Porter's Five Forces Workshop

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Produce a shared visual map of current market pressures using Michael Porter's five forces model.

Use it when: Use during business planning, strategy reviews, or product launches when a team needs a realistic look at their competitive environment.

Skip it when: Skip when the market scope is undefined or when the immediate need is internal operational improvement rather than industry analysis.

Group arrangement: Five breakout groups of 1 to 5 people, followed by full-room presentation and consolidation.

Timing: WorkshopBank noted a basic outline without precise step timing. UWT allocates 45 minutes for a thorough analysis and debrief.

Materials and tools

• 1 large sheet of flipchart paper or poster board per room
• 1 thick marker pen (for facilitator)
• 5 printed Force Description cards (one per force)
• 1 pack of sticky notes (76mm x 76mm) per small group
• 1 marker pen per participant
• Painter's tape to hang the diagram

Before participants arrive

1. Draw the Five Forces template on the main flipchart paper using the thick marker: place a center box for 'Industry Rivalry', flanking boxes for 'Supplier Power' (left) and 'Buyer Power' (right), and vertical boxes for 'Threat of New Entrants' (top) and 'Threat of Substitutes' (bottom).
2. Pre-print or write out the five Force Description cards.

Say this to open

Today we will analyze our competitive landscape using Porter's Five Forces. We will focus on one specific market. Each group will take one of the five forces, read the guiding questions, and write down the realities we face today. Let us define our target market clearly before we divide the work.

How to run it

1. Define market and assign forces 5 minutes

   State the specific market or product scope to analyze (example: 'Regional specialty coffee roasting'). Write it in the center box of the poster. Divide participants into 5 small groups. Hand each group one Force Description card and one pack of sticky notes. Ensure each participant receives one marker pen.

2. Silent assessment and group notes 15 minutes

   Groups work in parallel. Give 3 minutes for members to read their card silently and brainstorm. For the remaining 12 minutes, group members discuss and write specific market facts on separate sticky notes. Each note must state one concrete condition (example: 'Four dominant suppliers control 80% of beans').

3. Post and cross-examine 15 minutes

   Reconvene as a full room. In order (Entrants, Suppliers, Buyers, Substitutes, Rivalry), each group posts their sticky notes onto their section of the main poster and presents their top 2 or 3 findings in under 2 minutes. Other participants may ask clarifying questions or suggest missing notes.

4. Synthesize and debrief 10 minutes

   Facilitate a room-level review using the debrief questions. Identify which forces pose the highest risk and which offer the strongest advantage. Conclude when the poster reflects the room's consensus.

Debrief questions

• Looking across all five sectors, which single force creates the greatest immediate pressure on our market?
• Where do we currently have the strongest influence or defensibility?
• What is one concrete action we should prioritize based on this map?

Finished output: A completed Five Forces poster containing verified notes for all five industry dimensions, highlighting primary threats and strategic opportunities.

Remote

Use an online whiteboard with the Five Forces framework pre-drawn. Create five breakout rooms. In each breakout room's chat or workspace, paste the full text of the corresponding Force Description Card, including all guiding questions and prompt considerations. Give 15 minutes in breakouts to post digital notes, then return to the main room for 3-minute timed group shares.

Hybrid

Run using an all-digital visual board: project the shared digital whiteboard onto the in-person room screen. Group remote and in-person members into the five teams. All participants write sticky notes on the digital board and read digital Force Description cards. Alternatively, if running with physical paper, assign one in-person partner per subgroup to act as scribe, reading cards with remote teammates on a laptop feed and writing remote teammates' points onto physical sticky notes for the wall.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may choose to write notes, organize cards, or speak on behalf of their subgroup.
• Any participant may pass on speaking during the room-wide debrief without justification.
• Cards provide clear plain-language questions to assist those unfamiliar with economic frameworks.

If the session gets stuck

Groups confuse 'Direct Rivals' with 'Substitutes'.

Clarify that rivals offer the same type of product (like another coffee roaster), while substitutes offer an alternative way to fulfill the same need (like energy drinks or tea).

Notes are too vague (example: 'High competition').

Ask the group to rewrite the note with specific numbers, company names, or observable market facts.

Terms used here

• Substitute: A different product or service that satisfies the same customer need.
• Bargaining Power: The influence one party has to negotiate lower prices, better terms, or higher quality.