value-chain-analysis
value-chain-analysis
Analyzes how a firm creates value using Porter's value chain, breaking it into nine activities (five primary, four support) to locate where competitive advantage lives. It catches the failure of treating advantage as a property of the firm as a whole rather than of specific activities and their linkages.
The nine activities, what to assess for each, the role of linkages, and the pitfalls live in references/value-chain.md. Load that file before analyzing.
When to use
The user wants an internal view of how a company creates and could create more value, where it carries excess cost, or where its competitive advantage lives. It is the internal counterpart to the external frameworks (PESTEL, Five Forces). For organizational alignment rather than value creation, prefer 7-S.
Language
Conduct the session and write the report in the language the user is writing in. The reference file is English; keep the framework keyed to it regardless of output language.
Inputs
- COMPANY (required): the firm or business unit to analyze. If the firm spans very different products or segments, agree which chain to analyze, since diverse businesses have different chains.
- STRATEGY (required): the advantage the firm pursues, cost leadership or differentiation. The same chain reads differently through each lens, so ask if it is unclear.
- CONTEXT (optional): key competitors and any known cost or differentiation concerns.