MGT 409 Exam 1
Factors to consider when assessing human resource management:
- Effective recruiting, development, and retention mechanisms for employees - Excellent relationships with diverse stakeholders - Effective info tech to integrate value-creating activities
Factors to consider when assessing inbound logistics
- Location of distribution facilities to minimize shipping times - Warehouse layout and designs to increase efficiency of operations for incoming materials
Factors to consider when assessing procurement:
- Procurement of raw material inputs to optimize quality and speed and to minimize the associated costs - Development of collaborative win-win relationships with suppliers - Analysis and selection of alternative sources of inputs to minimize dependence on one supplier
What is included in marketing and sales?
- advertising - promotion - sales force - quoting - channel selection - channel relations - pricing
What is necessary to ensure effective corporate governance?
- an effective and engaged board of directors - shareholder activism - proper managerial rewards and incentives
What is strategy analysis?
- analyzing organizational goals and objectives - analyzing the external environment - analyzing the internal environment - assessing a firm's intellectual assets
What are tangible resources?
- assets that are relatively easy to identify - they include the physical & financial assets that an organization uses to create value for its customers
Things that should be taken into account with financial ratio analysis:
- historical comparisons - comparison with industry norms - comparison with key competitors
What is taken into account in an external analysis?
- how valuable, rare, and hard they are for competitors to duplicate
What are examples of intangible resources?
- human - innovation - reputation
What are strategic groups useful for?
- identifying barriers to mobility to prevent attacks by another group - identify competitors - chart future of strategies - thinking through implications of industry trends
Factors to consider when assessing marketing and sales:
- innovative approaches to promotion and advertising - proper identification of customer segments and needs
What does corporate-level strategy address?
- what businesses to compete in - how businesses can be managed to achieve synergy
What do strategic management decisions address?
- what industries should we compete in? - how should we compete in those industries?
Examples of organizational capabilities:
-Outstanding customer service -Excellent product development capabilities -Innovativeness of products and services -Ability to hire, motivate, and retain human capital
Value Chain Concept
focus on the key value-creating activities that a firm must effectively manage and integrate in order to attain competitive advantages
What is the external control view of leadership?
focuses on the external factors that may positively or negatively affect a firm's success
There is a critical need for what 3 kinds of workers?
1) local line - have a significant profit-and-loss responsibility 2) executive leaders - champion and guide ideas; create a learning infrastructure; establish a domain for taking action 3) internal networkers - generate their power through the conviction and clarity of their ideas
A balanced scorecard enables managers to consider their business from what 4 perspectives
1. Customer - how do customers see us? 2. internal - what must we excel at? 3. financial - how do we look to shareholders 4. innovation and learning - can we continue to improve and create value
Examples of things that lie within the demographic segment
Aging population Rising or declining affluence Changes in ethnic composition Geographic distribution of the population Disparities in income level
What is the demographic segment?
Genetic and observable characteristics of a population
Outbound logistics includes
- finished goods - warehousing - material handling -delivery vehicle operation - order processing - scheduling
Who are the primary participants in corporate governance?
- the shareholders - the management - board of directors
What is incremental management?
making a series of small, minor changes to improve the efficiency of their firm's operations
Following SWOT, a firm's strategy must
- build on its strengths - remedy the weaknesses or work around them - take advantage of the opportunities presented by the environment - protect the firm from the threats
What are the parts of strategy formulation?
- business level strategy - corporate level strategy - international strategies - formulate effective entrepreneurial
What are some entry barriers in pixar case?
- capital requirement - technology - human capital
What are organizational capabilities?
- competencies or skills that a firm employs to transform inputs into outputs - the capacity to combine tangible & intangible resources to attain desired ends
Why can making a case for sustainability initiatives be hard to quanitfy?
- data for roi is often not available - many benefits are intangible - payback period is on a different time frame
What segments are included in the general environment?
- demographic - sociocultural - political/legal - technological - economic - global
What are the 6 entry barriers?
- economies of scale - product differentiation - capital requirements - switching costs - access to distribution channels - cost disadvantages independent of scale
Factors to consider when assessing technology development
- effective r&d activities for process and product initiatives - positive collaborative relationships between r&d and other departments - excellent professional qualifications - data analytics
Factors to consider when assessing outbound logistics:
- effective shipping processes to provide quick delivery and minimize damages - shipping of goods in large lot sizes to minimize transportation costs
Factors to consider when assessing operations
- efficient plant operations to minimize costs - efficient plant layout and workflow design - incorporation of appropriate process technology
Factors that help explain the extent to which employees and managers will be able to obtain a proportionately high level of the profits that they generate:
- employee bargaining power - employee replacement cost - employee exit costs - manager bargaining power
What is addressed under opportunities in a SWOT analysis?
