A company’s strategy is NOT concerned with management’s choices about how to:
A. attract and please customers.
B. stake out the same market position as successful rival companies.
C. grow the business.
D. compete successfully.
E. conduct operations and improve the company’s financial and market performance.
Being first to initiate a particular strategic move can have a high payoff in all of the
following EXCEPT when:
A. pioneering helps build up a firm’s image and reputation and creates strong brand
loyalty.
B. buyers remain strongly loyal to pioneering firms because of incentives and switching
costs barriers.
C. there is a steep learning curve and when learning can be kept proprietary.
D. moving first can constitute a pre-emptive strike, making imitation extra hard or
unlikely.
E. market uncertainties make it difficult to ascertain what will eventually succeed.
A winning strategy is one that:
A. builds strategic fit, is socially responsible, and maximizes shareholder wealth.
B. is highly profitable and boosts the company’s market share.
C. fits the company’s internal and external situation, builds sustainable competitive
advantage, and improves company performance.
D. results in a company becoming the dominant industry leader.
E. can pass the ethical standards test, the strategic intent test, and the profitability test.
In identifying an industry’s key success factors, strategists should:
A. try to single out all factors that play a major role in shaping whether buyer demand
grows rapidly or slowly.
B. consider on what basis customers choose between competing brands, what resources
and competitive capabilities firms need to be competitively successful, and what
shortcomings are almost certain to put a company at a significant competitive
disadvantage.
C. consider whether the number of strategic groups is increasing or decreasing and
whether the five competitive forces are powerful or relatively weak.
D. consider what it will take to overtake the company with the industry’s overall best
strategy.
E. focus their attention on what it will take to capitalize on the impacts of the industry’s
driving forces.
Regardless of the circumstances, an industry’s key success factors can always be
deduced by asking the same three questions:
1) On what basis do buyers of the industry’s product choose between the competing
brands of sellers? That is, what product attributes and service characteristics are
crucial?
2) Given the nature of competitive rivalry prevailing in the marketplace, what resources
and competitive capabilities must a company have to be competitively successful?
3) What shortcomings are almost certain to put a company at a significant competitive
disadvantage?
Broad differentiation strategies generally work best in market circumstances where:
A. buyer needs and uses of a product are diverse and not fully satisfied by a
standardized product.
B. most buyers have similar needs and use the product in the same ways.
C. the products of rivals are weakly differentiated and most competitors are resorting to
clever advertising to try to set their product offerings apart.
D. buyers are price sensitive and product switching costs are quite low.
E. market competition revolves around slowly evolving product features.
Which of the following statements about a company’s strategy is true?
A. A company’s strategy is mostly hidden to outside view and is deliberately kept under
wraps by top-level managers (so as to catch rival companies by surprise when the
strategy is launched).
B. A company’s strategy is typically planned well in advance and usually deviates little
from the planned set of actions and business approaches because of the risks of making
on-the-spot changes.
C. A company’s strategy generally changes very little over time unless a newly
appointed CEO decides to take the company in a new direction with a new strategy.
D. A company’s strategy is typically a blend of proactive and reactive strategy elements.
E. A company’s strategy is developed mostly on the fly because of the constant efforts
of managers to come up with fresh moves to keep the company’s product offering
clearly different and set apart from the product offerings of rival companies.
Which of the following is NOT an accurate attribute of an organization’s strategic
vision?
A. Providing a panoramic view of “where we are going”
B. Outlining how the company intends to implement and execute its business model
C. Pointing an organization in a particular direction and charting a strategic path for it
to follow
D. Helping mold an organization’s character and identity
E. Describing the company’s future product-market-customer focus
The most important leadership trait in the strategy execution process is:
A. a strong, confident sense of what to do and how to do it.
B. strong communication skills (both written and verbal) covering motivating intent.
C. strong management skills to ensure a systematic approach to administration.
D. strong organizational skills so as to make actions structured toward results.
E. strong empathy skills when employees run into challenging moments.
A company’s mission statement typically addresses which of the following questions?
A. Who are we and what do we do?
B. What objectives and level of performance do we want to achieve?
C. Where are we going and what should our strategy be?
D. What approach should we take to achieve sustainable competitive advantage?
E. What business model should we employ to achieve our objectives and our vision?
Which of the following is NOT a part of checking a diversified company’s business
units for cross-business competitive advantage potential?
