MGT 499
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 purpose and its present business stop, whereas the principal concern of a strategic vision is a company aspirations for its future.
Troopline Inc., an online laptop retailer, sells laptops of similar range, price and features as other online laptop retailers. Which of the value proposition would NOT benefit the company?
Establishing a comparison feature tab that allows customers to compare offerings from other online retailers.
Telsteer Mobil, a smartphone manufacturer, is working on developing its next-generation products. It has decided on a strategy of focusing on a narrow buyer segment and outcompeting rivals by offering buyers custom product features for specialized needs and tastes. What basic strategic approach has Telsteer decided upon?
Focused differentiation.
The competitive pressures from substitute products tend to be strong when:
Good substitutes are readily available.
Which of the following is the best example of a well-stated financial objective?
Increase earning per share by 15 percent annually.
The best indicator of how well a company strategy is working is whether the company:
Is achieving its stated financial objectives, its financial performance equates to the industry average, and market share gains reflect short-term preferences for capacity maximization
Which of the following is true of a company business model?
It zeroes in on the customer value proposition and its related profit formula.
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.
Strategic objectives:
Relate to strengthening a company's overall marshes standing and competitive position.
A company strategy consists of the action plan management is taking to:
Stake out a unique market position and achieve superior profitability
What is the best technique for revealing the different market or competitive position that rival firms occupy in the industry?
Strategic group mapping
A good example of vertical integration is a:
crude oil refiner purchasing a firm engaged in drilling and exploring for oil
To build a competitive advantage by out-managing rivals in performing vale chain activities, a company must;
develop core competencies and maybe.a distinctive competence that rivals don't have or can't quite match
Mergers and acquisitions are often driven by such strategic objectives are:
expanding a company geographic coverage or extending its business into new product categories
Strategic offensives should as a general rule be based on:
exploiting a companys strongest competitive assets- its move valuable resources and capabilities
Vertical integration strategies
extend a companys competitive scope within the same industry by expanding its operations across multiple segments or stages of the industry value chain
Vertical integration can lower costs by:
facilitating the coordination of production flows and avoiding bottlenecks
The strategic impetus for forward vertical integration is to:
gain better access to end users and better market visibility
A blue-ocean strategy:
involves abandoning efforts to beat out competitors in existing markets and instead invent a new industry or new market segment that renders existing competitors largely irrelevant and allows a company to create and capture altogether a new demand
Every corporation should have a strong independent board of directors that does all of the following EXCEPT:
is responsible for leading the strategy-making, strategy-executing process
The value of doing competitive strength assessment is to:
learn how the company ranks relative to rivals on each of the important factors that determine market success and ascertain whether the company has a new competitive advantage or disadvantage vis-a-vis key rivals
A low-cost leaders basis for competitive advantage is:
meaningful lower overall costs than rivals on comparable products
Company objectives:
need to be broken down into performance targets for each of its organizational levels-- for separate businesses, product lines, functional departments, and individual work units
The essence of a broad differentiation strategy is to:
offer unique product attributes in ways that are valuable and appealing and that buys consider worth paying for
Well-stated objectives are:
quantifiable or measurable, and contain deadlines for achievement
A firm pursuing a best-cost provider strategy:
seeks to deliver superior value to buyers by satisfying their expectations on key attributes and beating rivals in meeting customer expectations on price
SWOT analysis is a simple but powerful tool for:
sizing up a company resource and capabilities, strengths and deficiencies, its market opportunities, and the external threats to its future well-being
Managers can deliberately set challenging performance targets at levels high enough to promote outstanding company performance by establishing:
stretch objectives which challenge the organization to deliver stretch gains in performance.
The two big drivers of outsourcing are:
the outsiders can often perform certain activities better or more cheaply, and outsourcing allows a firm to focus its entire energies on these activities that are at the center of its expertise (its core competencies)
What does the scope of the firm refer to?
the renege of activities the firm performs internally and the breadth of its product offerings, the extent of its geographic market, and its mix of businesses
What sets focused (or market niche) strategies apart from low-cost leadership and broad differentiation strategies is:
their concentrated attention on serving the needs of buyers in a narrow piece of the overall market
Because when to make a strategic move can be just as important as what move to make a company best option with respect to timing is:
to carefully weigh the first-mover advantages against the first-mover disadvantages and act accordingly
What is the goal of signaling a challenger that strong retaliation is likely in the event of an attack:
to dissuade challengers from attacking or diverting them into using less threatening options
An example of an intangible resource is:
trademarks: Kellogg brand name
The target market of a best cost provider is
value-conscious buyers
While there are many routes to competitive advantage, the two biggest factors that distinguish on competitive strategy from another are:
whether a company target market is broad or narrow and whether the company is pursuing a low cost or differentiation strategy
Rivalry among competing sellers increases:
When buyer demand is growing slowly
The strength of competitive pressures that suppliers can exert on industry members is MAINLY a function of:
Whether needed inputs are in short supply and whether suppliers provide differentiated input that enhances performance of the product.
