When a company’s culture is out of sync with what is needed for strategic success and
good strategy execution:
A. the strategy has to be changed to fit the culture as rapidly as possible.
B. the company’s strategic vision, strategic intent, and strategy have to be adjusted to
better reflect ingrained core values and cultural norms.
C. management needs to go on the offensive to reinterpret the culture and explain to
company personnel why there really is good overall cultural fit with the strategy.
D. the culture has to be changed to accommodate the requirements of good strategy
execution as rapidly as can be managed.
E. management must urge the company to participate in an all-out effort to create a
different portfolio of competencies and capabilities that will permit the strategy to be
changed in ways that will fit the culture.
The most common approaches to capability building include all of the following,
EXCEPT:
A. developing capabilities internally.
B. acquiring capabilities through mergers and acquisitions.
C. accessing capabilities via collaborative partnerships.
D. renewing capabilities to align with customer expectations.
E. coaching average performers to improve their skills.
What sets focused (or market niche) strategies apart from low-cost leadership and broad
differentiation strategies is:
A. the extra attention paid to top-notch product performance and product quality.
B. their concentrated attention on serving the needs of buyers in a narrow piece of the
overall market.
C. greater opportunity for competitive advantage.
D. their suitability for market situations where most industry rivals have weakly
differentiated products.
E. their objective of delivering more value for the least money.
Capturing the benefits of strategic alliances is not easy, but success generally is a
function of all of the following factors, EXCEPT:
A. being sensitive to cultural differences
B. managing the learning process and allowing for emerging circumstances
C. picking a good partner with good chemistry
D. recognizing that the alliance must benefit both sides
E. ensuring the division of work is directly apportioned to appropriate skill sets
Which of the following most accurately describes the task of crafting a company’s
strategy?
A. In most companies, strategy-making is the exclusive province of top
management-owner-entrepreneurs, CEOs, and other very senior executives.
B. The more a company’s operations cut across different products, industries, and
geographical areas, the more that headquarters executives have little option but to
delegate considerable strategy-making authority to down-the-line managers in charge of
particular subsidiaries, product lines, geographic sales offices, and plants.
C. A company’s board of directors generally takes the lead role in crafting a company’s
strategy.
D. In most of today’s companies, the lead strategy-making role is being assumed by an
elite group of corporate entrepreneurs.
E. Masterful strategies are nearly always the product of brilliant corporate
entrepreneurs.
Which of the following companies incurs mainly internal administrative costs due to
unethical practices?
A. Company A loses its customer loyalty by selling low-quality products for a high
cost.
B. Company B’s tax evasion practices are revealed, leading to a drastic fall in stock
prices.
C. Company C incurs penalties of $1.5 billion for discharging toxic wastes into a river.
D. Company D must retrain its employees who are using their Twitter accounts to post
workplace frustrations.
E. Company E pays men higher wages than women while at the same time propagating
messages of equality and fair play.
Which of the following is NOT something to look for in identifying a company’s
culture?
A. The company’s defined spirit and character that pervades the work climate
B. The company’s resource strengths, core competencies, and competitive capabilities
C. The company’s revered traditions and oft-repeated stories about “heroic acts” and
“how we do things around here”
D. The company’s approach to people management and the official policies, procedures,
and operating practices that paint the white lines for the behavior of company personnel
E. The company’s shared values, business principles, and ethical standards that
management preaches and practices
An ambidextrous organization is one that:
A. pursues incremental improvements in operating efficiency, while R&D and other
processes that allow the company to develop new ways of offering value to customers
are given freer rein.
B. is capable of using efficiency and effectiveness with equal skill.
C. is very skillful and versatile with operating activity.
D. is managed by employing continuous improvement in operating practices while
managing employees as a loosely integrated network of efficiency.
E. employs identical improvement methods for both operating processes and R&D.
The task of crafting a company’s overall corporate strategy for a diversified company
encompasses all of the following EXCEPT:
A. picking the new industries to enter and deciding on the means of entry.
B. initiating actions to boost the combined performance of the corporation’s collection
of businesses.
C. pursuing opportunities to leverage cross-business value chain relationships and
strategic fit into competitive advantage.
D. establishing investment priorities and steering corporate resources into the most
attractive business units.
E. divesting well-performing businesses.
A strategy of vertical integration can have both important strengths and weaknesses
depending on all of the following, EXCEPT:
A. whether it can limit the performance of strategy-critical activities in ways that
increase cost, build expertise, protect proprietary know-how, or increase differentiation.
B. the impact on investment costs, flexibility, and response times.
C. the administrative costs of coordinating operations across more vertical chain
activities.
D. how difficult it will be for the company to acquire the set of skills and capabilities
needed to operate in another stage of the vertical chain.
E. whether competitors outsource any of their value chain activities.
The major avenues for achieving a cost advantage over rivals include:
A. performing value chain activities more cost-effectively than rivals or revamping the
firm’s overall value chain to eliminate or bypass some cost-producing activities.
B. having a management team that is highly skilled in cutting costs.
C. being a first-mover in adopting the latest state-of-the-art technologies, especially
those relating to low-cost manufacture.
D. outsourcing high-cost activities to cost-efficient vendors.
E. paying lower wages and salaries than rivals.
Collaborative relationships between particular sellers and buyers in an industry can
represent a source of strong competitive pressure when:
A. virtually all buyers have strong brand attachments and are highly brand loyal.
B. demand for the product is growing rapidly.
C. sales are made to buyer groups with either strong bargaining power or high
sensitivity.
D. sellers are racing to add the latest and greatest performance features so as to attract
the patronage of important or prestigious buyers.
E. buyers are very quality conscious.