Business Policy and Strategy Exam 1

Which phase of strategic management is most strongly associated with "action"?

Strategy implementation

Internal ________ are controllable activities in an organization that are performed especially well.

Strengths

Triple Bottom Line

A business strategy that includes social, economic, and environmental criteria.

Realized Strategy

A product of a firm's intended strategy, and firm's deliberate strategy.

Marketing Mix (4 P's)

product, price, promotion, place

capabilities

refer to what an organization can do- the ability to coordinate resources and put them to productive use.

A __________ is a specific move designed to outwit or trick competitors, often involving creativity to enhance success.

strategic ploy

Collecting and evaluating information on competitors is essential for successful

strategy formulation

backward integration

strategy of seeking ownership or increased control of a firm's suppliers

Intended Strategy

the strategy the organization decides on during the planning phase and wants to use

Generally, external opportunities and threats are

uncontrollable by a single organization.

All of the following are basic functions of marketing EXCEPT

value chain analysis.

Under which condition would a differentiation strategy be especially effective?

when the products of rival sellers are essentially identical and supplies are readily available from any of several eager sellers

Strategic groups

A set of firms emphasizing similar strategic dimensions and using similar strategies

supply chain

A system of people, activities, information, and resources involved in creating a product and moving it to the customer.

Changes in which of the following can significantly affect firms?

All of the above: Lobbying activities, tax rates, antitrust legislation, patent laws.

Which group would be classified as stakeholders?

All of the above: customers, owners, suppliers, employees.

What is NOT one of Porter's five competitive forces?

Bargaining power of unions

The process through which a firm plans to earn profits

Business Model

Business Environment

Consists of external conditions and forces that have the potential to influence and organization.

Under which strategy would you offer products or services to a wide range of customers at the lowest price available on the market?

Cost Leadership

A vision statement commonly answers the question, "What is our business?" whereas a mission statement is more likely to answer the question "What do we want to become?"

False

According to Porter, strategies allow organizations to gain competitive advantage from three different bases: cost leadership, differentiation, and decentralization.

False

Economic factors do not have much impact on the attractiveness of strategies

False

Major competitors' strengths are areas of concern but do not represent key threats to a firm.

False

Once an effective strategy is designed, modifications are rarely required.

False

Opportunities are a firm's distinctive competencies that cannot be easily matched or imitated by competitors.

False

The application of entrepreneurial thinking and doing are limited to those individuals who are beginning new business ventures.

False

The most effective differentiation bases are those that are hard or expensive for rivals to duplicate.

False

While interesting, organizational culture does not significantly affect business decisions.

False

Which "generic" strategy offers products or services to a niche group of customers at the lowest price available on the market?

Focused Cost Leadership

Narrow aims designed to provide clear and tangible guidance to employees as they perform their work on a daily basis.

Goals

foreward integration

Involves gaining ownership or control over distributions or retailers.

What are enduring statements of purpose that distinguish one business from other similar firms?

Mission statements

intangible resources

Nonphysical entities such as brand names, company reputation, experiential knowledge, and intellectual property, including patents, copyrights, and trademarks.

What are the six major types of external forces that should be examined as part of an external audit?

P- Political E- Economic S- Social T- Technological E- Environmental L- Legal

Tangible resources

Physical entities, such as land, buildings, equipment, inventory, and money.

What is the essential bridge between the present and the future that increases the likelihood of achieving desired results?

Planning

5 Ps of Strategy

Planning, Purpose, Ploy, Position, Perspective

intellectual property

Refers to the creations of mind, such as inventions, artistic products, and symbols. 4 main types: Patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets.

What can be defined as the art and science of formulating, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives?

Strategic Management

What are the means by which long-term objectives will be achieved?

Strategies

Emergent Strategy

Strategy a firm adopts in reaction to unexpected opportunities and challenges

A cost leadership strategy can be especially effective when most buyers use the product in the same ways.

True

Effective goals are specific, measurable, aggressive, realistic and time-bound.

True

Examination of the strategic groups in an industry provides a firm's executives with a better understanding of their closest rivals, reveals alternative paths to success, and highlights untapped opportunities.

True

Firms, like organisms, must be "adept at adapting" or they will not survive.

True

Low-performing firms typically underestimate their competitor's strengths and overestimate their own strengths.

True

Political forecasts can be the most important part of an external audit for firms that depend heavily on government contracts.

True

Strategic management borrows many ideas from ancient uses of strategy over time.

True

Strategic management is an attempt to organize qualitative and quantitative information in a way that allows effective decisions to be made under conditions of uncertainty.

True

The 'time-bound' aspect of SMART goals is based on the premise that deadlines are motivating and help individuals more effectively manage their time.

True

The process of performing an internal audit, compared to the external audit, provides more opportunity for participants to understand how their jobs, departments and divisions fit into the whole organization.

True

Under which condition would a cost leadership strategy be especially effective?

When the products of rival sellers are essentially identical and supplies are readily available from any of several eager sellers

Strategic management enables an organization to ________, instead of just responding to threats in its business environment.

be proactive

Effective goals should be all of the following EXCEPT

continually changing.

When the products being purchased are standard or undifferentiated, it results in ________ bargaining power of consumers.

higer

Balanced Scorecard

is another performance metric used in strategic management to identify and improve business functions and their resulting outcomes.

Pricing is one of the basic functions of

marketing.

A resource is valuable if it is rare, hard to imitate, or

not easily substitutable.

entrepreneurial orientation

The processes, practices, and decision-making styles of organizations that act entrepreneurially.

Value Chain

The set of activities through which a product or service is created and delivered to customers.

A differentiation strategy can only be achieved with a large target market.

True

A focused cost-leadership strategy can be especially attractive when the target market niche is small.

True