International Business Exam 1
Strategic objectives...
relate to target outcomes that indicate a company is strengthening its market standing, competitive vitality, and future business prospects.
Financial objectives...
relate to the financial perfor-mance targets management has established for the organization to achieve
Strategy formulation, strategy implementation and _________ are the steps (or phases) in the strategic management process.
strategy evaluation
Model used for benchmarking your firm against competitors based on specific performance measures. What is the name given to these performance measures (i.e. location, destinations, entertainment, facilities, etc.)?
Critical success factors (key success factors)
The primary roles/obligations of a co.'s board of directors in the strategy-making, strategy-executing process include
Critically appraising the co.'s direction, strategy, and business approaches and evaluating caliber of senior execs' strategy-making and strategy-executing skills
The two crucial elements of a co.'s business model are
Customer value proposition and profit proposition or "profit formula"
As a rule, the weaker the collective impact of competitive pressures associated with the five competitive forces,
The easier it is for industry members to earn good profits and a nice return on investment
What is true concerning mail-in rebates?
The higher the rebate offer, the higher the redemption rate
The chief difference between a broad differentiation strategy and a focused differentiation strategy is
The size of the buyer group that a company is trying to appeal to - a broad differentiation strategy is aimed at many buyer groups and market segments and a focused differentiation strategy is aimed at appealing to the unique preferences and needs of a narrow well-defined group of buyers
Broad differentiation strategies are well-suited for market circumstances where
There are many ways to differentiate the product or service that have value to buyers
What is often included as a sixth force when using the five forces model? a. Threat from gov't forces b. Threat from complementors c. Threat from monopolies d. Bargaining power of monopolies
Threat from complementors
Because when to make a strategic move can be just as important as what move to make, a company's best option with respect to timing is
To carefully weigh the first-mover advantages against the first-mover disadvantages and act accordingly
What is not a typical strategic objective or benefit that drives mergers and acquisitions?
To facilitate a company's shift from one competitive strategy approach to another
What currencies are involved in affecting the operations of your company's athletic footwear business?
USD, Singapore dollars, EUR, Brazilian reals
A company achieves best-cost provider status by
Using its resources and capabilities to incorporate attractive upscale attributes at a lower cost than those rivals with comparable upscale product offerings
What do the letters V-R-I-O stand for in the VRIO framework (concerning a firm's resources)?
Value Rare Imitable Organization
Two useful tools for determining whether a company's customer value proposition, prices, and costs are competitive are:
Value chain analysis and benchmarking
The main question asked at corporate-level strategy is:
What business(es) are we in/should we be in?
What question is asked at the corporate level?
What businesses are we in?
What question is asked at the functional level?
What must we do to implement chosen strategies?
Objectives are an organization's
performance targets—the results and outcomes management wants to achieve. They function as yardsticks for measuring how well the organization is doing
Good defensive strategies can help
protect competitive advantage and market position but rarely are the basis for creating it
What are Porter's 4 dimensions of competitive scope discussed in class?
Geographic, industry, segment, vertical (business model for this class)
What question is asked at the competitive level (business level)?
Given what we're in now, how should we compete?
Perceptual (or position) mapping is used to:
a. identify strategic groups of competitors b. identity "gaps" in the market c. identify industry competitors' position in the market
If you offer free shipping in the internet market, the shipping and handling fees that you will have to "absorb" is how much per pair of shoes?
$10 per pair
Net Income
(Sales Revenue - COGS - Expenses) * (1 - income tax rate)
What labels go with the designated areas in Kotler's "Total Product Concept" model?
1. Outer circle: Augmented product 2. Middle Circle: Actual product 3. Inner Circle: Core product
What are the five outer-ring components of a company's macro-environment?
1. general economic conditions 2. political, legal, and regulatory influences 3. technological influences 4. sociocultural forces (values, lifestyles, shifting population demographics) 5. considerations relating to the natural environment
What are the dimensions of competitive scope?
