according to the following case answer question 5 in-depth and comprehensive way.
Michael Porter is Reminding Us ... Strategically Place the 'e' Back in Earnings! LEAD STORY-DATELINE: Harvard Business Review, Undoubtedly one of the most influential commentators on strategy at all levels, Michael E. Porter has followed on from his earlier contributions to our understanding of strategy and achieving sustainable competitive advantage in presenting his views on strategy in a wired commercial world. Porter's 2001 paper is a 'must-read' for managers of 'pure dot.com' businesses, 'pure bricks and mortar' businesses and any falling between the two ends of the spectrum (See Stewart Adam (2000), "cMarketing: a Bit eConfusing!" MyPHLIP for an explanation of this spectrum). Many myths, suppositions and terms have developed in the short space of time that the Web has been used for business. These myths, suppositions and terms have been used by online business-makers in much the same way that successive generations of teenagers have turned to different clothing, accessory and hairstyles, and used different terms to set themselves apart from other societal groups (See Stewart Adam (2000), "Demographics: Online with the Pokemon Set, Super Marios and Others", MyPHLIP In the News, for more on these groups). Porter (2001) makes short work of such myths as the supposed profitability of first- movers onto the Web, as well the misguided notion that the Web (any technology for that matter) can provide sustainable competitive advantage-particularly when the Web actually provides a lower cost of entry to competitors than most information technology. It is of course information, and how it is used, that more often provides long-term competitive advantage. Though here again, there are no easy answers, for as the newspaper publisher John Fairfax found, developing online content on its Sold.com.au auction site was not a sure-fire recipe for carnings. They have now sold this separate Business to Yahoo! in Australia, while staying involved. Moreover, Porter revisits his Five Forces Analysis model and explains the influence of the Internet on industry structure (2001, p.67). Likewise, his Value Chain concept (2001, p. 75) maintains its prominent role as a tool whereby we can identify the processes involved in integrating the primary and support tasks necessary to bring product and service solutions to customers and repeatedly add value for these customers whether online or offline. Returning to the prevalent use of new terms such as 'business models', Porter points out that "Many of the pioneers of Internet business, both dot-coms and established companies, have competed in ways that violate nearly every precept of good strategy" (2001, p.72). He questions the use of such terms and their blatant disregard for positioning themselves by way of trade-offs in their value chains, Of course, so-called 'new age' firms are not the first to travel without soundly developed strategic plans. However, many dot.coms clutched at straws and burnt shareholder provided cash at alarming rates (eg. 75% of revenue on marketing effort). The resulting alarm this lack of strategic planning is now causing is acute as investors face their day of reckoning-falling wealth-in the United States and elsewhere. The United States was the economic powerhouse that drove much of the world economy in the past decade, and now threatens to bring the entire house of online economic cards down. We return to Porter's commentary in a later section, but for now you might like to consider the following questions as we delve further into Michael Porter's notions of strategy. TALKING IT OVER AND THINKING IT THROUGH! In this section, we consider aspects of strategy, particularly in the context of online business: 5. Has the advent of the Internet changed marketing's role within companies
