Deck 1: The Concept of Strategy

Question 1

Why are we able to affirm that "understanding" is the key word across the four attributes of strategy that lead to success?

Answer 1

These four attributes are:
1-Goals
2-Competitive environment
3-Resources
4-Implementation
For each of these four attributes, gaining an accurate insight into the concepts involved is critical. Thus a deep understanding -knowledge about the content, the causes, the drivers and the consequences-of goals, of competitive environment, and of the firm's resources and the implementation process is key to success.
Knowing these phenomena require theoretical and practical insights, linked with some forecasting or betting, because a great deal of uncertainty does exist.

Question 2

CSR stands for:

A)Corporate Strategic Responsiveness
B)Centralized Service-oriented Response
C)Corporate Social Responsibility
D)Corporate Social Responsiveness

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Although common wisdom would assume that superior technical competencies, i.e. skills in your field, are the main determinant of personal success, the example of artist Madonna seems to challenge this assumption. Why?

Answer 3

Madonna is a very successful artist and was actually the world's highest earning female entertainer in 2006. She started as a singer and managed her career with excellence.
In fact, her "technical skills" related to the song field probably do not appear as outstanding; however, she mastered other skills which proved to be determinant for her success. These competencies existed not specifically in her technical field, but related to many attributes and capabilities such as a relentless drive, a permanent quest for superstar status, the ability to draw on others' capabilities, and nurturing these talents. In addition, Madonna has been able to build a strong image and a unique position in the ultra competitive world of entertainment.

Question 4

Is global warming a threat or an opportunity for the world's automobile manufacturers?

A)Both simultaneously
B)An opportunity only
C)A threat only
D)Neither an opportunity nor a threat

Question 5

Firms experience different levels of stability in regards to their external environments. For example:

A)The Roman Catholic church and the US Postal Service inhabit unstable environments
B)Google works in a stable and predictable environment
C)Baghdad Home Security Services Ltd.'s activities take place in a very stable environment
D)The three items above are correct if stable is replaced by unstable and conversely

Question 6

How can a start-up strategy be identified?

Question 7

The critical attributes that may explain artist Madonna's longevity and success are:

A)Relentless drive and quest for superstar status
B)Disciplined style of life and a capacity for working a lot
C)The capability to draw on others' talents
D)All of the above

Question 8

In a large US steel firm, the corporate planning process in 1965 could be described as:

A)Integration of division strategic plans, iteration between divisions and the headquarters, and contact of banks to explore the best deal for providing capital
B)Forecast of demand, determination of targets for each district, determination of need for additional production capacities, decision from top executives, and investment
C)Marketing analysis, estimation of capital costs for the additional equipment, investment proposals, and investment
D)Forecast of demand, analysis of existing resources and competences (tangible and intangible assets), leverage of these competencies, and decision to invest

Question 9

Why do we use the basic framework for strategy analysis?

Question 10

What are the similarities and differences between strategy in the business world and in the military arena?

Question 11

Strategy can be summarized as:

A)The means by which entities or individuals achieve their own objectives
B)The means by which individuals achieve their own objectives
C)The formal detailed plans used by organizations to guide their actions
D)The commitment of top managers to improve their organization

Question 12

Why is integration and cohesiveness a major issue in strategic management?

Question 13

If Honda had a haphazard approach to the US market and succeeded, why use the deliberate dimension for setting strategy?

Question 14

Honda's successful entry into the US motorcycle market has:

A)Provided a battleground for the debate opposing the Design school and the Learning school
B)Been an extraordinary epic where players were discovering the field while dealing with its traps
C)Shown that the rational and analytical model was superior to the Emergence model because only intensive analysis and forecasting were able to fuel this success story
D)Shown the difficulty of entering the US market for Japanese firms because of the cultural, organizational, and legal gaps

Question 15

In 1971Kenneth Andrews said a strategy should define:

A)What business the company is in or is to be in and the kind of company it is or is to be
B)A series of actions to achieve a company's goals
C)A plan of attack
D)The commitment of top managers to achieve goals, and their power of persuasion

Question 16

Business strategy is linked with the following concepts or attributes:

A)Organizational goal, organizational resources, and consistency and integration
B)Organizational goal, organizational structure, and consistency and cohesiveness
C)Organizational structure, consistency and integration, and organizational resources
D)Organizational culture, organizational resources, and consistency and cohesiveness

Question 17

Are corporate-level strategic decisions only made by top managers?

