Michael Porters Five Forces Analysis Coursework

Michael Porters Five Forces Analysis - Coursework Example The five forces are threat of new entrants, bargaining power of the purchasers, bargaining power of the suppliers, threat of the substitute products or services and the rivalry among the existing competitors (Porter 6 – 10). The following diagram shows the five forces. Foremost, the bargaining power of the suppliers is driven by the number of suppliers for every essential input, the uniqueness of the inputs or services, the size, and strength of the supplier and the cost involved in switching from one supplier to another. This force includes assessment of the probability of the suppliers to increase their prices. Secondly, the bargaining power of the buyer includes assessing of the probability that the buyers will bring down prices of commodities and services. The assessment is controlled by the number of purchasers available in the market, the significance of every individual buyer to the firm and the cost likely to occur if the buyer switches from buying in one firm or the other. When a business has a few of powerful buyers, the firm is in a position to dictate the terms to the buyers. Thirdly, competitive rivalry is driven by the capability of the competitors in the market and their number. When a big number of competitors offer undifferentiated services or products, they reduce the attractiveness of the market. Substitution threat applies in that, when there are close substitute products, the likelihood of increased switching of customers to the alternatives occurs responding to the increase in prices. In such a scenario, the market attractiveness and the suppliers’ power reduce. Threat of new entries implies that a profitable market attracts new entrants in the business and erodes profitability of a firm. Not unless incumbents have durable and strong barriers to entry, the profitability goes down to a competitive rate. The barriers to entry in the market include

Warfare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Warfare - Essay Example This kind of warfare more closely resembles the kind of decentralised wars from the earlier periods of human history (Thornton, 2007). The 4GW system indicates that the nation state structure has had to relinquish its monopoly on well defined combat forces as the nature of conflict often forces them to return to modes of conflict displayed in pre-modern times. The warfare displayed in the 21st century clearly demonstrates the presence and eventual dominance of the non-state actors in theatres of war. Often conflict is characterised as violent struggle between at least one non-state actor and other state actors. This is far more similar to pre-modern times such as the slave uprising against the Roman Republic under Spartacus. Certain elements of the 4GW make it far more different than other modes of conflict and are described in detail below. In general terms the conflicts in the 4GW system are complex and based on long term commitment to violence (Hammes, 2006). As an example, the Se cond World War which claimed the greatest number of lives on the planet continued for a mere six years while conflicts in the 4GW regime can continue for a decade or more such as the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the US campaign in Iraq and Afghanistan etc. Moreover the use of terrorism as a tactic of such prolonged campaigns is a defining feature of 4GW conflicts. Terrorism can be seen continuing even after the expected end of conflicts in the 4GW period and this in turn often sparks the conflict again (Schmid & Jongman, 1988). The presence of terrorist activities makes such conflicts and their ends rather unpredictable. As an example, the rebellion of the Tamils in Sri Lanka continued for decades without respite and the interlaced periods of cease fire between the Tamils and the Sri Lankan military were often disrupted by acts of terrorism that reactivated the state of war. In order to support the activities required to engage in 4GW, it is necessary to use a decentralised pre sence on the part of the engaged parties. This is often achieved using non-national or trans-national bases that are highly decentralised (Hoffman, 2006). As is often the case in such circumstances, the leadership of the violent non state actor lies in another state while the actual conflict proceeds in another state. The presence and adept handling of communication equipment has enabled the relaying of information over large distances and in such situations with reliability. This ensures that the central leadership can operate from foreign theatres of operation in order to avoid danger near the battlefield. The evolution of recent wars has made this precept of 4GW all the stronger (Juergensmeyer, 2000). More often than not the central leadership is composed of multiple nationalities, ethnic and racial identities working together to achieve common objectives. This enables the leadership to be split up into multiple locations which makes it harder for enemy combatants to close down o nto the central leadership and disassemble it (Rodin, 2006). The leadership is often small in size unlike the conventional tactics employed in nation state armies. The leadership is highly varied as mentioned before and so a network of communication must exist in order to manage the theatre of conflict. One important