Week 2 Discussion on Competition for the Auto Industry + Viagra Assignment

Hi Class:

For the week 2 discussion board, we are delving into "Competition" - hopefully you have a good understanding of the "5 forces" framework from Michael Porter (slide 22 in lesson 2).

For this discussion, mainly I was hoping to have you use the 5 forces framework to look at the auto industry – the five forces being New Entrants, Bargaining Power of Suppliers, Bargaining Power of Customers, Substitutes, and then industry rivalry in the center.

For example, the new entrants could be the Korean carmakers in the 90s and Chinese carmakers in the 2000’s.  How have these new entrants changed the competition? 

For the car enthusiast in you, think about how the car buying process has changed over time, what has competition done to change the US auto industry?

Hopefully the Viagra assignment is self-explanatory - make use of the 5 C's framework (Company, Customers, Competitors, Context and Collaborators) to analyze what was happening for Pfizer in 2004.

Instructor Kelly