In doing SWOT analysis and trying to identify a company’s market opportunities, which
of the following is NOT an example of a potential market opportunity that a company
may have?
A. Serving additional customer groups or market segments
B. Growing buyer preferences for substitutes for the industry’s product
C. Acquiring rival firms or companies with attractive technological expertise or
capabilities
D. Expanding into new geographic markets
E. Openings to win market share away from rivals
Sometimes a company can short-circuit the task of building an organizational capability
in-house by:
A. putting in high-incentive bonuses to reward individual employees who train hard to
develop the desired capability.
B. launching an extensive training effort to develop the capability quickly with newly
hired employees.
C. either acquiring a company that has already developed the capability or else
acquiring the desired capability through collaborative efforts with outsiders having the
requisite skills, know-how, and expertise.
D. using benchmarking and the adoption of best practices to imitate a capability that
rivals have already developed.
E. empowering a team of employees to develop the capability however they best see fit.
Exxon Mobil enters into a pact with Gazprom, the world’s largest natural gas extractor,
to set up a processing unit in Moscow. Which of the following is most likely the reason
for Exxon Mobil to opt for this strategic alliance?
A. To gain access to new customers
B. To scale back its core competencies
C. To restrict its factors of production
D. To gain access to low-cost inputs of production
E. To better compete with Gasprom
Which one of the following is NOT among the chief duties/responsibilities of a
company’s board of directors insofar as the strategy-making, strategy-executing process
is concerned?
A. Hiring and firing senior-level executives and working with the company’s chief
strategic planning officer to improve the company’s strategy when performance comes
up short of expectations
B. Being inquiring critics and exercising strong oversight over the company’s direction,
strategy, and business approaches
C. Evaluating the caliber of senior executives’ strategy-making/strategy-executing skills
D. Instituting a compensation plan for top executives that rewards them for actions and
results that serve stakeholders’ interests, most especially those of shareholders
E. Overseeing the company’s financial accounting and financial reporting practices
Which of the following is NOT accurate as concerns the task of identifying the strategic
issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention?
A. It entails drawing upon the results and conclusions from analyzing the company’s
external environment.
B. It entails drawing on the results and conclusions from evaluating the company’s own
resources and competitive position.
C. It entails developing a “worry list” of “how to€¦,” “whether to€¦,” and “what
to do about€¦”
D. Identifying the strategic issues and problems that the company faces is the first thing
that company managers need to do before starting to analyze the company’s internal and
external environment.
E. Developing a list of issues and problems that management need to address (and to
resolve) should always precede deciding upon a strategy and what actions to take to
improve the company’s position and prospects.
Which of the following would increase the likelihood of ethical lapses as well as poor
long-term company performance?
A. Dramatic cuts in research and development expenditures in years when low earnings
are reported by the company
B. Increases in research and development expenditures in years when low earnings are
reported by the company
C. Executive commitment to implementing strategic suggestions from the board of
directors
D. Attracting investors who think the company’s industry will grow
E. Hiring and maintaining a skilled and diverse workforce
In a single-business company, the strategy-making hierarchy consists of:
A. business strategy, divisional strategies, and departmental strategies.
B. business strategy, functional strategies, and operating strategies.
C. business strategy and operating strategy.
D. managerial strategy, business strategy, and divisional strategies.
E. corporate strategy, divisional strategies, and departmental strategies.
Which of the following is NOT a major question to ask in thinking strategically about
industry and competitive conditions in a given industry?
A. How many companies in the industry have good track records for revenue growth
and profitability?
B. What strategic moves are rivals likely to make next?
C. What are the industry’s key factors for future competitive success?
D. Is the outlook for the industry conducive to providing attractive profitability?
E. What are the driving forces in the industry, and what impact will these changes have
on competitive intensity and industry profitability?
A strategy that incorporates elements of both multidomestic and global strategies is
termed a “transnational” strategy, but sometimes it is referred to as a(n):
A. glocalization strategy.
B. international strategy.
C. think-local, act-global strategy.
D. cross-border integrated strategy.
E. standardized integrated strategy.
An outsourcing strategy:
A. is nearly always a more attractive strategic option than merger and acquisition
strategies.
