BSG Final
Which one of the following helps boost the S/Q rating of branded pairs produced at a particular plant?
Increasing expenditure for best practices training for workers
Which one of the following is NOT of much significance to company managers in deciding whether profitable opportunity exists to build additional plant capacity in the upcoming decision round?
Information in the most recent FIR indicates that more than half of the companies in the industry have expanded their plant capacity since yr 10
the plant upgrade option that reduces production run setup costs by 50 each year and costs 8 million of plant capacity and causes depreciation costs to rise by 5% merits immediate consideration by comany managers when
the company has a new 1 mil plant in Europe-Africa ready to go into production in YR14 and the companys strategy calls for this plant to produce 500 models whith set up costs of $14 mil/yr through yr 20
It makes good economic sense for company managers to consider investing $3.5 mil /mil pairs of capacity for a plant facilities upgrade that will boost labor productivity by 25%
At plant that currently has labor productivity of 3,200 pairs/worker and total employee compensation of $20,000 annually because the upgrade will cause labor costs/pair produced to decline from $6.25 to $5.00 Labor costs/pair = 20,000/3,200 = $6.25 After increase in productivity = 20,000/(3,200*1.25) = $5.00 Reduction = $1.25 - boost at a plant where $18,000 for 3,000 pairs vs. $4,000 for same 3,000.
The most attractive way to reduce or eliminate the impact of paying tariffs on pairs imported to a company's distribution warehouse in Europe-Africa
Build a plant in EA
The most important results from the latest decision round that company managers need to ... to guide their strategic moves and decisions to improve company's competitiveness and rank among the top-performing company's in the
Market snapshot data in ...
which of the following combination of actions will likely provide the biggest competitive benefits in helping a company achieve a differentiation-based competitive advantage over many of its rivals
Offering 400 or more models/styles to buyers in all four geographic regions, maintaining a celebrity appeal rating of 200 or higher in all four geographic regions, selling branded footwear 7 star or higher S/Q in all 4 regions, rebate $9 in all 4 regions.
The benefits of pursuing a strategy of social responsibility and corporate citizenship include
Positive impact that such a strategy can have on the company's image rating if the company spends a meaningful amount on socially responsible activities over a multi-year period
which one of the following options is usually an appealing way to try to increase a company's ROE?
Repurchasing shares of common stock - pursuing actions to boost the company's total profits and maintaining a high (above 75%) dividend payout ratio
Flawed ways to pursue a differentiation strategy include
Striving only to achieve weak differentiation (as opposed to strong differentiation) from the branded footwear offerings of other companies also pursuing a differentiation strategy -Overspending on efforts to differentiate the company's branded footwear so that the price the company has to charge to cover costs per pair is "too far above" the prices being charged by other rivals to capture a profitable volume of sales. 2. Failing to produce branded footwear with an S/Q rating that is at least two-stars above the industry average in all four geographic regions. It is because if there will be no unique features the product will most likely to be fail.
Some social responsibility and citizenship actions have a bigger positive impact on your company's Image Rating than do others.
The biggest impacts relate to "green" footwear materials and charitable contributions, not so much because they are "more important" than the other four as because they are more visible to the public (and can entail bigger dollar expenditures).
Which of the following is a valid reason or strong signal that a company should consider changing from a low-cost/low-price strategy for branded footwear to a different strategy
The low-price segment for branded footwear becomes so overcrowded with competitors that fierce competition makes it very difficult to earn attractive profits in the low-price end of the branded footwear market
The benefits of pursuing a strategy of social responsibility and corporate citizenship include:
The positive impact that such a strategy has on the company's image rating, provided the company spends a meaningful amount on socially responsible activities and such spending is sustained over a multi-year period.
Which one of the following will NOT help a company boost its credit rating from A- to A?
a decline in the company' current ratio from 2 to 1.5
which of the following are effective ways for managers to try to boost a company's stock price
increase the company's dividend payment to shareholders each yr by at least $0.05/share, repurchase shares of common stock, and make every effort to achieve annual increase in earnings/share.
which one of the following actions is LEAST likely to increase labor productivity by an amount that is large enough to result in lower labor costs per pair produced
increasing worker base pay by the allowed maximum of 15% each year untill the companys base pay compensation per employee exceeds the total compansation per employee of all comp in industry
Valid reasons to consider building a new plant in Latin America include
lower tariff on footwear sales in LA (because no import tariffs are paid on footwear produced at the LA plant and shipped to the distribution warehouse in LA)
The industry-low, industry-average, and industry-high benchmarks for the costs per branded pair sold in each geographic region (including production costs, ...warehouse exp, marketing, admin, that appear in FIR?
