Week 6 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

What surprised me the most in the reading was the fact that the five forces mentioned were entirely market-based as opposed to being based on internal (market) as well as external forces (regulation, shortages). Yet, regulation was mentioned later on in the paper but not listed as critically as the others.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

One part of the reading that was confusing for me was the roundabout fashion that much of the paper had as in the beginning it had a diagram showing each of these factors correlated with one another. What made it confusing was the lack of definition on these terms until later causing the reader (me) to look back constantly to understand the whole of the paper.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

Question One: What is the greatest threat to a market in terms of which force is actually the most vital in terms of real world application? If not, then what connects all five to be of equal value?

Question Two: Do knock-offs count as substitutes or is it just products outside the industry?

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I think the author was wrong about niche companies having the same capacity in marketing to the larger corporations that spend millions on each other and combine at times to get rid of any possible rivals.