Motivational and incentive compensation practices that aim at winning the commitment
of company personnel to good strategy execution typically:
A. use only positive rewards and never involve the use of tension, fear, job insecurity,
stress, or anxiety.
B. entail decidedly positive rewards for meeting or beating performance targets, but
also impose sufficiently negative consequences when actual performance falls short of
the target.
C. aim at creating a no-pressure/no-adverse-consequences work environment.
D. entail paying the highest wages and salaries in the industry for all jobholder
positions and also stressing nonmonetary rewards, like cash bonuses for
high-performing employees.
E. put top priority on making employees happy and secure in their jobs.
Answer:
A decentralized organizational structure is predicated on the belief that:
A. top executives should establish a collegial, collaborative culture where decisions are
made by general consensus on what to do and when.
B. strict enforcement of detailed procedures backed by rigorous managerial oversight is
necessary because company personnel cannot be counted on to act wisely or keep costs
to a bare bones level.
C. decision-making authority should be pushed down to the lowest organizational level
capable of making timely, informed, and competent decisions.
D. most company personnel have neither the time nor the inclination to direct and
properly control the work they are performing and that they lack the knowledge and
judgment to make wise decisions about how best to do their work.
E. lower-level managers and employees should go up the ladder of command for
approval on most all strategic and operating issues of much importance.
Answer:
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of an effectively worded strategic vision
statement?
A. Directional (is forward-looking, describes the strategic course that management has
charted that will help the company prepare for the future)
B. Easy to communicate (is explainable in 5″10 minutes, and can be reduced to a
memorable slogan)
C. Graphic (paints a picture of the kind of company management is trying to create and
the market position(s) the company is striving to stake out)
D. Consensus-driven (commits the company to a “mainstream” directional path that
almost all stakeholders will enthusiastically support)
E. Focused (provides guidance to managers in making decisions and allocating
resources)
Answer:
When a company’s social responsibility initiatives become part of the way it operates its
business every day, these initiatives are:
A. likely to be fully effective in creating a competitive advantage.
B. normally based on a corporate social agenda.
C. ambiguous and rarely make a difference in the way the company does business.
D. implausible to advance a positive, high-energy workplace environment.
E. heavily dependent on encouraging employee morality.
Answer:
Which of the following is NOT part of the task of identifying the strategic issues and
problems that merit front-burner managerial attention?
A. Analyzing the company’s external environment
B. Evaluating the company’s own resources and competitive position
C. Surveying a company’s board members, managers, select employees, and key
investors regarding what strategic issues they think the company faces
D. Developing a “worry list” of “how to…,” “whether to…,” and “what to do about…”
E. Assessing what challenges the company must overcome to be financially and
competitively successful in the years ahead
Answer:
When companies engage in value-creating activities, they do so by:
A. focusing on exploiting a company’s best-executed operating strategy.
B. concentrating on efficient performance of the company’s primary value chain
activities.
C. concentrating on minimizing the costs associated with the design of a product or
service.
D. drawing on specific company resources and capabilities that underlie and enable the
activity.
E. focusing on working with forward-channel allies to develop capabilities to outmatch
the capabilities of rivals.
Answer:
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
Answer:
Driving-forces analysis helps managers identify whether:
A. the collective impact of the driving forces will act to increase/decrease market
demand, increase/decrease competition, and raise/lower industry profitability in the
years ahead.
B. it will become more or less important to aim the company’s strategy at being the
industry’s low-cost producer.
C. the driving forces will have a bigger impact on company profitability than
competitive forces.
D. the industry is likely to become more or less vertically integrated and why.
E. competitive advantages are likely to grow or diminish in importance.
Answer:
Management is obligated to monitor new external developments, evaluate the
company’s progress, and make corrective adjustments in order to:
A. determine whether the company has a balanced scorecard for judging its
performance.
B. stay on track in achieving the company’s mission and strategic vision.
C. keep the company’s board of directors well-informed about the company’s future
outlook.
D. determine whether the company’s business model is well-matched to changing
market and competitive circumstances.
E. decide whether to continue or change the company’s strategic vision, objectives,
strategy and/or strategy execution methods.
Answer:
Which of the following companies incurs mainly internal administrative costs due to
unethical practices?
A. Company A loses its customer loyalty by selling low-quality products for a high
cost.
B. Company B’s tax evasion practices are revealed, leading to a drastic fall in stock
prices.
C. Company C incurs penalties of $1.5 billion for discharging toxic wastes into a river.
D. Company D must retrain its employees who are using their Twitter accounts to post
workplace frustrations.
E. Company E pays men higher wages than women while at the same time propagating
messages of equality and fair play.
Answer:
Success with a best-cost provider strategy designed to outcompete high-end
differentiators requires:
A. achieving significantly lower costs in providing the upscale features.
B. providing significantly better product attributes in order to justify a price above what
low-cost leaders are charging.
