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Porter's Five Forces Tool
Judge the five pressures on profit in each market you could enter, as the new entrant, and get a verdict for each: attractive, mixed or unattractive.
This tool also runs as a stage in a playbook, which takes you through several tools in order:
- Expand into a new market Stage 2 of 6: are those markets worth competing in? Start at stage 1
Not following the playbook?
The markets to judge
One to three markets. A verdict means more next to a second market.
Your notes never leave your browser
Market names and notes stay on your computer and in your progress file. To write the diagnosis, only the ratings and verdicts are sent to our server. How it works
Rate the pressures
For each market, how strongly each pressure would hold your profit down, as the new entrant.
- Be honest about getting in. The barrier companies most often underrate is reaching customers, not making the product.
- For a high pressure, say whether you could get around it. One you can becomes a condition, not a reason to stop.
The verdict for each market
The five pressures, side by side
Save your progress
Download your progress file to continue from this point any time, on any computer: choose it under "Coming back?" at the start of the tool. Each new file includes everything so far, including the earlier stages when they are connected, so keep the latest one. Your work stays in this browser only until you close it.
Not saved yet.
Take your results with you
A PDF of the verdict for each market, the pressures side by side, and the diagnosis.
About the tool
Why it exists
Does the market let anyone make money?
Five Forces looks at the five pressures on profit in a market: rivals, buyers, new entrants, substitutes and suppliers. Here it is run from where you stand, as the newcomer, for each market you could enter.
This tool works on its own, and as stage 2 of our playbook for expanding into a new market, where it picks up the markets and ranked forces from the PESTEL scan in stage 1. For the method, see our guide to Porter's Five Forces.
The method
How the tool works
Five ratings. Each pressure is rated high, medium or low as it would hit you. For a high one, you say whether you could get around it, and you can mark the one pressure that decides the market.
The suggested verdict. Unattractive when two or more high pressures have no way around, or when the deciding one has none. Attractive when nothing is high and at most two are medium. Mixed otherwise, with the high pressures you can get around as its conditions. You can choose your own verdict; the report shows both.
What goes forward. Attractive and mixed markets go on. If none does, the playbook doesn't stop: growth at home goes into stage 4 as a real option.
What leaves your computer. Market names and notes stay in your browser and your progress file. To write the diagnosis, the page sends our server only the ratings and the verdicts, and the server keeps nothing.