Week 6 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise to me in this article was that even though there were 5 competitive forces, 4 of them revolved around one; rivalry with other competitors. It seems to me the author is trying to say that rivalry is the focal point of all competition, which in a way makes sense, but at the same time does not sit right with me. This is probably something I would disagree with the author about. but purely on phrasing. The phrase "rivalry among existing competitors" sounds brutal, I guess. I know it is synonymous with competitive advantage, but Porter is making companies look like the last man standing. In a sense, I understand that, but one would like to believe that companies' number 1 priority would be to serve their customers with the best product or service in the industry. That would be a question I would ask: Is there a better way to phrase or define "rivalry among existing competitors." A part that was confusing to me was when Porter wrote that different forces might carry more weight among different industries, as in the photographic film example. So my second question to Porter would be: why depict rivalry as the center force, when in some instances, it isn't. Why not make a chart that showed the factors carrying equal weight and then explain that different forces are more or less influential in different industries.