C. matching the company’s resources and capabilities to a low-cost provider status.
D. motivating buyers to purchase upscale features that match rivals.
E. achieving the lowest costs in the industry.
Answer:
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.
Answer:
The rationale for making strategy-critical value chain activities the primary building
blocks in a company’s organizational scheme is based on the:
A. much shorter time it takes to build core competencies and competitive capabilities.
B. benefit such an organizational scheme has in reducing costs.
C. benefit such an organizational scheme has in improving the productivity of
geographically scattered organizational units.
D. thesis that if activities crucial to strategic success are to have the resources,
decision-making influence, and organizational impact, they have to be centerpieces in
the organizational scheme.
E. benefit such an organizational scheme has in making the empowerment of employees
more effective.
Answer:
The extent to which a firm’s internal activities encompass one, some, many, or all of the
activities that make up an industry’s entire value chain system is known as:
A. horizontal scale.
B. vertical scope.
C. outsourcing scope.
D. cooperative scaled scope.
E. focal scope.
Answer:
Which of the following is NOT a factor that makes it appealing to diversify into a new
industry by forming an internal startup subsidiary to enter and compete in the target
industry?
A. When internal entry is cheaper than entry via acquisition
B. When a company possesses the skills and resources to overcome entry barriers and
there is ample time to launch the business and compete effectively
C. When adding new production capacity will not adversely impact the supply demand
balance in the industry by creating oversupply conditions
D. When the industry is growing rapidly and the target industry is comprised of several
relatively large and well-established firms
E. When incumbent firms are likely to be slow or ineffective in combating a new
entrant’s efforts to crack the market
Answer:
Which of the following is NOT one of the positive impacts that a company’s stated
values and ethical standards have on its corporate culture?
A. Communicating the company’s good intentions
B. Validating the integrity and above-board nature of the company’s business principles
and operating methods
C. Steering company personnel toward both doing things right and doing the right thing
D. Establishing a corporate conscience
E. Identifying how best to adapt to changing market conditions
Answer:
The big risk of employing an outsourcing strategy is:
A. causing the company to become partially integrated instead of being fully integrated.
B. hollowing out a firm’s own capabilities and losing touch with activities and expertise
that contribute fundamentally to the firm’s competitiveness and market success.
C. hurting a company’s R&D capability.
D. putting the company in the position of being a late mover instead of an early mover.
E. increasing the firm’s risk exposure to both supply chain management failures and
shifts in the composition of the industry value chain.
Answer:
Which of the following is NOT something to look for in identifying a company’s
culture?
A. The company’s defined spirit and character that pervades the work climate
B. The company’s resource strengths, core competencies, and competitive capabilities
C. The company’s revered traditions and oft-repeated stories about “heroic acts” and
“how we do things around here”
D. The company’s approach to people management and the official policies, procedures,
and operating practices that paint the white lines for the behavior of company personnel
E. The company’s shared values, business principles, and ethical standards that
management preaches and practices
Answer:
When should a culture be changed as rapidly as it can be managed?
A. Never, because the actions and behaviors needed to execute the new strategy
successfully are well entrenched, and thus are not changeable
B. Only rarely, because it is natural for company personnel to cling to existing practices
and to be wary of new approaches
C. When a company decides on any innovations to its products or services
D. When a strong culture is unhealthy or otherwise out of sync with the actions and
behaviors needed to execute the strategy successfully
E. When the case for cultural reform is not credible, symbolic, nor substantive
Answer:
What supports competitive offensives in one market with resources and profits diverted
from operations in another market?
A. Cross-market subsidization
B. A foreign market strategy
C. A domestic-only company
D. A home market offensive
E. A multidomestic company
Answer:
Which of the following factors does NOT determine whether to employ entry strategy
options?
A. Cross-border transfer activities and home country advantages
B. The nature of the firm’s objectives
C. Whether the firm has a full range of resources and capabilities needed to operate
abroad
D. Country-specific factors such as trade barriers
E. Transaction costs involved (the cost of contracting with a partner and monitoring
compliance with the terms of the contract)
Answer:
Which of the following topics would least likely be contained in a company’s statement
of its core values?
A. A commitment to having fun and creating a fun work environment
B. A commitment to operating excellence and superior results
C. Mandating full compliance with all laws and regulations
D. Exhibiting such qualities as integrity, fairness, trustworthiness, pride of
workmanship, respect for co-workers, and ethical behavior
E. Exhibiting teamwork and cooperative attitudes
Answer:
Which of the following is the best example of a well-stated financial objective?
A. Increase earnings per share by 15 percent annually.
B. Gradually boost market share from 10 percent to 15 percent over the next several
years.
C. Achieve lower costs than any other industry competitor.
D. Boost revenues by a percentage margin greater than the industry average.
E. Maximize total company profits and return on investment.
Answer:
Recruiting and retaining capable employees is:
A. usually much more important to good strategy execution than is assembling a
capable top-management team.
B. important because the quality of an organization’s people is always an essential
ingredient of successful strategy execution.
