sigh competitive advantage

In 1979, Professor Michael E. Porter published "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy" in the Harvard Business Review. In this paper, he described factors that impact businesses. The became known as Porter's ______ forces.

5

When conducting a SWOT analysis, managers examine factors that impact their organization's internal strengths and weaknesses. These factors are sometimes refered to as the ______Ps

5

A SWOT analysis examimes which 3 of the following?

A firm's internal weaknesses. A firm's external threats. A firm's internal strengths.

If an increase in price results in a relatively large decrease in demand for the product, the firm cannot easily increase its profit margin. This demonstrates which of Porter's 5 forces?

Customers

In his book, The Machine That Changed the World, Dr. James Womack of M.I.T. specified the five tenets of Lean manufacturing. These include, specifying the value of each product with precision, identifying how each product acquires its value (the value stream), and which 3 other principles?

Ensuring that the value flows to the product without interruption. Allowing customers to pull increased value from the producer. Relentlessly pursuing perfection.

Modern supply chain management systems access National Weather Service databases to track weather events that could impact logistics. This is an example of using MIS to monitor which element of a PESTEL analysis?

Environmental

Because employee education and training are so critical in ensuring that all employees can participate in Lean manufacturing processes, ___ systems play a key role in Lean implementation.

Human Resources Management

Select three characteristics of Just-in-time (JIT) manufactoring and inventory management.

JIT requires exceptionally smooth supply chains. Parts, and often even labor, are not purchased until the moment they are needed in the assembly process. JIT faces significant challenges during supply disruptions such as those that occur during natural disasters.

Because of its significant challenges during supply disruptions that occur during natural disasters (such as the COVID-19 pandemic), ___ has lost much of its popularity.

Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing and inventory management

Principles that focus on increasing efficiencies by improving supply lines and through creating a well-trained, highly knowledgeable workforce that assertively acts to minimize waste and maximize value in every process and product are referred to as ______ manufacturing principles.

Lean

Requiring a modern communications system, a process that actively encourages all employees to halt the manufacturing process if safety risks are observed is the __ process.

Lean

Actively encouraging any employee to halt production if a manufacturing error or safety risk is observed is part of the training associated with ___ .

Lean manufacturing

In a PESTEL analysis managers examine ___ factors.

Legal

Managers use different methodologies and tools to evaluate external opportunities and threats. One popular process examines the political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, environmental, and legal issues facing an organization and is referred to as a ______ analysis.

PESTEL

Professor Michael E. Porter published "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy" in the Harvard Business Review. In this paper, he described how all organizations must develop plans to deal with certain factors if they wish to succeed, or even continue to exist. These became known as ___.

Porter's 5 Forces

Professor Michael E. Porter added to his five-forces model by highlighting basic strategies that businesses must follow if they wish to gain competitive advantage. He stated that these strategies fell into which two separate categories?

Price leadership Product differentiation

When conducting a SWOT analysis, managers examine factors that impact their organization's internal strengths and weaknesses. These factors are sometimes refered to as the 5 Ps. The 5 Ps include which 3 of the following?

Purse Plant Personnel

Modern inventory management systems help to ensure a number of critical advantages, including which 3 of the following?

Shelf-space optimization Stock-obsolescence minimization Timely re-ordering

Because of its focus on reducing variation to eliminate product defects, which process methodology relies most heavily upon data analysis?

Six Sigma

During the Measure and Analyze steps of the ___ procedure, collecting data and using data analytics are essential.

Six Sigma

By improving communications throughout the organization, as well as gaining better perceptions of consumers' opinions using CRM software, managers are able to monitor which PESTEL factor?

Socio-cultural

Apple uses Corning's glass products for all its devices, such as the Gorilla Glass 6 used in the iPhone 11 series. To ensure that it continue to have a strong relationship with this glass industry leader, Apple has invested nearly $500 million toward Corning's advanced glass research division. By building up this relationship, Apple seeks to maintain some control over which of Porter's 5 forces?

Suppliers

Barriers to entry can protect existing firms from which of Porter's 5 forces?

