Final Leadership Development

Bright Learning Co. has a problem. Some people want to move the headquarters to a place with nicer weather and others do not. There are many factors to consider, and different people will weigh the factors differently. To reach a common decision, they should

define the problem, identify criteria, weight the criteria, generate alternatives, evaluate each alternative against the criteria, and make a decision

In employee-focused leadership, the leader's focus is on

developing employees and inspiring them to follow the vision the leader has provided.

Bunge Limited supplies the world with agricultural commodities, such as grains and oilseeds. Corn grown in the USA is sent to Japan, Mexico, and South America. Bunge international activities are managed from its headquarters in White Plains, New York. Bunge's global strategy is

exporting.

There is a price to pay in using controls. What are examples of the price of controls being imposed?

financial cost of introduction and implementation of controls

Stable life goals that express what is most important to a person are:

Values

If current trends are projected to continue in the future, decision makers will have access to rich insight. This work of projecting future trends is known as

predictive analytics

Facebook needs a catchy slogan for its value statement. One bland statement is "Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you." Which seems to best express Facebook's added value to customers?

"Be Connected. Be Discovered. Be on Facebook."

What are distinct advantages of group decision making?

Decisions can be drawn from a larger number of individual perspectives and experiences.

In 2017, the CEO of Netflix hired you as a strategic consultant to investigate music sales. What would you include as part of your VRIO analysis for Netflix?

Netflix's name is a valuable resource. Widely recognizable, the brand recognition could be leveraged to capture a portion of the streaming music market

The US Sentencing Guidelines essentially offer incentives for detecting and preventing crime, provided that any offense is reported to the authorities, and no high-level employee has committed the offense. Companies do this by creating

an active ethics program

Frank is the expert on the credit pricing process. He knows all the ins and outs. His employees just follow his process and are very efficient. His leadership style is

autocratic

A highly competitive market suggests that the competitors are aggressively trying to take market share from their rivals. One of the simplest ways to do this is to lower prices. This ________ hurts the profitability of the whole industry.

competitive rivalry

What traits have strong correlation with leadership?

drive, desire to lead, open-mindedness, intelligence, and extraversion

Walmart has the highest in-store revenues for any U.S. retailer but it is a distant second to Amazon's online sales. Walmart believes it needs a better ________.

e-commerce strategy

Economic studies of Corporate Social Responsibility show that CSR

enhances the ability to attract more highly qualified personnel.

The St. Louis Federal Reserve reports that "firms can strategically engage in socially responsible activities to increase private profits." The firm's stakeholders value the firm's social efforts, and the firm can obtain additional benefits from these activities, including

enhancing the firm's reputation and the ability to generate profits by differentiating its product.

Management is about successfully administering the many complex details involved in a business's operations. Leadership is about

establishing a direction and influencing others to follow.

Martin Winterkorn, ex-CEO of Volkswagen, was known for his exacting standards and perfectionism. He set VW on a path to become the world's largest automobile manufacturer. In the culture he shaped, failure simply was not an option,

even if it meant taking illegal steps.

As a result of globalization, one billion people have been lifted out of poverty thanks to

freer trade policies.

Computer CORE offers computer education to adults. Volunteers teach the classes. When CORE needed to update the presentations, the executive director created a committee of teachers. Each teacher had taken unique approaches to the presentations. The teachers were slow to agree, but they eventually chose a format and structure for new presentations. What were the advantages of using a committee?

greater expertise, and group buy-in and support for the choices

DeBeers controls many of the world's most productive diamond mines, selling more than one-third of the world's rough diamond production. When analyzing the fine jewelry industry according to Porter's Five Forces, DeBeers' control over diamond supplies reveals ________within the industry.

high bargaining power of suppliers.

If employees develop friendships at work, the organization is likely to reap the benefits. Employees will work together better, enjoy their time together more, and be much less likely to want to leave the organization. For this reason, some organizations invest in providing social opportunities to build

interpersonal relationships.

The O in VRIO refers to ________ , meaning a company's capacity to use its resources with purposeful integration to achieve a particular result.

organized to capture value

The practice of predictive analytics should be disciplined. That is, not only should guesses be made about the likelihood of future outcomes based on present trends, but also those predictions should be supported by

parallels from past experience

The factors affecting ethical intensity of a decision include

probability that the decision implemented will lead to the predicted consequence.

