Quizzes
True
A best-value strategy must offer products or services to a wide range of customers at the best price-value available on the market.
True
A characteristic that describes the most competitive companies is adopting the adage, "Whether it's broke or not, fix it": in other words, continually strive to improve everything about the firm.
five times
A conservative rule of thumb is to establish a business' worth as ________ the firm's current annual profit.
True
A current trend in R & D management involves the lifting of the veil of secrecy whereby firms, even major competitors, are joining forces to develop new products.
The cash account
In projected financial statements, what is used as a plug figure?
eaten away at national boundaries so that people worldwide readily see for themselves how other people live and work. We have become a borderless world with global citizens, global competitors, global customers, global suppliers, and global distributors
In recent years, the speedy flow of information through technology has
a premium paid over the book value for an acquisition
In the context of a balance sheet, goodwill represents
False
In the context of conflict management and resolution, ignoring the problem in the hopes that the conflict will resolve itself is classified as a defusion technique.
False
Increased costs are a disadvantage of a good information system.
cross-selling to customers, monitoring suppliers, keeping managers and employees informed, coordinating activities among divisions, and managing funds (All of the above)
Information collection, retrieval, and storage can be used to create competitive advantages in ways such as
strengths
Internal _______ are controllable activities in an organization that are performed especially well.
delivering materials just when they are needed
Just-in-time describes
Long-term objectives are needed at the corporate, divisional, and functional levels of an organization (all of the above).
Long-term objectives are needed at which level(s) in an organization?
True
Major competitor's strengths may represent key threats.
True
Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing, of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services.
Supply and demand
Matching which factors would allow factories to produce desirable levels without extra shifts, overtime, or subcontracting?
Divisional
Medium-sized firms tend to use which type of structure?
suggests that strategic decision making be based primarily on holistic thinking, intuition, creativity, and imagination
Mintzberg's notion of "crafting strategies"
annual; long-term
Most quantitative criteria are geared to ________ objectives rather than to ________ objectives.
False
Most quantitative evaluation criteria are geared to long-term objectives rather than annual objectives.
more of a science than an art
Most strategy literature advocates that strategic management is
True
Multidimensional scaling involves examining three or more criteria simultaneously in a product-positioning way.
False
On the x-axis of the IE Matrix, an IFE total weighted score of 2.5 represents a weak internal position.
False
Once an effective strategy is designed, modifications are rarely required.
False
Organizations should prepare contingency plans just for unfavorable events.
True
Orphan drugs offer pharmaceutical companies no economic incentive for profitable development and distribution.
True
The Balanced Scorecard approach addresses the question "How satisfied are the firm's customers?"
False
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has eliminated the problem of firms inflating their financial projections, so stakeholders no longer have to worry about the reliability of the financial projections of different companies.
governance
The act of oversight and direction for an organization is referred to as
False
The advantage of the educative change strategy is that implementation is quick and relatively easy.
both internal and external issues
The critical success factors in a Competitive Profile Matrix and EFE Matrix include
True
The firm should pursue conservative strategies if the coordinates of a SPACE directional vector are (-1,4).
True
The five major categories of variables known as external forces are: (1) competitive forces, (2) technological forces, (3) political, governmental, and legal forces, (4) social, cultural, demographic, and natural environment forces, and (5) economic forces.
Select several articles about these statements and ask all managers to read these as background information.
The process of developing a vision and mission statement often includes which of these as the first activity?
as many managers and employees as possible
The process of performing an external audit should involve
False
Total attractiveness scores are defined as the sum of the attractiveness scores in a given column of the QSPM and are computed in the second step of the Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM).
When the products of rival sellers are essentially identical and supplies are readily available from any of several eager sellers.
Under which conditions would a cost leadership strategy be especially effective?
Cost Leadership-Low Cost
Under which strategy would you offer products or services to a wide range of customers at the lowest price available on the market?
Forward integration
Websites that can sell products directly to consumers are examples of which type of strategy?
