MGMT 4842
1) While there are many routes to competitive advantage, the two biggest factors that distinguish one competitive strategy from another are:
B) whether a company's target market is broad or narrow and whether the company is pursuing a low cost or differentiation strategy.
2) The objectives of a well-crafted strategy require management to strive to:
A) re-create their business models regularly. B) realign the market to provoke change in rival companies. C) match rival businesses' products and quality dimensions in the marketplace. D) build profits for short-term success. EE) develop lasting success that can support growth and secure the company's future over the long term.
1) Which of the following is NOT an analytical tool for revealing a company's competitiveness and for helping to match the strategy to the company's own particular circumstances?
A) Best practice concept
8) Which of the following is NOT a good example of a company's resources?
A) Having higher earnings per share and a higher stock price than key rivals
1) Which of the following is NOT one of the managerial considerations in determining how to compete successfully?
A) How should a company be competitive against rivals? B) How should a company respond to changing economic and market conditions? C) How should a company position itself in the marketplace? DD) How can a company modify its entire product line to emphasize its internal service attributes? E) How can a company attract, keep, and please customers?
7) Which of the following is true of a company's business model?
A) It explains how it intends to achieve the same market position as a rival. B) It details the ethical and socially responsible nature of the company's strategy. CC) It zeroes in on the customer value proposition and its related profit formula. D) It explains why the customer value proposition takes precedence over the related profit formula to generate optimum revenues. E) It is termed a winning model if it passes any one of the three strategy tests.
10) A winning strategy must pass which three tests?
A) The Sustainable Performance Test, the Fit Test, and the Profit Test BB) The Fit Test, the Competitive Advantage Test, and the Performance Test C) The Fit Test, the Sustainable Advantage Test, and the Dominant Market Test D) The Performance Test, the Dominant Market Test, and the Fit Test E) The Dominant Market Test, the Sustainable Advantage Test, and the Profit Test
5) Which of the following is NOT typically a trigger to an evolving strategy?
A) The need to abandon some strategy features that are no longer working well B) The need to respond to the newly initiated actions and competitive moves of rival firms C) The need to keep strategy in step with changing circumstances, market conditions, and changing customer needs and expectations DD) The need to respond to short-term swings in the stock market E) The proactive efforts of company managers to fine-tune and improve one or more pieces of the strategy
2) The "driving forces" in an industry:
A) are major underlying causes of changing industry and competitive conditions and have the biggest influences in reshaping the industry landscape and altering competitive conditions.
8) As a rule, the collective impact of competitive pressures associated with the five competitive forces:
A) determines the extent of the competitive pressure on industry profitability.
9) The customer value proposition lays out the company's approach to:
A) embracing rival company approaches to gaining customers. B) operating efficiently given the current level of customers. C) assuring that the company makes enough profits based on its per-unit cost. D) meeting profitability guidelines without the risk of losing customers. EE) satisfying customer wants and needs at a price customers will consider a good value.
4) Low-cost leaders who have the lowest industry costs are likely to:
A) have out managed rivals in finding ways to perform value chain activities more cost-effectively.
5) Tangible resources do not include:
A) human assets.
6) Changing circumstances and ongoing managerial efforts to improve the strategy:
A) make it very hard to know what a company's strategy really is. B) result in abandoned strategic visions. C) explain why a company's strategic vision undergoes almost constant change. DD) account for Why a Company's Strategy Evolves over Time. E) make it very difficult for a company to have concrete strategic objectives.
2) Whatever strategic approach is adopted by a company to deliver value, it nearly always requires:
A) performing value chain activities differently than rivals and building competitively valuable resources and capabilities that rivals cannot readily match.
9) A company's "macro-environment" refers to:
B) the strategically relevant factors outside a company's industry boundaries—economic conditions, political factors, sociocultural forces, technological factors, environmental factors, and legal/regulatory conditions.
7) A sustainable competitive advantage is gained:
B) when a company has durable competitive assets that are central to its strategy and superior to those of rival firms.
4) A creative and distinctive strategy that sets a company apart from rivals and that gives it a sustainable competitive advantage:
AA) is a company's most reliable ticket to above-average profitability. B) is achievable in emerging but not mature industries. C) signals that the company has a bold, ambitious strategic intent that places the achievement of strategic objectives ahead of the achievement of financial objectives. D) is a reliable indicator that the company has a socially responsible business model. E) is the best indicator that the company's strategy and business model are well-matched and properly synchronized.
3) In crafting a company's strategy, managers:
AA) need to come up with a sustainable competitive advantage that draws in customers and produces a competitive edge over rivals. B) face the biggest challenge of how closely to replicate strategies of successful companies in the industry. C) are wise not to decide on concrete courses of action in order to preserve maximum strategic flexibility. D) have comparatively little freedom in choosing the "hows" of strategy. E) are well-advised to be risk-averse and develop a "conservative" strategy —"dare-to-be-different" strategies are rarely successful.