McDonald's customers experience predictable, reliable service. Go into a McD's anywhere in the world, and the building design and service will be very similar. Consistent service processes means reduced manpower costs and consistent products - which ultimately builds brand equity for McDonald's. McDonald's global process strategy is

standardization.

Businesses can achieve competitive advantage in a number of different ways. For example, their product may provide

superior performance

Amazon relies on FedEx, UPS, the USPS, and others to deliver packages to consumers. These delivery companies are Amazon's

supply chain

Managers determine what the various parts of the organization must do for the organization to be successful in the near future (one year or less). To manage implementation of short-term plans, management needs

tactical controls.

To improve quality, companies need to purchase new software and equipment, hire and train employees, conduct studies, and consult with experts. These activities add to

the cost of doing business.

Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey refers to CSR as conscious capitalism. He believes capitalism, or a free market system, is better than other systems but that business leaders need to be "conscious" of

the interests of all major stakeholders—customers, employees, investors, communities, suppliers, and the environment.

Michael Porter's Five Forces analysis looks at the forces driving an industry's profitability. An analyst might use it to compare the relative merits of ____ _ is primarily referring to an organization's industry, and the downstream and upstream markets related to it.

A situational analysis

prevents the external constituents of an organization (i.e., the public, other organizations, and the environment) from being harmed.

Business ethics

Warren Buffett, a famous investor, has some guiding rules. One is "Invest within your circle of competence," meaning if you don't understand the business, don't invest. He sold positions in Freddie Mac because he did not understand or like financial derivatives. He called derivatives "weapons of mass destruction." In the context of strategy, financial firms that use derivatives are

Complex

Sally and Aamir's company are celebrating a hard-won deal. Sally manages the team who created the product, and believes it was the high quality of the product that cinched the deal. Aamir manages the sales team, and he believes it was the long hours of work put in by his salespeople that sealed the deal. These are examples of

Confirmation bias

Kira's office needs to agree on a new copier purchase. The group discusses the alternatives and all concerns. The group generally agrees on the recommendation. What method have they used to make a decision?

Consensus

________ leadership means treating employees with respect, showing consideration for employee feelings, and building relationships with employees.

People-centered

Jack Welch was a famed CEO of General Electric. He ran GE as a conglomerate, a company of companies. One of his criteria was that his companies should be in the top 3 of their industry. Companies with a large market share have much more negotiating power with suppliers and customers. His decision strategy was

Positional

efers to how people make decisions in a lottery or with uncertainty. People do not generally make expected value decisions. They tend to overweight unlikely outcomes and underweight more likely events.

Prospect theory

Meg is picking classes for college. She wants a career where she can help people, and she likes languages. She signs up for Arabic classes. In case this doesn't work out, she also takes economics classes. Economics majors have more success getting jobs after college than language majors. Her decision is

Robust.

Mike's trading desk uses a delta-hedging strategy to reduce risk, which means they may need to adjust positions after larger rate market movements. Generally, traders arrive early, between 7 and 8 a.m., well ahead of economic announcements scheduled at 8:30 a.m. This isn't a formal rule. New traders gradually see the benefit and adjust their arrival time. This is an example of

a normative control.

Perceptions of organizational justice affect employee attitudes toward the company. In general, employees want

a workplace characterized by fairness, where everyone is treated with equal respect and given equal opportunities.

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced in December 2016 that the Justice Department collected more than $15.3 billion in civil and criminal actions in fiscal year 2016. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo paid the largest fines. These heavy fines penalize corporate activity that was both illegal and

activity that was both illegal and Unethical.

IBM's computer business is based on strong relationships with business customers. But they are losing business to lower-cost solutions like cloud computing. To stay healthy, IBM needed to create a new competitive advantage. To make the transition, the company needed a leader

with the employees' trust and confidence.

META is an engineering firm that manufactures electronic gyroscopes for rockets and satellites. META has patents on key features of the design. The device itself is easy to build, so competitors could easily duplicate the device, but for the patent protection. META's sole competitive advantage is

an intangible asset.

An example of a proactive feed-forward control is

taking your car in for regular oil changes and maintenance checks.

Financial strength can be a competitive advantage. In the Great Recession, General Motors went bankrupt, but Ford had acquired long-term financing beforehand that carried it through the downturn. This insight is part of

competitive analysis

American Spoon is a small company in Petoskey, Michigan that uses fruit from local farmers to handcraft gourmet fruit preserves and condiments in small batches. Where would you first use this information in the strategic management process?

