Reading the competitive environment

Abstract

After reading this chapter you will be able to:

• identify the main strategic players in the competitive or industrial environment

• identify the defining features of the competitive environment, especially the forces of competition

• understand how different market structures influence strategy making

• realize the difficulty of anticipating performance outcomes given the oligopolistic structure of markets

• be familiar with the concept of country risk

• describe the strategic risk which arises from the interaction between different players in strategy making

I know more about them than they know about themselves. (Alain Perrin, President of Cartier, talking about his competitors)