A. Ascertaining the extent to which business units have value chain match-ups that offer
opportunities to combine the performance of related value chain activities and reduce
costs
B. Ascertaining the extent to which business units have value chain match-ups that offer
opportunities to transfer skills or technology or intellectual capital from one business to
another
C. Ascertaining the extent to which business units are making maximum use of the
parent company’s competitive advantages
D. Ascertaining the extent to which business units have value chain match-ups that offer
opportunities to create new competitive capabilities or to leverage existing resources
E. Ascertaining the extent to which business units present opportunities to share use of a
well-respected brand name
Which of the following is NOT one of the six questions that comprise the task of
evaluating a company’s resources and competitive position?
A. What are the company’s most profitable geographic market segments?
B. How well is the company’s present strategy working?
C. How do a company’s value chain activities impact its cost structure and customer
value proposition?
D. Is the company competitively stronger or weaker than key rivals?
E. What strategic issues and problems merit front-burner managerial attention?
Which of the following is NOT an integral part of transforming core values and ethical
standards into cultural norms?
A. Instituting procedures for enforcing ethical standards
B. Immediately dismissing any employee caught violating the company’s code of ethics
or disregarding core values
C. Screening out job applicants who do not exhibit compatible character traits
D. Periodically having ceremonial occasions to recognize individuals and groups who
display the values and ethical principles
E. Having senior executives frequently reiterate the importance and role of company
values and ethical principles at company events and internal communications to
employees
Perhaps the most reliable way for a company to improve its financial performance over
time is to:
A. put 100 percent emphasis on the achievement of its short-term and long-term
financial objectives.
B. recognize that the achievement of strategic objectives signals that the company is
well positioned to sustain or improve its performance.
C. substitute financial intent for strategic intent and judiciously concentrate on the
mission of making a profit.
D. not allocate any resources to the achievement of strategic objectives until it is very
clear that the company can meet or beat its stretch financial performance targets.
E. avoid use of the balanced-scorecard philosophy since achievement of financial
performance targets is obviously more important than the achievement of strategic
performance targets.
What aspect of the diamond framework is MOST LIKELY responsible for
GlenmarkPharma setting up manufacturing facilities in the United States, the world’s
largest market for pharmaceuticals?
A. Licensing strategies
B. Demand conditions
C. Joint venture strategies
D. Franchising strategies
E. Firm strategy, structure, and rivalry
A pharmaceutical giant acquires a manufacturer of rare specialty drugs to improve its
falling share prices and invests all its wealth into the deal. Due to a deficit, it agrees to
do a joint venture for the acquisition and involves a major automobile giant to fund the
deal. After a rocky start, the companies now have a strong market position and generate
good profits. Which of the following regarding the company’s strategy is true?
A. It fails the Performance test.
B. It fails the Competitive Advantage and the Fit tests.
C. It is a winning strategy.
D. It fails in all three tests.
E. It fails the Fit test, but passes the Competitive advantage and Performance tests.
A route to take in developing a differentiation advantage includes:
A. incorporating product attributes and user features that raise the buyer’s overall costs,
but keep the price minimal.
B. incorporating tangible features that add functionality, increase customer satisfaction
with the product specifications, functions, and styling.
C. signaling value by targeting sophisticated buyers.
D. incorporating intangible features that enhance buyer satisfaction in economic ways.
E. emphasizing high quality and performance of products through a standard and
simple, no-fuss packaging.
Retrenching to a narrower diversification base can be attractive or advisable EXCEPT
when:
A. certain businesses have questionable long-term potential.
B. a diversified company has businesses that have little or no strategic or resource fits
with the “core” businesses that management wishes to concentrate on.
C. certain business units are weakly positioned and show poor prospects for providing a
good return on investment.
D. market conditions in a once-attractive business have badly deteriorated.
E. business units are cash cows with promising futures.
Which of the following statements about a high-performance culture is true?
A. Results-oriented, high-performance cultures are permeated with a spirit of
achievement and have a good track record in meeting or beating performance targets.
B. High-performance cultures often have a low regard for high ethical standards
(because some disregard for ethics is a normal part of meeting or beating performance
targets).
C. The challenge in creating a high-performance culture is to come up with a strategic
vision and strategy that wins enthusiastic support from most all company personnel.
D. In a high-performance culture, the clear and unyielding expectation is that all
company personnel will strictly follow company policies and procedures.
E. In high-performance cultures, there’s strong managerial commitment to paying big
bonuses and granting generous stock options.
Which of the following techniques abbreviated as MBWA is utilized by leaders to stay
informed on how well the strategy execution process is progressing?
A. Managing by walking around
B. Managing business with action
C. Multi-business warning actions
D. Managers being well-advised
E. Multi-business walking ahead