Section J: Infrastructure
B
The strategic risk plan must have go/no-go guidelines for: the legal community. switching from problem mitigation to recovery. make-or-buy decisions. customer contracts.
A
There are two generally recognized types of errors that can occur when responding to risk. In the first, the organization takes action, but it is an incorrect action. What is the second? The organization does not take action when it should have. The organization continues to support an incorrect action when evidence suggests that it should not. The organization postpones a decision while operations deteriorate. The organization halts all operations to gather more data.
C
What can happen when management fails to articulate a concise operational strategy that is aligned with overall corporate strategy? Company-wide solutions will become a viable substitute for the weak operational strategy. IT security will likely fall victim to corporate espionage. Departmental "specialists" will tend to optimize their own areas of control without consideration for the rest of the organization. Enterprise resources planning (ERP) system accuracy will continue to be reliable because employee training is part of ERP system startup.
B
Which of the following is true of strategy development in most corporations? The CEO is the primary strategy architect, with little influence from others. Other senior executives help fashion major elements of the strategy. The business strategy is formulated first by department heads and then fine-tuned by the CEO and staff. Much "borrowing" through competitive benchmarking occurs.
B
Which of the following is true of the ultimate effect of a change in strategy? It must be highly predictable. It is rarely known for sure. It is typically instantaneous. It is relatively straightforward.
B
A successful outcome of a business process workflow redesign intended to solve a cross-functional activity problem often leads to: training employees in how to follow the newly documented process. creating a single new department to take charge of the whole process. using the study as justification for the purchase of additional application software. bringing in consultants to assist in interpreting the results.
C
During her first month on the job, a new vice president becomes the champion of showing up for meetings on time. Although seemingly insignificant, this strategy actually: could help demonstrate a significant difference between publicly traded and private businesses. saves money in the long run, as evident by more robust net income (the bottom line). could help initiate organization-wide improvement and a strong commitment to the principles of total quality management. becomes a performance management tool to weed out deadwood and slackers.
B
Generating and rewarding short-term performance improvements within organizational change: proves that the project champion was right. sidelines cynics and selfish resisters. should strike fear into the hearts of the naysayers. may be the only success within the entire project.
C
It is determined that the key to success in a particular market is the company's ability to deliver a variety of high-quality products in less lead time than the industry standard. The operational emphasis should be on the operation's: quality. utilization. agility. cost.
D
Management is primarily a skill that keeps a complicated system of people and processes functioning well. Which of the following is true of leadership? It is more oriented toward working with marketing and corporate financiers. It involves managing the managers. It is involved in looking to the future using market trends, demographic change, and worldwide political events. It is a set of processes that creates organizations or adapts them to significantly changing circumstances.
A
Managers can take certain action steps to realize the full value from total quality management (TQM) or six sigma activities by promoting a culture of excellence. This includes which of the following characteristics? Demonstrating unyielding commitment to total quality and continuous improvement, empowering employees, emphasizing that performance can and must be improved Implementing a suggestion program, training everyone in TQM and six sigma, constantly displaying the hourly value of the company's stock Creating an employee stock ownership program, implementing open-book management, reporting competitor superiority wherever it exists Rewarding employee behavior demonstrating commitment, implementing open-book management revealing all financial data, empowering employees
D
Managers must consider which of the following basic types of risks? Risks with losses that difficult to quantify and risks that are variable due to a number of unknowns Risk that have been fully defined and those that have been historically documented Risks that cannot be avoided and risks that can be avoided Risks associated with only negative results and risks that may have either negative or positive results
B
Often suboptimal performance is a result of activities occurring across multiple departments. What is the best way to remedy this? Hire a certified project manager and assign him or her to solve this problem. Have an executive champion spearhead a business process reengineering effort. Create process flow diagrams of the entire process, document, and train. Implement or re-implement an enterprise resources planning system.
B
Organizations that require transformation must have leaders who not only inspire and motivate; the leaders must also: deliver public interviews and participate in political events for public relations building. develop the vision, empower people to accomplish the vision, and inspire change. use the output from consensus opinions of their direct reports in creating strategy. become vocal supporters of specific causes as a means to show the company in a good light.
B
The long-term payoff from total quality management (TQM) depends heavily on management's success in: actually leading training classes in the tools of quality. instilling a culture in which the TQM philosophy and practices can survive. demonstrating that a commitment to TQM philosophies can improve the company's bottom line. advertising their own personal successes in using the tools of quality.
B
The traditional understanding of managing risk typically identifies which of the following strategic risk responses? Simulation, discovery, mitigation Prevention, mitigation, recovery Proactive, reactive, semi-reactive Find, fix, repair
B
Through the use of value chain analysis, cost performance may be improved by: finding lower-cost raw materials. identifying and eliminating non-value-added activities. imposing high utilization targets for value chain operations. charging more for products that use activities within the value chain.
C
To be successful, both six sigma and total quality management (TQM) must: above all have a recognizable executive champion. involve years of training and indoctrination. obtain managerial commitment, establish a quality culture, and fully involve all employees. recognize and severely deal with naysayers and non-supporters early on.
C
To prevent management from getting out of touch with what is really happening in the company, many CEOs ask leaders to: arrange a leave of absence for department heads so they can clear their minds. disguise themselves and play the role of an entry-level associate. adopt the management-by-walking-around supervisory style. manage people very closely using short interval goals.
D
Total quality management (TQM) is a philosophy that attempts to establish enthusiasm and personal commitment to: reducing product costs across the board. learning each and every quality tool available in the world of quality. not only learning all the tools of quality but applying them skillfully every day. doing things right the first time over the entire organization.
C
What happens once the final draft of a company's strategy has been formulated? It must next be published in the company's annual report if the company is publicly traded. It must be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is typically submitted to the company's board of directors for review and approval. All stakeholders have approximately 30 days to fine-tune it.
D
Which of the following is a strategy to prevent failure in meeting a customer's new product requirements? Reverse-engineer similar products from other sources to accelerate the internal design process. Acquire competitive new products and copy them. Rapidly develop multiple designs to show to the customer to push them along to a decision. Delay the start of development while customer requirements become better defined.
D
Why must top management coordinate with each other? So that creative groups are physically separated from the rules-based groups and will not disrupt them So that rules-based groups are prevented from spending much time with creative groups So that key performance indicators at the associate level are common So that diverse groups such as creative teams and rules-based teams operate with a common purpose
