Week 6 Reading Reflection

Week 6 Reading Reflection: The Five Competitive Forces that shape Strategy.

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? I was sad to see that wine and brandy are under the national return percentage of 15%. I would have liked to see that percentage higher considering it is the Industry I want to get in to.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. I feel like the Author could have numbered the Forces Better. The different forces are scattered throughout the text and are hard to find.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why? I would ask the author how we can learn more about specific industries. Can we really trust what major companies tell us? What’s to stop companies controlling a certain Industry to make false claims about how competitive their market is or what substitutes might exist.

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How? I disagree with the idea that eliminating competition is risky. It is not risky when you could be the one who is eliminated. In the words of Ricky Bobby , “If you’re not first your last.”. ;)