Question 18

The shift in strategy from a plan to a direction leads to:

A)A downgrade in the importance of strategic management
B)An increased integration of flexibility and responsiveness
C)A need for top managers' training about IT techniques
D)None of the above

Question 19

With increased business environment instability, strategy has become:

A)An exercise of "wet thumb", with low reliability
B)Paradoxically, much easier to determine
C)More concerned with the quest for success, and less with detailed plans
D)More concerned with detailed plans, and less with the quest for success

Question 20

Is the business strategy the strategy of a part of the firm or the strategy of the whole firm competing in a specific market?

Question 21

"Strategy as a target" means that:

A)The identification and design of the future of a firm's strategy is part of the strategic process
B)Top managers must check the gap between realized and intended strategies
C)Strategy focuses on the ultimate organizational goal: profit
D)None of the above

Question 22

Strategy analysis:

A)Offers comprehensive answers to all business and corporate strategy questions
B)Is mainly a way to bring top managers together
C)Is not useful when top managers have strong experience with their business
D)Offers a framework to deal with complex situations and integrate skills, concepts, and tools

Question 23

In regard to strategy making, most firms are likely to exhibit:

A)A combination of design and emergence
B)A process labeled as "planned emergence"
C)An interaction between strategic design, through organizational processes, and strategic enactment through decisions made by all members of the organization
D)All of the above

Question 24

In practice, strategy making is:

A)A combination of centrally-driven rational design and decentralized adaptation
B)A combination of luck, organizational politics, and centrally-driven planning
C)Frequently the expression of power struggles among top managers
D)None of the above

Question 25

Strategy can be:

A)Intended, emergent, or realized
B)Intended, emergent, or sustained
C)Emergent, critical, or sustained
D)Realized, emergent, failed

Question 26

When the environment becomes more turbulent, unpredictable, and full of new opportunities:

A)Strategy appears to not be very useful
B)Strategy becomes a vital tool to navigate the firm through "stormy seas"
C)Strategy should be put into the hands of external consultants
D)Strategy becomes an "impossible exercise"

Question 27

Two schools of thought consider the strategic process differently:

A)The Design school sees strategy as a rational process while the Emergent school views strategy as the outcome of interaction between strategy formulation and implementation
B)The Learning school sees strategy as a learning process while the Structural school focuses on the strategy-structure relationship
C)The Psychological school emphasizes the founder's subconscious limitations and assumptions, while the Sociological school studies the strategy formulation process as team dynamics
D)The Design school that sees strategy as a rational and analytical process and the Implementation school which looks at the actual behavior exhibited by an organization

Question 28

Strategy fulfills three major roles. It is a:

A)Coordination device, decision support tool, , and risk reducer
B)Coordination device, strategy goal, and organizational identity builder
C)Coordination device, decision support tool, , and strategy goal
D)None of the above

Question 29

The link between performance and strategy is:

A)Both are needed for the firm's survival and prosperity
B)Firms that do not have a strategy will go immediately bankrupt
C)One cannot directly see which strategic variables impact performance
D)The two sources of superior performance define the two basic levels of strategy within a firm

Question 30

Between the two levels of strategy, the division of responsibility is consistent with the following principle:

A)There is no principle but only limited rationality and trial-and-error processes to find the best articulation between these two responsibilities within the firm
B)Corporate level strategy is the domain of top managers, while division managers are in charge of their business level strategies
C)Corporate level strategy is the domain of the parent company, and the business level strategy is handled by the functional department managers
D)Corporate and business level strategies are not any specific organizational level's responsibility because of the principle of maximum delegation and decentralization

Question 31

Strategy analysis does not generate unique solutions to problems, because:

A)Strategic management is a young science
B)Strategic concepts and tools are produced by scholars, and not diffused to practitioners
C)Top managers lack knowledge of strategic concepts and tools
D)The strategic issues that companies face are too complex to be programmed

Question 32

How do corporate level strategy and business level strategy differ?

