i am struggling how to fill in part of a chart, its asking me to insert evidence of the following from the case study - "Interdependence of The Energy Solutions on other firms (its competitors) " i'm not quiet sure exactly what is meant by the interdependence on other firms... i have included the case study below.

Addressing the Energy Crisis - Demand for Solar Power Systems Rises in Pakistan

Written by Aqueel Wahga

Karak is a district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province in Pakistan. It is not a very well-developed area. Its markets are not much regulated. Therefore, a majority of the businesses operate informally. Since it is easy to set up a new business (especially a micro and small-scale firm), entrepreneurs observe the demand patterns in the markets and accordingly decide where to operate. Overall, the region faces various socio-economic and infrastructural challenges. One of the major problems relates to power shortage and unannounced power cuts, which have not only been disturbing the routines of households but also the operations of many businesses. Despite many complaints by the residents of the area, the national government has not been able to address this issue. Thus, people have decided to find alternative sources of energy.

Karak is situated near the border areas. Some of the entrepreneurs managed to import power generators from neighbouring countries. Since this import happened informally using informal business networks, entrepreneurs did not have to pay any import duties. Thus, they started the sale of power generators at a lower price. This made it affordable for many residents and businesses to buy the generators instantly. These power generators could be run both with petrol and natural gas. Karak had generous sources of natural gas, and people, without seeking permits from the district government, started to dig the main pipelines and get connections to run the generators on gas. This whole process helped the local communities to address the issue of power shortage in their area. However, it also had a dark side. Some people died in accidents when digging the gas pipelines illegally because they lacked the training and capacity to perform this job. Finally, this whole episode was noticed by government officials who decalred to put serious penalties on those who would not get permits and official connections of gas. With official gas permits, people had to pay for the utility and it became expensive to run the power generators. Thus, the demand for generators started to decline in Karak district.

Jabbar, who had finished his diploma in electronics and joined a local educational institute as an electrician, was observing this whole situation. He was passionate to set up a part-time business that could offer a solution to the problem and also help him earn additional income for his family by working in the evenings. Jabbar had been travelling to the nearby urban areas to buy electrical items for his institute. He noticed that solar power was gaining trend in these areas; substituting the power generators that could pollute the environment and which were also becoming expensive to operate due to the rising petrol and gas prices in the country. He decided to introduce solar power systems in Karak region. In this way, Jabbar became the first entrepreneur to start a micro-level solar power business in the region. He named the firm 'The Energy Solutions'. As was common in the region, the firm was set up to operate informally.

According to Jabbar, initially people were reluctant to invest in solar power systems. First, they thought that it was very expensive to buy a solar system. Second, they had the misconception that it would be more expensive and technically difficult to maintain the systems compared to gas and petrol run power generators. Third, they were sceptical about the efficiency of the solar system. To deal with such misconceptions, Jabbar started an awareness campaign, but he did not adopt a proper marketing strategy, mainly because of limited finance. In the evenings, when he had spare time, he started visiting the businesses and households in local areas and educated them about the affordability, efficiency, reliability and environment related benefits of having a solar power system. He presented the idea of buying smaller solar systems. He advised the potential customers that they could invest in a good inverter and buy fewer panels to start with, and later extend the system when it would be affordable for them to buy additional solar panels. He also educated people by comparing the input prices for the power systems. He advised the business owners and households that sunlight would not cost them anything compared to gas, which was becoming expensive. This awareness campaign proved useful and Jabbar managed to raise interest in the local community for buying solar power systems. 10 small scale businesses and 5 households agreed to buy solar power systems from him.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) proved to be a great support to the solar power sector in Pakistan. New trade routes opened between China and Pakistan. This gave access to Pakistani importers to the Chinese markets, allowing them to import solar panels at relatively cheap rates. Batteries, which were an important part of any good solar power system to store energy, also became cheaper as these could be imported from China at reduced rates. Having seen such a competition from Chinese battery sellers, the local producers also reduced the prices of batteries to remain competitive. Collectively, such events reduced the prices of solar power systems in Pakistan and made these affordable. Consequently, the demand for these systems started to rise.

Being an honest entrepreneur, Jabbar communicated the benefits of the CPEC to his customers. Considering that the solar power systems had become cheaper and were efficient and reliable, many new customers registered interest with Jabbar to buy them. In addition, his idea for customers to buy a smaller system and then expand it later, worked well as many middle- and low-income people could also afford it now. Such factors raised the number of customers for the firm: The Energy Solutions.

Jabbar could not cope up with the ever-increasing demand for his solar power systems along with his morning job; he therefore decided to quit work with the local educational institute and concentrated on his solar power business full-time. He started the business alone, and used to buy and install the systems himself. However, to meet the expanding needs of his business, he had to recruit 10 employees to help him out within 6 months. Jabbar also started to receive orders from some public offices, like the local government departments and educational institutes, but he could not serve them as his business was not registered. It was a pre-requisite for any business to be registered before becoming a supplier for a public buyer. He therefore registered his business to capitalise the opportunity. Since with the registered business he was required to pay taxes that could push him to raise the prices of his solar system, he reconsidered his business model. Alongside selling solar power systems stand-alone, he also offered a full-service package, which included setting up a solar system with regular maintenance. For offering this additional service, he did not have to recruit new employees as the current team could look after the installed systems. They regularly visited the clients, cleaned solar panels and dealt with any maintenance related issues. Such a package helped Jabbar's business to develop trust with customers and generated substantial net profits.

Seeing the success of Jabbar's business, not only did the number of customers increase, the number of competitors also went up as other entrepreneurs observed that there was sufficient demand for solar power systems and therefore reasonable profits. Now, The Energy Solutions was not the sole player in the Karak market serving communities in the town and in adjacent villages. It had to compete with nearly 50 firms; of which, 35 were micro-level units and the remaining 15 were small scale businesses.

With the rising number of sellers, it became challenging for solar power firms to maintain their shares in the market. Moreover, they could not set prices independently, and profit margins also started to decline as the market was now shared by several sellers. However, firms could attract customers by highlighting their strengths. Thus, they started to advertise their products and services. Some of them opted to use print media, such as distributing pamphlets and publishing business information in local newspapers and magazines. Others, based on their business size, used both print and electronic media. Jabbar's business was well-established now and he used both print and electronic media. He was spending nearly Rs. 30,000 (130) each month on advertisement. Through electronic media he managed to attract customers even from distant areas. Jabbar was now also using social-media to attract customers from other cities as well. This enabled his firm to increase the customer base. The Energy Solutions was not only able to maintain its market share despite the rising competition in the market, but also increase it. The secret behind this was not only successful advertisement, but diversified product - better quality and affordable solar systems. In fact, Jabbar benefited from being the first mover. Since he had established strong connections with suppliers, he could ensure timely delivery of more efficient and reliable solar power systems coupled with good maintenance service compared to its competitors. He also shared that he had established links with multiple suppliers so that if inputs (mainly good quality solar panels) were not available from one supplier, he could easily get those from another supplier, thus ensuring customer satisfaction through meeting the time commitments. His suppliers were situated in different geographical locations including cities; namely, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, and Banu. Jabbar was confident that his customer number would keep increasing as he was selling good quality solar power systems with a reliable and efficient service. With a rich experience in the solar power market, he therefore decided to expand his business beyond Karak region and set up an office in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan.