Deck 6: Gap analysis and business-level strategic options

Question 1

The set of measures used to compare organisation performance with key competitors is:
A) market penetration, financial performance, service performance, technological performance

A) market posture, financial performance, strategy perfection, environmental performance
B) market position, financial performance, service performance, technological performance
D) market position, environmental performance, strategy performance, capability performance

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The circumstances that may justify unrelated diversification are:

A) counter-intuitive diversification
B) counter-cyclical diversification
C) excess industry capacity in existing and related industries
D) opportunity to use scarce, difficult to imitate organisational capabilities

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The product-market matrix does NOT offer the option of:

A) more existing product(s) into existing market(s)
B) new product(s) into existing market(s)
C) existing product(s) into foreign market(s)
D) imported product(s) into new market(s)

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The leader strategy suggested by the TQM movement combines:

A) differentiation and high quality
B) differentiation and low cost
C) disaggregation and low quality
D) disaggregation and low cost

Question 5

A current competitive strength may disappear because of:

A) future competitor responses
B) changes in technology
C) the organisation's own complacency
D) all of the above

Question 6

Considering organisational performance in relation to strategy choice and implementation,Hubbard et al.and Treacy & Wiersema argue that:

A) some organisations underperform because they implement their strategy better than others
B) some organisations outperform despite choosing a different strategy than others
C) some organisations outperform because they implement their strategy better than others
D) some organisations underperform despite choosing a different strategy than others

Question 7

The risks of differentiation strategy do NOT include:

A) degree of differentiation is not sustained
B) differentiation is not sufficient for the cost difference to the customer
C) a focuser will out-differentiate the differentiator
D) differentiation is not sufficient for the cost difference to the differentiator

Question 8

Porter's original three generic strategies were:

A) desegregation, focus, high quality
B) disaggregation, forecast, low quality
C) differentiation, focus, low cost
D) disaffection, focus, high cost

Question 9

The 'value discipline' approach to generic strategy rests on:

A) operational excellence, customer loyalty, product leadership
B) operational excellence, customer intimacy, product leadership
C) operational excellence, customer intimacy, product ownership
D) focused excellence, customer relevance, proximity leadership

Question 10

Family-owned small businesses do not desire to achieve growth due to many factors excluding:
A) need to delegate authority to non-family member

A) making sufficient profits
B) taking on responsibility of employing large number of people
D) threat of attracting scrutiny of anti-competitive authority such as ACCC

Question 11

Which growth option may be appropriate for organisations operating in mature industries?

A) withdrawal
B) consolidation
C) liquidation
D) adumbration

Question 12

The 'ESC' in the ESC gap analysis process stands for:

A) external strategic capability
B) environmentally sustainable corporation
C) exogenously suitably consistent
D) environment strategy capability

Question 13

The capability versus comparative strength exercise is often based on:

A) an assessment of current position
B) present capability analysis
C) both of the above
D) none of the above

Question 14

A way that closely related product development for existing markets can take place is to:

A) remove product features and refinements
B) expand the production mix
C) develop a new-generation product
D) develop new products for new markets

Question 15

The two ways that related markets can be developed for existing products are:

A) target new customer segments and/or expand geographically
B) target old customer segments and/or expand regionally
C) target new consumer segments and/or expand internationally
D) target old consumer markets and/or expand locally

Question 16

Which of the following is NOT a key element of 'blue ocean' strategy developed by Kim and Mauborgne?

A) creating or finding uncontested market space by seeking opportunities based on customer needs, and what competitors currently do
B) making the competition irrelevant by offering new and different products that cross industry boundaries
C) creating and capturing new demand
D) pursuing differentiation and low cost simultaneously

Question 17

A key feature of 'stuck in the middle' organisations is:

A) inability to choose a clear generic strategy
B) products which have unique value to customers
C) communicating their business strategy to their operating staff
D) implementing a set of control systems which are consistent with defined business strategy

Question 18

The risks of a low-cost strategy do NOT include:

A) too narrow a focus on profit margins
B) too narrow a focus on cost control
C) cost leadership is not sustained
D) focus strategy is able to offer even lower costs

Question 19

A focus strategy can be achieved by competing on the basis of:

A) broad product line, customer or geographic segmentation, focused functional capability
B) narrow product line, customer or geographic segmentation, focused functional capability, keeping costs down
C) narrow product line, customer or geographic segmentation, focused production capability
D) small profit margin, customer or geographic segmentation, focused functional capability

Question 20

Porter and Kramer suggested four reasons why organisations should address CSR.Which of the following was NOT mentioned by them?

A) moral obligation  
B) the necessity to maintain a licence to operate
C) organisation's reputation
D) pressures from customers

Question 21

Current reported financial performance may simply lull the organisation into a false sense of security.

Question 22

Hart argued that there are three possible green sustainability strategies: pollution prevention,product stewardship and sustainable development.

Question 23

Adding product features is an example of seeking growth in existing product markets.

Question 24

Of the choice between new product(s)into existing market(s)and existing product(s)into new market(s),which is riskier and why?
ket.

Question 25

'Not to grow' is an inappropriate organisational desire.

Question 26

The capability versus competitive strength exercise is often based on an assessment of the future position.

Question 27

In order to adopt 'premium pricing' strategy,it is important not to view organisational products and services as 'commodities'.

Question 28

The 'focus strategy' is most relevant to small organisations.

Question 29

'Porter's three "generic" strategies oversimplify the strategic choices available to organisations.' Comment.

Question 30

Seeking growth is an inappropriate option for poorly performing organisations.

Question 31

'Gap analysis is useless because it only identifies yesterday's "gaps" and tells us nothing about where tomorrow's "gaps" will occur.' Is this a fair criticism? Provide reasons.

Question 32

An important aspect of assessing the performance of the business strategy is to formally identify the expectations from the shareholders.