Which of the following does NOT exemplify a policy or procedure that facilitates
strategy execution?
A. A nonprofit agency that addresses only specific societal problems through public
services
B. A toy manufacturing company that plans on reaching three different segments of the
market
C. A fast food joint that has an onsite kindergarten and provides afterschool programs
for its employees’ children
D. A sporting goods seller that monitors consumers’ preferences for gear and
accessories on its blog
E. A bedding linen manufacturing company that recycles its water to cool the machines
in the factory
Well-conceived policies and operating procedures facilitate strategy execution in all of
the following ways EXCEPT they:
A. provide top-down guidance regarding how things are to be done.
B. help ensure consistency in how execution-critical activities are performed.
C. promote the creation of a work climate that facilitates good strategy execution.
D. facilitate cost cutting (finding ways to do less with less) while undertaking new
strategic initiatives.
E. channel individual and group efforts along a strategy-supportive path.
Which one of the following is NOT one of the five basic tasks of the strategy-making,
strategy-executing process?
A. Developing a strategic vision of where the company needs to head and what its
future business makeup will be
B. Setting objectives to convert the strategic vision into specific strategic and financial
performance outcomes for the company to achieve
C. Crafting a strategy to achieve the objectives and get the company where it wants to
go
D. Developing a profitable business model
E. Executing the chosen strategy efficiently and effectively
Which of the following is NOT a strategic choice that a company must make to
complement and supplement its choice of one of the five generic competitive strategies?
A. Whether to focus on building competitive advantages
B. Whether to employ the element of surprise as opposed to doing what rivals expect
and are prepared for
C. Whether to employ a market share leadership strategy
D. Whether to display a strong bias for swift, decisive, and overwhelming actions to
overpower
E. Whether to create and deploy company resources to cause rivals to defend
themselves
Perceived value and signaling value are often an important part of a successful
differentiation strategy because:
A. of the standardization of buyer needs and preferences.
B. buyers seldom will pay for value they don’t perceive, no matter how real the value of
the differentiating extras may be.
C. buyer satisfaction cannot be achieved until a product’s value is promoted through
clever ads.
D. differentiation is all about selling products to sophisticated buyers.
E. there are no other ways to differentiate a product.
The real payoff of driving forces is to help managers understand:
A. what strategy changes are needed to prepare for the impacts of the driving forces.
B. the overall strength of the five competitive forces.
C. whether the industry’s strategic group map will be static or dynamic.
D. what conditions exist in the economy at large.E. the extent to which rivals have more
than two competitively valuable competencies or capabilities.
A ketchup manufacturer convinces a supplier who makes vinegar to set up a nearby
plant. Which of the following benefits will the ketchup manufacturer be least assured
of?
A. Improved value chain system
B. Improved overall quality control
C. Lower incoming shipping costs
D. Just-in-time deliveries
E. Reduced storage needs
The biggest and most important differences among the competitive strategies of
different companies boil down to:
A. how they go about building a brand name image that buyers trust and whether they
are a risk-taker or risk-avoider.
B. the different ways the companies try to cope with the five competitive forces.
C. whether a company’s market target is broad or narrow and whether the company is
pursuing a competitive advantage linked to low cost or differentiation.
D. the kinds of actions companies take to improve their competitive assets and reduce
their competitive liabilities.
E. the relative emphasis they place on offensive versus defensive strategies.
The formation of a new corporation, jointly owned by two or more companies agreeing
to share in the revenues, expenses, and control, is known as:
A. a joint venture.
B. a limited liability company.
C. a partnership.
D. sole proprietorship.
E. an S corporation.
Calculating quantitative attractiveness ratings for the industries a company has
diversified into involves:
A. determining each industry’s key success factors, calculating the ability of the
company to be successful on each industry KSF, and obtaining overall measures of the
firm’s ability to compete successfully in each of its industries based on the combined
KSF ratings.
B. determining each industry’s competitive advantage factors, calculating the ability of
the company to be successful on each competitive advantage factor, and obtaining
overall measures of the firm’s ability to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in
each of its industries based on the combined competitive advantage factor ratings.
C. selecting a set of industry attractiveness measures, weighting the importance of each
measure, rating each industry on each attractiveness measure, multiplying the industry
ratings by the assigned weight to obtain a weighted rating, adding the weighted ratings
for each industry to obtain an overall industry attractiveness score, and using the overall
industry attractiveness scores to interpret the attractiveness of all the industries, both
individually and as a group.
D. rating the attractiveness of each industry’s strategic and resource fits, summing the
attractiveness scores, and determining whether the overall scores for the industries as a
group are appealing or not.
E. identifying each industry’s average profitability, rating the difficulty of achieving
average profitability in each industry, and deciding whether the company’s prospects for
above-average profitability are attractive or unattractive, industry by industry.
Which of the following is NOT a frequently used strategic approach to set a company
apart from rivals and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage?
A. Striving to be the industry’s low-cost provider
B. Outcompeting rivals on the basis of differentiating features that will appeal to a
broad spectrum of buyers
C. Developing a best-cost provider strategy that gives customers more value for the
money
D. Focusing on a narrow market niche and serving buyers’ special needs and tastes
E. Striving to be the industry’s high-price provider
Which of the following statements falsely characterizes the managerial task of
executing strategy?
A. Executing strategy is an action-oriented, make-things-happen task.
B. Executing strategy tests a manager’s ability to direct organizational change, achieve
continuous improvement in operations and business processes, create and nurture a
strategy-supportive culture, and consistently meet or beat performance targets.
C. Implementing new strategic initiatives principally involves employing managerial
techniques to overcome resistance to change.
D. Executing strategy requires a team effort which entails that every manager think
through the answer to “What does my area have to do to implement its part of the
strategic plan, and what should I do to get these things accomplished effectively and
efficiently?”
E. Implementing and executing strategy is primarily an operations-driven activity
revolving around the management of people and business processes.
Visible actions to reallocate operating funds and move people into different and new
organizational units:
A. can be dysfunctional in trying to implement a new strategy because of the anxiety
and insecurity that big changes in budgets cause among company personnel.
B. signal a determined commitment to strategic change and can help catalyze and give
credibility to the implementation process.
C. run the risk of inadvertently creating barriers to building the needed competencies
and capabilities.
D. tend to impede the task of empowering employees and shifting to a new, more
strategy-supportive culture.E. are rarely necessary in implementing a new strategy
unless the new strategy entails a radically different set of value chain activities.