Strategic Objectives and Analysis

General Motors, a car manufacturer, has a tight relationship with its parts supplier, Delta. GM and Delta coordinate on engineering designs and share inventory information. When GM does well, Delta

benefits from having a steady, profitable outlet for their products.

Ngozi is a new manager at Vallee Manufacturing and she found that the company has added $1 million in debt recently to their account. This debt total is troubling to Ngozi, and she's been hired to help reset the business. What should she do first?

calculate appropriate ratios and compare them to other manufacturing companies

Consumers and stakeholders expect more than profitability. They want companies to manage the triple bottom line, ________.

profit, people, and planet

One major role of firms is to manage risk. Consumers do not want to pay for products of unknown quality or where the delivery date is questionable. Managers also worry about unexpected changes in supplies or markets. Strategic management seeks to adapt to and benefit from change. For strategists, this ________ is both a challenge and an opportunity.

uncertainty

Michael Porter defined classified competitive strategies based on a grid of price strategy and target markets. Redbox, a major DVD rental company, uses vending machines placed outside grocery stores and other retail outlets to rent DVDs for $1. There are ways to view movies even cheaper, such as through the flat-fee streaming video subscriptions offered by Netflix. But among firms that rent actual DVDs, Redbox offers unparalleled levels of low price and high convenience. What is Redbox's strategy in this grid?

ANSWER: focused low cost

Professor Claris does not give any tests in her class. She believes education should be an adventure, knowledge for its own sake, not a hurdle to jump. All students receive an "A" in her course. The students are happy, but the dean and the accreditation board are not. They would say: Responses

If performance is not measured, we cannot know whether standards have been met.

Which statement best captures the meaning of a value proposition?

It explains why the customer would choose the firm's product over alternatives or no product at all.

How does a company's ethical program depend on its hiring process?

It is better to hire someone who is naturally inclined to behave in an ethical manner than to rely on a company code of ethics to encourage an unethical employee to make ethical choices.

Miguel is writing a long article for the weekly news magazine. He cites many of his references carefully, but after the article runs, a colleague notices a quote from someone else's published work. His company has a strict policy about plagiarism. Which principle might help him decide how to proceed?

Legal requirements, because a copyright violation could turn into a legal issue.

Jax manages a team of ten telemarketers. The composition of his team is as follows: three people are brand new; five have been at the company for two years; two have been there five years and are top sales earners. With his new members, Jax provides daily direction and support. His top earners run with the goals that they set, planning how to reach them on their own and reporting back to Jax when they reach their targets. The other five team members Jax coaches and trains every two months. What leadership style is Jax implementing with his team?

Situational leadership

The ________ oversees the implementation and administration of agreements between member nations.

World Trade Organization (WTO)

According to Robert S. Kaplan from Harvard Business School, "The US Government in 1987 introduced the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award to promote quality awareness, recognize quality achievements, and publicize successful quality strategies. The initial set of Baldrige criteria included financial metrics (profits per employee), customer-perceived quality metrics (market cycle time, late deliveries), internal process metrics (defects, total manufacturing time, order entry time, supplier defects) and employee metrics (training per employee, morale)." The Baldrige award is an example of Responses

a balanced scorecard.

Without a planned allocation of resources, there is the risk of spending too much money in one or a few areas, thereby not having enough for other areas. The plan governing spending is often called

a budget.

Perception has a tendency to be biased because of the contrast between our focus of attention and the unnoticed aspects of the environment. In a work setting, this can be problematic for managers because:

a manager with a preconceived idea focuses on seeing evidence to support their preconceived perception instead of seeing what is actually there.

The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, said in 2009 that banks serve a social purpose and are "doing God's work. We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It's a virtuous cycle." On the other hand, Goldman Sachs earned around $12 billion and would hand out more than $16 billion in year-end bonuses. The average employee earned $500,000 for the year. Despite the rhetoric, Blankfein's leadership was probably

transactional.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and Martin Luther King Jr. were ________ leaders. They inspired others with a new vision of how society could be and led the changes to reach their goals

transformational

Cost pressure from international competitors pushes companies toward greater scale and efficiency. But some products must also meet local customer needs. Preference for soap scents, for example, differs by country and region. Global soap manufacturers therefore try to balance these pressures with a

transnational strategy

A standardization strategy is used when a global company

treats the whole world as one market with little meaningful variation.

