Deck 1: What is Strategy

Question 1

Strategic thinking deals with the rigid and systematic parts of the strategic management process.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Strategic competitiveness is achieved when a firm successfully formulates and implements a value-creating strategy.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Strategic management includes a process by which organizations analyze and learn from their internal and external environments.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Average returns are returns in excess of what an investor expects to earn from other investments with a similar amount of risk.

Question 5

A sound strategy is easily recognized because it is geared toward a mission of making as much money as possible.

Question 6

The fundamental goal of strategic management is superior performance.

Question 7

The two strategic imperatives for organizations in today's economic environment include opportunity recognition and value creation.

Question 8

The role of strategy is to integrate a long-term vision for the company,the market and competitive conditions encountered,and the company's current situation and capabilities.

Question 9

The outcome or product of the strategy process is referred to as the strategy content.

Question 10

Strategic management always involves planned change,therefore leaders do not need to concern themselves with entrepreneurial activities.

Question 11

The goal of strategic management is to develop permanent competitive advantage.

Question 12

The increasing adoption of strategic management principles by organizations in the non-profit and government sectors of the economy means that these types of organizations must identify financial measures of their performance to gauge whether their strategies are working or not.

Question 13

Most organizations do not operate in dynamic environments therefore they can assume their strategic plans will be implemented as they are written.

Question 14

The value created by a firm is distributed among a number of stakeholders.

Question 15

Risk in terms of financial returns reflects an investor's uncertainty about economic gains or losses that will result from a particular investment.

Question 16

The strategy process is concerned with how,what,why and when type questions.

Question 17

Strategy is the overall concept for how a company organizes itself and its activities to conduct business successfully,deliver superior returns to shareholders,and outperform rivals.

Question 18

Strategy is only concerned with what may happen in the future.

Question 19

The strategic management processes of analysis and formulation are strictly sequential: Analyses must be completed before formulation and not revisited once a strategy has begun to be created.

Question 20

The manner in which strategies come about is referred to as the strategy process.

Question 21

The primary drivers of hypercompetition are:

A) Rising global socio-economic instability and increased inflation
B) The emergence of a global economy and rapid technological change
C) Increased global competition and decreasing tariffs
D) Increased availability of capital and increased competition

Question 22

THE outcome or end-result of a great strategy is:

A) Customer satisfaction
B) Environmental sustainability
C) Superior performance
D) A monopolistic market position

Question 23

Strategic management includes the following:

A) Establishment of strategic direction
B) Analysis of the internal environment
C) Strategic restructuring
D) All of the above

Question 24

A firm has achieved ____ when it successfully formulates and implements a value-creating strategy.

A) Strategic competitiveness
B) A permanently sustainable competitive advantage
C) Substantial returns
D) Legal and ethical core values

Question 25

Strategies do not have to be implemented to be considered successful.

Question 26

Having a clear strategic plan negates any need for managers to understand the firm's business model.

Question 27

Strategic creation is always about change.

Question 28

Strategic thinking is an activity that:

A) Involves shareholders shaping the way strategic leaders create strategy
B) Involves assessing the internal strengths of an organization
C) Involves pursuing a competitive advantage within an industry
D) Involves managers considering how they should organize their thinking to achieve a successful strategic reasoning process

Question 29

In order to cope with hypercompetition,firms need to develop ____ through continuous learning.

A) Competitive resilience
B) Strategic flexibility
C) Strategic power
D) Competitive dominance

Question 30

The strategic management process is:

A) A set of activities that will assure a sustainable competitive advantage and above-average returns for the firm
B) A decision-making activity concerned with a firm's internal resources, capabilities, and competencies, independent of the conditions in its external environment
C) A process directed by top-management with input from other stakeholders that seeks to achieve above-average returns for investors through effective use of the organization's resources
D) The full set of commitments, decisions, and actions required for the firm to achieve above-average returns and strategic competitiveness

Question 31

Strategic formation involves:

A) Managers organizing their strategizing activities to achieve a successful strategy formation process
B) Structuring the organization to ensure it supports the strategy
C) Aligning the strategic control measures to monitor implementation
D) Gaining the support of stakeholders and shareholders for the proposed strategy

Question 32

A competitive advantage:

A) Can be permanent if the firm has successfully implemented the strategic management process
B) Entails reducing investors' risk to near zero
C) Can be identified only if it has been unsuccessfully challenged by competitors
D) Exists when competing firms are unable to find investors

Question 33

Strategic change,a necessary aspect of strategy,requires managers to:

