Deck 7: Strategy Formulation and Implementation

Question 1

The essence of formulating strategy is choosing how the organization will be identical to its key competitors in the industry.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Strategy implementation involves the planning and decision making that lead to the establishment of the firm's goals.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Research has shown that strategic thinking and planning positively affect a firm's performance and financial success.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Better-Than-The-Rest, Inc.'s ability to market its products better than its competitors is an example of its core competence.

Question 5

SWOT analysis includes a review of the internal threats and opportunities.

Question 6

Strategic decisions at the business level concern amount of advertising, direction and extent of R & D, product changes, new product development, equipment and facilities, and expansion or contraction of product lines.

Question 7

"How do we compete?" question concerns functional-level strategy.

Question 8

The administration and implementation of the strategic plan is strategy execution.

Question 9

Top managers and chief executives have the final responsibility for strategic planning.

Question 10

Corporate-level strategy pertains to the organization as a whole.

Question 11

Core competence is the plan of action that prescribes resource allocation and other activities for dealing with the environment.

Question 12

Executives acquire information about external opportunities and strengths from a variety of reports, including budgets, financial ratios, profit and loss statements, and surveys of employee attitudes and satisfaction.

Question 13

Competitive advantage refers to the set of decisions and actions used to formulate and implement strategies.

Question 14

The three levels of strategy are business, corporate, and global.

Question 15

Strategy means knowing your desired outcomes, how to acquire factual knowledge, thinking clearly about tactics and cause-effect relationships, and implementing behaviors that will achieve the desired outcomes.

Question 16

The interaction of Production and Sales working together to produce profit greater than the total of both working separately is an example of synergy.

Question 17

The combination of benefits received and costs paid by the customer refers to value.

Question 18

Strategic management largely determines which organizations succeed and which ones struggle.

Question 19

Value occurs when the organizational parts interact to produce a joint effect that is greater than the sum of the parts acting alone.

Question 20

Front-line mangers have the final responsibility for strategic planning.

Question 21

The mix of business units and product lines that fit together in a logical way to provide synergy and competitive advantage for the corporation pertains to portfolio strategy.

Question 22

The task environment sectors are the most relevant to strategic behavior and include the behavior of competitors, customers, suppliers, and the labor supply.

Question 23

The question mark exists in a new, rapidly growing industry but has only a small market share, according to the BCG Matrix.

Question 24

In BCG Matrix, the circle size represents the relative profit made by each business in the company's portfolio.

Question 25

Differentiation, cost leadership, and focus are three of Porter's competitive strategies.

Question 26

According to the BCG Matrix, the cash cow has a large market share in a rapidly growing industry.

Question 27

Organization's with a focus strategy concentrate on a specific regional market or buyer group.

Question 28

Internal analysis examines overall organization structure, management competence and quality, and human resource characteristics.

Question 29

With the leveling force of the Internet and information technology, it has become easier for many companies to find ways to distinguish themselves from their competitors.

Question 30

Cost leadership is a type of competitive strategy with which the organization seeks to distinguish its products or services from that of competitors.

Question 31

Diversification is a strategy of moving into new lines of business.

Question 32

Threats are characteristics of the internal environment that may prevent the organization from achieving its strategic goals.

Question 33

The internet tends to lower the bargaining power of suppliers.

Question 34

The dog, according to the BCG Matrix, is a poor performer.

Question 35

A differentiation strategy can increase rivalry with competitors if buyers are loyal to a company's brand.

Question 36

The BCG (Boston Consulting Group) matrix evaluates SBUs with respect to their business growth rate and geographical location.

Question 37

For the social networking site Facebook, technological know-how and an aggressive and innovative culture, is a significant strength to include in its SWOT analysis.

Question 38

According to Porter, the bargaining power of the government is one of the five competitive forces affecting an organization's competitive environment.

Question 39

The bargaining power of customers is one of Porter's five competitive forces.

Question 40

Vertical integration means a firm expands into businesses that either produce the supplies needed to make products or that distribute and sell those products to customers.

Question 41

The transnational strategy handles markets independently for each country.

Question 42

Strategic partnerships are the current trend, rather than mergers and acquisitions.

Question 43

For successful execution, a strategy must be complex, with a broad plan that breaks the implementation process into a series of actions.

Question 44

Internal innovation means companies are independent and always go at it alone.

Question 45

In strategy implementation, leadership is the ability to influence people to adopt the new behaviors need.

Question 46

Effective implementation is not a necessity if the strategies are truly creative.

Question 47

The plan of action that prescribes resource allocation and other activities for dealing with the environment and helping the organization attain its goals is known as a(n)

A) goal.
B) objective.
C) mission.
D) vision.
E) strategy.

Question 48

Which of the following is a business activity that an organization does especially well relative to its competition?

A) Strategy
B) Synergy
C) Cash cow
D) Core competence
E) Multidomestic

Question 49

A transnational strategy seeks to achieve both global integration and national responsiveness.

Question 50

Dynamic capabilities is the leveraging and developing more from the firm's existing assets, capabilities, and core competencies in a way that will provide a sustained competitive advantage.

Question 51

The set of decisions and actions used to formulate and implement strategies that will provide a competitively superior fit between the organization and its environment so as to achieve organizational goals is known as

A) strategy formulation.
B) strategic planning.
C) strategic management.
D) strategy implementation.
E) strategy evaluation.