B. carries the substantial risk of raising a company’s costs.
C. carries the substantial risk of making a company overly dependent on its suppliers.
D. increases a company’s risk exposure to changing technology and/or changing buyer
preferences.
E. involves farming out certain value chain activities presently performed in-house to
outside vendors.
Strategy is about competing differently than rivals, thus strategy success is about:
A. the sources of sustained advantages and superior profitability.
B. those emergent, unplanned, reactive, and adaptive plans that are more appropriate
than deliberate or intended ones that drive the realized strategy.
C. matching internal resources and capabilities to the industry environment.
D. keeping the firm current with the rapid pace of change in the industry.
E. replacing proactive and reactive measures by modified ongoing strategic elements to
preserve company values.
Which of the following is the most UNLIKELY element of a €think global, act
global€ approach to crafting a global strategy?
A. Having minimal responsiveness to buyer tastes, cultural traditions, and market
conditions in each country market
B. Scattering plants across many countries, with each plant producing product versions
for local area markets
C. Utilizing the same competitive capabilities, distribution channels, and marketing
approaches worldwide
D. Requiring local managers in host countries to stick close to the chosen global
strategy
E. Selling much the same products under the same brand names worldwide
Using the five forces model of competition to determine the character and strength of
the competitive forces within a given industry involves:
A. building the picture of competition in three steps: (1) identify the different parties
involved, along with specific factors that bring about competitive pressures; (2)
evaluate how strong the pressures stemming from each of the five forces are (strong,
moderate or weak); and (3) determining whether the collective impact of the five
competitive forces is conducive to earning attractive profits in the industry.
B. building the picture of competition in two steps: (1) determining which rival has the
biggest competitive advantage and (2) assessing whether the competitive advantages
possessed by various industry members allow most industry members to earn
above-average profits.
C. evaluating whether competition is being intensified or weakened by the industry’s
driving forces and key success factors.
D. assessing whether the collective impact of all five forces is weak enough to allow
industry members to go on the offensive or use a defensive strategy to insulate against
fierce competitive pressures.
E. gauging the overall strength of competition based on how many industry rivals are
operating with a competitive advantage and how many are operating at a competitive
disadvantage.
When a company uses outsourcing to zero in on even better performance of those truly
strategy-critical activities where its expertise is most needed, then it may also be able
to:
A. create a values-based corporate culture that excels in product innovation.
B. decrease internal bureaucracies, flatten its organizational structure, and shorten the
time it takes to respond to changing market conditions.
C. devote more resources to its social responsibility strategy, better empower
employees, and reduce employee turnover.
D. better police compliance with ethical standards, lower overall operating costs, and
create two or more distinctive competencies.
E. reduce the potential for information overload and improve the quality of decision
making in each domain.
As a rule, the key indicators of industry attractiveness, for all the industries represented
in a diversified company’s business portfolio, should NOT be measured on such
attractiveness factors as:
A. market size and projected growth rate.
B. emerging opportunities and threats, and the intensity of competition.
C. resource requirements and the presence of cross-industry strategic fits.
D. seasonal and cyclical factors, industry profitability, and whether an industry has
significant social, political, regulatory, and environmental problems.
E. the utility of the products for consumers from all age-groups.
Although it is relatively easy for rivals to implement process management tools, it is
much more difficult and time-consuming for them to:
A. instill a deeply ingrained culture of operating excellence.
B. keep employees well-informed about the strides being made with continuous
improvement.
C. unify the managerial efforts behind improving operating practices as a commendable
goal.
D. combine the pursuit of financial objectives with the pursuit of its strategic objectives.
E. understand the barriers to installing new operating activities.
What is meant by the term “best practices”? Why does it matter whether a company
utilizes “best practices” in performing the activities comprising its value chain?
An electronic chip manufacturer has a quarterly release of its products. What can you
say about its strategy?
Explain why a company’s strategy cannot be completely planned out in advance and
why crafting a company’s strategy cannot be a one-time, once-and-for-all managerial
exercise. Identify at least three factors that account for why company strategies evolve.
What are the three principal advantages of strategic alliances over vertical integration or
mergers/acquisitions?
Why does it make sense to create some job anxiety, insecurity, and stress as part of a
company’s motivational and reward scheme for promoting competent strategy
execution?
What are the three tests of a winning strategy?