- environmental conditions external to the firm
What is addressed under threats in a SWOT analysis?
- environmental conditions external to the firm
What are examples of tangible resources?
- financial - physical - organizational - technological
Ways to evaluate firm performance
- financial ratio analysis - balanced scorecard
What is addressed under strengths in a SWOT analysis?
- internal conditions - where your firm excels
What is addressed under weaknesses in a SWOT analysis?
- internal conditions - where your firm may be lacking relative to competitors
What are some reasons visions may fail?
- irrelevance - walk doesnt match talk - too much focus leads to missed opportunities - an ideal future irreconciled with the present
Examples of operations
- machining - packaging -assembly - testing - printing - facility operations
What is included in inbound logistics?
- material handling - warehousing - inventory control - vehicle scheduling - returns to suppliers
What are examples of substitutes in the Pixar case?
- other genres - streaming services - tv - any other form of entertainment
What is included in support activities?
- procurement - technology development - human resource management - general admin
Factors to consider when assessing service
- quick response to customer needs and emergencies - quality of service personnel and ongoing training
What do purchased inputs include?
- raw materials - supplied - other consumable items
What are different types of financial ratio analysis?
- short-term solvency/liquidity - long-term solvency measures - asset management/turnover - profitability - market value
What are the parts to strategy implementation?
- strategic control and corporate governance - creating an effective organizational designs - creating a learning organization and an ethical organization - fostering corporate entrpreneurship
What are the two relationships among value-chain activities?
1. Interrelationships 2. Relationships among activities within the firm and with other stakeholders
What are the critical issues in conducting a good industry analysis?
1. choosing an appropriate time frame 2. rigorous quantification of the five forces
What are the 4 key attributes in strategic management?
1. directs the organization toward overall goals and objectives 2. includes multiple stakeholders in decision making 3. needs to incorporate short-term and long-term perspectives 4. recognizes trade-offs between efficiency and effectiveness - doing the the right thing v doing thins right
A resource-based view of a firm combines what 2 perspectives?
1. internal analysis 2. external analysis
To be difficult for competitors to imitate in must have one of the following:
1. physical uniqueness 2. path dependency 3. casual ambiguity 4. no strategically equivalent substitutes
What are the 3 key strategic management processes?
1. strategy analysis 2. strategy formulation 3. strategy implementation
What are the 5 forces model of industry competition?
1. threat of new entrants 2. bargaining power of buyers 3. bargaining power of suppliers 4. threat of substitute products and services 5. intensity of rivalry among competitors in an industry
What are the requirements for a sustainable competitive advantage?
1. valuable in a sense that it *exploits opportunities* and/or neutralizes threats in the firm's environment 2. must be *rare* 3. Must be difficult to *imitate*
What is the romantic view of leadership?
A leader is the key force in the organization's success. (Steve Jobs)
What is support activities?
Either add value by themselves or add value through important relationships with both primary activities and other support activities
How is product differentiation an entry barrier?
Forces entrants to spend heavily to overcome existing customer loyalties
Examples of things that lie within the sociocultural segment
Higher percentage of women in the workforce Dual-income families Increases in the number of temporary workers Greater concern for healthy diets and physical fitness Greater interest in the environment Postponement of having children
examples of service
Installation Repair Training Parts supply Product adjustment
What is economies of scale?
Refers to the reduction in average unit costs that occur when a business increases its scale of operations and in the process become more efficient. forces entrants to come in at a larger scale
How is value measured?
Total revenue - a reflection of the firm's product commands and the quantity it can sell - profitable when value exceeds cost
What does a value chain analysis give insight to?
a firm's operations and how the firm creates economic value
What is a vision?
a goal that is "massively inspiring, overarching, and long term" represents a destination that is driven by and evokes passion
How does the value chain analysis view an organization?
a sequential process of value-creating activities
What is marketing and sales?
activities associated with purchases of products and services by end users and the inducements used to get them to make purchases
What is service?
all actions associated with providing service to enhance or maintain the value of the product
What is operations?
all activities associated with transforming inputs into the final product form
What are intangible resources?
assets that are much more difficult for competitors to account for or imitate and are typically embedded in unique routines & practices that have evolved & accumulated over time
What is value chain analysis useful for understanding?
