Every strategy needs:
A. a distinctive element that attracts customers and produces a competitive edge.
B. to include similar characteristics to rival company strategies.
C. to pursue conservative growth built on historical strengths.
D. to employ diverse and sundry operating practices for producing greater control over
sales growth targets.
E. to mimic the plans of the industry’s most successful companies.
A company should not couch its mission in terms of making a profit because a profit is
more correctly an:
A. obligation and a reason for what a company does.
B. objective and a result of what a company does.
C. outlay and a rationale for what a company does.
D. obligation and a responsibility for what a company does.
E. outflow and a right of what a company does.
What a company’s top executives are saying about where the company is headed long
term and about what the company’s future product-market-customer mix will be:
A. indicates what kind of business model the company is going to have in the future.
B. constitutes the strategic vision for the company.
C. signals what the firm’s financial strategy will be.
D. serves to define the company’s present scope of operation.
E. indicates what kind of products the company will offer in the future.
Which of the following statements about cross-business strategic fit in a diversified
enterprise is NOT accurate?
A. Strategic fit between two businesses exists when the management know-how
accumulated in one business is transferable to the other.
B. Strategic fit exists when two businesses present opportunities to economize on
marketing, selling, and distribution costs.
C. Competitively valuable cross-business strategic fits are what enable related
diversification to produce a synergistic performance outcome.
D. Strategic fit is primarily a by-product of unrelated diversification and exists when
the value chain activities of unrelated businesses possess economies of scope and good
financial fit.
E. Strategic fit exists when a company can transfer its brand-name reputation to the
products of a newly acquired business and add to the competitive power of the new
business.
Symbolic culture changing actions include all of the following EXCEPT:
A. leading by example.
B. reinforcing and celebrating culture-change successes.
C. praising individuals and groups that exemplify the new desired behavior.
D. ensuring top executives’ actions match their rhetoric.
E. revising policies and procedures in ways that will help drive cultural change.
All of the following are examples of leadership actions or managerial practices taken to
foster a results-oriented, high-performance culture EXCEPT:
A. treating employees as individuals with no regard for their rank or contributions.
B. building morale and fostering pride.
C. setting stretch objectives and clearly communicating expectations for reaching
targets.
D. using motivational techniques and compensation incentives to inspire employees.
E. using the tools of benchmarking, best practices, business process reengineering,
TQM, and Six Sigma to focus attention on continuous improvement.
For a company to translate its performance of value chain activities into competitive
advantage, it must:
A. undertake ongoing and persistent efforts to be cost-efficient and develop
differentiation advantages.
B. have more core competencies than rivals.
C. have at least three distinctive competencies.
D. have competencies that allow it to produce the highest-quality product in the
industry.
E. have more competitive assets than competitive liabilities.
Which of the following factors represents the strategically relevant political factors in
the macro-environment that will influence the performance of all firms across the
board?
A. The strength of the federal banking system
B. The exogenous forces related to the general environmental demand
C. Social factors that could fuel a political agenda and create greater transparency
D. Bailouts and energy policies that are industry-specific
E. Tax policy, fiscal policy, and tariffs providing impetus for anti-trust matters
A company’s social responsibility strategy typically comprises all of the following
EXCEPT:
A. actions to enhance workforce diversity and make the company a great place to work.
B. making charitable contributions and donating money and the time of company
personnel to community service endeavors.
C. actions to protect or enhance the environment.
D. conscious efforts to ensure that all elements of the company’s strategy are ethical and
that its actions protect or enhance the environment (beyond what is legally required).
E. actions to keep the company’s profits at a reasonable and acceptable level to ensure
the company’s products/pricing will not be viewed by the general public as obscenely
high or exorbitant.
The range of product and service segments that the firm serves within its market is
known as the firm’s:
A. horizontal scope.
B. vertical integration.
C. vertical scope.
D. product outsourcing.
E. joint venture partnership.
Which of the following is NOT part of organizing the work effort in ways that promote
successful strategy execution?
A. Facilitating collaboration with external partners and strategic allies
B. Providing for cross-unit coordination and deciding which value chain activities to
perform in-house and which ones to outsource
C. Determining how much authority to centralize at the top and how much to delegate
to down-the-line managers and employees
D. Determining which functions and organizational units require superior intellectual
capital
E. Maintaining expertise and resource depth in performing those internally
strategy-critical value chain activities that underpin its long-term competitive success
and provide for the main building blocks in the organization structure
Explain the relevance of the following as they relate to building shareholder value via
diversification:
a. the industry attractiveness test
b. the cost-of-entry test
c. the better-off test
In which of the following instances are industry members NOT subject to stronger
competitive pressures from substitute products?
A. The costs to buyers of switching over to the substitutes are low.
B. Buyers are dubious about using substitutes.
C. The quality and performance of the substitutes is well-matched to what buyers need
to meet their requirements.
D. Buyer brand loyalty is weak.
E. Substitutes are readily available at competitive prices.
Identify and briefly explain any three factors that weaken the competitive pressures
stemming from the threat that new firms will enter the industry.
One of the big dangers in crafting a competitive strategy is that managers, torn between
the pros and cons of the various generic strategies, will opt for ‘stuck in the middle”
strategies that represent compromises between lower costs and greater differentiation
and between broad and narrow market appeal. True or false? Explain your answer.
Discuss why a company desirous of competing in foreign country markets needs to pay
close attention to the advantages of the cross-border transfer of competencies and
capabilities. Are these transfers often a key to competitive advantage? Why or why not?
Identify and briefly discuss two “best targets” for offensive attacks by companies.
Powerful execution of a powerful strategy is a proven recipe for winning in the
marketplace. True or false? Explain your answer.
Discuss why timing of strategic moves is important.
Why is it pertinent in evaluating a diversified company’s business lineup to rank a
diversified company’s businesses on the basis of their future performance prospects?
What is the meaning of the term “balanced scorecard”? What are the merits of using a
balanced scorecard in judging a company’s performance?
When should a company choose to set up operations from the ground up?
Who has strategy execution responsibility and who is ultimately responsible for making
sure that the task of implementing and executing the strategy goes well?