Week 6 Reading Reflection

How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy

1. My biggest surprise was how companies view their suppliers and the buyers. Of course I knew that thy probably did a lot of research on suppliers and buyers but there were a lot more reasons than I thought that made a supplier or a buyer a powerful one. Things such as its domination in companies, uniqueness, not obligated to contend with other products, ability to improve, would make suppliers powerful while things such as concentration of purchases, playing company against company for alternative/cheaper supplies, and less price sensitive.

2. The only thing that I could call confusing to m would be that companies are jockeying for position. Companies may be to focused on making their price lower than their rival, advertising slugfests, and introduction of their product that they ma forget the quality of their product.

3. What was the most interesting part of this article to you?

If I were a business, what should I focus on the most?

4. I disagree with the author when he states that the key to growth, even survival, is to stake out positions that are less vulnerable to attack from head-to-head opponents, and less vulnerable to erosion from the business environment. I think the key to growth is to build upon what you were less vulnerable on and to fix what you are vulnerable in to avoid problems int he future.