Week 6 Reading Reflection

1. Although it might seem obvious, what surprised me is the 5 factors of industry competition. I never thought about all of those besides the rivalry among existing competitors. The threat of entry is something I never valued as much as what I'm reading especially because when the threat of new companies is high, existing companies have to hold down their prices or increase investment to scare off those companies.
2. What I found most confusing was the graphs on the return of invested capital and profitability of US industries. To me, it seemed like it was just thrown in there, but then it still didn't fully explain what the graphs were and analyzing them besides defining what a return on your investment is.
3. The 2 questions I would ask are: 1) Is there one factor of industry competition that is most important? I would ask this because if I ran a business, I would want to be wary of something hurting my business the most. The next question I would ask is 2) How effective/successful is it to attempt to eliminate your rivals? I would ask this because if I was running a business and was being possibly overtaken, I would want to know if eliminating them is a good idea. 
4. Although I thought that Porter laid his ideas our simply and credibly, the only thing I disagreed on was his list of typical steps in industry analysis. I thought he made it sound to cut and dry while not really emphasizing other key factors or underlying pressures based on a company's decision.