A)Corporate strategy defines the scope of a firm's activities, while business strategy focuses on how to beat the competition in a specific product market
B)Corporate strategy defines the scope of a firm's structure, while business strategy emphasizes the relationship of each business with its environment (state, regulators, etc.)
C)Corporate strategy focuses on the overall strategic plan, while business strategy focuses on implementing strategic decisions in each product market
D)Corporate level strategy is concerned with long term goals, while business level strategy focuses on short term sustainability

Question 33

Business strategy defines:

A)The way a firm competes in a particular industry or market
B)The way a firm establishes a competitive advantage over its rivals within a specific industry or market
C)Both of the above
D)Neither of the above

Question 34

The two questions of "where and how to compete" define:

A)A firm's corporate and business strategies
B)A firm's strategic management process
C)A firm's vision and mission
D)A firm's values and culture

Question 35

Strategy can be articulated and communicated in several ways:

A)Vision, Mission, Strategic plans, and Tactical plans
B)Vision, Business models, Public Relation skills, and Strategic plans
C)Vision, Mission, Business models, and Plans
D)Mission, Business models, Strategic plans, and Organizational culture

Question 36

The balance between design and emergence depends mostly on:

A)The type of organizational structure
B)The stability and predictability of a firm's environment
C)Top managers' personalities
D)Middle managers' personalities

Question 37

Concepts, theories, and analytical tools are:

A)Complements to creativity, experience, and commitment
B)Substitutes for creativity, experience, and commitment
C)Not related
D)Inevitably irreconcilable due to different ontological assumptions

Question 38

Strategy improves decision-making by:

A)Reducing the number of possible actions
B)Integrating and pooling the knowledge of different members of the organization
C)Facilitating the use of analytic tools
D)All of the above

Question 39

Prahalad and Hamel used "strategic intent" to describe the articulation of a desired leadership position. This implies that:

A)Strategy should focus more on people and less on financial outcomes
B)Strategy should focus on leadership and top managers' skills
C)Strategy should be more about fit and resource allocation, and less about stretch and resource leverage
D)Strategy should be less about fit and resource allocation, and more about stretch and resource leverage

Question 40

Corporate strategy is concerned with:

A)The scope of the firm in terms of industries and markets, and the allocation of its resources
B)A firm's relationships with its principal stakeholders
C)The corporate governance of each individual business
D)None of the above

Question 41

The fundamental task of business strategy is to determine how the firm:

A)Will make a profit in its industry environment
B)Will deploy its resources to satisfy its short-term financial goals
C)Will deploy its resources to satisfy its long-term goals
D)Can organize its activities to obliterate its rivals

Question 42

The notion of "strategic fit":

A)Is common in strategic literature but means different things to different experts
B)Implies deep coherence across all functions within the organization
C)Expresses how well a firm's strategy fits its internal environment
D)Answers b and c

Question 43

If a firm adjusts its strategy to ensure it is consistent with its external environment, it benefits from a:

A)Strategic fit
B)Strategic leader
C)Benign environment
D)Political and social fit

Question 44

Success is fundamentally linked to:

A)A soundly formulated strategy and luck
B)An effectively formulated strategy and a strong awareness of the rivals' strengths
C)A clear understanding of the game and strong political ties with governments and regulatory bodies
D)A soundly formulated and effectively implemented strategy

Question 45

In 1999, Peter Drucker observed that:

A)Most of the "high achievers" were rich before they started to build their success
B)Planning and a careful description of the future are the keys for success
C)We must know how to be the CEO of our own careers
D)We must know our own personalities in depth to be successful

Question 46

A contemporary phenomenon is known as "winner-take-all markets". This concept is best illustrated by:

A)Lehman Brothers
B)E-Trade and WebVan
C)eBay
D)Peapod in grocery retailing

Question 47

Military strategy and business strategy differ in that:

A)There is no concept like tactic in business
B)A good military strategist must first be a good military tactician - practicing it in the field first
C)The objective of war is to defeat the enemy or its leaders
D)None -there is no conceptual difference

Question 48

Military strategy and business strategy share:

A)Only linguistic roots
B)Some authors such as Carl Von Clausewitz "
C)The existence of resources, conflict, and battle between players
D)The fact that decisions are not easily reversed, are important, and involve commitment of resources

Question 49

Strategy is fundamentally about:

A)Being better than rivals
B)Winning
C)Satisfying all stakeholders
D)Being an excellent "corporate citizen"

Question 50

The basic framework for strategy links:

A)The firm itself, and the industry environment
B)Resources, capabilities, goals, and values
C)The industry environment, structure, and systems
D)The firm itself and its corporate culture

Question 51

The book that is considered as the first treatise on strategy is:

A)Carl Von Clausewitz's Vom Kriege (On war)
B)Sun Tzu's Art of War
C)The Bible
D)Niccolo Machiavelli's Dell'arte della Guerra (The art of war)

Question 52

The shift from Planning to Strategy-making implied:

A)Shifting the planning process to a bottom-up strategic process
B)Shifting from a centralized planning system to a system where the state interferes much less
C)Shifting from a very detailed strategic plan of actions towards a positioning of the firm regarding its markets and rivals
D)Shifting from a detailed strategic plan to a rigorous evaluation of the firm's current and future resources and capabilities

