BUS 496 Chapter 1

What percent of total sales are estimated to be completed online by 2016?

15 percent.

In December 2006, online sales in the U.S. rose by:

25 percent.

The term "environment" includes all of the following except:

A. air B. water C. FIRMS D. natural resources E. fauna

Which of these business actions is always considered to be unethical?

All of the above

________ can best be described as short-term in nature.

Annual objectives

Strategic management enables an organization to _______, instead of companies just responding to threats in their business environment.

Be proactive

How do line managers become "owners" of the strategy?

By involvement in strategic-management process

A ________ can provide a basis on which policies can be devised to guide daily decisions and behavior at the work site.

Code of business ethics.

Anything that a firm does especially well compared to rival firms is referred to as:

Competitive advantage.

Military strategy is based on an assumption of _________, whereas business strategy is based on an assumption of ________.

Conflict; Competition

Long-term objectives should be all of the following except:

Continually changing

The first step in strategic planning is generally:

Developing a vision statement

_____ is not a strategy-implementation activity.

Devising policies

____________ and _____________ are external forces transforming business and society today.

E-commerce; globalization

The act of strengthening employees' sense of effectiveness by encouraging and rewarding them to participate in decision-making and exercise initiative and imagination is referred to as:

Empowerment

What company had the largest class action legal fraud suit filed against it?

Enron

What is the theme that has become more important strategic issue due to global warming, bioterrorism and increased pollution?

External Environment

What is not a reason given for poor or no strategic planning in organizations?

Fire-fighting

The largest company in the world is:

Ford Motor Company

During which state of strategic management are a firm's specific internal strength and weaknesses determined?

Formulation

The greatest advantage of internal operations is:

Gaining new customers

Ethical standards come out of ______ in a final analysis

History and heritage

In which phase of strategic management are annual objectives especially important?

Implementation

What step in the strategic development process involves mobilizing employees and managers to put strategies into action?

Implementing strategy

The changes that occurred when Robert Iger took over the reigns at Disney, demonstrate which current trend in organizations?

Increased decentralizing of strategic management

Strategy evaluation is necessary because

Internal and external factors are constantly changing.

Why types of skills are especially critical for successful strategy implementation?

Interpersonal

What is not a pitfall an organization should avoid in strategic planning?

Involving all managers rather than delegating planning to a "planner"

According to Greenley, strategic management offers all of these benefits except:

It maximizes the effects of adverse conditions and changes.

Which statement best describes intuition?

It should be coupled with analysis in decision-making.

A strong ______ heritage underlies the study of strategic management.

Military

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

Mission Statements

Because they must take the _____ of the firm, strategists' salaries are high compared to those of other individuals in the organization.

Moral risks

According to research, organizations using strategic management are _______ than those that do not.

More profitable.

The trends in newspaper circulation in the United States provide support for which statement?

Most competitive advantages are hard to sustain.

__________ are organizations that conduct business operations across national borders

Multinational corporations

Specific results an organization seeks to achieve in pursuing its basic missions are:

Objectives

An ________ refers to a firm investing in international operations, while the _______ is the country where that business is conducted.

Parent company; host country

Which of the following is not included in the strategic management model?

Perform internal research to identify customers.

What are guides to decision making?

Policies

All of these are potential disadvantages of an international operation except:

Reduced tariffs and taxes.

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

Strategic Mangement

What can be created by ethics training and an ethics culture?

Strategic advantage

Which of the following statements is false?

Strategic management must become a self-perpetuating socialist mechanism.

________ is used to refer to strategic formulation, implementation and evaluation, with ________ referring only to strategic formulation.

Strategic management; strategic planning

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

Strategies

Which individuals are most responsible for the success and failure of an organization?

Strategists

An important activity in ______ is taking corrective action.

Strategy Evaluation

Which phase of strategic management is called the action phase?

Strategy implementation

Internal ______ are activities in an organization that are performed especially well.

Strengths

The one factor that has most significantly impacted the nature and core of buying and selling in nearly all industries has been:

The Internet

Who is the world's top producer of cars?

Toyota

According to Greenly, strategic management provides a cooperative, integrated enthusiastic approach to tackling problems and opportunities.

True

All organizations have a strategy from their inception,maven if the strategy is informal, unstructured and sporadic.

True

An integral part of the responsibility of all managers is to provide ethical leaders by constant example and demonstration.

True

Application of the strategic-management process is typically more formal in larger and well-established organizations.

True

Firms can be proactive with strategic management.

True

Firms with planning systems more closely resembling strategic-management theory generally exhibit superior long-term financial performance relative to their industry.

True

Followed by commitment, understanding is the most important benefit of strategic management.

True

International operations can be as simple as exporting a product to a single foreign country.

True

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

True

Merely having a code of ethics is not sufficient to ensure ethical business behavior.

True

One risk in international operations is that nationalistic factions could seize the operations.

True

Strategic-management must be a self-reflective learning process that familiarizes managers and employees in the organization with key strategic issues and feasible alternatives for resolving those issues.

True

The poor reward structure is one reason managers do not engage in strategic planning.

True

Today, managers and employees can be found personally liable if they ignore, conceal or disregard a pollution problem

True

Top managers making many intuitive decision that conflict with the formal plan is one pitfall managers should avoid in strategic planning.

True

t,f: A clear mission statement describes the values and priorities of an organization

True

t,f: According to research, a healthier workforce can more effectively and efficiently implement strategies.

True

t,f: An objective, logical, systematic approach for making major decisions is an organization is a way to desire the strategic-management process.

True

t,f: Analytical and intuitive thinking should complement each other.

True

t,f: Anything the firm does especially well compared to rival firms could be considered a competitive advantage.

True

t,f: Customers spent more money online for clothes than they did on computers

True

t,f: In 2007, Toyota surpassed General Motors as the world's top producer of cars.

True

t,f: In order for a firm to achieve sustained competitive advantage, a firm must continually adapt to changes in external trends and events and effectively formulate, implement and evaluate strategies that capitalize upon those factors.

True

t,f: Objectives should be measurable, quantitative, challenging, realistic, consistent and prioritized.

True

t,f: One of the fundamental strategy evaluation activities is reviewing external and internal factors that are the bases for current strategies.

True

t,f: Resource allocation is included in strategy-formulation activities

True

t,f: 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

t,f: Strategists are usually found in higher levels of management and have considerable authority for decision-making in the firm.

True

t,f: Strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation activities occur at three hierarchical levels in a large diversified organization: corporate, divisional and functional.

True

t,f: Strategy implementation is often considered to be the most difficult stage in the strategic-management process because it requires personal discipline, commitment and sacrifice.

True

t,f: Strengths and weaknesses are determined relative to competitors.

True

t,f: The terms strategic management and strategy implementation are synonymous.

True

t,f: The underpinnings of strategic management hinge on managers gaining an understanding of competitors, markets, prices, suppliers, distributors, governments, creditors, shareholders and customers worldwide.

True

Usually, external opportunities are threats are:

Uncontrollable by a single organization.

All of these are pitfalls an organization should avoid in strategic planning except:

Using plans as a standard for measuring performance.

Who was the top online apparel retailer in 2007?

Victoria Secrets

Principles of conduct that guide decision-making are known as

business ethics

The strategic-management process:

is a continuous process