Chapter 5 Sage Publications Explain Blackberrys Strategic And Operational

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Lussier, Management Fundamentals, 7e

Answers to Case Questions

Chapter 5: Strategic and Operational

Planning

BlackBerry

1. Is Blackberry’s decision to lay off 4,500 employees is an example of strategic or operational

planning?

2. How could BlackBerry have benefited from conducting industry and company (SWOT)

situational analysis?

Do a better job with environmental scanning. They should have evaluated the changes happening in

3. Which grand strategy was BlackBerry considering to use in the case?

4. If BlackBerry considered opening up its retail stores, would that be considered a forward or

backward integration strategy?

5. Has BlackBerry’s primary adaptive strategy of the past few years been prospecting, defending,

or analyzing?

6. Has BlackBerry’s primary competitive strategy against its competitors been product

differentiation, cost leadership, or focus?

Unfortunately, Blackberry has lost much of its competitive strategy. Traditionally, it used a

7. Is the functional operational strategy of finding more customers the responsibility of marketing,

human resources, operations, or finance?

Lussier, Management Fundamentals, 7e

8. Explain Blackberry’s strategic and operational plans.

BlackBerry’s strategic plan is to focus on security technology rather than competing solely in the

9. Does Blackberry have a core competency? If so, what is it?

At this time, it would be hard to say that Blackberry still has its core competency of building the best

10. Was BlackBerry smart to refocus its position toward security-related technologies? Should

BlackBerry still be competing in the smartphone industry?

Answers will vary. To Chen’s credit, he has narrowed the strategic focus to something BlackBerry has

11. Which management functions, skills, and management levels are most important in

implementing the growth strategy for BlackBerry?

Since Blackberry is struggling, it needs to do a better job of controlling the company.

12. Which environmental factors were most instrumental in BlackBerry’s competition with Apple,

Samsung, and Google during the late 2000s?

13. Use the Internet to find an article that discusses the forecast for smartphone usage across the

globe.