CHARPTER 1
Q1.
Which of the following is not one of the central questions in evaluating a company’s
business prospects?
Select one:
a. Where does the company need to go from here?
b. How should it get there?
c. What is the company’s present situation?
d. What are the key products or service attributes demanded by consumers?
e. All of these are pertinent in evaluating a company’s business prospects.
Q2
The competitive moves and business approaches a company’s management is using to
grow the business, stake out a market position, attract and please customers, compete
successfully, conduct operations, and achieve organizational objectives is referred to as its
Select one:
a. strategy
b. strategic intent.
c. strategic vision.
d. mission statement.
e. business model.
Q3.
A company’s strategy is most accurately defined as
Select one:
a. the business model that a company’s board of directors has approved for outcompeting
rivals and making the company profitable.
b. the choices management has made regarding what financial plan to pursue.
c. management’s concept of “who we are, what we do, and where we are headed.”
d. management’s commitment to pursue a particular set of actions in growing the business,
attracting and pleasing customers, competing successfully, conducting operations, and
improving the company’s financial and market performance.
e. management’s approaches to building revenues, controlling costs and generating an
attractive profit.
Q4
A company’s strategy stands a better chance of succeeding when
Select one:
a. it is developed through a collaborative process involving managers from all levels of the
organization.
b. managers employ conservative strategic moves.
c. managers copy the strategic moves of successful companies in its industry.
d. it is predicated on competitive moves aimed at appealing to buyers in ways that set the
company apart from rivals.
Q5
Which of the following is not one of the basic reasons that a company’s
strategy evolves over time?
Select one:
a. The need to respond to the actions and competitive moves of rival firms.
b. The need to keep strategy in step with changing market conditions and changing
customer needs and expectations.
c. An ongoing need to abandon those strategy features that are no longer working well.
d. The proactive efforts of company managers to fine-tune and improve one or more pieces
of the strategy.
e. The need on the part of company managers to initiate fresh strategic actions that boost
employee commitment and create a results-oriented culture.
Q6
Crafting a strategy involves
Select one:
a. All of these accurately characterize the managerial process of crafting a company’s
strategy.
b. doing everything possible (in the way of price, quality, service, warranties, advertising,
and so on) to make sure the company’s product/service is very clearly differentiated from
the product/service offerings of rivals.
c. trying to imitate as much of the market leader’s strategy as possible so as not to end up
at a competitive disadvantage.
d. developing a 5-year strategic plan and then fine-tuning it during the remainder of the
plan period; big changes in strategy are thus made only once every 5 years.
e. stitching together a proactive/intended strategy and then adapting first one piece and
then another as circumstances surrounding the company’s situation change or better options
emerge.
Q7
A company’s strategy evolves from one version to the next because of
Select one:
a. ongoing turnover in the managerial and executive ranks (new managers often decide to
shift to a different strategy).
b. pressures from shareholders to boost profit margins and pay higher dividends.
c. changing management conclusions about which of several appealing strategy
alternatives is actually best.
d. the proactive efforts of company managers to improve this or that aspect of the strategy,
a need to respond to changing customer requirements and expectations, and a need to react
to fresh strategic maneuvers on the part of rival firms.
e. the importance of keeping the company’s business model fresh and up-to-date.
Q8
A company’s business model
Select one:
a. concerns the actions and business approaches that will be used to grow the business,
conduct operations, please customers, and compete successfully.
b. concerns
how management plans to pursue strategic objectives, given the larger
imperative of meeting or beating its financial performance targets.
c. concerns what combination of moves in the marketplace it plans to make to outcompete
rivals.
d. is management’s storyline for how it will generate revenues ample to cover costs and
produce a profit—absent the ability to deliver good profitability, the strategy is not viable
and the survival of the business is in doubt.
e. deals with how it can simultaneously maximize profits and operate in a socially
responsible manner that keeps its prices as low as possible.
Q9
Which one of the following questions can be used to test the merits of one strategy over
another and distinguish a winning strategy from a mediocre or losing strategy?
Select one:
a. Is the company putting too little emphasis on behaving in an ethical and socially
responsible manner?
b. Does the company have low prices in comparison to rivals?
c. How good is the company’s business model?
d. How well does the strategy fit the company’s situation?
e. Is the company a technology leader?
Q10
Crafting and executing strategy are top-priority managerial tasks because
Select one:
a. working their way through the tasks of crafting and executing strategy helps top
executives create tight fits between a company’s strategic vision and business model.
b. without clear guidance as to what the company’s business model and strategic intent are,
managerial decision-making is likely to be rudderless.
c. all company personnel, and especially senior executives, need to know the answer to
“who are we, what do we do, and where are we headed?”
d. there is a compelling need for managers to proactively shape how the company’s
business will be conducted and because a strategy-focused enterprise is more likely to be a
stronger bottom-line performer than a company whose management views strategy as
secondary and puts its priorities elsewhere.
e. how well executives perform these tasks are the key determinants of executive
compensation.
CHARPTER 2
Q1
Which one of the following is not one of the five basic tasks of the strategy-making,
strategy-executing process?
Select one:
a. Developing a profitable business model
b. Forming a strategic vision of where the company needs to head and what its future
business make-up will be
c. Setting objectives to convert the strategic vision into specific strategic and financial
performance outcomes for the company to achieve
d. Implementing and executing the chosen strategy efficiently and effectively
e. Crafting a strategy to achieve the objectives and get the company where it wants to go
Q2
Developing a strategic vision for a company entails
Select one:
a. coming up with a long-term plan for outcompeting rivals and achieving a competitive
advantage.
b. describing “who we are and what we do.”
c. describing its business model and the kind of value that it is trying to deliver to
customers.
d. prescribing a strategic direction for the company to pursue and a rationale for why this
strategic path makes good business sense.
e. putting together a story line of why the business will be a moneymaker.
Q3
The strategy-making, strategy-executing process
Select one:
a. is principally concerned with sizing up an organization’s internal and external situation,
so as to be prepared for the challenge of developing a sound business model.
b. is usually delegated to members of a company’s board of directors so as not to infringe
on the time of busy executives.
c. embraces the tasks of developing a strategic vision, setting objectives, crafting a strategy,
implementing and executing the strategy, and then monitoring developments and initiating
corrective adjustments in light of experience, changing conditions, and new opportunities.
