whether the industry confronts severe problems  Firms competitive position in industry vis--vis rivals  Firms potential to capitalize on industry opportunities or the vulnerabilities of weaker rivals  Whether a firm has sufficient competitive strength to defend against unattractive industry factors
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Factors to Consider in Assessing Industry Attractiveness

 As a general proposition  If an industrys overall profit prospects are above average, the industry environment is basically attractive  If an industrys overall profit prospects are below average, the industry environment is basically unattractive  However  Attractiveness is relative, not absolute  Conclusions about attractiveness have to be drawn from the perspective of a particular company
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Factors to Consider in Assessing Industry Attractiveness

 An industry is unlikely to be equally

attractive or unattractive to all industry members

 Industry environments attractive to strong competitors may be unattractive to weak competitors A favorably positioned company may survey an industry environment and see opportunities that weak competitors have little or no ability to capture  Industry environments attractive to insiders may be unattractive to potential entrants  Under certain circumstances, a firm uniquely wellsituated in an otherwise unattractive industry can still earn good profits by taking sales and market share away from weaker competitors
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Core Concept: Assessing Industry Attractiveness The degree to which an industry is attractive or unattractive is not the same for all industry participants or potential entrants. The opportunities an industry presents depend partly on a companys ability to capture them.
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