strategic mgmt 1-5

Identifying the strategic issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention

. helps set management's agenda for taking actions to improve the company's performance and business outlook.

It is normal for a company's strategy to end up being:

a blend of proactive actions to improve the company's competitiveness and financial performance, and adaptive reactions to unanticipated developments and fresh market conditions.

The difference between a core competence and a distinctive competence is that:

a core competence is a competitively and strategically relevant activity that a firm performs well compared to its other activities, whereas a distinctive competence is a competitively relevant activity a firm performs well compared to other rival firms.

In a single-business company, the strategy-making hierarchy consists of:

business strategy, functional strategies, and operating strategies.

Perceived value and signaling value are often an important part of a successful differentiation strategy because:

buyers seldom will pay for value they don't perceive, no matter how real the value of the differentiating extras may be.

Pursuing continuous quality improvement as a uniqueness factor is sound because it:

can often reduce product defects and improve economy of use

A company's strategy and its quest for competitive advantage are tightly connected because

crafting a strategy that yields a competitive advantage over rivals is a company's most reliable means of achieving above-average profitability and financial performance.

Business strategy, as distinct from corporate strategy, is chiefly concerned with:

deciding how to build competitive advantage and improve performance in a particular line of business.

A company's values relate to such things as:

fair treatment, integrity, ethical behavior, innovativeness, teamwork, top-notch quality, superior customer service, social responsibility, and community citizenship.

Obtaining cost information is a primary difficulty associated with benchmarking. The following are typical sources for collecting information, EXCEPT:

from the classified government documents

The best indicator of how well a company's strategy is working is whether the company:

is achieving its stated financial and strategic objectives, its financial performance is better than the industry average, and it is gaining customers and increasing its market share.

A competitive environment where there is weak to moderate rivalry among sellers, high entry barriers, weak competition from substitute products, and little bargaining leverage on the part of both suppliers and customers:

is conducive to industry members earning attractive profits.

Crafting and executing a strategy is a top-priority managerial task because:

it is management's prescription for doing business, its roadmap to competitive advantage, a game plan for pleasing customers, and its formula for improving performance.

A company's strategy stands a better chance of succeeding when:

it is predicated on competitive moves aimed at appealing to buyers in ways that set the company apart from rivals.

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 focused differentiation strategy aims at securing competitive advantage by:

offering a product carefully designed to appeal to the unique preferences and needs of a narrow, well-defined group of buyers.

An option for NOT remedying an internal cost disadvantage includes:

performing activities in the same way as done earlier.

A company achieves a competitive advantage when it:

provides buyers with superior value compared to rival sellers or offers the same value at a lower cost.

An industry contains one strategic group when all sellers:

pursue essentially identical strategies and have similar market positions.

Correctly diagnosing an industry's key success factors:

raises a company's chances of crafting a sound strategy.

Perhaps the most reliable way for a company to improve its financial performance over time is to:

recognize that the achievement of strategic objectives signals that the company is well positioned to sustain or improve its performance.

Strategic intent refers to a situation where a company

relentlessly pursues an ambitious strategic objective

Achieving a sure cost advantage over rivals entails:

selling a mostly standard product and increasing the scale of operation.

The culture of a company can be a cost-efficient value chain activity because it can:

spur worker pride in productivity and continuous improvement

One of the steps of driving-forces analysis is to identify which:

strategy changes a company may need to make to prepare for the impacts of the driving forces.

Costs and price differences among competing companies can have origins in activities performed by:

the company's internally performed activities (its own value chain), but also on costs in the value chain of its suppliers and distribution channel allies

Whether buyer-seller relationships in an industry represent a strong or weak source of competitive pressure is a function of:

the extent to which buyers can exercise enough bargaining power to influence the conditions of sale in their favor and whether strategic partnerships between certain industry members can adversely affect other industry members.

A company's strategy is a "work in progress" and evolves over time because of

the ongoing need of company managers to react and respond to changing market and competitive conditions.

A pitfall to avoid in pursuing a differentiation strategy is:

trying to differentiate on the basis of attributes or features that are easily and quickly copied.

For a company to translate its performance of value chain activities into competitive advantage, it must:

undertake ongoing and persistent efforts to be cost-efficient and develop differentiation advantages.

Whether buyer bargaining power poses a strong or weak source of competitive pressure on industry members depends in part on:

whether demand-supply conditions represent a buyer's market or a seller's market.

Which of the following is the best example of a well-stated strategic objective?

Overtake key competitors on product performance or quality within three years.

Which of the following is NOT one of the four basic routes to achieving a differentiation-based competitive advantage?

Appealing to buyers who are sophisticated and shop hard for the best, stand-out differentiating attributes

Troopline Inc., an online laptop retailer, sells laptops of similar range and features as other online laptop retailers. Which of the value propositions would NOT benefit the company?

Establishing a comparison feature tab that allows customers to compare offerings from other online retailers

Winning a sustainable competitive edge over competitors does NOT hinge on which of the following?

Building products and distributing them at low prices to a broad customer base irrespective of manufacturing cost

A drink manufacturer finds setting up a plant to make its own bottle caps expensive and technically difficult. Which of the following will be most helpful in solving the manufacturer's problem

Outsourcing

Which of the following does NOT qualify as potential driving forces capable of inducing fundamental changes in industry and competitive conditions?

Changes in the economic power and bargaining leverage of customers and suppliers, growing supplier-seller collaboration, and growing buyer-seller collaboration

Which of the following is NOT one of the principal components of strategic significance in the PESTEL analysis?

Environmental forces that include the competitive structure, the degree of industry fragmentation, and the mobility barriers that inhibit business

Which of the following is NOT accurate as concerns the task of identifying the strategic issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention?

Identifying the strategic issues and problems that the company faces is the first thing that company managers need to do before starting to analyze the company's internal and external environment.

Which of the following is the best example of a well-stated financial objective?

Increase earnings per share by 15 percent annually

Which of the following is NOT one of the ways that a company can achieve cost-efficient management of its value chain activities?

Striving to ensure a corporate diversity policy is introduced with effective controls

Which of the following is MOST likely to qualify as a driving force?

Successful introduction of innovative new products or new ways to market products

A fast-food restaurant stocks bread, meat, sauces, and other main ingredients, but does not assemble and cook its burgers and sandwiches until a customer places an order. Which cost driver is the restaurant efficiently using to cut costs?

Supply chain efficiencies

A winning strategy must pass which three tests?

The Fit Test, the Competitive Advantage Test, and the Performance Test

Which of the following is particularly pertinent in evaluating whether an industry presents a sufficiently attractive business opportunity?

The industry's growth potential, whether competition appears destined to become stronger or weaker, and whether the industry's overall profit prospects are above average, average, or below average

Which of the following most accurately describes the task of crafting a company's strategy?

The more a company's operations cut across different products, industries, and geographical areas, the more that headquarters executives have little option but to delegate considerable strategy-making authority to down-the-line managers in charge of particular subsidiaries, product lines, geographic sales offices, and plants.

Which of the following is NOT an accurate description of the task of crafting a company's strategy?

The task of crafting strategy is best done by a company's chief strategic planning officer, who should report directly to the company's CEO and board of directors.

. A much-used and potent managerial tool for determining whether a company performs particular functions or activities in a manner that represents "the best practice" when both cost and effectiveness are taken into account is:

benchmarking.

Management's blueprint for how and why the company's business approaches will generate revenues sufficient to cover costs and produce attractive profits and returns on investment:

best describes what is meant by a company's business model.

The road to competitive advantage begins with management's efforts to:

build organizational expertise in performing certain competitively important value chain activities.