1. geographic 2. industry 3. segment 4. vertical (5) business model
In a weighted competitive strength assessment, the sum of the weights should add up to:
1.0
The market for private-label footwear is projected to grow:
10% annually for Year 11-15 and 8.5% for Year 16-20 in all 4 regions
At the end of Year 10, going into Year 11, the company's production capability was
6 million pairs without the use of overtime and 7.2 million pairs with the use of overtime
The market for branded footwear is projected to grow:
9-11% annually in LA and AP during Year 11 - 15 and 5-7% annually in NA and EA during Year 11 - 15
The following info is given for the company in 2016. What is their net income? a. Revenues: $100k b. Cost or raw materials: $5k c. Labor expense: $70k d. Selling/Admin expenses: $15k e. Income tax: 0 f. Total assets: $10k g. Total liabilities: $2k h. Earnings per share: $2.00 i. Share price: $10
= $10,000 $100k - $90k (cost of raw materials, labor, selling/admin)
A broad differentiation strategy enhances profitability when
A company is able to either keep the costs of achieving differentiation below the added price premium the differentiating attributes can command in the marketplace or else offset thinner profit margins per unit by selling enough additional units to increase total profits
What is true concerning the S/Q rating?
A company may have as many as 8 different S/Q ratings in a year
When a company performs an activity quite well and that activity is central to its strategy and competitiveness, it is said to have:
A core competence in performing that activity
What is a company's most reliable ticket for winning a competitive advantage over rivals?
A creative, distinctive strategy that sets a company apart from rivals and delivers superior value to customers
The distinction between a strategic vision and a mission statement is:
A strategic vision sets forth a company's future direction ("where we are going"), whereas a company's mission statement describes its present business scope and purpose ("who we are, what we do, and why we are here")
What are the five generic types of competitive strategy?
a. low-cost provider (cost leadership) b. focused-differentiation c. best-cost provider d. broad differentiation e. focused low-cost
What is not a way to effectively differentiate a company's branded footwear offering from the brands of rivals? a. Offer a higher rebate than most all other rivals b. Spend more on advertising than most all other rivals c. Produce/market branded footwear with a higher S/Q rating than that of rivals d. Offer a wide variety of models/styles than rivals e. Achieve a lower reject rate on pairs produced than rivals
Achieve a lower reject rate on pairs produced than rivals
Name the four economists from the class discussion and what they're known for:
Adam Smith: invisible hand, wealth of nations, free-market Karl Marx: communism Schumpeter: creative destruction, Schumpeterian shocks Keynes: Keynesian economics (government spending)
What are factors determining a company's unit sales and market share of branded footwear in a particular geographic region?
Advertising expenses, mail-in rebate offers, model availability, delivery times
The company's shipments of newly-produced branded and private-label footwear from its plants to its regional distribution centers are subject to
Any applicable import tariffs and exchange rate adjustments
The best strategic alliances
Are highly selective, focusing on particular value chain activities and on obtaining a particular competitive benefit; they tend to enable a firm to build on its strengths and learn
Good strategy combined with good strategy execution
Are strongly correlated w/how well the co. performs both financially and in marketplace
Equity
Assets - Liabilities
What are the components of the compensation package for production workers at your company's plant?
Base wages, incentive payments per non defective pair produced, and overtime pay
What should you do when wording a vision statement?
Be graphic, forward-looking and directional, focused, have some wiggle room, ensure the journey is feasible, indicate why the directional path makes good business sense, and make it memorable
Creating a new, untapped market rather than competing with rivals in an existing market is a(n) _______.
Blue Ocean Strategy
What generic strategy is usually associated with the discount retailers such as Wal-Mart?
Cost Leadership Strategy
Crafting an ethical strategy requires that managers
Carefully/conscientiously consider whether each proposed strategy element can pass test of moral scrutiny in sense of not being shady, unconscionable, or injurious to others
"Given the business(es) we are in, how should we compete?" is the question asked at the _____ level.
Competitive (business) strategy
What are the factors in determining credit rating?
Debt to assets ratio, default risk ratio, interest coverage ratio
A company's strategic vision
Delineates management's aspirations for the business, providing a panoramic view of "where we are going" and a convincing rationale for why this makes good business sense for the company
The pitfalls of a differentiation strategy include
Differentiating on the basis of attributes that produce an unenthusiastic response on the part of buyers (because they don't perceive the differentiating features as valuable or worth paying for)
A generic strategy aimed at emphasizing the uniqueness or superiority of products and services is _____?
Differentiation Strategy
What is not a typical reason that many alliances are short-lived or break apart? a. Disagreement over how to divide the profits gained from joint collaboration b. An inability to work well together c. The emergence of more attractive technological paths d. Diverging objectives and priorities e. Changing conditions that render the purpose of the alliance obsolete
Disagreement over how to divide the profits gained from joint collaboration
The sale of one of a firm's SBUs to a competitor, and that SBU continues to operate is a ______.