Every strategy needs:
a distinctive element that attracts customers and produces a competitive edge
the difference between a merger and an acquisition is that:
a merger is the combining of two or more companies into a single corporate entity, whereas an acquisition involves one company (the aquifer) purchasing and absorbing the operation of another company (the acquired)
The difference between a resource and a capability is:
a resource is a productive input or competitive asset whereas a capability is the capacity of the firm to perform some internal activity competently
What are value drivers
a set of factors that are particularly effective in having a strong differentiation effect
Strategic alliances are:
collaborative formal arrangements where two or more companies join forces and agree to work cooperatively toward some strategically relevant objective
Different companies across different industries adopt any one of the five generic strategies to gain competitive advantage. Which of the following is most likely to use a low-cost provider strategy?
A baby products retailer sells unassembled baby furniture produced in China.
When an activity becomes something a company has learned to perform proficiently and capably, the company is said to have:
A competence
An automotive manufacturer sells a limited number of high-end custom-built cars, using technologically advanced power systems. What strategy is the manufacturer using to gain competitive advantage?
A focused differentiation strategy
An example of a capability is:
Amazons ability to offer fast delivery because of their distribution centers
Adapting to new conditions like new innovations by competitors, fast-changing technological developments, and constantly evaluating what is working result in:
An emergent strategy.
The driving forces in an industry:
Are major underlying causes of changing industry and competitive conditions and have the biggest influences in reshaping the industry landscape and altering competitive conditions
For a particular company resource/capability to have real competitive power and perhaps qualify as a basis for competitive advantage, it should:
Be hard to copy, be rare and something rivals lack, be competitively valuable, and not be easily trumped by substitute resource strengths possessed by rivals
An example of a tangible resource is:
Buildings: number of physical stores the firms owns
Which of the following is NOT a factor that causes buyer bargaining power to be stronger?
Buyers are small and numerous relative to sellers
As a rule, the collective impact of competitive pressures associated with the five competitive forces:
Determines the extent of the competitive pressure on industry profitability
FaberRoad, a respected courier brand, is fast losing it market share to competitors who do overnight deliveries of packages or offer lower prices. The company research department has found that many customers care more about knowing exactly when a package will arrive than getting it the next day. Which strategy would best address the current state of FaberRoad and help it regain its market?
Developing radio tags that could be attached to packages to allow for real-item tracking by customers' PCs and mobile phones
The four tests of a resources competitive power are often referred to as the:
VRIN test, which asks if a resource is valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable
Which of the following is generally NOT considered a barrier to entry
Weak "network effects" in customer demand
An industry's key success factors can always be deduced by asking what factors:
Such as product attributes and service characteristics are crucial, and what resources and competitive capabilities are needed, and what shortcomings are evident to put a company at a competitive disadvantage
Which of the following is LIKELY to have the biggest strategy-shaping impact on mobile serve providers?
T-Mobile US signs a pact with Nokia Networks for greater spectrum support
Costs and price differences amount competing companies can have origins in actives performed by: the compass internally performed by:
Th company internally performed activities but also on costs in the value chain of the suppliers and distribution channel allies
Driving-forces analysis helps managers identify whether:
The collective impact of the driving forces will actively to increase/decrease market demand, increase/decrease competition, and raise/lower industry profitability in the years ahead
A company resources and capabilities represent:
The firms competitive assets , which are considered determinants of its competitiveness and ability to succeed in the marketplace
A winning strategy must pass which three tests?
The fit test, the competitive advantage test, and the performance test.
The most powerful and widely used took for diagnosing the principle competitive pressures in a market is:
The five-forces framework
Which of the following is particularly pertinent in evaluating whether an industry presents a sufficiently attractive business opportunity?
The industry's growth potential, whether competition appears destined to become stronger or weaker, and whether the industry overall profit prospects are above average, average, or below average
Which of the following is NOT an example of an external threat to a company's future profitability?
The lack of a distinctive competence
A potato chip manufacturer purchases a potato farm. Which of the following regarding tis strategy is true?
The manufacturer has effectively used vertical integration to increase its bargaining position and reduce transaction costs
Which of the following is part of a company's macro-environment?
The pace of technological change factors and leaf and regulatory conditions
A company 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.
A much-used and potent managerial tool for determining whether a company performs particular functions or activities in a manner that represents the best practice when both cost and effectiveness are taken into account is:
benchmarking
Dominos Pizza has a well-known slogan: we'll deliver in 30 min or less, or its free" with it what has the pizza maker achieved?
built a unique customer value proposition