- are worth careful scrutiny by the managers of all companies becausee.... -are worth high and careful scrutiny by the managers of all companies in the industry. This is because when the benchmarks signal that the operating data for a company is out of line or do not meet expectations, the managers have to take corrective actions.
While contracting with celebrities to endorse a company's brand adds to the competitive power of its product offering vis-a-vis the offerings of rivals,
-One of the big risks of bidding to win... is that it is easy to end up overspending to win a contract because it is so hard to judge just how big the actual benefit of winning the contracts for a ..prove to be -that it is hard to come up with a reliable estimate of the size of the sales volume/revenue/ profit payoff associated with signing a celebrity and thus avoid bidding more than the celebrity's endorsement is worth".
a dependable and appealing way for managers to try to boost their company's EPS
-achieve a sizable cost-based competitive advantage over rivals that company managers are savvy enough to sustain; as the market demand for branded ft grows and the company exploits cost advantages by underpricing most rivals in 4 regions, the resulting sales volumes and revenue gains will typically spur increases in EPS -Repurchase shares of the company's common stock.
The plant and production benchmarking cost data on p. 6 of each issue of the Footwear Industry Repor
-are worth careful scrutiny be the mang because they help to determine the degree of comp costs for the benchmarked cost category competitive with rival companies - little use in making production decisions because don't tell which had lowest production labor cost
profit-enhancing appeal that a company can pursue to reduce its exposure to adverse exchange rate adjustments to the manufacturing costs of pairs shipped to a distribution warehouse form a plant in a diff geog region is to
-build sufficient pant capacity in each of the 4 regions to greatly reduce the need to ship pairs to a distribution warehouse from a plant in a different geographic region - sucha strategy...benefit of cutting tariff pmt on imported footwear Adjust the company's pricing and marketing efforts each decision round to sell more pairs in regions where exchange rate adjustments are favourable and fewer pairs in regions where the adjustments are unfavourable; such shifts tend to boost profits in regions with unfavourable adjustments.
Which one of the following is a way to improve the S/Q rating of branded pairs produced at a particular plant
-increasing expenditures for TQM/Six Sigma programs -high quality material
which one of the following does NOT help boost a company's image rating?
-paying total compensation to plant employees that is below the industry average -Spending additional money on celebrity endorsements and advertising to help inform the general public about the company's good deeds in being a good corporate Citizen and its socially responsible activities.
A Company's Managers should Give Serious Consideration To Bidding For A Private-label Footwear Contract In A Particular Geographic Region When or Under what circumstances should a company's managment team give serious consideration to entering a bid to supply private-label footwear to chanin retailers in a particular region?
-they expect to have idle production capacity at one or mre plants after producing all the branded pairs needed to meet demand in upcoming yr - avg margin over direct cost exceeds $10/pair sold - when number of pairs of branded footwear that comp panning to produce at particular plant is 300,000 pairs or more below the plant's full production capacity inc. overtime
Which of the following statements about striving to reduce labor costs per pair produced at each of the company's plants is true?
-to achieve labor costs per pair produced that are "low" compared to ... company managers must--each decision round-seek out a combination of base pay increases, piecework incentives per non-defective pair ... that is projected to drive down labor costs even further 2.All companies, regardless of the strategy being employed, should pursue actions to manage employee compensation and labor productivity in a manner that results in labor costs per pair produced equal to (or very close to) the industry-low in each region where the company has plants. 3.company cannot achieve labor costs per pair produced that not only are below the industry average but are also close to the lowest in the industry (in each geographic region where it has plants) unless its annual total compensation of plant workers is considerably below the average total compensation paid by all companies with plants in these same regions.
As can be confirmed from information on the Help Screen for a company's Plant Operations Report (see the Plant Investment section), if a company adds new plant capacity $30 mil, then depreciation cost will rise by
2.5% = 750,000
which one of the following actions is certain not to result in lower production costs per branded pair at one of your company's plants?