Divestiture
What should you NOT do when wording a vision statement?
Don't be vague or incomplete, dwell on the present, use overly broad language, state the vision in bland or uninspiring terms, be generic, rely on superlatives, or run on and on
If Dell Computer were to inquire Intel, it would best be described as an example of ______.
Forward Vertical Integration
Dividends per Share (DPS)
EPS * Dividend Payout Rate
In the game, your company is assessed on how well it meets investor expectations in five categories on a "balanced scorecard". What are these five categories?
EPS, ROE, Stock Price, Credit Rating, Image Rating
What are the 5 measures a company's performance is scored/judged?
EPS, ROE, image rating, credit rating, stock price
If a company builds a new manufacturing plant dedicated to producing shoes for a region, and later decides to get out of that region, but can't find a buyer for the plant, the manufacturing plant might be viewed as a(n) ______.
Exit Barrier
Business strategy, as distinct from corporate strategy, is
Focused on forging actions and approaches to compete successfully and perform well in one specific line of business
What are characteristics of an effectively-worded strategic vision statement?
Graphic, forward-looking and directional, and focused
A set of "stretch" financial and strategic objectives
Helps a company avoid ho-hum results
A winning strategy is one that:
Helps the co. achieve a sustainable comp. advantage, results in better co. performance, and fits co.'s internal/external situation
What is true concerning mail-in rebates?
Higher the rebate offers, the higher the redemption rate
The formation of HP/Compaq and Daimler/Chrysler are examples of which grand strategy?
Horizontal Integration
What are the three steps of SWOT analysis?
Identify, draw conclusions, translate into strategic action
What is not a way to improve the S/Q rating of branded pairs produced at a particular plant? a. Increase percentage use of superior materials b. Increase expenditures for enhanced styling/features c. Increase expenditures for TQM/Sig Sigma programs d. Increase expenditures for best practices training for the plant's work force e. Increase the number of models/styles produced
Increase the number of models/styles produced
What action is not an attractive option for trying to lower production costs per pair produced at one of your company's plants? a. Reducing use of superior materials b. Reducing number of branded models/styles produced from 350 to 250 c. Installing plant upgrade option D d. Increased spending for enhanced styling and features for branded footwear e. Increasing piecework incentive pay
Increased spending for enhanced styling and features for branded footwear
The rivalry among competing sellers tends to be more intense when
Industry members have too much inventory or significant amounts of idle production capacity, esp. if the industry's product entails high storage costs or high fixed costs
The four categories of grand strategies are
Intensive (concentration), integration, diversification, defensive
A blue ocean type of offensive strategy
Involves abandoning efforts to beat out competitors in existing markets and, instead, inventing a new industry or distinctive market segment that renders existing competitors largely irrelevant and allows a company to create and capture altogether new demand
The plant and production benchmarking cost data of each issue of the Footwear Industry Report
Provide managers with solid evidence regarding the degree to which various costs at the company's plants are competitive with the costs at the plants of rival companies
A health drink company is known for launching drinks with flavors that are different from what are offered in the market. It regularly indulges in experimentation to come up with new and exotic flavored drinks. It is also able to charge prices that are higher than what other health drink companies charge. What advantage would the company enjoy because of the strategy it follows?
It has an ability to obtain premium prices from customers
A company's strategic plan
Lays out its future direction, business purpose, performance targets, and strategy - in other words, a strategic vision + mission + set of objectives + strategy = strategic plan
Debt/Asset Ratio
Liabilities / Assets
Exporting products made in the US to new foreign markets is a basic example of which (intensive) strategy?
Market Development
Marketing efforts to increase sales of existing products in existing markets is in which concentration (intensive) grand strategy?
Market Penetration
Comfort Shoes is a firm that manufactures shoes and sells them at retail stores in NY. Based on popularity, the firm decides to open an outlet in NJ to sell the existing line of shoes. In this example, they're using what strategy?
Market development (existing products and introducing to new markets) [Would be vertical integration if they weren't in retail stores]
Difficulties encountered by trying to "reposition" a brand in the market (e.g. moving "upscale") are examples of a(n) _____?
