Strategic Management (Capstone) Chapters 1 & 6

solve a problem for a consumer

A customer-oriented vision statement focuses employees to think about how best to:

provide products similar to its competitors, but at lower prices.

A firm is said to gain a competitive advantage when it can:

organizational structures are aligned with the firm's vision statement

A positive relationship between vision statements and firm performance is more likely to exist when:

Differentiation

Beach Grub is a chain of "fast casual" restaurants that sells its menu items at higher prices than its competitors. Yet, the restaurant has a large customer base due to its wide product portfolio and superior customer service. Which of the following generic business strategies has Beach Grub adopted in this scenario?

delivers low-cost products and services to a specific, narrow part of the market.

In a focused cost-leadership strategy, a firm:

Blue Ocean

In a successful ________ strategy, the trade-offs between differentiation and low cost are reconciled.

competitive advantage

Mainline Ltd. is a landline telephone manufacturer whose average return on invested capital is approximately 2 percent. Because demand for landline telephones has declined significantly, the industry average return on invested capital has been negative (-5 percent) for the last few years. In this scenario, Mainline Ltd. has a:

Marigold's organizational structures do not align with the vision.

Marigold Servers, a web services firm, has experienced a 7% decline in revenues in consecutive quarters. In an effort to reduce operating costs, managers reduced the customer service staff from 12 employees to 6. Management also enlisted the remaining employees to help produce a new company vision: to give customers of all budgets a customization, stress-free web hosting experience. What is wrong with this scenario?

value drivers

Product features, customer service, and complements are all examples of important:

long-term oriented

Strategic commitments are actions that are:

define a firm's vision, mission, and values.

The first step to gain and sustain a competitive advantage is to:

competitive disadvantage

Under-performance relative to other firms in the same industry or the industry average results in a(n) ________ for a firm.

the increase in value creation exceeds the increase in costs.

Value drivers contribute to a firm's competitive advantage only if:

stuck in the middle

When a blue ocean strategy goes bad, a firm has neither a clear differentiation nor a clear cost-leadership profile. This situation is referred to as:

the tension between value creation and the pressure to keep costs in check

Which of the following best describes a strategic trade-off?

a set of coherent actions to implement the firm's guiding policy

Which of the following is an element of good strategy?

Strategy

________ is best described as a set of goal-directed actions a firm takes to gain and sustain superior performance relative to competitors.

Economies of scale

________ is best described as decreases in cost per unit as output increases.

Minimum efficient scale

________ is best described as the output range needed to bring down the cost per unit as much as possible, allowing a firm to stake out the lowest-cost position that is achievable through economies of scale.