building blocks of competitive advantage
What is thee economic segment?
characteristics of the economy, including national income and monetary conditions
What are strategic groups?
clusters of firms that share similar strategies
What is outbound logistics?
collecting, storing, and physically distributing the products to buyers
What is casual ambiguity?
competitors cannot disentangle the causes of either what is the valuable resource or how it can be recreated
What is the general environment?
composed of factors that can have dramatic effects on a firm's strategy
What is financial ratio analysis?
computing ratios that compare values of key accounts listed on a firm's financial statements
What is the sociocultural segment?
concerned with a society's attitudes, beliefs, and cultural values
What is the definition of primary activities?
contributes to the physical creation of the product or service, its sale and transfer to the buyer, and its service after the sale
intangible resources in pixar case
creativity knowledge
What is human resource management?
effective, recruiting development, and retention mechanisms for employees
What is a mission statement?
encompasses both the purpose of the company and the basis of competition and competitive advantage incorporates the concept of stakeholder managemeent
What is the triple bottom line approach?
evaluates a firm's performance, taking into account financial, environmental, and social sustainability
What is a limitation of balanced scorecards?
executives view it as a quick fix
What does is the point to gather competitive advantage?
helps firms define and understand their industry and identify rivals' strengths and weaknesses helps a company avoid surprises by anticipating competitors' moves and decreasing response time
What is the political/legal segment?
how a society creates and exercises power political processes and legislation influence environmental regulations in which industries must comply
What is scenario analysis?
in-depth approach to environmental forecasting that involves experts' detailed assessments of societal trends, economics, politics, technology, or other dimensions of the external environment
Types of primary activities
inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, service
What is the global segment?
includes relevant new global markets and their critical cultural and institutional characteristics, existing markets that are changing, and important international political events
What is the technological segment?
innovation and state of knowledge in industrial arts, engineering, applied sciences, and pure science; and their interaction with society can create entirely new industries and alter the boundaries of existing industries
How can the five forces being a zero-sum game negatively affect?
it overlooks potential benefit
For objectives to be meaningful they must be
measurable, specific, appropriate, realistic, timely
What is a balanced scorecard?
measurement approach that provides a fast and comprehensive view of the business - includes financial measures that reflect the results of actions already taken
Who are buyers in the pixar case?
movie theaters, streaming platforms
What is operational effectiveness?
performing similar activities better than rivals
What are the two categories of activities?
primary and support
What is inbound logistics?
receiving, storing, and distributing inputs to the products
What is social responsibility?
recognizes that businesses must response to society's expectations regarding their obligations to society - focusing on philanthropy - improving operational effectiveness - transforming the business model
What is path dependency?
resources are unique and scarce because of all that has happened along the path followed in their development
What is used to operationalize a mission statement?
strategic objectives
What do the letters stand for in a SWOT analysis?
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
What is environmental scanning?
surveillance of a firm's external environment to predict environmental changes and detect changes already underway alerts the organization to critical trends and events before changes develop a discernible pattern and before competitors realize them
tangible resources in pixar case
talented human capital financial capital patents and copy right
What are the 3 types of firm resources?
tangible, intangible, and organizational capabilities
What is technology development?
technological development related to the product and its feature supports the entire value chain other tech development is associated with particular primary or support activities
What is perceptual acuity?
the ability to sense what is coming before the fog clears
Value
the amount that buyers are willing to pay for what a firm provides them
What is strategic management?
the analyses, decisions, and actions an organization undertakes in order to create and sustain competitive advantages
What is a switching cost?
the cost to switch between suppliers (The existence of one-time costs that the buyer faces when switching from one supplier's product or service to another)
What is environmental forecasting?
the development of plausible projections about the direction, scope, speed, and intensity of environmental change purpose is to predict change
What does business-level strategy address?
the issue of how to compete in a given business to attain competitive advantage
What is procurement?
the purchasing of inputs used in the firm's value chain, not to the purchased inputs themselves
What is corporate governance?
the relationship among various participants in determining the direction and performance of corporations
What is environmental monitoring?
tracks the evolution of environmental trends, sequences of events, or streams of activities enables the firm to evaluate how dramatically environmental trends are changing the competitive landscape
What is the key concept in analyzing a firm's competitive advantage?
value
What is included in the hierarchy of goals?
vision, mission, and strategic objectives
What question is asked about competitive advantages?
will it sustain over time?