Mobility Barrier
For backward vertical integration into the business of suppliers to be a viable and profitable strategy, a company
Must be able to achieve the same scale economies as outside suppliers and match or beat suppliers' production efficiency with no drop-off in quality
When existing rivals in an industry do not act aggressively because of fear of retaliation, it is _______. (not on exam)
Mutual Forbearance
Addition to Retained Earnings
Net Income - (Shares Outstanding * Dividends per Share)
Return on Equity (ROE)
Net Income / Equity
Quick 'n' Dirty DCF Method
Net Income / WACC
Earnings per Share (EPS)
Net Income/Shares Outstanding
The essence of a broad differentiation strategy is to
Offer unique product attributes that a wide range of buyers find appealing and worth paying for
Share Price
P/E Ratio * EPS
Which of the following models is used for analyzing the general external environment?
PEST (or PESTEL)
The factors that affect S/Q rating are:
Percentage use of superior materials, company's cumulative spending for TQM/Six Sigma quality control programs, use of best practices training, expenditures for new styling/features per model
Competitive pressures stemming from threat of entry are stronger when
Pool of entry candidates is large and some have adequate resources to overcome entry barriers and combat defensive actions of existing industry
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
Whether buyer bargaining power poses a strong or weak source of competitive pressure on industry members depends in part on
Price sensitivity of buyers, whether buyer switching costs are high or low and how well informed buyers are about product offerings of industry members
Sony's launches of PS2, then PS3, then PS4, is an example of which concentration (intensive) strategy?
Product Development
What is an example of an offensive strategy?
Pursuing disruptive product innovation to create new markets
What are the names given to the quadrants in the model shown? (market segment overlap on y-axis, strategic similarity on x-axis) (ranked low-high on both axes)?
Quadrant 1: maverick competitors Quadrant 2: clone competitors Quadrant 3: parallel competitors Quadrant 4: (crossed out, off-radar competitors)
Factors that weaken the rivalry among competing sellers include
Rapid growth in buyer demand, high buyer costs to switch brands, and so many industry rivals that any one co.'s actions have little impact on rivals' businesses
What is not a potential advantage of backward vertical integration
Reduced business risk because of controlling a bigger portion of the overall industry
A company's strategy:
Represents managerial commitment to undertake a set of actions rather than another in an effort to compete successfully and achieve good performance outcomes
What is NOT a part of determining whether a co.'s prices/costs are competitive?
Resource value analysis
Dell Computer's initial decision to start selling LCD wide-screen TVs is an example of ______.
Retrenchment
Two major avenues for achieving a cost advantage over rivals are
Revamping the firm's value chain to eliminate or bypass some cost-producing activities and/or performing value chain activities more cost-effectively than rivals
A company mfg. hockey sticks makes an annual assessment of its resources in terms of raw materials, technical expertise, and technological know-how. It assesses the type of competition that it faces in the market and also looks out for opportunities that would allow it to expand its business. This is an example of:
SWOT analysis
What approach to objective-setting should definitely be avoided?
Setting unspecific targets like maximize profits, reduce costs, become more efficient, or increase revenues
Market Capitalization
Shares Outstanding * Share Price
The internet boom of the 1990s is an example of:
Shumpterian Shock
The two best reasons for investing company resources in vertical integration (either forward or backward) are to
Strengthen the company's competitive position and/or boost its profitability
What are effective ways to try to boost a company's stock price?
Strive to increase earnings per share each year, raise the company's dividend each year (ideally by at least $0.05 per share), and repurchase shares of common stock
The letters in the S-C-P paradigm stand for
Structure (determines conduct) Conduct (determines performance) Performance
A company's competitive strategy is unlikely to result in good performance or sustainable competitive advantage unless
The company has a competitively valuable collection of resource strengths, competencies, and capabilities and unless its strategy is predicated on leveraging use of these resources
The three best indicators of how well a company's present strategy is working are whether:
The company is achieving its stated financial and strategic objectives, is an above-average industry performer, and is gaining customers and market share
The customer value proposition portion of a co.'s business model concerns:
The company's approach to satisfying buyer needs/requirements at price they will consider a good value
What is the most important factor in determining a company's unit sales and market share of private-label footwear in a particular geographic region?
The company's bid price
What instance are industry members subject to stronger competitive pressures from sub products?