False
Well-conceived and properly executed mission and vision statements are not subject to revision.
the Balanced Scorecard approach
What aims to balance long-term with short-term concerns, financial with nonfinancial concerns, and internal with external concerns?
Forecasts
What are educated assumptions about future trends and events called?
Mission statements
What are enduring statements of purpose that distinguish one business from other similar firms.
Growth ratios
What category of ratios measures how effectively a firm can maintain its economic position in the growth of the economy and industry?
Nearly three quarters
What portion of the firms going public in 2014 were unprofitable?
Managing by subjectives
What principle is built on the idea that there is no general plan for which way to go and what to do?
Horizontal integration
What refers to a strategy of seeking ownership of, or increased control over, a firm's competitors?
Auditing
What term is defined as a "systematic process of objectively obtaining and evaluating evidence regarding assertions about economic actions and events to ascertain the degree of correspondence between these assertions and established criteria, and communicating the results to interested users?"
True
When attachments to a culture are severed in an organization's attempt to change direction, employees and managers often experience deep feelings of grief.
Defusion
Which approach for managing and resolving conflict involves playing down differences between conflicting parties, while accentuating similarities and common interests?
Strategists
Which individuals are most responsible for the success and failure of an organization?
Average Collection Period
Which ratio would be considered an activity ratio?
Product development
Which strategy generally entails large research and development expenditures?
Representative managers and employees from throughout the firm need to be involved in determining a firm's strengths and weaknesses.
Who should perform an internal audit?
organizations have similar branch facilities located in widely dispersed areas
A divisional structure by geographic area is most appropriate when
True
A limitation of financial ratios is the fact that they are based on accounting data.
True
A mission statement can sometimes be called a statement of philosophy.
organizational culture
A pattern of behavior developed by an organization as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, and that has worked well enough to be considered valid and to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel is called
False
A total weighted score of 1.0 for an EFE Matrix indicates that the firm is responding in an outstanding way to existing opportunities and threats in its industry.
some strategic information should remain confidential to top managers
With regard to the visible or hidden issue, most executives agree that
implementation
With what phase of strategic management is most strongly associated with "action"?
Culture
________ includes the set of shared values, beliefs, attitudes, customs, norms, rites, rituals, personalities, heroes, and heroines that describe a firm.
Large; small
________ organizations require more elaborate and detailed strategy-evaluation systems than ________ ones, because it is more difficult to coordinate efforts among different divisions.
True
An effective competitive intelligence program allows all areas of a firm to access consistent and verifiable information in making decisions.
shift from specific to general issues and concerns
An effective way to gain commitment and achieve desired results is to
False
An important question a mission statement should answer is, "What do we want to become."
False
An infrequently used tool in strategy evaluation is the audit.
False
An objective, logical, systematic, and non-intuitive approach for making major decisions in an organization is a way to describe the strategic management process.
answers the question "What do we want to become?"
An organization's vision statement
False
As a balance sheet entry, goodwill represents the favor a business has acquired through its environmentally conscious and socially responsible actions.
changed
Aspects of an existing culture that are antagonistic to a proposed strategy should be
False
Changing a strategy to fit an existing culture is usually more effective than changing a firm's culture to fit a new strategy.
larger market share
Financial objectives involve all of the following except
False
Financial ratios are rarely used as criteria to evaluate strategies.
Star
Forward integration would be an appropriate strategy for which of the following types of divisions in the BCG Matrix?
True
Horizontal integration is seeking ownership or increased control over competitors.
increase investor scrutiny of the firm
If a firm has a bad sustainability record this will
moving environmental affairs from the staff side of the organization to the line side
In an effort to manage ecological challenges, many companies are
False
In multidivisional organizations, each division should develop a mission statement consistent with and supportive of the corporate mission but use the corporate vision statement instead of a divisional vision statement.
False
The test of an effective evaluation system is its complexity.
outsiders
Today, boards of directors are composed mostly of
More lenders are examining the environmental liabilities of businesses seeking loans.
