Deck 4: Managing Planning and Strategy

Question 1

Managers use scenario planning to generate different future scenarios of conditions in the environment.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Scenario planning is the same thing as contingency planning.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Effective plans have only two qualities: unity and continuity.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

In general,corporate-level planning is the primary responsibility of top management while business-level planning is the primary responsibility of supervisors.

Question 5

A rolling plan is one that is updated every year to reflect changes in the organizational environment.

Question 6

The goal of GE lighting to reduce production costs by 20% over three years is a functional-level goal.

Question 7

An SOP is a written instruction describing the exact series of actions that should be followed in a specific situation.

Question 8

An example of contingency planning is when shell oil generated multiple scenarios about conditions in the world oil market that might prevail in the future,and then developed plans of what the company should do in the event that any of these scenarios actually occurred.

Question 9

Planning is a three-step activity.

Question 10

Henri Fayol said that effective plans have five qualities.

Question 11

The goal of GE lighting to reduce production costs by 20% over three years is a corporate-level goal.

Question 12

Crisis management is the same as contingency planning.

Question 13

First-line managers are responsible for tactical plans with short-term time horizons for their departments or teams.

Question 14

Planning gives managers a sense of direction and purpose.

Question 15

Standing plans are used in situations in which programmed decision making is appropriate while single-use plans are developed to handle nonprogrammed decision making in unusual or one-of-a-kind situations.

Question 16

Corporate and business-level plans are generally short term relative to functional level plans.

Question 17

The degree to which a firm can recover from a crisis depends on how transparent and open the top managers are with stakeholders.

Question 18

The five steps in the planning process are: determining the vision,mission and major goals of the organization; analyzing the forces in the environment; formulating strategies to accomplish goals; implementing those strategies; and evaluating the success of the strategy in achieving the mission and goals.

Question 19

Plans are prepared statements of intent,they cannot be altered without board approval.

Question 20

The intended duration of a plan is known as a rolling plan.

Question 21

Michael Porter's Five Forces model is a well-known model that helps managers isolate forces in the external environment that are potential threats.

Question 22

Michael Porter identified four factors that are major threats in the external environment.

Question 23

A business-level strategy is called differentiation when a firm sets itself apart from the competition by adopting superior quality.

Question 24

"To reduce costs in all departments below that of rival competitors." - This statement is an example of a business-level strategy.

Question 25

Two techniques managers can use to analyze the organizational environment for threats and opportunities are SWOT and Porter's Four Forces model.

Question 26

Corporate strategies include concentrating on a single business,diversification,international expansion,and vertical integration.

Question 27

Attaining superior quality products and services is a way of gaining a competitive advantage in a particular market or industry.

Question 28

A goal is a broad declaration of the organization and/or a statement of its dreams for the future.

Question 29

The organization's vision is generally set by the CEO.

Question 30

The first step of the planning process is the determination of the organization's vision,mission,and goals.

Question 31

The following is an example of a vision statement: "a computer on every desk,in every home,and in every office."

Question 32

In the second step of the planning process,managers analyze the organization's current strengths and weaknesses to formulate strategy.

Question 33

A mission statement is a broad declaration of the organization and/or a statement of its dreams for the future.

Question 34

In the second step of the planning process,managers decide how to allocate the resources required to implement the strategies.

Question 35

A mission statement is a broad declaration of an organization's overriding purpose intended to identify its products and customers and distinguish itself from other similar organizations.

Question 36

Retrenching and concentrating on a single industry is an example of a corporate-level strategy.

Question 37

A SWOT analysis stands for systems,weaknesses,opportunities,and technologies.

Question 38

A SWOT analysis begins with an examination of the internal dynamics of the organization.

Question 39

The letter "O" in the SWOT acronym stands for "obligation."

Question 40

Good goal formulation means making goals which are SMART +
C.

Question 41

Which of the following is an important reason for planning?

A)Planning is a useful way of getting managers to participate in decision making
B)Planning is a means to give the organization a sense of direction
C)A plan can be useful as a device for controlling managers
D)A plan helps coordinate managers of the different divisions to ensure that they all pull in the same direction
E)All of these choices are important reasons for planning

Question 42

Implementation of strategy involves establishing a timetable that includes when goals are scheduled to be completed,such as a Gantt chart.

Question 43

According to Porter,managers must choose between two basic ways of increasing the value of an organization's products: higher quality or lower costs.

Question 44

Luxury car producers follow a focused-differentiation strategy.

Question 45

Strategy implementation involves three steps.

Question 46

Departments such as sales and marketing formulate business-level strategies.

Question 47

Which of the following qualities of an effective plan suggests that at any time only one central,guiding plan should be put into operation to achieve an organizational goal?

A)Unity
B)Continuity
C)Accuracy
D)Flexibility
E)Vertical integration

Question 48

Private label brands like President's Choice and No Name brands exemplify a differentiation strategy.

Question 49

Implementing strategy includes all of the following steps,except:

A)Allocating responsibility
B)Drafting a detailed action plan
C)Allocating appropriate resources
D)Establishing a timetable
E)Analyzing the environment

Question 50

Evaluating the success of the strategy involves monitoring progress,evaluating performance,and taking corrective action to make sure that the mission and goals are being achieved.