A 3% increase in the annual base wage that is accompanied by a 2.5% increase in worker productivity
Which one of the following results from the latest decision round are least important in providing guidance to company managers in making their strategic moves and decisions to improve their company's competitiveness and rank among the top-performing companies in the upcoming decision round?
Each company's performance on EPS, ROE, Stock price, credit rating and image rating -the dividend data, credit rating, income statement, balance sheet for each company that are part of the Financial Performance summary on p.5 FIR
Based on the industry-low, industry-average, and industry-high values for the ... which of the following is an unconvincing or untrustworthy indication that one or..costs are too high vs. rivals
Your company's operating profits per pair sold in all 4 geographic regions of the wholesale segment for branded footwear are below the industry-high values
It is both reasonable and wise for a company to consider shifting away from pursuit of a strategy to strongly differentiate its branded footwear from the offering of rival companies and sell its footwear at a premium price when
a big percentage of industry rivals are trying to outcompete each other with copycat differentiation strategies that include high s/q ratings, many models, high celebrity appeal, and above avg. advertising expenditures.
According to the cost allocation procedures discussed on the Help screens for the Private Label Sales Report and the Mark and admin, which one is not included as cost in supplying private-lavel?
a proportionate share of advertising where private-label is sold
A company's strategy to be a low-cost provider of branded footwear can fail to produce good company performance when managers fail to
achieve branded cost per pair sold ( including manufacturing cost , shipping cost , import tariffs and exchange rate adjustments) that are at least close to the industry low in each geographic region , if not actually equal to the industry low - managers do not operate the company's plants cost efficiently and achieve manufacturing costs per branded pairs slod that - if not equal to the industry low in each geographic region - are at least close to the industry low in each geographic region
one of the benefits of contracting with celebrities to endorse the company's brand of athletic footware
assist in increasing company's sales and market share of branded footwear
which of the following is not a way to reduce costs and strive to achieve a competitive advantage based on lower overall costs per pair sold than rival companies
avoiding the use of overtime at the company's plants is not a way to reduce costs and strive to achieve competitive advantage.
It is reasonable for a company's management team to abandon efforts to win contracts to supply private-label footwear to chain retailers in a given year when
believes the company has good prospects to profitably sell all of the branded pairs it can produce at its existing plants (including full use of overtime).
The most attractive way to reduce or eliminate the impact of paying tariffs on pairs imported to a company's distribution warehouse in LA
build a plant in LA and then expand its capacity as may be needed so that the plant has the capability to supply all of the pair comp intends to sell in LA
Companies opting to differentiate their branded footwear from rival brands by offering buyers 500 models/styles to choose from should consider reducing the $14 mil annual costs for production run setup costs associated with producing 500 models at each plant by
by investing in upgrade option B at one or more plants
A company cannot effectively differentiate its branded footwear from the brands of rivals by
charging a higher wholesale price to footwear retailers in all 4 regions than all other comanies - price below customers online -lower reject rate
A company cannot effectively differentiate its branded footwear from the brands of rivals b
charging a higher wholesale price to footwear retailers in all four geographic regions than all other companies in the industry -spending more mone on CSR and citizenship activities than most all other rivals
Which of the following does NOT help a company's social responsibility strategy results in a higher image rating
spending additional money on celebrity endorsements and advertising to help inform the general public about the company's good deeds in being a good corporate citizen and its socially responsible activities - reducing the prices the company charges its customers for branded footwear
If a company is pursuing a strategy to differentiate its branded footwear from the offerings of rival companies, its managers should make a point of examining the plant and production cost benchmarking statistics reported on p. 6 of each issue of the FIR in order to
determine whether immediate actions need to be taken to reduce one or more producton costs components at a particular plant- because the plants manufacturing costs per pair produced are unaccepatably high relative to rivals
If a company's managers If a company's manager wants to succeed in creating a differentiation based on competitive advantage (and a potential cost advantage in achieving this differentiation) that is difficult for rivals to quickly or easily copy (because every strategy move a company makes to outcompete rivals and gain a competitive advantage is not apparent from information contained in the FIR and the competitive intelligence report), then manages have to
do a better job than rivals in identifying and implementing ways to become very cost efficient in producing and marketing 350 to 500 models/styles of branded footwear that also have the highest S/Q rating in the industry.
