mgmt 495 Chapter 1

The pattern of actions and business approaches that would NOT define a company's strategy include:

actions to gain sales and market share with lower prices despite increased costs.

A winning strategy is one that:

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

Crafting and executing strategy are top-priority managerial tasks because:

good strategy coupled with good strategy execution are the most telling signs of good management and greatly raises the chances that a company will be a standout performer in the marketplace

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 need to promote stability and retain the status quo

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

A) Having a distinctive competitive product offering. B) Building competitively valuable expertise and capabilities not readily matched, and offering a distinctive product offering. 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.

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

A) 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.

Managers must be prepared to modify their strategy in response to:

A) changing circumstances that affect performance and their desire to improve the current strategy. B) competitor moves in the market and shifting needs of buyers. C) stagnating market and restrictive industrial opportunities. D) mounting evidence that the strategy is less effective. 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 circumstances, 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.

Changing circumstances and ongoing managerial efforts to improve the strategy:

account for why a company's strategy evolves over time.

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

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

Which of the following is NOT one of the managerial considerations in determining how to compete successfully?

How can the company modify its entire product line to emphasize their internal service attributes?

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 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 tests the merits of the firm's strategy and distinguishes it as a winning 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 something a company's strategy is concerned with?

Management's choices about how quickly and closely to copy the strategies being used by successful rival companies

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

. A winning strategy must pass which three tests?

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

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?

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.

Every strategy needs:

a distinctive element that attracts customers and produces a competitive edge.

Adapting to new conditions and constantly evaluating what is working and what needs to be improved are normal parts of the strategy-making process which result in:

an evolving strategy

Good strategy combined with good strategy execution:

are the most telling signs of good management.

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.

To improve performance, there are many different avenues for outcompeting rivals such as:

confining their operations to local or regional markets or developing product superiority or even concentrating on a narrow product lineup

Crafting a deliberate strategy involves developing strategy elements that:

consist of a blend of proactive new planned initiatives plus ongoing strategy elements continued from prior periods

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

The objectives of a well-crafted strategy require management to strive to:

develop lasting success that can support growth and secure the company's future over the long term

The most telling signs of a well-managed company are:

good strategy-making combined with good strategy execution.

A company's strategy consists of the action plan management is taking to

grow the business, stake out a market position, attract and please customers, compete successfully, conduct operations, and achieve performance objectives

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 and a competitive advantage, despite the best efforts of competitors to match or surpass this advantage.

A company's business model:

is management's blueprint for how it will generate revenues sufficient to cover costs and yield an attractive profit.

Crafting and executing strategy are top-priority managerial tasks 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 strategies stand 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 achieves a competitive advantage when:

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

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, and produces sustainable competitive advantage

A company's strategy concerns:

management's action plan for outperforming competitors and achieving superior profitability

A company's strategy is most accurately defined as:

management's commitment to provide direction and guidance, in terms of not only what the company should do but also what it should not do.

In crafting a company's strategy:

managers need to come up with a sustainable competitive advantage that draws in customers and produces a competitive edge over rivals.

The customer value proposition lays out the company's approach to:

satisfying buyer wants and needs at a price customers will consider a good value

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

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 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 generate revenues sufficient to cover costs and realize a profit

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 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 realized strategy evolves from one version to the next due to:

the proactive efforts of company managers to improve the current 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.

Strategy is about competing differently than rivals, thus strategy success is about:

the sources of sustained advantages and superior profitability

One of the frequently used successful and dependable strategic approaches is:

to come up with a distinctive element that builds strong customer loyalty and yields a winning competitive edge.

A company's business model:

zeros in on the customer value proposition and its related profit formula