Question 51

Implementing strategy may require:

A)Allocating responsibility
B)Creating detailed action plans with a timeframe for achieving specific goals
C)Allocating appropriate resources
D)Holding specific people accountable for performance
E)All of the choices are correct

Question 52

XYZ Corp,a hypothetical retailers of consumer goods pursues a focused differentiation strategy in that it focuses on large retail chains and strives to be the lowest-cost company serving that segment of the market.

Question 53

An example of adding value in the research and development department of an organization is to improve existing products.

Question 54

Differentiation tends to increase the costs of products which can be recouped by charging higher prices.

Question 55

A cost-leadership strategy is a business-level strategy that serves many market segments.

Question 56

A differentiation strategy is one in which the managers try to distinguish the organization's product from the products of competitors.

Question 57

A functional-level strategy to accomplish the goal of reducing costs in the production department,might be to invest in state-of-the-art European facilities.

Question 58

Implementing a strategy may require redesigning the structure,changing the culture,and developing new control systems in the organization.

Question 59

Functional-level strategies add value to the company or lower the costs of creating value.

Question 60

Which aspect of planning is emphasized when it is said that managers need to make every attempt to collect and utilize all available information at their disposal?

A)Unity
B)Continuity
C)Accuracy
D)Flexibility
E)Vertical integration

Question 61

All of the following are business-level strategies,except:

A)cost leadership
B)vertical integration
C)focused differentiation
D)differentiation
E)focused low-cost

Question 62

The goal of GE lighting to reduce production costs by 20% over three years is a _________ goal.

A)corporate-level
B)business-level
C)functional-level
D)departmental-level
E)global-level

Question 63

A plan that indicates how a division intends to compete against its rivals in an industry is known as a:

A)corporate-level plan
B)corporate-level strategy
C)business-level plan
D)business-level strategy
E)functional-level plan

Question 64

TD Bank Group's __________ is to "be the best run,customer focused,integrated financial institution with a unique and inclusive employee culture."

A)mission statement
B)vision statement
C)goal statement
D)SWOT analysis
E)corporate-level strategy

Question 65

A ______________ is a broad declaration of an organization's overriding purpose intended to identify its products and customers and distinguish itself from other similar organizations.

A)mission statement
B)vision statement
C)goal statement
D)SWOT analysis
E)corporate-level strategy

Question 66

When operations managers set goals to reduce shipping time to customers,this is an example of which level of planning?

A)Corporate-level
B)Business-level
C)Functional-level
D)Team-level
E)Global-level

Question 67

Through the use of a ________,managers try to gain a competitive advantage by driving the organization's costs down below the cost of its rivals.

A)related diversification strategy
B)formulation strategy
C)differentiation strategy
D)cost-leadership strategy
E)vertical strategy

Question 68

The organization's vision is generally set by:

A)top management
B)middle management
C)first-line management
D)supervisors
E)external forces

Question 69

When a company targets a specific language group to sell its products to,it is using a _______ strategy.

A)low-cost
B)focused
C)differentiation
D)cost-leadership
E)Stuck-in-the-middle

Question 70

Which researcher developed the Five Forces Model?

A)March and Simon
B)Kahneman and Tversky
C)Fredrick Taylor
D)Hawthorne
E)Michael Porter

Question 71

Evaluating strategy involves which of the following?

A)Monitoring progress
B)Evaluating performance levels
C)Comparing performance against goals
D)Making corrections if the strategy is not achieving the mission and goals
E)All of these choices are part of evaluating strategy

Question 72

The intended duration of a plan is known as a:

A)time horizon
B)rolling horizon
C)goal
D)objective
E)mission

Question 73

The strategy in which managers try to gain a competitive advantage by focusing the energy of all the organization's departments or functions on driving the organization's costs down below the costs of its rivals is called:

A)Concentration on a single industry
B)Diversification
C)Cost leadership
D)International expansion
E)Vertical integration

Question 74

With a differentiation strategy,managers may try to gain a competitive advantage by distinguishing their products or services from competitors on all of the following dimensions,except:

A)Product design
B)Product quality
C)Customer service
D)Customer support
E)Distribution channels

Question 75

A plan that indicates the actions that managers intend to take at departmental levels such as marketing and R&D in order to allow the organization to attain its goals is known as a:

A)business-level strategy
B)formulating strategy
C)functional-level strategy
D)corporate-level strategy
E)top-level strategy

Question 76

Effective plans should have all of the following features,except:

A)unity
B)continuity
C)flexibility
D)accuracy
E)divisiveness

Question 77

A plan that indicates in which industries and national markets an organization intends to compete is known as:

A)corporate-level plan
B)corporate-level strategy
C)business-level plan
D)business-level strategy
E)functional-level plan

Question 78

The desire of Bill Gates of Microsoft to have "a computer on every desk" is an example of a:

A)mission statement
B)vision statement
C)goal statement
D)swot analysis
E)corporate-level strategy

Question 79

"To unleash the power of the internet to deliver the best solutions to Canadians at home,in the workplace,and on the move" is TELUS' __________.

A)mission statement
B)vision statement
C)goal statement
D)SWOT analysis
E)corporate-level strategy

Question 80

Successful innovation that gives a department something unique that its rivals lack is a(n)__________ strategy.

A)low-cost functional
B)corporate-level
C)differentiation
D)efficient
E)focused cost leadership