BOB COM Ch 1

Which of the following is not one of the central questions in evaluating a company's business prospects?

What are the key products or service attributes demanded by consumers?

A winning strategy is one that

fits the company's internal and external situation, builds sustainable competitive advantage, and improves company performance

A winning strategy is one that

fits the company's internal and external situations, builds sustainable competitive advantage, and improves company performance

In crafting a strategy, management is in effect saying

"among all the many different business approaches and ways of competing we could have chosen, we have decided to employ this particular combination of competitive and operating approaches in moving the company in the intended direction, strengthening its market position and competitiveness, and boosting performance."

Which of the following statements about a company's strategy is true?

A company's strategy is typically a blend of proactive and reactive strategy elements.

Which one of the following does not account for why a company's strategy evolves from one version to another?

A desire on the part of company managers to develop new strategy elements on the fly

Winning a competitive edge over competitors generally hinges on which of the following?

A. Having a competitive product offering. B. Building valuable expertise and capabilities not readily matched and offering a distinctive product. C. Building experience, know-how, and specialized capabilities that have been perfected over a long period of time. D. Having "hard to beat" capabilities and impressive product innovation. E. All of these.

Which of the following is a frequently used strategic approach to setting a company apart from rivals and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage?

A. Striving to be the industry's low-cost provider, thereby aiming for a cost-based competitive advantage B. Outcompeting rivals on the basis of such differentiating features as higher quality, wider product selection, added performance, better service, more attractive styling, technological superiority, or unusually good value for the money C. Developing expertise and resource strengths that give the company competitive capabilities that rivals can't easily imitate or trump with capabilities of their own D. Focusing on a narrow market niche and winning a competitive edge by doing a better job than rivals of serving the special needs and tastes of buyers comprising the niche E. All of these

In the course of crafting a strategy, it is common for management to

A. decide to abandon certain strategy elements that have grown stale or become obsolete. B. modify the current strategy when market and competitive conditions take an unexpected turn or some aspects of the company's strategy hit a stone wall. C. modify the current strategy in response to the fresh strategic maneuvers of rival firms. D. take proactive actions to improve this or that piece of the strategy. E. All of these.

A company's strategy evolves over time as a consequence of

A. the need to keep strategy in step with changing market conditions and changing customer needs and expectations. B. the proactive efforts of company managers to fine-tune and improve one or more pieces of the strategy. C. the need to abandon some strategy features that are no longer working well. D. the need to respond to the newly-initiated actions and competitive moves of rival firms. E. All of these

Which of the following is not something a company's strategy is concerned with?

How quickly and closely to copy the strategies being used by successful rival companies

Which of the following is not a primary focus of a company's strategy?

How to achieve above-average gains in the company's stock price and thereby meet or beat shareholder expectations

Which one of the following questions can be used to test the merits of one strategy over another and distinguish a winning strategy from a mediocre or losing strategy?

How well does the strategy fit the company's situation?

Which of the following questions ought to be used to test the merits of one strategy over another and distinguish a winning strategy from a mediocre or losing strategy?

Is the strategy helping the company achieve a sustainable competitive advantage and is it resulting in better company performance?

Which of the following is not a frequently used strategic approach to setting a company apart from rivals and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage?

Striving to be more profitable than rivals and aiming for a competitive edge based on bigger profit margins

Which of the following is not one of the basic reasons that a company's strategy evolves over time?

The need on the part of company managers to initiate fresh strategic actions that boost employee commitment and create a results-oriented culture

What is the foremost question in running a business enterprise?

What must managers do, and do well, to make a company a winner in the marketplace?

Changing circumstances and ongoing managerial efforts to improve the strategy

account for why a company's strategy evolves over time

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

A company achieves sustainable competitive advantage when

an attractive number of buyers have a lasting preference for its products or services as compared to the offerings of competitors.

Good strategy combined with good strategy execution

are the most trustworthy signs of good management

Management's story line 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.

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

Crafting and executing strategy are top-priority managerial tasks because

good strategy coupled with good strategy execution greatly raises the chances that a company will be a standout performer in the marketplace.

The most trustworthy signs of a well-managed company are

good strategy-making combined with good strategy execution

The heart and soul of a company's strategy-making effort

involves coming up with moves and actions that produce a durable competitive edge over rivals.

A creative, distinctive strategy that sets a company apart from rivals and that gives it a sustainable competitive advantage

is a company's most reliable ticket to above-average profitability—indeed, the tight connection between competitive advantage and profitability means that the quest for sustainable competitive advantage always ranks center stage in crafting a strategy

A company's business model

is management's storyline for how it will generate revenues ample to cover costs and produce a profit—absent the ability to deliver good profitability, the strategy is not viable and the survival of the business is in doubt

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

What separates a powerful strategy from a run-of-the-mill or ineffective one is

management's ability to forge a series of moves, both in the marketplace and internally, that sets the company apart from rivals, tilts the playing field in the company's favor, and produces sustainable competitive advantage over rivals

A company's strategy concerns

management's action plan for running the business and conducting operations—its commitment to pursue a particular set of actions in growing the business, staking out a market position, attracting and pleasing customers, competing successfully, conducting operations, and achieving targeted objectives.

A company's strategy is most accurately defined as

management's commitment to pursue a particular set of actions in growing the business, attracting and pleasing customers, competing successfully, conducting operations, and improving the company's financial and market performance.

In crafting a company's strategy,

managers need to come up with some distinctive "aha" element to the strategy that draws in customers and produces a competitive edge over rivals.

A company's business model

sets forth the key components of the enterprise's business approach, indicates how revenues will be generated, and makes a case for why the strategy can deliver value to customers in a profitable manner

Crafting a strategy involves

stitching together a proactive/intended strategy and then adapting first one piece and then another as circumstances surrounding the company's situation change or better options emerge

The competitive moves and business approaches a company's management is using to grow the business, stake out a market position, attract and please customers, compete successfully, conduct operations, and achieve organizational objectives is referred to as its

strategy

The difference between a company's strategy and a company's business model is that

strategy relates broadly to a company's competitive moves and business approaches (which may or may not lead to profitability) while its business model relates to whether the revenues and costs flowing from the strategy demonstrate that the business is viable from the standpoint of being able to earn satisfactory profits and returns on investment

Excellent execution of an excellent strategy is

the best test of managerial excellence and the best recipe for making a company a standout performer.

A company's strategy consists of

the competitive moves and business approaches that managers are employing to grow the business, stake out a market position, attract and please customers, compete successfully, conduct operations, and achieve targeted objectives.

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 company's strategy evolves from one version to the next because of

the proactive efforts of company managers to improve this or that aspect of the strategy, a need to respond to changing customer requirements and expectations, and a need to react to fresh strategic maneuvers on the part of rival firms.

Crafting and executing strategy are top-priority managerial tasks because

there is a compelling need for managers to proactively shape how the company's business will be conducted and because a strategy-focused enterprise is more likely to be a stronger bottom-line performer than a company whose management views strategy as secondary and puts its priorities elsewhere

One of the keys to successful strategy-making is

to come up with one or more strategy elements that act as a magnet to draw customers and yield a lasting competitive edge

A company's business model

zeros in on how and why the business will generate revenues sufficient to cover costs and produce attractive profits and return on investment