The U.S. furniture manufacturing industry is not yet greatly challenged by foreign
competitors.
According to Michael Porter, five competitive forces create vital opportunities and
threats to organizations:
1) new entrants,
2) substitute products or services,
3) bargaining power of suppliers,
4) bargaining power of buyers, and
5) rivalry among existing firms.
The United States leads the world in promoting women and minorities into mid- and
top-level managerial positions in business.
Regardless of the number of key opportunities and threats included in an External
Factor Evaluation Matrix, the highest possible total weighted score for an organization
is 4.0, and the lowest possible total weighted score is 0.0.
A mission statement promotes a sense of shared expectations among all levels and
generations of employees.
Strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation activities occur at three
hierarchical levels in a large organization: corporate, divisional and functional.
The four strategies of the SPACE Matrix are aggressive, conservative, offensive and
defensive.
Both IE and BCG Matrices are called portfolio matrices.
A potential advantage to initiating, continuing, or expanding international operations is
that foreign operations can absorb excess capacity, reduce unit costs, and spread
economic risks over a wider number of markets.
The low value of the dollar benefits the U.S. economy in many ways.
With information technology, in some cases it is possible to do away with the
workplace by allowing employees to work at home or anywhere, anytime.
With a divisional structure by customer, an organization can effectively cater to the
requirements of clearly defined customer groups.
It is ________ for a business to provide a sustainability report annually to the public.
A) good business
B) irresponsible
C) a decreasing trend
D) unethical
E) poor planning
R&D employees and managers perform all of the following tasks EXCEPT
A) transferring complex technology
B) altering products to particular tastes and specifications
C) researching resource availability
D) adapting processes to local markets
E) adjusting process to local raw materials
What can be used to promote unbiased views and to manage the development of the
mission statement more effectively?
A) An internal group
B) A committee of managers
C) Command-and-control
D) Surveys
E) An outside facilitator
The initial step to implementing value chain analysis is
A) attaching a cost to each discrete activity.
B) establishing costs in terms of time.
C) establishing costs in terms of money.
D) converting the cost data into information by looking for competitive cost strengths
and weaknesses.
E) dividing a firm’s operations into specific activities or business processes.
Which of the following companies ranks among those against whom some of the largest
payouts for class-action legal fraud suits ever were judged?
A) AOL Time Warner
B) Walt Disney
C) Starbucks
D) Herman Miller
E) Edison
Which group would be classified as stakeholders?
A) Governments
B) Creditors
C) Suppliers
D) Employees
E) All of the above
In an effort to manage ecological challenges, many companies are
A) moving environmental affairs from the staff side of the organization to the line side.
B) moving environmental affairs from the line side of the organization to the staff side.
C) making the chief operating officer report directly to the corporate environmental
group.
D) omitting an environmental representative from their board of directors.
E) purging environmental values from their mission statements.
A divisional structure by geographic area is most appropriate when
A) organizations have similar branch facilities located in widely dispersed areas.
B) an organization offers only a limited number of products or services.
C) consumption patterns for its products and/or services are the same worldwide.
D) the company’s customers in different geographic locations have similar needs and
characteristics.
E) the firm serves one geographic area.
Multidimensional scaling is used to determine
A) the size of a new building.
B) the size of a new department.
C) the amount of high-tech equipment a firm needs.
D) product positioning.
E) market segmentation.
________ is the fastest-growing market for pocket book maker Coach and the
second-largest market for Dell.
A) America
B) China
C) Brazil
D) Japan
E) Mexico
Compare and contrast business and military strategy.
Discuss the importance of the implementation phase of strategic management.
Describe the seven-step process of effective contingency planning in strategy
evaluation.
Discuss at least five potential disadvantages to initiating, continuing, and/or expanding
international operations.
What are some external opportunities and threats that face many firms?
Discuss the value of integrating intuition and analysis.
Give at least seven reasons why some firms do no strategic planning.
Describe how organizations can create an ethics “culture.”
Explain the nature and role of ESOPs in strategic management.
A good mission statement effectively reflects the anticipations of customers and reveals
the utility that various products or services offer customers. Give three examples of this.