Deck 14: Strategic Implementation

Question 1

A visionary 'battle cry' is usually enough to engender commitment to the implementation.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Opponents to implementation should be ignored.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Integration through shared goals will not lead to real commitment.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Marketing strategies are concerned exclusively with the needs of customers.

Question 5

The beginning of an implementation process is unlikely to be dominated by the management of perceptions and beliefs.

Question 6

The same human resource strategies are used in high-growth firms and in cost-oriented businesses.

Question 7

Strategic management begins with the creation and execution of strategies,followed by the definition of goals that can be met by following these strategies.

Question 8

An effective operations unit is one that promises the maximum efficiency or engineering perfection independent of the strategy of the business overall.

Question 9

Enactment is the process of influencing the environment to make it less hostile and more conducive to organizational success.

Question 10

It is not necessary for individuals in an organization to become integrated with the implementation process.

Question 11

New solutions to issues emerging through the implementation process will take hold within the organization quickly and unproblematically.

Question 12

Potential promoters of implementation display negative or passive behaviour,but their attitude is positive.

Question 13

Some organizations have built their entire competitive strategy on effective use of information systems.

Question 14

Successful implementation requires management of direct and indirect aspects of strategic change.

Question 15

Functional strategies are detailed action plans for implementing the growth and competitive strategies of the company.

Question 16

The more profound,long-lasting and important the implementation process the more the need for a top-down approach is.

Question 17

Hidden opponents of implementation are characterized as displaying negative attitudes but positive behaviour.

Question 18

The "complete alignment of the company's strategy ,structure,and value chain" describes the concept of fit.

Question 19

The management of perceptions and beliefs aims primarily at attitude acceptance

Question 20

Involvement of individuals in the implementation process through membership of teams,groups or steering-committees is call structural integration.

Question 21

The implementation process is unlikely to be successful if ________ are/is not fully aligned:

A) Budgets
B) Marketing
C) Structure
D) Ideas

Question 22

The implementation process can be designed as a grand 'master plan' that covers all eventualities.

Question 23

Effective metrics should be able to be translated to all levels of employees in the organization.

Question 24

Centralization and decentralization are broad structural philosophies that relate to the degree to which:

A) Power and responsibility for decision-making are devolved
B) Managers form peer groups
C) Marketing is controlled
D) Creativity and innovation are enhanced

Question 25

The following are useful tools to manage power and politics during implementation:

A) Incentives
B) Countertrading
C) Sanctions
D) All of the above

Question 26

A key task for implementation management is to induce and develop positive,and diminish negative attitudes and behavioural patterns among key opinion formers.

Question 27

Managing issues during an implementation process is crucial and represents the rational and functional dimension; it involves:

A) Training
B) Phase concepts
C) Project teams
D) All of the above

Question 28

In most organizations,research and development strategy deals with all of the following except:

A) Product development
B) Applications development
C) Basic research
D) Human resource development

Question 29

What aspects of implementation can be changed indirectly?

A) Values and culture
B) Management information systems
C) Quality and excellence
D) A and C above

Question 30

Which of the following activities is most closely related to marketing strategies?

A) Identifying product opportunities
B) Technology development
C) Basic research
D) Applications development

Question 31

________,power and politics are managed by single colleagues or groups of colleagues who act as peers or peer groups.

A) Externally
B) Internally
C) Horizontally
D) All of the above

Question 32

Power and politics can be exerted:

A) Through clearly defined terms
B) Stories and symbols
C) Top down communications
D) By individuals as well as by groups

Question 33

Successful implementation requires that:

A) Goals are vague
B) Responsibility is devolved
C) The number of strategies being pursued at any one time is limited
D) Performance is not measured.

Question 34

What aspects of implementation can be changed directly?

A) Propensity towards innovation
B) Management systems
C) Communication systems
D) B and C above

Question 35

Managing perceptions and beliefs involves:

A) Role models
B) Steering committees
C) Benchmarking/Best Practices
D) All of the above

Question 36

It is crucial that the metrics of the company be unique to its mission. That is why ROE (return on equity)is a good metric for any company to use.

Question 37

Power and politics management aims at ________ and tries to have an impact on open opponents and potential promoters.

A) Better communication
B) Behaviour acceptance
C) Increased budget controls
D) Stakeholder management

Question 38

Implementation is:

A) Enjoyable but difficult
B) The core task of change management
C) An isolated activity
D) Not necessary for strategies to be successful

Question 39

Well-developed functional strategies should have all of the following characteristics except:

A) They are inexpensive to implement
B) Decisions made within each functional area should represent a consistent pattern
C) They should be consistent with the strategies of the business
D) Decisions made in one functional area should be consistent with those made in other functional areas

Question 40

Implementation is more than the linking stage between 'planning' and 'realization'; it encompasses the entire change process.

Question 41

How can the problems of successful implementation be countered?

Question 42

Strategy implementation is focused on defining what constitutes success,the means to get there,and ________.

A) How long the journey will take
B) How to reward that success
C) The ability to measure its achievement
D) Getting stakeholders to commit to the direction

Question 43

________ metrics are measures of success that are descriptive and relative rather than point-specific.

A) Brand-driven
B) Qualitative
C) Balance sheet
D) Stakeholder

Question 44

What are the characteristics of a well-developed functional strategy?

Question 45

What are the organizational aspects that can be directly changed during implementation of strategies?

Question 46

The stage of the strategic management process where the firm makes decisions about the allocation of resources,how to structure the organization and motivate employees,and in which types of activities the company will engage is called:

A) Analysis
B) Evaluation
C) Formulation
D) Implementation

Question 47

Which of the following is not one of the five keys to implementation control?

A) Fit
B) Clear and compelling objectives
C) Rank-and-file participation
D) A single company currency

Question 48

A single company currency,one of the five keys to implementation control,means that a company should:

A) Reward as many people as possible using the same "currency"
B) Use the same financial reporting standards throughout the organization
C) Control expenses by using a single company credit card for travel and entertainment
D) Reward everyone who has an acceptable level of performance or better with the same percentage merit raises

Question 49

What are the five overall keys to implementation control?

Question 50

This is a characteristic of effective metrics:

A) They are both quantitative and qualitative
B) They are balanced across functional areas
C) They are connected to incentives
D) All of the above

Question 51

What is needed to increase the chances of successful strategy implementation?

Question 52

________ metrics are numerically based measures of firm success.

A) Quantitative
B) Financial
C) Market-driven
D) Rigorous

Question 53

________ is an assessment of why things work the way they do.

A) Intuition
B) Experience-based inference
C) Causal logic
D) Confirmatory inference

Question 54

What are the four problem areas associated with the successful implementation of strategies?

Question 55

What are the indirect aspects changed during implementation of strategies?

Question 56

Useful metrics should meet the following criterion,among others:

A) Should be able to be expressed quantitatively
B) Can be measured with information derived from the financial statements
C) Are revised easily after one quarter if goals are missed
D) Can be translated to all levels of employees within the organization

Question 57

How are marketing strategies affected by the firm's business-level strategy?

Question 58

What are the aspects of implementation that can be changed indirectly?

Question 59

While averages are often used,it is the ________ in a quantitative performance metric that is an extraordinarily powerful measure of performance improvement.

A) Reduction
B) Variation
C) Calculated logarithm
D) Median

Question 60

What are the problems associated with successful implementation?

Question 61

Identify seven propositions that are said to make strategic implementation more likely to take hold.

Question 62

Identify the characteristics of metrics that can be used effectively at the functional level of an organization.