Preserving the environment should be a permanent part of doing business for which of the following reasons?
researching resource availability
R & D employees and managers perform all of the following tasks except
liquidation
Selling all of a company's assets, in parts, for their tangible worth is called
True
Serving two segments with the same strategy is not a step in perceptual mapping.
the responsibilities a firm has to employees, consumers, environmentalists, minorities, communities, shareholders, and other groups
Social policy can best be defined as
False
Some strategists agree with Ralph Nader, who asserts that organizations have no obligation to do any more for society than is legally required.
False
Step one of the Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) assigns weights to each key external and internal factor.
Marketing, finance and accounting, production and operations, research and development (R&D), (all of the above)
Strategic management focuses on integrating management, _________, and information systems to achieve organizational success.
When technological change is fast paced and competition revolves around rapidly evolving product features.
Under which condition would a differentiation strategy be especially effective?
False
Strategy changes may be highly ineffective, but not counterproductive, if a supportive culture does not exist.
True
Strategy implementation is often considered to be the most difficult stage in the strategic management process.
Avoidance, defusion, and confrontation
What are the three categories of approaches for managing and resolving conflict?
Stability position and industry position
What are the two external dimensions of the SPACE Matrix?
Profitability
What category of ratios includes return on total assets and return on stockholders' equity?
Force
What change strategy involves giving orders and enforcing those orders?
Contingency plans
What has been shown to permit quick response to change, prevent panic in crisis situations, and make managers more adaptable?
Matrix
What is the most complex form of organizational structure?
Product and service planning
What marketing function includes test marketing?
A joint venture
What occurs when two or more companies form a temporary partnership or consortium for the purpose of capitalizing on some opportunity?
Serve two segments with the same strategy.
Which is not a required step in perceptual mapping?
Altering an organization's structure, replacing one or more key individuals, selling a division, revising a business mission, establishing or revising objectives, devising new policies, issuing stock to raise capital, adding additional salespersons, differently allocating resources, or developing new performance incentives (All of the above).
Which of the following is a corrective action a company might take to correct unfavorable variances?
Devising policies, revising reward and incentive plans, minimizing resistance to change, developing an effective human resources function (all of the above).
Which of the following is a management issue central to strategy implementation?
It requires intuitive informed judgments.
Which of these is a limitation of QSPM?
Forward integration
Amazon's start of rapid delivery services in some U.S. cities is an example of which type of strategy?
When a company has been successful.
According to Drucker, what is the best time to ask "What do we want to become?" and "What is our business?"
"What is our business?"
According to Drucker, which question is synonymous with asking, "What is our mission"?
True
According to Porter, five competitive forces define the nature of competitiveness in a given industry: (1) rivalry among competing firms, (2) potential entry of new competitors, (3) potential development of substitute products, (4) bargaining power of suppliers, and (5) bargaining power of consumers.
Generating, evaluating, and selecting strategies.
According to the comprehensive strategic management model, which step immediately follows the establishment of long-term objectives?
make enough profit to cover the costs of the future, because if this is not achieved then no other social responsibility can be met
According to the text, the first social responsibility of any business is to
True
After segmenting markets so a firm can target particular customer groups, the next step is to find out what customer groups want and expect.
consolidating
All of the following are basic activities of management except
False
Alternative strategies not selected for implementation should be discarded, as they have a tendency to contaminate the contingency plans.
bestowing a gift to influence the recipient's conduct
Bribery involves
False
Cash Cows represent the organization's best long-run opportunities for growth and profitability.
intense - and sometimes cutthroat
Competition in virtually all industries is
action-oriented; information-oriented
Controls need to be _______ rather than ________.
formulation
During what stage of strategic management are a firm's specific internal strengths and weaknesses determined?
require infrequent major changes, but are always subject to revision
Effective and carefully planned mission statements
True
External audits attempt to identify key variables that offer actionable responses.