8) The difference between a company's strategy and a company's business model is that:
AA) strategy relates broadly to a company's competitive moves and business approaches while its business model relates to whether the revenues flowing from the strategy are sufficient to cover costs and realize a profit. B) a company's strategy is management's game plan for achieving strategic objectives while its business model is management's game plan for achieving financial objectives. C) the strategy concerns how to compete successfully and the business model concerns how to operate efficiently. D) a company's strategy is solely concerned with how to please customers while its business model is solely concerned with how to please shareholders. E) a company's strategy is management's game plan for realizing the strategic vision, whereas a company's business model is the game plan for accomplishing its corporate responsibility goals.
5) Strategic objectives:
B) relate to strengthening a company's overall market standing and competitive position.
3) Which of the following is NOT one of the five typical sources of competitive pressures?
B) The power and influence of industry driving forces.
10) A company's mission statement typically addresses which of the following questions?
B) Who are we and what do we do?
6) The extent to which firms are meeting objectives suggests they:
B) are likely to continue their present strategy with only minor fine-tuning.
3) The generic types of competitive strategies include:
B) low-cost provider, broad differentiation, best-cost provider, focused low-cost, and focused differentiation strategies.
9) Whether a broad differentiation strategy ends up enhancing a company's profitability depends mainly on whether:
B) most buyers accept the customer value proposition as unique and the product can produce sufficient unit sales to cover the costs of achieving the differentiation.
5) Domino's Pizza has a well-known slogan: "We'll deliver in 30 minutes or less, or it's free!" With it what has the pizza maker achieved?
C) Built a unique customer value proposition
8) Which of the following is an integral part of the managerial process of crafting and executing strategy?
C) Setting objectives and using them as yardsticks for measuring the company's performance and progress
6) Which of the following are integral parts of the managerial process of crafting and executing strategy?
C) Setting objectives, crafting a strategy, implementing and executing the chosen strategy, and deciding how much of the company's resources to employ in the pursuit of sustainable competitive advantage.
2) The difference between the concept of a company mission statement and the concept of a strategic vision is that:
C) a mission statement typically concerns a company's purpose and its present business scope, whereas the principal concern of a strategic vision is a company's aspirations for its future.
9) Well-conceived visions are ________ and ________ to a particular organization and they avoid generic, feel-good statements that could apply to hundreds of organizations.
C) distinctive; specific
9) A competitively valuable resource or capability is a company's:
C) enabling foundation of its business model.
6) Organizational capabilities are virtually always:
C) knowledge-based, residing in people and in the company's intellectual capital, or in organizational processes and systems, which embody tacit knowledge.
8) The essence of a broad differentiation strategy is to:
C) offer unique product attributes in ways that are valuable and appealing and that buyers consider worth paying for.
4) The key success factors in an industry:
D) are those competitive factors that most affect industry members' abilities to prosper in the marketplace—the particular strategy elements, product attributes, operational approaches, resources, and competitive capabilities that spell the difference between being a strong competitor and a weak one, and between profit and loss.
7) Managers must chart a company's strategic course by:
D) developing a thorough understanding of the company's external and internal environment.
4) A useful way to identify a company's resources is to view them as:
D) divided into two main categories, tangible and intangible.
6) An example of how companies can revamp their value chain to reduce costs is to:
D) have suppliers locate their plants close to companies' own facilities.
1) A company should not couch its mission in terms of making a profit because a profit is more correctly an:
D) objective and a result of what a company does.
3) A powerful tool for sizing up the company's competitive assets and determining whether they can provide the foundation necessary for competitive success in the marketplace is termed:
D) resource and capability analysis.
4) The real purpose of the company's strategic vision:
D) serves as management's tool for giving the organization a sense of direction.
7) A strategy to be the industry's overall low-cost provider tends to be more appealing than a differentiation or best-cost or focus/market niche strategy when:
D) the offerings of rival firms are essentially identical, standardized, commodity-like products.
10) For a particular company resource/capability to have real competitive power and perhaps qualify as a basis for competitive advantage, it should:
E) be patentable.
10) Focusing carries several risks, one of which is the:
E) chance that competitors will find effective ways to match the focused firm's capabilities in serving the target market.
7) A "balanced scorecard" that includes both strategic and financial performance targets is a conceptually strong approach for judging a company's overall performance because:
E) financial performance measures are lagging indicators that reflect the results of past decisions and organizational activities, whereas strategic performance measures are leading indicators of a company's future financial performance and business prospects.
10) Having good competitive intelligence about rivals' strategies and moves to improve their situation is important because:
E) it allows a company to anticipate what moves rivals are likely to make next and to craft its own strategic moves with some confidence.
3) A company exhibits strategic intent when:
E) it relentlessly pursues an ambitious strategic objective, concentrating the full force of its resources and competitive actions on achieving that objective.
5) Driving-forces analysis helps managers identify whether:
E) the collective impact of the driving forces will act to increase/decrease market demand, increase/decrease competition, and raise/lower industry profitability in the years ahead.
2) One important indicator of how well a company's present strategy is working is whether:
E) the company is achieving its financial and strategic objectives and whether it is an above-average industry performer.
1) The most powerful and widely used tool for diagnosing the principle competitive pressures in a market is:
E) the five forces framework.
