A company lacking stand-alone resource strength should focus on bundling several
resource strengths into a core competence. True or false? Explain and support your
answer.
A distinctive competence represents competitively superior resource strength. True or
false? Explain your answer.
Apollo Tires sets up a manufacturing unit in Mexico. Following this, Renault-Nissan
signs a supply contract with the tire multinational. In which of the following ways is
Renault-Nissan likely to gain from the pact?
A. Different styles of management, organization, and strategy
B. Knowledge sharing within same value chain system
C. Availability of natural resources at low cost
D. Growth potential and large size of the market
E. Government policies in the host country
Which of the following is NOT generally something that ought to be considered in
evaluating the attractiveness of a multibusiness (diversified) company’s business
makeup?
A. Market size and projected growth rate, industry profitability, and the intensity of
competition
B. Industry uncertainty and business risk
C. The frequency with which strategic alliances and collaborative partnerships are used
in each industry, and the extent to which firms in the industry utilize outsourcing
D. Resource requirements, and whether an industry has significant social, political,
regulatory, and environmental problems
E. The presence of cross-industry strategic fits and matching resource requirements to
the parent company
A regional electric scooter manufacturer sells its scooter at a lower price than other
two-wheeler manufacturers. What will make the product most attractive for customers?
A. low profit
B. high value
C. high cost
D. low value
E. low cost
.
One strategic fit based approach to related diversification would be to:
A. diversify into new industries that present opportunities to transfer specialized
expertise, technological know-how, or other valuable resources and capabilities from
one business’s value chain to another’s.
B. diversify into foreign markets where the firm has unrelated businesses.
C. acquire rival firms that have broader product lines so as to give the company access
to a wider range of buyer groups.
D. acquire companies in forward distribution channels (wholesalers and/or retailers).
E. expand into foreign markets where the firm currently does no business.
Once a company has decided to employ a particular generic competitive strategy, then it
must make the following additional strategic choices, EXCEPT whether to:
A. focus on building competitive advantages.
B. employ the element of surprise as opposed to doing what rivals expect and are
prepared for.
C. display a strong bias for swift, decisive, and overwhelming actions to overpower
rivals.
D. create and deploy company resources to cause rivals to defend themselves.
E. pay special attention to buyer segments that a rival is already serving.
Corporate strategy options for already diversified companies include all of the
following EXCEPT:
A. broadening the company’s business scope by making new acquisitions in new
industries.
B. divesting weak-performing businesses and retrenching to a narrower base of
business operations.
C. restructuring the company’s business lineup with a combination of divestitures and
new acquisitions to put a whole new face on the company’s business makeup.
D. pursuing growth opportunities within the existing business lineup.
E. pursuing certain acquisitions even if they have done badly or haven’t quite lived up
to expectations.
Companies often implement a transnational strategy because it:
A. combines flexible coordination with the pursuit of conflicting objectives
simultaneously.
B. provides an easy mode of operating to transfer and share resources and capabilities
across borders.
C. is conducive to mass customization techniques that enable companies to address
local preferences in an efficient semi-standard manner.
D. is the least complex and easiest to implement of all the strategy choices.
E. is capable of achieving an efficiency potential through centralized decision making
and strong headquarter control.
The three dimensions of performance are often referred to in terms of the “three pillars”
and include all of the following EXCEPT:
A. a company’s efforts to improve the lives of its internal and external stakeholders.
B. the various social initiatives that make up the CSR strategies.
C. a firm’s ecological impact and environmental practices.
D. the economic impact (value and costs) that the company has on society.
E. a company’s efforts to reduce research and development funding to boost profits.
A U.S. company that makes all of its goods at a plant in Brazil and then exports the
Brazilian-made goods to country markets across the world:
A. is competitively disadvantaged when the U.S. dollar declines in value against the
Brazilian real.
B. is competitively advantaged when the Brazilian real declines in value against the
currencies of the countries to which the Brazilian-made goods are being exported.
C. becomes less competitive in foreign markets when the Brazilian real declines in
value against the currencies of the countries to which the Brazilian-made goods are
being exported.
D. is competitively advantaged when the U.S. dollar appreciates in value against the
Brazilian real.
E. is unaffected by changes in the valuation of foreign currencies against the Brazilian
real-all that matters to a U.S. company is the valuation of the U.S. dollar against the
Brazilian real.
What strategy is considered more conducive to transferring and leveraging subsidiary
skills and capabilities across borders?
A. A transnational strategy
B. An international strategy
C. A think-local, act-global strategy
D. A cross-border integrated strategy
E. A standardized integrated strategy
Rivalry among competing sellers increases:
A. when buyer demand is growing slowly.
B. as it becomes more costly for buyers to switch brands.
C. as the products of rival sellers become more strongly differentiated.
D. when there is underproduction relative to demand..
E. as the number of competitors decreases.
Which of the following is generally NOT among the common practices that companies
use to staff jobs with talented people, particularly if intellectual capital greatly aids
good strategy execution?
A. Careful screening and evaluation of job applicants, along with continuous training
and retraining programs for employees that continue throughout their careers
B. Rotating people through jobs that not only have great content but also span
functional and geographic boundaries
C. Eliminating the bottom 10 percent of the lowest-performing employees each year to
increase the overall quality performance metrics to above-average industry standards
D. Encouraging employees to challenge existing ways of doing things, to be creative
and innovative in proposing better ways of operating, and to push their ideas for new
products or businesses
E. Fostering a stimulating and engaging work environment such that employees will
consider the company a great place to work
A company’s biggest vulnerability in employing a best-cost provider strategy is:
A. relying too heavily on outsourcing.
B. getting squeezed between the strategies of firms employing low-cost provider
strategies and high-end differentiation strategies.
C. getting trapped in a price war with low-cost leaders.
D. being timid in cutting its prices far enough below high-end differentiators to win
away many of their customers.
E. not having a sustainable distinctive competence in cost reduction.
Why does a company’s budget need to be closely linked to the needs of good strategy
execution?
A beauty products giant that manufactures quality makeup products observes a lot of its
hits by college students on its makeup tutorials. It opens another sub-brand that
provides low-priced makeup services to college partygoers. Which of the five generic
strategies has the company used?
What is the managerial value of a good strategic vision?
What are the general strategic objectives of merger and acquisition strategies?
Discuss why it is generally undesirable for approaches to motivation, compensation,
and people management to avoid the use of negative consequences or punishment if
performance targets are not achieved or if particular people are habitual
underperformers. Does striking a balance between rewards and punishment generally
work better?
Explain why low switching costs and weakly differentiated products tend to give buyers
a high degree of bargaining power.
In creating a strategy-supportive reward structure, it is important to define jobs and
assignments in terms of the results to be accomplished not just in terms of the duties to
be performed. True or false? Explain and justify your answer.