Ch.1 True or False
Managers must be very formal in strategic planning because formality fosters flexibility and creativity.
FALSE
Many organizations mistakenly spend more time and effort on the implementation of a plan, than on the formulation of the plan itself.
FALSE
Military success is usually the happy result of accidental strategies, but business success is the product of continuous attention to changing conditions and insightful adaptations to those conditions.
FALSE
Most traditional retailers have tried in vain to use their online sales to boost in-store sales.
FALSE
Newspaper companies in the United States provide a good example of how a company can sustain a competitive advantage over the long-term.
FALSE
A clear mission statement describes the values and priorities of an organization.
TRUE
According to Greenley, strategic management provides increased discipline, enhanced communication, and more effective allocation of time and resources.
TRUE
According to research, a healthier workforce can more effectively and efficiently implement strategies.
TRUE
All firms have a strategy, even if it is informal, unstructured, and sporadic.
TRUE
U.S. firms are not being challenged in the computer industry.
FALSE
For the strategic planning process to be effective, organizations must continually strengthen the "good ethics is good business" policy.
TRUE
The lack of monetary rewards is one reason managers do not engage in strategic planning.
TRUE
The terms strategic management and strategic planning are synonymous in this text.
TRUE
) In a multidivisional firm, objectives should be established for the overall company but not for each division.
FALSE
A vision statement answers the question, "What is our business?" whereas a mission statement answers, "What do we want to become?"
FALSE
A vision statement identifies the scope of a firm's operations in product and market terms.
FALSE
According to Albert Einstein, "Knowledge is far more important than intuition."
FALSE
All strategists have similar attitudes, values, ethics and concerns for social responsibility.
FALSE
Although e-commerce has increased in popularity, it has actually led to increases in company expenses.
FALSE
Annual objectives are especially important in strategy formulation.
FALSE
Annual objectives are long-term milestones that organizations must achieve to reach short-term objectives.
FALSE
Both military and business strategy are formulated, implemented, and evaluated with an assumption of competition.
FALSE
By occasionally monitoring external events, companies should be able to identify when change is required.
FALSE
Crises and firefighting in an organization give managers the extra time needed to plan ahead.
FALSE
Even though useful, strategic planning has been cast aside by corporate America since the early 1990s.
FALSE
Identifying an organization's existing vision, mission, objectives, and strategies is the final step for the strategic management process.
FALSE
In most respects, business strategy is very different than military strategy.
FALSE
In the last five years, the position of chief strategy officer (CSO) has diminished so drastically that today it is almost unheard of for companies to have such a position on staff.
FALSE
Management by intuition can be defined as operating from the "I've-already-made-up-my-mind-don't-bother-me-with-the-facts mode."
FALSE
Once a firm acquires a competitive advantage, they are usually able to sustain the competitive advantage indefinitely.
FALSE
Once an effective strategy is designed, modifications are rarely required.
FALSE
Optimizing for tomorrow the trends of today is the purpose of strategic management.
FALSE
Superior strategy formulation is well and good, but it cannot overcome an opponent's superiority in numbers and resources.
FALSE
The best thing strategists can do is develop strategic plans themselves and then present them to operating managers to execute.
FALSE
The final stage in strategic management is strategy implementation.
FALSE
The middle manager is the most visible and critical strategic manager.
FALSE
The most effective strategic management is ritualistic, predictable, and formal.
FALSE
While the number of people shopping online has increased, the average amount spent online has decreased.
FALSE
An objective, logical, systematic approach for making major decisions in an organization is a way to describe the strategic-management process.
TRUE
Analytical and intuitive thinking should complement each other.
TRUE
Anything the firm does especially well compared to rival firms could be considered a competitive advantage.
TRUE
Application of the strategic-management process is typically more formal in larger and well-established organizations.
TRUE
Commitment and understanding are the most important benefits of strategic management.
TRUE
Firms can be more proactive with strategic management.
TRUE
Firms with planning systems more closely resembling strategic-management theory generally exhibit superior long-term financial performance relative to their industry.
TRUE
Firms, like organisms, must be "adept at adapting" or they will not survive.
TRUE
Formulation, implementation, and evaluation of strategy activities occur at three hierarchical levels in a large organization: corporate, divisional or strategic business unit, and functional.
TRUE
In order for a firm to achieve sustained competitive advantage, a firm must continually adapt to changes in external trends and events and effectively formulate, implement, and evaluate strategies that capitalize upon those factors.
TRUE
Low-performing firms typically underestimate their competitor's strengths and overestimate their own firm's strengths.
TRUE
Making many intuitive decisions that conflict with the formal plan is one pitfall to avoid in strategic planning.
TRUE
Objectives should be measurable, challenging, reasonable, consistent, and clear.
TRUE
One of the fundamental strategy evaluation activities is reviewing external and internal factors that are the basis for current strategies.
TRUE
One of the ways in which the Internet has transferred power from businesses to individuals is by making comparison-shopping quick and easy.
TRUE
Strategic management focuses on integrating management, marketing, finance and accounting, production and operations, research and development, and information systems to achieve organizational success.
TRUE
Strategic management is an attempt to organize qualitative and quantitative information in a way that allows effective decisions to be made under conditions of uncertainty.
TRUE
Strategic-management must be a self-reflective learning process that familiarizes managers and employees in the organization with key strategic issues and feasible alternatives for resolving those issues.
TRUE
Strategists are usually found in higher levels of management and have considerable authority for decision-making in the firm.
TRUE
Strategy implementation is often considered to be the most difficult stage in the strategic-management process because it requires personal discipline, commitment, and sacrifice.
TRUE
Strengths and weaknesses are determined relative to competitors.
TRUE
The decision to expand or diversify operations is a strategy-formulation issue.
TRUE
The element of surprise provides great competitive advantages in both military and business strategy.
TRUE