¶ … industry and competitive analysis? Why is it important? Competitive environment involves the actions of rival firms, buyer behavior, supplier related considerations and so on. They are important because they are the factors and forces that have the biggest strategy shaping impact on the company. To conduct industry and competitive analysis there are seven questions that must be asked and answered? Understanding the nature and purpose of each one of these questions is essential. What are the industry's dominant features? What kinds of competitive forces are industry members facing, and how strong is each force? What forces are driving industry change, and what impact will these changes have on the competitive intensity and industry profitability? What market positions do industry rivals occupy? Who is strongly positioned and who is not? What strategic moves are rivals likely to make next? What are the key factors for future competitive success? Does the outlook for the industry offer the company a good opportunity to earn attractive...

What is strategic group mapping? How does it work? What can be learned from strategic group maps? Strategic group mapping is a technique for displaying the different market or competitive positions that rival firms occupy in the industry. It is the best method to reveal the market positions of industry competitors
This tool enables you to compare market positions of each firm separately or group them into like positions. It highlights the strong and weak amongst competition. Driving forces. What are these? What is their significance? Driving forces are the major underlying causes of changing industry and competitive conditions- they have the biggest influence on how the industry landscape will be altered. They have the biggest influences on reshaping the industry landscape and altering competitive conditions. Some originate outside the company macro environment but most come from the immediate industry…