Does government policy restrict or prevent new entrants?

Industries with high fixed costs (e.g., telecommunications equipment and offshore drilling) are especially vulnerable to large buyers.

A common mistake in strategy is to choose the same core competences as everyone else in your industry.

large retailer. This was a powerful barrier to entry. By being first, Walton was able to preempt competitors and discourage them from entering Walmart’s territory, allowing the company time to hone the enduring sources of its competitive advantage: its ability to provide everyday low prices in markets all across the country and beyond.

STRATEGY EXPLAINS how an organization, faced with competition, will achieve superior performance.

Porter identified a set of generic strategies—focus, differentiation, and cost leadership—that

Now think about the cumulative impact of these differences in cost and value, all of them stemming from one trade-off: either you sell fully

Trade-offs are the strategic equivalent of a fork in the road. If you take one path, you cannot simultaneously take the other.

This, says Porter, is competitive convergence. Over time, rivals begin to look alike as one difference after another erodes. Customers are left with nothing but price as the basis for their choices.