When subs are readily available, attractively priced, and have comparable or better attributes and performance features
The two biggest factors that distinguish one competitive strategy from another concern
Whether a company's market target is broad or narrow and whether the company is pursuing a competitive advantage linked to low costs or differentiation
A footwear-maker's price competitiveness in selling branded footwear to retailers in a particular geographic region is determined by
Whether its wholesale price is above or below the average wholesale price of all companies competing in that region
What is a good example of a well-stated strategic objective?
Within 2 years, achieves costs per unit sold that are 10% below current industry average of $4.75/unit
A strategic group is
a cluster of industry rivals that employ similar competitive approaches, have product offerings that appeal to similar types of buyers, and thus occupy similar market position
A well-conceived vision statement clearly conveys
a company's long-term direction and says something definitive about what top executives want the company's product-market-customer-business makeup to be in three to five (or more) years
A distinctive competence is
a competitively important activity that a company performs better than its rivals—it thus represents a competitively superior resource strength
High overall weighted strength scores signal
a high degree of competitiveness and ability to compete successfully
Strategic group mapping is
a technique for displaying the different market positions that rival firms occupy in the industry
A balanced scorecard is
a widely used method for combining the use of both strategic and financial objectives, tracking their achievement, and giving management a more complete and balanced view of how well an organization is performing.
What are the three levels of strategy and what question is asked at the top two levels?
a. Corporate level: what businesses are we win b. Competitive level (aka business level): given what we're in, how should we compete? c. Functional level: what must we do to implement chosen strategies?
A company produces fat-free and low-fat snacks under the brand name Healthy Bites. The firm decides to set up counters in the retail stores which stock its products, with reps who will promote the products and explain its health benefits to consumers. The firm aims to increase the sale of Healthy Bites products in these stores. In this example, what best describes the company's strategy? a. Market penetration b. Product development c. Related diversification d. Horizontal integration e. Backward vertical integration
a. Market penetration: use existing product to increase sales in an existing market
What makes a competitive advantage sustainable or durable as opposed to temporary is:
actions or elements in strategy that cause attractive number of buyers to have lasting reasons to buy company's products/services, despite competitors' best efforts to nullify or overcome those reasons
What are the inputs of an organization's value chain activities?
all of the resources required to conduct the various value chain activities; use of these resources creates costs
A company exhibits strategic intent when it relentlessly pursues an
ambitious strategic objective, concentrating the full force of its resources and competitive actions on achieving that objective.
A core competence is
an activity that a company performs quite well and that is also central to its strategy and competitiveness
A company achieves competitive advantage when
an attractive number of buyers are drawn to purchase its products or services rather than those of competitors
Which of the following statements about the SWOT analysis is accurate? a. SWOT analysis is a rigorous method for selecting strategies b. SWOT analysis is a brainstorming technique for generating creative ideas c. SWOT analysis is useful for identifying a business's closest competitors d. SWOT analysis examines the situations faced by the competitors in an industry. e. SWOT analysis is routinely used for identifying strategic groups within an industry
b. SWOT analysis is a brainstorming technique for generating creative ideas
An approach to assessing performance that targets managers' attention on four areas: (1) financial, (2) customer, (3) internal business process, and (4) learning and growth is a tool called ________?
balanced scorecard
Industry conditions change
because forces in industry environment are enticing/pressuring certain industry participants (competitors/customers/suppliers) to alter their actions in important ways
What are some defensive strategies?
blocking the avenues open to challengers, signaling challengers that retaliation is likely
The "triple bottom line" is an approach to assessing performance that emphasizes concern for:
people, planet, profit
A skill or activity in which a firm excels compared to rival firms is known as a(n) a. Generic strategy b. VRIO proposition c. Distinctive competence d. Focused differentiation e. None of the above
c. Distinctive competence (do better than competitors)
If Microsoft bought a chain of food retailers such as Piggly Wiggly, it would be an example of a _____.
conglomerate diversification
Sony's and Apple's ability to innovate to "reinvent" existing ways of doing things is known as _________.
creative destruction
What is not a distribution channel available in the game? a. Wholesale sales to independent footwear retailers b. Online sales to consumers in company's web site c. Private-label sales to large multi-outlet retailers d. Retail sales at the company's stores in outlet malls e. All available
d. Retail sales at the company's stores in outlet malls
What are the strategies identified in Porter's generic strategies model?
differentiation, focused differentiation, cost leadership, focused cost leadership
What is a result of worker training in the simulation? a. Lower defect rates b. Improves s/q rating c. Reduces materials waste d. Increases worker productivity e. All of the above may result from worker training
e. All of the above may result from worker training
Forces that inhibit movement of firms from one strategic group to another are known as a. Gausian principles b. Schumpeterian shocks c. Critical success barriers d. Parallel inhibitors e. None of these
e. None of these (mobility barriers)
To meet the standard of being ethical, a strategy must...
entail actions that can pass moral scrutiny in the sense of not being shady, unconscionable, or injurious to others.
