Week 6 Reading Reflection

In this article I think I fell into the first generalized category of people that tend to believe that when you think of competition you think of established competitors in your market. I didn't really think that the four other categories would be classified as competition as well. But the other four categories that are listed do affect and sometimes can be the primary cause of change in profitability. Customers, suppliers, new entrants and substitute options for a product can all affect the profitability line of a company equally if not greater than direct competition. 

This article made a lot of sense to me and all of the areas where I would typically get confused, new vocabulary, but it was explained and was provided with real life present day situations that made it relatable and understandable. As a viewer of the show "Shark Tank" I actually had some knowledge of terms that I didn't know had names. For example on the show entrepreneurs often times come in asking for money because they need to lower their cost of production by ordering more units of their product and supplies. Little did I know this issue is actually associated with barriers to entry and is called "Supply-side economies of scale" and it actually is a big conflict many businesses face. 

The first question I would ask the author is related to the "Power of Suppliers" section in the article. The first paragraph listed a range of actions that powerful suppliers do to companies to exercise their power. I would like to know if these actions are considered to be legal? Perhaps they are legal, even though many seems extreme, but not really ethical? For example one thing listed is lowering the quality of service of the products produced by the suppliers. This doesn't seem like it would be legal.

The second question I have in regards to this article is in the "Rivalry Among Existing Competitors" part of the text. It says competition is high in a market if the exit barriers are high. This section didn't really give an example of what an exit barrier would constitute of and I want to know if there is a present day example of what this would be like? 

There was nothing in this particular article that I believed the author of the article was incorrect about. The author thoroughly explained the information he presented and gave great examples to many of his points which allowed the information he presented to be put in context. The information he presented was also more factual in nature therefore making it difficult to really argue with.