Management Concepts 1: Porter’s Five Forces in Love

When you enrol yourself for a management education the professors and people concerned bog you down with so many concepts that you end up thinking why in h***’s name am I studying all these. So I launched myself into this endeavour of finding out whether these can be applied to a person’s real life and since there are so many, I decided on writing them down as a series. The first concept I selected for this series is the Porter’s Five Forces and its Applicability in Love.

• Bargaining Power of Buyers: In the case of love I am assuming buyers to be the one who are proposed to by the opposite sex (and in some cases the same sex). So when are the “Buyers” powerful.
• When the suppliers are small in attributes (physical, emotional and mental) and larger in number, while the buyers are fewer but larger in attributes. e.g. in a mechanical or civil engg. class which are not taken by many of the ladies, you would find what they (ladies) dictate as the supreme dictum.
• When switching costs are low. E.g. when there are a fewer number of one gender in a class and the attributes (physical, monetary etc.) in the majority gender are similar.
• Or in some cases where buyers can threaten to enter the field and provide the requisite themselves. The e.g. I am assuming readers will gauge.
• Bargaining Power of Suppliers: “Suppliers” are the ones who propose their love to the opposite sex and it is their responsibility to woo the same. They are powerful when:
• The product is vital and has few substitutes. e.g. If the buyer is now head over heels in love with supplier, he/she will find this absolutely necessary for being happy, especially if he/she has no or very few friends to take care of the person in case of any eventuality.
• There are significant switching costs as mentioned above.
• Intensity of Rivalry: I would straight go to the sub points under this.
• Competitive Structure: If it is fragmented i.e. not many couples have been formed e.g. as is the case when a new program begins the rivalry is higher as compared to a more consolidated phase as is the case after a few months or a year of a class.
• Demand Conditions: If there is a growing demand from new players, as is the case when juniors come into picture or if the existing players are involved in additional set ups, moderates competition.
• Threat of New Entrants: This, I guess is the most important reason for any person feeling insecure. So let us say if the brand loyalty is high the chances of a new entrant succeeding will be low. Similarly, if regulations (read Ram Sene, Shiv Sena) are high, the aforesaid will be true again.
• Threat of Substitutes: I find very few substitute for love, namely friendship and same sex love. I would let the reader judge their effect.

I assume that i won’t considered too shallow for writing the above and I hope that this would encourage all those not interested in academics to polish their basics.