The force of new competitors

Attributes that allow firms to provide goods and services with higher perceived values than their competitors are referred to as competitive ____________.

advantage

The second of Porter's 5 forces refers to the ease with which a new competitor can enter the market. Strong ______ decrease the strength of this force.

barriers

According to Professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, creating an entirely new market is an example of a _______ ocean strategy.

blue

Management Information Systems allow managers to build upon an organization's existing strengths to create

competitive advantages

Porter's 5 Forces include existing competitors, new competitors, and which 3 of the following?

customers substitutes suppliers

Lean manufacturing techniques seek to eliminate waste in the production process, in contrast, Six Sigma seeks to eliminate ________.

defects

Using technology to transform a market or to create an entirely new market is called creating a _______ innovation.

disruptive

Karl Benz invented the internal combustion automobile in 1885. Adam Smith described the efficiencies of division of labor (the assembly line) in 1776. However, when Henry Ford combined these two to produce an inexpensive automobile with the Model T in 1908, he transformed the personal transportation market. Professor Clayton Christensen called this a ___.

disruptive innovation

Sears, which revolutionized catalog (mail order) sales, failed to make the online leap and while Amazon capitalized on this technology, Amazon successfully used ___

disruptive innovation

Chinese and Nigerian manufactures have been notably successful in adopting a strategy of, rather than creating an innovative product, offering a competing product rapidly enough so that early majority adopters have a choice when purchasing the product for the first time. This is referred to as a ___.

fast-follower strategy

That employees will learn from experience how to use technologies to develop a product, gaining a "head start" over any competition that attempts to enter the market is considered a ___.

first-mover advantage

Over 50% of all innovative products fail in the market, while over 80% of the successors to the products succeed. This is a key tenet of the fast-__________ strategy.

follower

Because for many businesses, particularly in the retail and manufacturing sectors, this remains the largest operating expense, incremental improvements to ______ management can translate to huge overall savings

inventory

Information management systems that help to ensure that a minimal number of product touches occur from product creation to customer purchase are known as ___ systems.

inventory management

In order to gain market share, the firm must differentiate itself from

its competitors

A manufacturing and inventory management practice that gained popularity in the 1980s was known as _______-in-time (JIT) manufacturing and inventory management.

just

Small, drive-up, coffee stands seem to be popping up on every street corner. Because of this, these coffee vendors have difficulty raising prices significantly higher than their competitors. This is because the coffee stand business has extremely ___.

low barriers to entry

According to Professor Porter, a business must differentiate itself from its competitors. One method is to encourage customers to believe that an organization provides higher quality goods or better service, then the organization can charge a premium, or gain market share, or (ideally) both. For example, by placing a swoop icon on a sweatshirt, Nike is able to charge a higher price. This methodology is called ___.

monopolistic competition

Professors Marvin B. Lieberman and David B. Montgomery of UCLA's Anderson School of Management examined the advantages and disadvantages of being the first firm to enter a product into the market. They coined this the first-_____ advantage.

mover

When competitors seek to gain competitive advantage through price leadership or by making product improvements, Professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne would say they are using a ___.

red ocean strategy

The ability for a firm to enjoy significant profit margins decreases as the number of ______ offering essentially the same products or services increases.

rivals

Walmart uses economies of _______ to pressure suppliers to lower their prices, allowing Walmart to offer lower prices to its customers and decrease competition.

scale

With price leadership, an organization seeks to offer a product to a large market at the lowest possible price by maximizing efficiencies and using economies of ______.

scale

Because its techniques rely so heavily on statistical data to ensure quality control and to minimize process and product variance, management information systems are integral to the success of any Six _______ initiative.

sigma

MIS tools that analysts commonly use to determing the causes of variences include scatter diagrams, histograms and Pareto charts. For this reason, MIS are critical in the implementation of ___ techniques.

six sigma

Techniques that seek to reduce variance in output to less than 3.4 errors per 1,000,000 manufacturing steps are referred to as ___.

six sigma

Managers often use the PESTEL analysis to examine the political, economic, environmental, legal and which 2 other issues facing an organization?

socio-cultural technological

A business must not only look at its direct competitors, but also must contend with those firms that offer a product that a consumer might alternatively choose. For example, McDonald's and Burger King can be considered competitors and if one firm raises prices the other firm might gain its customers. However, if both firms raise their prices, customers may choose to purchase pizza instead. Porter refers to this as the force of _______ in the market.

substitutes

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo dominate the soft drink market. However, during the 2000s, many customers switched from soft drinks to water, causing Coca-Cola and PepsiCo to develop Dasani and Aquafina. The ability of customers to switch from one product to an alternate product illustrates what Porter called the strength of __.

substitutes

During the 1950s, the United Auto Workers union (UAW) exercised considerable control over the labor ___. This meant that automobile manufacturers had little control over labor costs.

supply

A SWOT analysis attempts to identify, an organization's (or an individual's) internal strengths and weaknesses and examines external opportunities and _______.

threat

When external opportunities match with internal strengths, managers should choose an aggressive strategy, particularly when facing weak external ___.

threats

When a large number of buyers seek to purchase a firm's products even when prices increase, Porter's force of customers can be said to have ___. This tends to strengthen the firm's profitability.

weakened