Industry Structure Mapping

Use This Skill When

• The user wants to understand how value is distributed across an industry.
• The task requires identifying control points, bottlenecks, or dominant profit pools.
• The analysis should explain whether a company's position in the value chain is strengthening or weakening.
• A simple industry primer is not enough; structural power matters.

Required Inputs

• industry or target company through which the industry will be mapped
• geography and relevant regulatory context
• time horizon: current structure, medium-term transition, or long-cycle evolution
• known players: suppliers, distributors, customers, platforms, and substitutes if available
• focus areas: profit pools, bargaining power, bottlenecks, switching costs, regulation, capital intensity
• If the map is incomplete, call out where the value chain evidence is weak rather than forcing a fully specified structure.

Workflow

1. Define the industry boundary and where adjacent categories begin and end.
2. Map the value chain from upstream inputs to downstream customer capture.
3. Identify where economics concentrate:
   • gross profit
   • operating margin
   • returns on capital
   • data or distribution control
4. Assess bargaining power across suppliers, platforms, customers, regulators, and substitutes.
5. Highlight structural bottlenecks, choke points, and bottleneck owners.
6. Conclude with what the structure implies for winners, losers, and valuation durability.

Output Requirements

• Emphasize structure and power, not just market size or growth.
• Show how profit pools and bargaining power relate to the target company.
• Distinguish durable structural advantages from temporary cyclical edge.
• Call out where the industry is fragmenting, consolidating, or being platformized.
• Finish with a clear statement of where value capture is likely to migrate.

Output Template

Quality Checks

• Confirm the industry boundary is defined clearly and not mixed with adjacent categories.
• Check that profit pools are discussed separately from revenue pools.
• Verify at least one bottleneck or control point is identified if one exists.
• Make sure the target company's position in the structure is explicitly assessed.
• Remove generic competitive-force filler that does not change the investment conclusion.

Guardrails

• Do not confuse size with structural power.
• Do not treat cyclical pricing spikes as proof of durable industry advantage.
• Do not ignore intermediaries, standards bodies, or platforms that control access.
• Do not force neat value-chain boxes if the industry is multi-sided or platform-driven; explain the complexity instead.
• Do not fabricate margin or return data for nodes where evidence is limited.

Example Prompts

• Map the value chain and profit pools in semicap and explain where structural power sits.
• Build an industry structure map for online travel and show where value is captured.
• Use a dominant company as the lens to explain whether value in this industry is shifting upstream or downstream.