Doctors and specialists disagree about whether to treat patients who show low but not dangerously low thyroid hormone levels. That is, the standard of care for subclinical hypothyroidism is poorly defined. The opportunity here is to improve the profession's understanding with experiments and

evidence-based decision making

Uber has an algorithm for setting prices. It increases prices during periods of high demand in part to attract more drivers to participate. Recently, the company is experimenting with route-based pricing. Some routes will pay more. Uber is using

evidence-based decision making

E-commerce includes online and smartphone sales. The younger the shopper, the more likely he or she is to conduct "business" using a smartphone. E-commerce refers to

exchanges or transactions that occur electronically

Altec Electronica Chihuahua is a Mexican producer of electronic products. The company's fragile electronics replacement parts were often damaged as they moved to customers. Altec designed a reusable packaging that protected the parts. Altec expects to see

lower product returns.

Starbucks operates in 62 countries around the world. It tailors its products and services to the needs of each market. Marketing strategy is shaped by local culture. Even the taste of the coffee changes for local preferences. The company's decision to open branches in foreign markets is based on research information on customer traffic and local real estate. Starbucks uses a

multidomestic strategy.

When talking about personality traits, the acronym OCEAN stands for

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

A competitive analysis of Google and Microsoft would look at their ________ . Both pay high salaries and offer great benefits. But their incentive structures are different. Google encourages collaboration and Microsoft encourages competition. Google's employees have been more innovative than Microsoft's.

personnel strategy

Financial control policies can

prevent fraud and errors as well as monitor whether company goals are being met.

Competitive advantage can be summarized best by which of the following?

A product or service that is perceived as having a higher value relative to competitive offerings.

A company is crafting a value proposition for its flagship product. The goal is to communicate to customers the main reason the product

ANSWER : Is best suited to their needs

In 2015, Walmart's revenue fell for the first time in its 45-year run as a public company. Shoppers were fed up. They complained about dirty bathrooms, empty shelves, endless checkout lines, and impossible-to-find employees. Only 16 percent of stores were meeting the company's customer service goals. Walmart decided to conduct an experiment. They raised wages, increased training, and provided employees with consistent regular schedules. Early test results showed a strong positive response from customers. By early 2016, the proportion of stores hitting their targeted customer-service ratings had rebounded to 75 percent. Sales were rising again! Walmart executives switched from the norm—cutting costs—to ________.

evidence-based decision making.

The purpose of a code of ethics is to

guide employees in handling ethical dilemmas.

While job satisfaction focuses on the employee's feelings about his particular role, organizational commitment looks at

how the employee feels about the organization as a whole

If a manager is listing resources that can be used for a competitive advantage, which item would NOT be on the list?

ANSWER: the economy

Guillaume has persuaded Valve to support development of a new game. He has a vision of a tile-based game. His six employees are technical experts in game design and will follow his vision. He needs their expertise and creativity in working out the interactions and details. Guillaume should take a ________ style of leadership.

Democratic

Easy communication through the Internet is changing the organization of some activities. The traditional hotel industry now competes with Airbnb. Airbnb is a platform for renting out a room in your house. Analysts suggest that hotels may partner with Airbnb by listing properties with them. To succeed, organizations must

continually adapt and apply new strategies.

Michael Porter of Harvard Business School developed a concept of "shared value." The central premise behind creating shared value is that the competitiveness of a company and the health of the communities around it are mutually dependent. Shared value is similar to

corporate social responsibility.

Globalization of business first requires agreements between

countries, like the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

What is an example of a measure for the internal analysis area of the balanced scorecard?

customer satisfaction with speed of service

The five components of industry environment are

customers, competitors, suppliers, regulations, and advocacy groups

If you are trying to avoid a framing bias and you are looking for a way to diagram a yes/no decision-making process, you should choose what tool to make your decisions?

decision tree

Frederick Corey, the vice provost of undergraduate education at Arizona State University, argues that colleges are driving by looking in the rear-view mirror. They use descriptive statistics on alumni to make policy about future students, so the data is years behind today's event. He advocates for

predictive analytics.

Derek Muller of Veritasium offers a bet. He will flip a coin. On heads, you will win $10, and on tails, you will pay him $10. The expected value is $0, so the bet is fair. According to prospect theory, most people will

reject this bet as too risky.

Strategic management's first function is deciding how to compete. The second function

that the people in the organization support the strategy