Week 6 Reading Reflection

The Five Forces that Shape Competitive Strategy:

1) The biggest surprise in this reading for me was the part that talked about how industries such airlines and hotels do not earn great returns on their investments. This surprised me the most because when you think about how much it costs to get an airplane ticket or stay a night at a hotel, it's not exactly always cheap. Since these are such demanded services it's hard to believe that they do not make "attractive returns on investment" (page 80).

2) The most confusing part of this text for me was the bar graph located at the top of page 83. Although I see that it is trying to show the difference between industries in the US using their average returns on invested capital, it was confusing at first because there are so many random industries named. It was difficult to pinpoint the goal of the graphic because when I look at it, I just see a bunch of random industries that don't really go together- and that's how I found it to be confusing.

3) I would ask the author how he came up with the idea to write about the five forces that shape competition, to learn more about the motives behind this piece. I would also ask if he ever owned a business where it was effected by any of the forces, to see if he has had actual experience with the things he is writing about.

4) I think the author wasn't wrong but could change the wording on the part that says "managers often define competition too narrowly". Although this may be true, just stating it without evidence to back up the claim makes it seems like an overgeneralization and stereotype of managers. He should either include statistical evidence for his claim, or just leave that sentence out all together.