Question 52

A firms' leadership is responsible for recruiting, selecting, training, transferring, promoting, and laying off employees.

Question 53

Communication is one of the most important methods for effective strategy execution.

Question 54

Human resources, in strategy implementation, are the ability to influence people to adopt the new behaviors need.

Question 55

The world-wide standardization of product design and advertising refers to globalization.

Question 56

Structural design pertains to managers' responsibilities, their degree of authority, and the consolidation of facilities, departments, and divisions.

Question 57

With a multidomestic strategy, a company will achieve the globalization or standardization of marketing and production approaches.

Question 58

The export strategy treats the world as a single global market.

Question 59

Information and control systems include reward systems, pay incentives, budgets for allocating resources, information technology systems, and the organization's rules.

Question 60

A multidomestic strategy standardizes global products/advertising strategies.

Question 61

Fred has been assigned to conduct a SWOT analysis for his organization, Flintstones, Inc. As part of this assignment, Fred will

A) conduct an external wage survey.
B) search for the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that impact his firm.
C) choose a grand strategy for his firm.
D) do a cost/benefit analysis.
E) develop a mission.

Question 62

Classy Clay has extremely creative employees who, in the opinion of the organization, keep the company ahead of the competition. The creativity of these employees would be classified as

A) an internal weakness.
B) an external opportunity.
C) an external strength.
D) an internal strength.
E) a neutral factor.

Question 63

Techniques used to monitor external environments include

A) hiring scanning organizations.
B) hiring the competitive intelligence professionals.
C) government reports.
D) professional journals.
E) all of these.

Question 64

Which of the following is NOT a strength of the social network company, Facebook?

A) A new legislation that opens the international markets
B) Technological know-how
C) An aggressive and innovative culture
D) A partnership with Microsoft
E) Work networks are exploding and older generations prefer Facebook

Question 65

____ refers to the use of managerial tools to direct resources toward the achievement of strategic goals.

A) Strategy formulation
B) Strategy coordination
C) Strategy implementation
D) Strategy control
E) Strategy planning

Question 66

Which of these questions is central to a functional-level strategy?

A) What business are we in?
B) How do we compete?
C) How do we support our chosen strategy?
D) What business do we buy?
E) Where to market our products?

Question 67

Sears' decision to sell off much of its financial services division is an example of a

A) corporate-level strategy.
B) business-level strategy.
C) functional-level strategy.
D) growth strategy.
E) stability strategy.

Question 68

Decisions regarding the proper amount of advertising for a particular good or service are related to

A) corporate-level strategies.
B) functional-level strategies.
C) tactical-level strategies.
D) business-level strategies.
E) retrenchment strategies.

Question 69

The condition that exists when the organization's parts interact to produce a joint effect that is greater than the sum of the parts acting alone is known as

A) core competence.
B) synergy.
C) value creation.
D) business-level strategy.
E) multidomestic strategy.

Question 70

When properly managed, ____ can create additional value with existing resources, providing a big boost to the bottom line.

A) synergy
B) competitors
C) government contacts
D) command structure
E) cooperation among customers

Question 71

When Philip-Morris, the tobacco giant, bought Kraft, Inc., it was pursuing a

A) corporate-level strategy.
B) business-level strategy.
C) functional-level strategy.
D) multidomestic strategy.
E) retrenchment strategy.

Question 72

Which of the following pertains to the organization as a whole?

A) Business-level strategy
B) Functional-level strategy
C) Corporate-level strategy
D) Operational-level strategy
E) Competitive-level strategy

Question 73

Ford's decision to completely redesign its Ford Taurus can be classified as a

A) corporate level strategy.
B) business level strategy.
C) functional level strategy.
D) retrenchment strategy.
E) stability strategy.

Question 74

When AT&T decided to buy Media One, a cable company, it was pursuing a

A) functional-level strategy.
B) internal growth strategy.
C) multi-domestic strategy.
D) corporate-level strategy.
E) business-level strategy.

Question 75

When Coca-Cola introduced Surge, a new citrus soft-drink, what type of strategy was being pursued?

A) Functional-level strategy
B) Multi-domestic strategy
C) Corporate-level strategy
D) Retrenchment strategy
E) Business-level strategy

Question 76

____ can be defined as the combination of benefits received and costs paid by the customer.

A) Organizational benefits
B) Value
C) Cost-benefit diversity
D) Synergy
E) Core competence

Question 77

Where does the information about opportunities and threats comes from?

A) An analysis of the organization's internal environment
B) A department by department study of the organization
C) Scanning the external environments
D) Employee grievances
E) Financial ratios of the organization

Question 78

A corporate-level strategy is concerned with the question

A) what business are we in?
B) how do we compete?
C) how do we support our chosen strategy?
D) where do we market our products?
E) should we promote from within?

Question 79

Which of the following refers to the planning and decision making that lead to the establishment of the organization's goals and of a specific strategic plan?

A) Strategy formulation
B) Strategy implementation
C) Strategy coordination
D) Strategy control
E) SWOT

Question 80

Flush Away, Inc. is particularly concerned about pending legislation in Congress that would further regulate their organization. This legislation would be classified as

A) an external opportunity.
B) an internal strength.
C) an external threat.
D) an external weakness.
E) a congressional chaos.