If A Company Is Pursuing A Strategy To Produce Branded Footwear At A Low Cost Relative To Any Other Rival Firm, Then It Should Regularly Review The Plant And Production Cost Benchmarking Data In Each Year's Footwear Industry Report To
gauge whether its efforts to reduce total manufacturing costs per branded pair produced have been more/less successful than other companies pursuing much the same outcome and to learn what areas of plant operations may warrant further actions to reduce costs.
Managers are well-advised to consider whether the company can operate more profitably by selling some/all of its plant capacity in one or more geographic
global demand for branded and private-label footwear is so far below global plant capacity that it will be impossible for most all comanies to profitably operate the plants at full calacity for amay ears to come
In Supplying Private-label Footwear To Chain Retailers, The Sizes Of A Company's Margins Over Direct Costs (as Reported On P. 6 Of Each Issue Of The FIR) Should Be Viewed As
how much private-label sales added to the company's pretax profits, assuming that the company's margins on branded footwear were sufficient to cover all administrative expenses and all interest costs.
If a company has an unappealingly low branded market share in north America because it is being outcompeted by various rival companies, then company managers shoul
immediatly review the companys competitive weaknesses in NA as shown at the bottom the Competitive Intelligence Report and explore the meirts of actions to correct most or all of them, in addition, they should take actions that they believe will result in the company having at least 2 important competitive strengths via NA rivals in upcoming decision round
A company stands a better chance of achieving cost-based competitive advantage over rivals if its managers
pursue a number of cost-reducing initiatives that can be concealed from rivals (because such initiatives are not part of the information contained in the FIR and Competitive Intelligence Reports) - are successful in identifying what actions promote greater cost efficiency across all aspects of company operations and in actually achieving the cost-reducing opportunity without overspending to do so, while many rivals also striving to win a low-cost advantage fall short in their efforts to achieve matching cost reductions.
which one of the following is most likely to be an effective or attractive way to try to reduce manufacturing costs per pair produced at a particular plant?
pursuing actions that will better enable the company to operate its plants at (or very close to) full production capacity, including maximum use of overtime. -investing in one or more plant upgrades
which of the following actions is unlikely to help boost a company's market share in all 4 regions
pursuing efforts to boost labor productivity at each of the plants
which one of the following is an advantage of having plants to manufacture athletic footwear in all 4 regions
reduced exposure to adverse exchange rate cost adjustments (because having plants in all 4 regions enables a company to reduce cross region shipments of pairs that are subject to unfavorable shifts in exchange rates)
which one of the following is not a way to grow a comanys sales volume in the intenet segment in EA?
refrain from bidding to supply chain retailers in EA with private -label becasue such slaes tarnisha comanys image....
If a management team wishes to boost the company's stock price, then it should consider actions to
repurchase shares of common stock, increase earnings per share annually, and raise the company's dividend payments to shareholders by $.05 or more per share each year.
If a company's actual results of revenues, net profits, EPS and ROE turns out to be worse than projected because competition from rival firms in one or more geographic regions was stronger than anticipated by company managers.
the competitive efforts exerted by rival companies to capture sales and market share for themselves in one or more geographic region proved stronger than company managers anticipated, given the estimates they entered for the various industry avg. affecting internet sales and .... - competition from one or more rivals was stronger than anticipated.....
one of the lessons about competing in a globally competitive marketplace that comes from "playing" The Business Strategy Game" is that
the dynamic, ever-evolving nature of competition makes it advisable for managers to make strategy adjustments of one kind or another on an ongoing basis to improve the company's competitiveness via rivals and boost its overall performance
In which one of the following instances do the industry-low, industry-average, and industry-high values for the cost benchmarking data in each issue of the FIR signal that one or more elements of a companys costs are likely to be too high relative to those of rival companies?
when the company's operating profitt per pair sold in the Internet and Wholesale segments are the lowest in the industry in all four geographic regions
based on teh ind low,.. p 7 of each issue of FIR, which one of the following would correctly indicate that one or more elements of your companys costs are too high vs rivals?
your comanys operating profit margin in the whlesale segment of NA region is only 5% above the industry low
based on the above data for your comany, ...
your company had a price based competitive disadvantage of 13%
based on the above data for ur comany...
your company had three very sizable negative percentage compatitive disadvantage in wholesale segment related to delivery time