MGMT 449 Exam 1

Using the five forces model of competition to determine the character and strength of the competitive forces within a given industry involves

Building the picture of competition in three steps: (1) identify the different parties involved, along with specific factors that bring about competitive pressures; (2) evaluate how strong the pressures stemming from each of the five forces are (strong, moderate or weak); and (3) determine whether the collective impact of the five competitive forces is conducive to earning attractive profits in the industry.

Buyers are in position to exert strong bargaining power in dealing with sellers when

Buyers are price sensitive because the product represents a significant portion of their purchasing budget.

The strategically relevant factors outside a company's industry boundaries—economic conditions, political factors, sociocultural forces, technological factors, environmental factors, and legal/regulatory conditions—are known as

A company's macro-environment.

Sanofi, a pharmaceutical company selling prescription drugs in France for the past 10 years, has had moderate sales in a crowded market while its rivals manufacture and market drugs having similar efficacy and safety precautions, but with superior market share. This particular pharmaceutical company's greatest challenge is to increase prescriptions of their drugs by French doctors. What would be the most effective strategy for Sanofi to improve sales performance in its existing market?

Modifying marketing communication to increase brand familiarity within key physician segments

A company's strategic plan

Outlines the competitive moves and approaches to be used in achieving the desired business results.

The faster a company's business environment is changing, the more critical it becomes for its managers to

Pay attention to early warnings of future change and be willing to experiment to establish a market position in the future.

Strategic objectives

Relate to strengthening a company's overall market standing and competitive position.

In the course of crafting a strategy, managers typically do not

Share the strategy publicly to obtain additional customer and shareholder support.

A company's strategy is not concerned with management's choices about how to

Stake out the same market position as successful rival companies.

The benefit of a vivid, engaging, and convincing strategic vision is not its ability to

Help company personnel understand the logic of the company's business model.

Industry conditions change because of

Important forces enticing or pressuring certain industry participants (competitors, customers, suppliers) to alter their actions in important ways.

Which of the following driving forces would have the least impact on the attractiveness of the cosmetics industry?

Industry incumbents deciding to shift to a different strategic group

The managerial task of developing a strategic vision for a company

Involves deciding upon what strategic course a company should pursue in preparing for the future and why this directional path makes good business sense.

What is the best technique for revealing the different market or competitive position that rival firms occupy in the industry?

Strategic group mapping

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.

The difference between the concept of a company mission statement and the concept of a strategic vision is that 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.

An industry's key success factors can always be deduced by asking what factors

Such as product attributes and service characteristics are crucial, what resources and competitive capabilities are needed, and what shortcomings are evident to put a company at a competitive disadvantage.

A winning strategy must pass which three tests?

The fit test, the competitive advantage test, and the performance test

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.

Which of the following is not a question asked to deduce a marketing-related key success factor?

What are the industry product R&D capabilities and expertise in product design?

Managers of all types of business organizations must develop a clear answer for which of the following questions?

What is the set of actions that we need to take to outperform competitors and achieve superior profitability?

In which one of the following instances is supplier bargaining power and leverage not weakened?

When industry members pose a credible threat of backward integration into the business of suppliers

In which of the following instances is rivalry among competing sellers not more intense?

when there are vast numbers of small rivals so the impact of any one company's actions is spread thinly across all industry members

Giving customers more value for the money by satisfying their expectations on key quality features, performance, and/or service attributes while beating their price expectations is a __________ strategy.

Best-cost provider

What a company's top executives are saying about where the company is headed long term with respect to its future product-market-customer-technology mix

Constitutes the strategic vision for the company.

The strategy-making hierarchy in a diversified company like Alibaba Group, an e-commerce giant based in China, consists of

Corporate strategy, business strategies, functional strategies, and operating strategies.

Management is obligated to monitor new external developments, evaluate the company's progress, and make corrective adjustments in order to

Decide whether to continue or change the company's strategic vision, objectives, strategy, and/or strategy-execution methods.

The wording of a company's vision statement should commonly be

Flexible—adjustable according to changing circumstances.

The most significant signs of a well-managed company are

Good strategy-making combined with good strategy execution.