Mqm 385 Test One

Front 1

The competitive moves and business approaches a company's management is using to grow the business, stake out a market position, attract and please customers, compete successfully, conduct operations and achieve organizational objectives is referred to as its

Back 1

Strategy

Front 2

The heart and soul of a company's strategy-making effort

Back 2

Involves coming up with moves and actions that produce a durable competitive edge over rivals

Front 3

A company achieves sustainable competitive advantage when

Back 3

An attractive number of buyers have a lasting preference for its products or services as compared to the offerings of competitors

Front 4

Which of the following is a frequently used strategic approach to setting a company apart from rivals and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage?

Back 4

Focusing on a narrow market niche and winning a competitive edge by doing a better job than rivals of serving the special needs and tastes of buyers comprising the niche

Outcompeting rivals on the basis of such differentiating features as higher quality, wider product selection, added performance, better service, more attractive styling, technological superiority or unusually good value for the money

Developing expertise and resource strengths that give the company competitive capabilities that rivals can't easily imitate or trump with capabilities of their own

Striving to be the industry's low-cost provider, thereby aiming for a cost-based competitive advantage

Front 5

Changing circumstances and ongoing managerial efforts to improve the strategy

Back 5

Account for why a company's strategy evolves over time

Front 6

A company's strategy can be considered "ethical"

Back 6

If it does not entail actions or behaviors that cross the moral line from "can do" to "should not do" (because such actions are unsavory, unconscionable, injurious to others or unnecessarily harmful to the environment) and if it allows management to fulfill its ethical duties to all stakeholders (shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, the communities in which it operates and society at large)

Front 7

In endeavoring to craft an ethical strategy, company managers

Back 7

Have to go beyond what strategic actions and behaviors are legal and address whether all the various elements of the company's strategy can pass the test of moral scrutiny

Front 8

Management's story line for how and why the company's business approaches will generate revenues sufficient to cover costs and produce attractive profits and returns on investment

Back 8

Best describes what is meant by a company's business model

Front 9

Which one of the following questions can be used to test the merits of one strategy over another and distinguish a winning strategy from a mediocre or losing strategy?

Back 9

How well does the strategy fit the company's situation?

Front 10

The most trustworthy signs of a well-managed company are

Back 10

Good strategy-making combined with good strategy execution

Front 11

The strategy-making, strategy-executing process

Back 11

Embraces the tasks of developing a strategic vision, setting objectives, crafting a strategy, implementing and executing the strategy and then monitoring developments and initiating corrective adjustments in light of experience, changing conditions, new ideas and new opportunities

Front 12

A company's strategic vision concerns

Back 12

A company's directional path and future product-market-customer-technology focus

Front 13

The defining characteristic of a well-conceived strategic vision is

Back 13

What it says about the company's future strategic course—"the direction we are headed and what our future product-market-customer-technology focus will be."

Front 14

Which of the following are characteristics of an effectively-worded strategic vision statement?

Back 14

Graphic, directional and focused

Front 15

Which of the following are common shortcomings of company vision statements?

Back 15

Too broad, vague or incomplete, bland/uninspiring, not distinctive and too reliant on superlatives

Front 16

A company's mission statement typically addresses which of the following questions?

Back 16

Who are we and what do we do?"

Front 17

The difference between a company's mission statement and the concept of a strategic vision is that

Back 17

A mission statement typically concerns a company's present business scope and purpose whereas a strategic vision sets forth "where we are going and why."

Front 18

Perhaps the most important benefit of a vivid, engaging and convincing strategic vision is

Back 18

Gaining wholehearted organizational support for the vision and uniting company personnel behind managerial efforts to get the company moving in the intended direction

Front 19

Company managers connect values to the chosen strategic vision by

Back 19

Making it clear that company personnel are expected to live up to the values in conducting the company's business and pursuing its strategic vision

Front 20

A set of "stretch" financial and strategic objectives

Back 20

Is an effective tool for avoiding ho-hum results

Front 21

A company's "macroenvironment" refers to

Back 21

All the relevant forces and factors outside a company's boundariesgeneral economic conditions, population demographics, societal values and lifestyles, technological factors, governmental legislation and regulation and closer to home, the industry and competitive arena in which it operates

Front 22

Which one of the following is not part of a company's macroenvironment?

Back 22

The company's resource strengths, resource weaknesses and competitive capabilities

Front 23

The state of competition in an industry is a function of

Back 23

The competitive pressures associated with the market maneuvering and jockeying for buyer patronage that goes on among rival firms in the industry


Competitive pressures coming from the attempts of companies in other industries attempting to win buyers over to their substitute products

Competitive pressures associated with the threat of new entrants into the marketplace

Competitive pressures associated with the bargaining power of suppliers and customers

Front 24

The most powerful of the five competitive forces is usually

Back 24

The competitive pressures associated with the market maneuvering and jockeying for buyer patronage that goes on among rival sellers in the industry

Front 25

What makes the marketplace a competitive battlefield is

Back 25

The constant jockeying of industry members to strengthen their standing with buyers and win a competitive edge over rivals

Front 26

Which one of the following does not cause the rivalry among competing sellers to be weak?

Back 26

Low barriers to entry

Industry conditions that tempt rivals to use price cuts or other competitive weapons to boost unit sales

Front 27

Rivalry among competing sellers grows in intensity when

Back 27

Buyer demand is growing slowly and the industry is composed of 6 to 10 competitors that are fairly equal in size and competitive capability

Front 28

Potential entrants are more likely to be deterred from actually entering an industry when

Back 28

Incumbent firms have previously been aggressive in defending their market positions against entry

Front 29

Competitive pressures stemming from the threat of entry are weaker when

Back 29

The industry outlook is risky or uncertain

Front 30

Which of the following is not a good example of a substitute product that triggers stronger competitive pressures?

