MGT 300 TEST 2: TRUE/FALSE

TRUE

Planning and strategic management derive from an organization's mission and vision about itself.

FALSE

T/F A bike messenger company that operates in the downtown area of a large city recently set the following goal: "All deliveries should be completed as quickly as possible." This example meets the criteria for a SMART goal.

FALSE

T/F A business plan is a document with the purpose of outlining a proposed firm's profit and loss statements for its first operating cycle.

TRUE

T/F A common challenge to strategy implementation is resistance by people within the organization.

FALSE

T/F A comprehensive strategy assesses current organizational performance and then explains how its mission is to be accomplished

FALSE

T/F A continuity strategy is a grand strategy that involves little or no significant change

TRUE

T/F A defensive strategy is sometimes called retrenchment strategy.

FALSE

T/F A development strategy is a grand strategy that involves expansion.

FALSE

T/F A good vision statement should describe a company's major strengths and competitive advantage in its industry.

TRUE

T/F A grand strategy can be established by using tools like SWOT analysis and forecasting.

TRUE

T/F A marketing plan is an example of an action plan.

FALSE

T/F A mission statement should be ambitious.

FALSE

T/F A policy includes more specifics than does a rule.

TRUE

T/F A procedure is a standing plan that outlines the response to particular problems or circumstances.

FALSE

T/F A steady-state career entails a slow-but-steady growth in level of responsibility and compensation.

FALSE

T/F A strategic position may be based on serving the few needs of a few customers.

TRUE

T/F A strategy is a large-scale action plan that sets direction for an organization.

TRUE

T/F A sustainable competitive advantage is the ability of an organization to produce goods or services more effectively than its competitors and outperform them.

FALSE

T/F A target is a specific commitment to achieve a measurable result within a stated period of time.

TRUE

T/F A vision has a clear sense of the future and the actions needed to get there.

TRUE

T/F A vision statement expresses what the organization should become and where it wants to go strategically.

FALSE

T/F A vision will be demoralizing to employees if it describes a future state that appears beyond the reach of the organization.

FALSE

T/F According to Burt Nanus, good vision statements are useful because they help people to consider all interesting elements in their environments.

FALSE

T/F According to Miles and Snow's basic strategy types, a defender protects its strong position in an industry by constantly seeking new opportunities for growth.

TRUE

T/F An organization should adopt strategic management and strategic planning to encourage new ideas.

TRUE

T/F An organization's goals arranged from low-level to high-level can be termed a means-end chain

FALSE

T/F Bad planning is usually a result of top managers' inability to gather enough information.

TRUE

T/F Because it is unrealistic for SMART goals to be accomplished overnight, they should have target dates.

TRUE

T/F Best Buy plans to keep its prices low and make few changes in the near future, which is an example of a stability strategy.

FALSE

T/F Blockbuster Video was slow to adapt to the latest trends in its industry, such as DVD-by-mail and movie downloads online. When it tried to incorporate the same into its business model, it was well behind competitors like Netflix. Blockbuster might be defined as a defender, according to Miles and Snow.

FALSE

T/F Competitive intelligence challenges the brains of employees to make them better equipped to produce novel ideas for business.

TRUE

T/F Contingency planning can also be called scenario planning.

FALSE

T/F Contingency planning is a hypothetical extension of a past series of events into the future.

TRUE

T/F Deadlines can help one concentrate the mind, in order to make decisions rather than put them off.

TRUE

T/F Decisions that are predictable, following a well-defined set of procedures are typical of operational planning.

TRUE

T/F Determining an organization's mission is the responsibility of top management and the board of directors.

TRUE

T/F Facebook strives to be on the cutting edge of social media, and is experiencing phenomenal growth. It encourages what it calls a "hacker" mindset, always looking to break down the old in favor of something better. Of Miles and Snow's basic strategy types, Facebook would be described as a prospector.

FALSE

T/F Ford's Sync in-dash communications platform, despite its high level of technology, has been unable to provide the company with a distinct competitive advantage.

TRUE

T/F Forecasting is a strategic-planning tool used to make long-term strategy.

FALSE

T/F Formal business plans can be dangerous to the survival of new businesses; many who try them fail because of the resources required to write and agree upon the plan.

FALSE

T/F Good strategy allows a company to be everything to everyone.

FALSE

T/F Guthrie Community College has done a SWOT analysis and discovered that the number of college-bound high-school juniors in its state has grown by nearly 20% in the past few years. This is a strength for Guthrie.

TRUE

T/F Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter is a leading authority on competitive strategy.

FALSE

T/F In MBO, objectives that employees fail to meet should be put aside for the next period in favor of ones that they can achieve.

FALSE

T/F In a world of rapid and discontinuous change, the ability to please nonmanagerial employees has been called the golden trait among managers.

TRUE

T/F In order for MBO to be successful, it must be implemented throughout the entire organization.

FALSE

T/F In single-use plans, a program is another name for a project.

FALSE

T/F In the planning/control cycle, carrying out the plan is one of the control steps.