A) Communicate with suppliers to ensure smooth relationships
B) Organize changes to achieve a successful strategic renewal process
C) Listen to the needs of customers
D) Control processes through monitoring and measurement initiatives

Question 34

The strategic leader's work is characterized by:

A) Ambiguous decision situations which make effective decisions difficult to determine
B) A willingness to unify stakeholders through skillful manipulation
C) An ability to identify the correct solutions to long-range problems
D) Concentration on the practical day-to-day aspects of the organization's operations

Question 35

The strategy context is:

A) The external environment of the industry
B) The set of circumstances under which both the strategy process and strategy content are determined
C) The combination of needs expressed by stakeholder, shareholders and customers
D) The economic environment of the country in which an organization operates

Question 36

Strategic thinking involves organizations embracing the past,present and future.

Question 37

The ability to effectively and efficiently access and use information is:

A) Vitally important at the point where a domestic firm enters the global market
B) An important source of competitive advantage in virtually all industries
C) The minimum required for survival in virtually any industry
D) Critically important mainly in high technology industries

Question 38

Which of the following is not a major activity of the strategic management process?

A) Analysis of the internal and external environments
B) Establishment of strategic direction
C) Formulation of strategies
D) Production scheduling

Question 39

A major assumption about the strategic management process is that it is:

A) Inspired
B) Team-based
C) Rational
D) Inclusive

Question 40

One measure by which a non-profit organization might assess the effectiveness of its strategy is by looking at how well its stakeholders are served.

Question 41

The critical outcome measure of strategy is:

A) Customer retention
B) Performance
C) Employee turnover
D) Environmental sustainability

Question 42

The overall concept for how a company organizes itself,outperforms competitors,and earns superior returns for shareholders is called:

A) Value creation
B) Management by objectives
C) Opportunity recognition
D) Strategy

Question 43

What are the four general ways of approaching strategic tensions?

Question 44

What are the key aspects of strategic management?

Question 45

Define strategic competitiveness and above-average returns.What is the relationship between strategic competitiveness and returns on investment?

Question 46

What are the five critical questions that the field of strategy seeks to answer?

Question 47

While seemingly a subject of interest mostly to top managers in large corporations,strategy is important to those even at the beginning of their career because:

A) Interviewers often pose questions that are strategic in nature
B) The odds are that they will be employed by a small business and have the opportunity to affect its strategy almost immediately
C) Employers nearly always send new recruits to strategic planning retreats shortly after the hiring process has concluded and they have begun work
D) Most university graduates will eventually find themselves in jobs entirely devoted to strategy and the planning process

Question 48

To what extent should a firm be committed to a particular strategy versus making frequent changes in the strategy?

Question 49

A traditional approach to planning,mostly used before 1980,that often just extrapolates the past into the future is called:

A) Capital forecasting
B) Policy capturing
C) Environmental scanning
D) Long-range planning

Question 50

What is strategic management?

Question 51

Performance measures of interest to those involved with an organization's strategy should reflect:

A) Marketing outcomes
B) Human resource recruiting and staffing results
C) The company's efforts as a whole
D) The interpretation of external analyses

Question 52

What is strategic thinking and what are its characteristics?

Question 53

Much of our knowledge about "the firm" is from research on firms in:

A) Anglo-American capitalism
B) Japan after World War II
C) German mathematical models
D) Emerging markets

Question 54

Strategy:

A) Dates back to 500bc and the work of the strategist Sun Tzu of China.
B) Applies concepts developed by the strategist von Clausewitz.
C) Includes application of principles of military strategy to business competition.
D) All of the above.

Question 55

What is the difference between deliberate and emergent strategies?

Question 56

Which is true of strategy?

A) Business strategy has similarities with military strategy.
B) Military principles cannot be completely applied in business.
C) Militaries fight over territories, waters, and air spaces, firms compete in markets.
D) All of the above

Question 57

Hypercompetition is a characteristic of the current competitive landscape. Define hypercompetition and identify its primary drivers. How can organizations survive in a hypercompetitive environment?

Question 58

Overall,strategy is:

A) A rulebook.
B) A set of programmed instructions.
C) All of the above.
D) None of the above.

Question 59

Strategy is a set of activities that occur and decisions that are made:

A) Throughout all levels of an organization
B) By a select team of executives charged with strategic responsibilities
C) Primarily by middle managers who are "close to the action"
D) Through a "bottom up" process, beginning with first-level supervisors

Question 60

Briefly describe some of the important elements in the strategic management process.

Question 61

Briefly describe the two strategic imperatives with which every company must contend.

Question 62

What are the primary aspects of the strategic management process?