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Porter's Five Forces

Audience: CEO, Strategy Manager
Page Type: How-To Guide
Phase: PHASE 2 (Reality Filter)
Duration: 30-45 minutes

What This Module Does​

Porter in COS is an analysis workspace where you create:

  • A Porter analysis per strategic cycle and org unit
  • Porter entries under the five force categories
  • Porter KPIs linked from KPI Library or Current State (As-Is)

Important: this module does not run an automatic weighted industry score in the current product flow. You record and manage entries directly.

Entry Model (Actual)​

Each Porter entry uses this structure:

  • Category: COMPETITIVE_RIVALRY, SUPPLIER_POWER, BUYER_POWER, THREAT_OF_SUBSTITUTION, THREAT_OF_NEW_ENTRY
  • Summary: required short statement
  • Detail: optional explanation
  • Risk fields (optional):
    • isRisk
    • riskPrimaryCategory (single)
    • riskSecondaryTags (multi)
    • riskLevel (0..1)
    • riskProbability (0..1)
    • on-the-fly score: riskLevel * riskProbability

Step-by-Step​

Step 1: Create Porter Analysis​

  1. Go to Strategy → Porter's Five Forces
  2. Click Start Analysis
  3. Fill:
    • Name
    • Strategic cycle (from global cycle filter)
    • Org unit
    • Description (optional)
  4. Create

Step 2: Add Porter Entries​

  1. Open analysis detail page
  2. Select a force category
  3. Add record:
    • Summary (required)
    • Detail (optional)
    • Optional risk fields (mark as risk, category/tags, level, probability)
  4. Save

Step 3: Add KPIs​

You can add KPI records in two ways:

  1. From Library (KPI Library item)
  2. From As-Is (Current State KPI, if feature enabled)

For each KPI, COS keeps betterDirection as:

  • HIGHER_IS_BETTER
  • LOWER_IS_BETTER

Step 4: Track Measurements​

For each KPI, add periodic measurements:

  • periodStart, periodEnd, periodicity
  • target, actual, forecast (optional)
  • statusNote (optional)

Workflow Status​

Porter analysis lifecycle:

  • DRAFT
  • PUBLISHED
  • ARCHIVED

Notes:

  • Same-state publish/archive is blocked.
  • Archived analysis cannot be re-published directly.

Tips​

  • Keep summary text decision-focused; use detail for evidence
  • Use risk level/probability consistently across entries
  • Do not overload the analysis with low-signal entries