TRUE

T/F In the planning/control cycle, comparing the results with the plan is one of the control steps.

TRUE

T/F In the planning/control cycle, part of the control process can be to improve future plans.

FALSE

T/F In this time of Internet connections and speedy-access computer databases, one typically has complete information for planning and decision making.

FALSE

T/F Individuals who don't want the responsibility that comes with promotion may follow a transitory career path.

FALSE

T/F MBO was developed by Frederick Taylor as part of scientific management.

TRUE

T/F Maintenance objectives are one type of objective used in MBO.

TRUE

T/F Management of a small company in an industry that is not very competitive should not engage in strategic planning because the small gains in performance may not be worth the effort.

TRUE

T/F Managers must be willing to make large, painful decisions to suddenly alter strategy.

TRUE

T/F Many good mission statements include descriptions of an organization's customers, as well as its major products or services.

FALSE

T/F Marriot Hotel's statement in which it states its desire "to be the world's leading provider of hospitality services" is a mission statement.

TRUE

T/F Microsoft has been accused of adapting competitors' products after those firms spent the resources and took the risks to develop them. Companies with this strategy are known as analyzers by Miles and Snow.

FALSE

T/F Mission and vision statements should be created once the strategic planning process is complete.

FALSE

T/F Obsolete technology and outdated facilities are examples of organizational threats.

FALSE

T/F One of the ways to keep a strategic plan on track is to make it very comprehensive, covering as many scenarios for the future as you can.

FALSE

T/F Operational goals are set by middle managers and focus on the actions needed to achieve strategic goals.

FALSE

T/F Operational planning is normally performed by middle management.

FALSE

T/F Organization-wide, the best structure for objectives in MBO is known as a diversity pattern.

TRUE

T/F Organizational threats are the environmental factors that hinder an organization's ability to achieve a competitive advantage.

TRUE

T/F Organizations may turn to the strategic-management process after a crisis.

TRUE

T/F Planning gives you expectations against which you can compare your performance.

FALSE

T/F Planning helps managers to cope with events that can be predicted, but is not particularly helpful when conditions are uncertain.

FALSE

T/F Planning is usually a straightjacket for new ideas, since it effectively blocks peripheral vision in favor of a predetermined course.

FALSE

T/F Planning occurs only at the highest levels of an organization, being done by top managers.

FALSE

T/F Policies, procedures, and rules are types of single-use plans.

FALSE

T/F SMART goals that are challenging yet can be met within the available scope of time, equipment, and financial support are known as achievable, the 'A' in SMART.

TRUE

T/F SWOT analysis helps management to develop a realistic understanding of the organization in relation to internal and external environments.

FALSE

T/F Southwest Airlines' goal of being highly profitable is a tactical goal.

TRUE

T/F Southwest Airlines' goal of making arrival times more reliable is a tactical goal.

FALSE

T/F Strategic conservation attempts to achieve sustainable competitive advantage by preserving what is distinctive about a company.

TRUE

T/F Strategic goals focus on objectives for the organization as a whole.

FALSE

T/F Strategic management is the process of involving select managers from the executive leadership of the organization in the formulation and implementation of strategies and strategic goals.

TRUE

T/F Strategic planning determines goals for an organization for a period of 1-5 years.

FALSE

T/F Strategic planning is appropriate for large companies, but does not help the performance of small companies.

TRUE

T/F Strategic positioning can be achieved by performing similar activities to rivals, but in different ways.

FALSE

T/F Strategy actualization is the term for putting strategic plans into effect.

TRUE

T/F Strategy formulation is the process of choosing among different strategies and altering them to best fit the organization's needs.

FALSE

T/F Tactical planning is done by first-line managers and looks forward to the next 1-8 weeks.

FALSE

T/F The 'R' in a SMART goal stands for 'reachable'

TRUE

T/F The U.S. government space program is an example of a single-use plan.

TRUE

T/F The administrative part of the adaptive cycle focuses on establishing roles and organizational processes.

TRUE

T/F The career path that most resembles the traditional view of climbing the stairs in a corporate hierarchy is the linear career.

FALSE

T/F The first step in an MBO program is for the manager to set objectives for her subordinate.

FALSE

T/F The first step of the strategic-management process is to establish the grand strategy.

FALSE

T/F The operating plan defines the course of action needed to achieve a stated goal.

FALSE

T/F The planning/control cycle has three planning steps and three control steps.

FALSE

T/F The process of a business cycling through decisions first to select products and markets, then about producing and delivering the products, and finally to establish roles and processes is known as the discovery cycle.

TRUE

T/F The purpose of MBO is to motivate subordinates.

FALSE

T/F The starting point in establishing a grand strategy is usually an analysis of Porter's competitive forces.

TRUE

T/F The strategic-management process has five steps and a feedback loop

FALSE

T/F The use of hedging to manage the cost of aviation fuel is an example of trend analysis.

TRUE

T/F Too little or unreliable historical data may result in erroneous trend analyses.

FALSE

T/F Two types of forecasting are trend analysis and competitive intelligence.