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Droid. However, you should be honest and straightforward about your
statistics. Investors are smart and can see through hype and deception.
3. The content of an industry analysis depends on the purpose of
the report. There is no one size fits all. However, if the business is seek-
ing funds, investors will at a minimum want to see two things:
Industry analysis: An analysis of the industry in which the
company operates. What are the
opportunities and threats inherent in the industry?
Company analysis: An analysis of the competitive position of
the company within that industry. What
are the strengths and weak-
nesses of the company?
4. There are a number of analysis techniques designed to get at
both the industry and company analysis. We will look at just two. The
first is very popular in the marketing discipline. It is an analysis of
strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats (S.W.O.T.) analysis
developed by Albert Humphrey in the 1960s. The strengths and weak-
nesses compose the company analysis, whereas opportunities and
threats compose the industry analysis. You
can consider the strengths
and weaknesses as describing the current state of the company. The
proposed future state of the company will be planned taking into ac-
count the opportunities and threats. It is conventional to show a
S.W.O.T. analysis in a four cell grid.
5. Another very popular analysis tool is Michael Porter’s five forc-
es model. Porter analyzes an industry by looking at how hard it is to get
in the industry (barriers to entry), stay in the industry (threat of substi-
tutes), and the bargaining position of suppliers to and buyers of industry
products and services. This helps identify the attractiveness of the in-
dustry. You might think of Porter as helping
to direct our focus to
where the opportunities and threats might be found. The fifth force is
the competitive position of industry rivals — their strengths and weak-
nesses.
6. For example, with respect to your iPhone app, you might argue
that barriers to entry are very low. There are thousands of iPhone de-
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velopers and it cost relatively little to develop an iPhone app. The threat
of substitutes includes the competing Droid and other smart phones and
apps. Suppliers
to your industry include Apple, which supplies the
iTunes store for distribution and the developers. Apple’s bargaining
power is very high since you must list your app on their store and pay
their commission. However, the bargaining power of developers is rela-
tively low since they compete in an open auction for your business. The
bargaining power of buyers is very strong since they can purchase from
you or any of your competitors. The only thing that makes this industry
attractive is that it is growing at such a phenomenal rate that there are
business opportunities even for weak players. As the industry matures,
the weaker players will probably get squeezed out.
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