Strategic Planning Kit For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Seeing the Underlying Forces of Your Industry

The industry (or industries) you operate in have significant impact on your future because underlying forces that you can't get away from exist in every industry. As you're identifying your strategic issues, use the matrix discussed in this section to think about what those forces are and what may be changing.

The following categories are evaluated from high to low or growth to decline and provide a quick overview of your industry structure. For a more detailed environmental and industry scan, flip to Chapter 10.

Using the Industry Structure matrix on the CD, complete your own assessment to identify forces and the impact that they could have.

• Life cycle stage: All industries go through periods of growth, maturity, and decline. An average life cycle lasts 70 years. Maturity is the longest stage at 40 years with growth and decline at 15 years each.
• Regulation level: The amount of governmental regulation and policy that supports or prevents company operations can be high, medium, or low.
• Revenue volatility: A higher level of revenue volatility implies greater industry risk. Volatility can negatively affect long-term strategic decisions, such as the time frame for capital investment.
• Technology change: Technology change is the degree to which technological change impacts continued competitiveness and required capital investments.
• Capital ...