Question 53

Strategic goals have to be:

A)Simple
B)Consistent
C)Long term
D)All of the above

Question 54

Modern strategy has evolved through different perspectives:

A)Because the tenures of Professors at top business schools have shortened
B)Because each year new theories emerge in the business world
C)Because the business environment has changed, and how businesses regard themselves has changed
D)But has now come back to strategic fundamentals

Question 55

In the military field, we generally make the following distinction between strategy and tactic:

A)Tactic is the overall plan whereas strategy focuses on specific actions
B)Tactic is a scheme for a specific action whereas strategy relates to the global plan
C)Tactic encompasses specific political actions within the firm whereas strategy is the overall plan for deploying resources to establish a favorable position
D)Tactic is the overall plan whereas strategy is concerned with the maneuvers to win battles

Question 56

"Strategy" comes from a Greek word which means: "

A)The art of arranging men in a battlefield
B)Generalship
C)The art of maintaining a state's security
D)Maintaining physical and spiritual superiority

Question 57

In the 1980s, Michael Porter pioneered:

A)The application of industrial organization economics for analyzing industry profitability
B)The development of "PIMS" at the Strategic Planning Institute
C)The first synthesis of the resource and capability approach
D)The first synthesis of a process to manage technology in large tech firms

Question 58

From the three stories describing key attributes of strategy at the beginning of the chapter, four factors stand out:

A)Goals, environment, appraisal of resources, and social and cultural implications
B)Goals, internal and external analysis of the environment, effective implementation, and awareness of rivals' strengths
C)Goals, environment, appraisal of resources, and effective implementation
D)Goals, environment, irreversibility of decision, and effective implementation

Question 59

The expression "blue oceans" in strategic management is:

A)Only a figure of speech
B)A concept that signifies the immensity of potential new markets
C)A concept employed in the US Navy's strategic planning process
D)An expression coined by an author to make his management book more attractive

Question 60

The success of an organization in general, seems related to the following variables:

A)Being goal-focused
B)Having a strong and in-depth knowledge of the rules of the game
C)Knowing extremely well its own strengths and weaknesses
D)All of the above plus the ability to implement strategy with commitment, consistency and determination

Question 61

Good strategy analysis generates 'right' answers to strategic problems

Question 62

Strategic decisions are important, involve a significant commitment of resources and should be easily reversible

Question 63

For most firms, luck appears to be the largest factor explaining whether they fail or succeed

Question 64

Appraising a firm's resources consists of:

A)Protecting the firm from its weaknesses and trying to reduce or eliminate them
B)Leveraging the firm's strengths to increase market share and profit
C)Exploiting a firm's internal strengths while protecting its weaknesses
D)Completing 360-degree analytical evaluations of top managers' strengths and weaknesses

Question 65

Strategy is a unifying theme and a general guideline

Question 66

Strategic analysis gives us frameworks to identify, classify and understand issues

Question 67

Strategy answers two basic questions: where and how to compete?

Question 68

Strategy is a detailed plan and a program of instructions that every member of the organization must carefully follow to ensure success

Question 69

Executing a good strategy well often determines the extent of a firm's success

Question 70

The concept of "Strategic fit" describes the gap or fit between the environment and a firm's strategy

Question 71

The role of business strategy can be described as the selection of resources a firm chooses to achieve its long-term goals and the way it organizes those resources into activities

Question 72

Different perspectives in strategy have existed since the 1950s; each of them emphasized a particular aspect of strategy

Question 73

The basic strategy framework links a firm to its owners - the shareholders

Question 74

Strategy denotes the entire plan whereas a tactic refers to a scheme for specific actions

Question 75

Strategy can be defined as the means by which individuals or organizations achieve their objectives

Question 76

An intended strategy is a set of initial ethical intentions; an emergent strategy comprises actions or changes that emerge from the organization or its environment; and finally, the realized strategy is the set of strategic changes and actions that actually takes place

Question 77

A sound strategy requires four components: simple, short term goals; deep understanding of competitive environment; objective appraisal of resources; and effective implementation of the strategy

Question 78

Two main levels of strategy can be distinguished: the corporate strategy level and the business (or competitive) strategy level

Question 79

A firm's strategy includes different components used to articulate and communicate common goals, means and values, such as vision, mission, business model, and strategic plans

Question 80

Business strategy has intellectual origins in military strategy