Forward vertical integration involves
entering into the performance of industry value chain activities located closer to end users.
Backward vertical integration involves
entry into activities performed by suppliers or other enterprises positioned in earlier stages of an industry's overall value chain.
What are Rumelt's criteria for strategy evaluation?
feasibility, consistency, consonance, and advantage
What are the three timings of a company's strategic moves in the marketplace?
first mover, fast-follower, late-mover
A winning strategy must...
fit the enterprise's external and internal situation, help build sustainable competitive advantage, and improve company performance
Although Michael Porter is known as an IO economist and for his work concerning industries, his ___ model allows for competitive advantage to be gained through uniqueness, with forms following a ___ strategy.
generic strategies; differentiation
A strategic alliance
is a collaborative arrangement where two or more companies join forces to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes
A core competence is a more important resource strength than a competence because
it adds power to a company's strategy and has a bigger positive impact on its competitive strength and profitability.
A company's resource strengths represent
its competitive assets and are big determinants of its competitiveness and ability to succeed in the marketplace.
The interest rate a company pays on loans outstanding depends on
its credit rating
A company's competitive strength scores pinpoint
its strengths and weaknesses against rivals and point directly to the kinds of offensive/defensive actions it can use to exploit its competitive strengths and reduce its competitive vulnerabilities.
A company's strategic plan...
lays out its future direction, business purpose, performance targets, and strategy
Benchmarking is a potent tool for
learning which companies are best at performing particular activities and emulating their techniques to improve the cost and effectiveness of a company's own internal activities
A sign in a store window reads, "going out of business - everything must go" is probably an example of which grand strategy?
liquidiation
A situation in which a firm faces the same rival in more than one market is ______. (not on exam)
multipoint competition
According to Porter's "5 Forces" model, for a firm looking to enter an industry, a weak force is BEST regarded as a(n)
opportunity
A company uses outside suppliers to provide services that it could perform itself. (e.g. a firm might contract a professional cleaning company to come in on a regular basis to clean offices)
outsourcing
A company has a competence in performing an activity when,
over time, it gains the experience and know-how to perform an activity consistently well and at acceptable cost
A company achieves sustainable competitive advantage when the basis for buyer preferences for its product offering relative to the offerings of its rivals is durable, despite competitors' efforts to nullify or overcome the appeal of its product offering
the basis for buyer preferences for its product offering relative to the offerings of its rivals is durable, despite competitors' efforts to nullify or overcome the appeal of its product offering
A company's values or core values are
the beliefs, traits, and behavioral norms that company personnel are expected to display in conducting the company's business and pursuing its strategic vision and mission.
What is the most important factor in determining a company's unit sales and market share of private-label footwear in a particular geographic region?
the company's bid sales
A company's strategy consists of the competitive moves and business approaches that managers employ to attract and please customers, compete successfully, capitalize on opportunities to grow the business, respond to changing market conditions, conduct operations, and achieve the targeted financial and market performanc
the competitive moves and business approaches that managers employ to attract and please customers, compete successfully, capitalize on opportunities to grow the business, respond to changing market conditions, conduct operations, and achieve the targeted financial and market performance
A "3 firm concentration ratio of 80%" would mean:
the industry is highly concentrated
A company's value chain identifies
the primary activities it performs that create customer value and the related support activities.
A strategic vision describes
the route a company intends to take in developing and strengthening its business. It lays out the company's strategic course in preparing for the future
Key success factors are
the strategy elements, product attributes, resource strengths, competitive capabilities, and market achievements with the greatest impact on future competitive success in the marketplace
What are the outputs of an organization's value chain activities?
the value delivered to customers and the resulting revenues it collects.
The purpose of a strategic offensive is
to improve its market position, build competitive advantage, widen an existing advantage, or narrow the advantage held by a strong competitor (blue ocean is an example)