Back 30

Coca-Cola as a substitute for Pepsi

Front 31

One important indicator of how well a company's present strategy is working is whether

Back 31

The company is achieving its financial and strategic objectives and whether it is an above-average industry performer

Front 32

Which one of the following is not a reliable measure of how well a company's current strategy is working?

Back 32

Whether it has a larger number of competitive assets than competitive liabilities and whether it has a superior quality product

Front 33

Identifying and assessing a company's resource strengths and weaknesses and its external opportunities and threats is called

Back 33

SWOT analysis

Front 34

The two most important parts of SWOT analysis are

Back 34

Drawing conclusions from the SWOT listings about the company's overall situation and translating these conclusions into strategic actions to better match the company's strategy to its resource strengths and market opportunities, correct the important weaknesses and defend against external threats

Front 35

The best example of a company strength is

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Having proven technological expertise and ability to churn out new and improved products on a regular basis

Front 36

When a company has real proficiency in performing a competitively important value chain activity, it is said to have

Back 36

A core competence

Front 37

The difference between a company competence and a core competence is that

Back 37

A company competence represents real proficiency in performing an internal activity whereas a core competence is a competitively relevant activity which a firm performs better than other internal activities

Front 38

The difference between a core competence and a distinctive competence is that

Back 38

A core competence is a competitively relevant activity which a firm performs especially well in comparison to the other activities it performs, whereas a distinctive competence is a competitively relevant activity which a firm performs especially well in comparison to other firms with which it competes

Front 39

Which one of the following is inaccurate as concerns a distinctive competence?

Back 39

A distinctive competence is typically less difficult for rivals to copy than a core competence

Front 40

For a particular company resource/capability to have real competitive power and perhaps qualify as a basis for competitive advantage, it should

Back 40

Be hard for competitors to copy, be durable and long-lasting and not be easily trumped by the different resources/capabilities of rivals

Front 41

The objective of competitive strategy is to

Back 41

Knock the socks off rival companies by doing a better job of satisfying buyer needs and preferences

Front 42

A company can be said to have competitive advantage if

Back 42

It has some type of edge over rivals in attracting customers and coping with competitive forces

Front 43

Which of the following is not one of the five generic types of competitive strategy?

Back 43

A market share dominator strategy

Front 44

Which one of the following generic types of competitive strategy is typically the best strategy for a company to employ?

Back 44

There is no such thing as a "best" competitive strategy; a company's "best" strategy is always one that is customized to fit both industry and competitive conditions and the company's own resources and competitive capabilities

Front 45

A low-cost leader's basis for competitive advantage is

Back 45

Meaningfully lower overall costs than competitors

Front 46

In which of the following circumstances is a strategy to be the industry's overall low-cost provider not particularly well matched to the market situation?

Back 46

When buyers have widely varying needs and special requirements and the prices of substitute products are relatively high

Front 47

The essence of a broad differentiation strategy is to

Back 47

Be unique in ways that are valuable and appealing to a wide range of buyers

Front 48

Opportunities to differentiate a company's product offering

Back 48

Can exist in activities all along an industry's value chain

Front 49

The most appealing approaches to differentiation are

Back 49

Those that are hard or expensive for rivals to duplicate and that also have considerable buyer appeal

Front 50

A firm pursuing a best-cost provider strategy

Back 50

Seeks to deliver superior value to buyers by satisfying their expectations on key quality/service/features/performance attributes and beating their expectations on price (given what rivals are charging for much the same attributes)

Front 51

Strategic alliances

Back 51

Are collaborative arrangements where two or more companies join forces to achieve mutually beneficial strategic outcomes

Front 52

The best strategic alliances

Back 52

Are highly selective, focusing on particular value chain activities and on obtaining a particular competitive benefit

Front 53

Which of the following is not a typical reason that many alliances prove unstable or break apart?

Back 53

Disagreement over how to divide the profits gained from joint collaboration

Front 54

The Achilles heel (or biggest disadvantage/danger/pitfall) of relying heavily on alliances and cooperative strategies is

Back 54

Becoming dependent on other companies for essential expertise and capabilities

Front 55

The difference between a merger and an acquisition is that

Back 55

A merger is a pooling of equals whereas an acquisition involves one company, the acquirer, purchasing and absorbing the operations of another company, the acquired

Front 56

Vertical integration strategies

Back 56

Extend a company's competitive scope within the same industry by expanding its operations across more parts of the industry value chain

Front 57

The strategic impetus for forward vertical integration is to

Back 57

Gain better access to end users and better market visibility

Front 58

Outsourcing strategies

Back 58

Involve farming out value chain activities presently performed in-house to outside specialists and strategic allies

Front 59

The big risk of employing an outsourcing strategy is

Back 59

Hollowing out a firm's own capabilities and losing touch with activities and expertise that contribute fundamentally to the firm's competitiveness and market success

Front 60

A blue ocean type of offensive strategy

Back 60

Involves abandoning efforts to beat out competitors in existing markets and, instead, inventing a new industry or new market segment that renders existing competitors largely irrelevant and allows a company to create and capture altogether new demand E. Involves the use of highly creative, never-used-before strategic moves to attack the competitive weaknesses of rivals