RESULT OBTAINED
03 · Entry barriers
Entry barriers: test the cost and time needed to enter
What must be established
A useful analysis leaves its controls visible.
- 01
Name the affected activity and the actor controlling the condition.
- 02
Estimate time, cost and uncertainty rather than using a generic label.
- 03
Distinguish a barrier to entry from a barrier to scale or switching.
Decision checkpoint
Make the next choice explicit.
DECISION SUPPORTED
What must be overcome before the offer can reach and serve the market?
DELIVERABLE TO RETAIN
A dated barrier map with mitigation options and stop conditions.
NEXT ITEM TO INVESTIGATE
Value chainExplore →Set the decision boundary
Start with the route to market and the activity it requires: authorization, distribution, data, certification, installed base, reputation or a complementary asset. The same condition can block one option and be irrelevant to another.
- Decision owner
- Scope and horizon
- Comparable alternatives
Make evidence and calculation inspectable
For each barrier, record its holder, mechanism, legal or commercial basis, evidence date and the capability or investment needed to respond. Missing evidence should reduce confidence, not disappear into a generic risk score.
- Source and date
- Unit and calculation
- Known uncertainty
Keep a reopening rule
Compare mitigation, partnership, sequencing and non-entry. Reopen the assessment when regulation, an intermediary, a technology, a standard or the economics of switching change materially.
- Material signal
- Decision effect
- Owner and review date
Application protocol
Turn the method into a reviewable decision record.
The page is complete only when another reviewer can reproduce the boundary, trace the evidence and understand what would change the conclusion.
Frame before measuring
Name the owner, decision, alternatives, unit, geography and horizon before collecting figures. This prevents a convenient source or familiar category from silently defining the problem.
- Decision and owner
- Comparable options
- Unit, boundary and horizon
Separate observation from judgement
Record every observation with source, date, method and unit. Keep transformation rules, scores and weights apart from the evidence so that disagreement can target the right layer.
- Observed evidence
- Calculation convention
- Assumption and confidence
Plan the reopening rule
State the signal, threshold, owner and review date that would reopen the choice. A robust conclusion is conditional and operational; it is not made permanent by a polished score.
- Material signal
- Decision threshold
- Owner and review date
Resources
Reuse the method and check its foundations.
- UK Government, The AQuA Book (opens in a new tab)Reference used to document assumptions, scope and the limits of market analysis. Useful for identifying structural constraints and alternatives without treating difficulty as proof of impossibility.
- Harvard Business School, The Five Forces (opens in a new tab)Reference used to document assumptions, scope and the limits of market analysis. Useful for identifying structural constraints and alternatives without treating difficulty as proof of impossibility.
01Explicit scope
Unit, horizon and boundaries are visible.
02Qualified evidence
Source, date, method and confidence are recorded.
03Sensitivity tested
Weights and assumptions that reverse the result are known.
04Review planned
Signal, threshold, date and owner are named.
RETURN TO THE DECISION SYSTEM
See the canonical definition of marketing strategy→