C. more important during periods of rapid growth than during periods of crisis and
attempted turnarounds.
D. an important organization-building element, particularly when it comes to
transforming a competence into a core competence or distinctive competence.
E. easily the most critical aspect in building competitively valuable core competencies
and capabilities.
Answer:
A belief in ethical relativism leads to the conclusion that:
A. since ethical standards are subjective, it is perfectly appropriate for each company to
define and implement its own ethical principles of right and wrong as concerns the use
of underage labor and the payment of bribes and kickbacks.
B. ethical standards are determined objectively (rather than subjectively).
C. whether the use of underage labor and the payment of bribes/kickbacks should be
deemed ethical or unethical depends on the moral standards, values, and business norms
that prevail in particular cultures, societies, countries, or circumstances.
D. ethical standards are objective and universalthus whether the use of underage labor
and the payment of bribes and kickbacks should be deemed ethical or unethical is
definitely not dependent on the moral standards, values, and business norms that prevail
in particular cultures, societies, countries, or circumstances.
E. standards of right and wrong are governed by what is legal in a given countrythus
whether the use of underage labor and the payment of bribes and kickbacks are ethical
or unethical is governed by local law.
Answer:
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
Answer:
The menu of actions management can take to change problem culture does NOT
include which of the following?
A. Making a compelling case for why the company’s new strategic direction and
culture-remodeling efforts are in the organization’s best interests and why company
personnel should wholeheartedly join the effort to doing things somewhat differently
B. Replacing senior executives who are strongly identified with the old culture and who
may be stonewalling needed organizational and cultural changes
C. Promoting individuals who are known to possess the desired cultural traits, who have
stepped forward to advocate the shift to a different culture, and who can serve as role
models for the desired cultural behavior
D. Revising policies and procedures in ways that will help drive cultural change
E. Shifting from decentralized to centralized decision-making so as to give senior
executives more authority and control in driving the cultural change
Answer:
Which of the following exemplifies cross-country differences in demographic, cultural,
and market conditions?
A. Nike produces its own line of skate shoes.
B. Starbucks acquires a large coffee farm in Costa Rica.
C. Ireland provides low-costs loans to foreign entrants to stimulate capital investment.
D. Intel’s silicon chips are identical across the world.
E. McDonald’s offers 100% beef-free products in its outlets in India.
Answer:
A company’s business model:
A. concerns the actions and business approaches that will be used to grow the business,
conduct operations, and stake a competitor’s market position.
B. is management’s blueprint for how it will generate revenues sufficient to cover costs
and yield an attractive profit.
C. concerns what combination of moves in the marketplace it plans to make to
outcompete rivals.
D. deals with how it can simultaneously maximize profits and operate in a socially
responsible manner that keeps its prices as low as possible.
E. concerns how management plans to pursue strategic objectives, given the larger
imperative of meeting or beating its financial performance targets.
Answer:
Which of the following is NOT an advantage of setting “stretch” objectives?
A. Helping to avoid mediocre results
B. Pushing company personnel to be more inventive and innovative
C. Helping clarify the company’s strategic vision and strategic intent
D. Helping a company be more focused and intentional in its actions
E. Spurring exceptional performance and helping build a firewall against contentment
with modest performance gains
Answer:
Which is more important to a company’s future financial performancethe achievement
of strategic objectives or the achievement of financial objectives? Why?
Answer:
What is a blue-ocean strategy and what is its appeal?
Answer:
What are the merits of outsourcing the performance of certain value chain activities as
opposed to performing them in-house? Under what circumstances does outsourcing
make good strategic sense?
Answer:
Define and discuss the programs commonly included under a company’s corporate
social responsibility strategy.
Answer:
What is strategy and why is it important?
Answer:
What factors determine whether a strategy can be called a winning strategy?
Answer:
Assume a firm is at a cost disadvantage with rivals because of higher distributor/dealer
costs than rivals. Identify three strategic moves that it can make to restore cost parity.
Answer:
Why does a company’s budget need to be closely linked to the needs of good strategy
execution?
Answer:
A fashion magazine plans to cuts down on its fashion-related content and provides the
space for high-priced advertisements, but fails to convince giant fashion brands to
advertise in the magazine. What do we understand from this failure?
Answer:
What is the case for why business strategies should be ethical?
Answer:
What is meant by the term “stretch objectives”? Is it important that companies establish
stretch objectives? Why or why not?
Answer:
Explain the difference between financial objectives and strategic objectives. Give
examples of each.
Answer:
Alonzo, the CEO of ActiveMinds, a business consulting service, decides to express the
essence of his organization’s vision with the help of a slogan. How does this help him?
Answer:
Explain how the marketing emphasis of a low-cost provider differs from the marketing
emphasis of a best-cost provider.
Answer:
What is the strategy-making hierarchy for a diversified company? How does it differ
from the strategy-making hierarchy for a single business company?
Answer:
What are the strategic advantages of a backward vertical integration strategy?
Answer: