Business Analysis Test
Bank
Course Introduction
Business Analysis is a comprehensive course that explores the systematic process of identifying business needs and determining effective solutions to business problems. Students will develop critical thinking and analytical skills to assess organizational structures, strategies, and operations. Topics include requirement gathering, stakeholder management, process modeling, and the use of data analysis techniques to inform decision-making. The course also covers best practices in documenting business processes, evaluating solution options, and facilitating communication between technical and non-technical stakeholders, preparing students to play a pivotal role in aligning business strategies with technology and operational improvements.
Recommended Textbook
Crafting and Executing Strategy Concepts and Cases 20th Edition by Arthur Thompson
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12 Chapters
1261 Verified Questions
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Chapter 1: What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements about a company's strategy is true?
A) A company's strategy is mostly hidden to outside view and is deliberately kept under wraps by top-level managers (so as to catch rival companies by surprise when the strategy is launched).
B) A company's strategy is typically planned well in advance and usually deviates little from the planned set of actions and business approaches because of the risks of making on-the-spot changes.
C) A company's strategy generally changes very little over time unless a newly appointed CEO decides to take the company in a new direction with a new strategy.
D) A company's strategy is typically a blend of proactive and reactive strategy elements.
E) A company's strategy is developed mostly on the fly because of the constant efforts of managers to come up with fresh moves to keep the company's product offering clearly different and set apart from the product offerings of rival companies.
Answer: D
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3
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Sample Questions
Q1) Adopting a set of "stretch" financial and "stretch" strategic objectives:
A) pushes the company to strive for lesser but adequate profitability levels,because the stretch objectives are considered unattainable.
B) is a widely held method for creating a "scorecard" for monitoring company performance.
C) helps convert the mission statement into meaningful company values.
D) challenges company personnel to execute the strategy with greater enthusiasm,proficiency,and understanding.
E) is an effective tool for pushing the company to perform at its full potential and deliver the best possible results.
Answer: E
Q2) A company's strategic plan:
A) maps out the company's history.
B) links the company's financial targets to control mechanisms.
C) outlines the competitive moves and approaches to be used in achieving the desired business results.
D) focuses on offering a more appealing product than rivals.
E) lists methods of making money in its chosen business.
Answer: C
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Chapter 3: Evaluating a Companys External Environment
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Sample Questions
Q1) Whether supplier-seller relationships in an industry represent a strong or weak source of competitive pressure is a function of:
A) whether the profits of suppliers are relatively high or low.
B) the average number of suppliers that each seller/industry member purchases from.
C) how aggressively rival industry members are trying to differentiate their products.
D) whether demand for supplier products is high and they are in short supply.
E) whether the prices of the items being furnished by the suppliers are rising or falling.
Answer: D
Q2) Identify and briefly explain any two of the factors that influence the strength of competition from substitute products.
Answer: Competitive pressures from substitutes are stronger when: Good substitutes are readily available and attractively priced. Substitutes have comparable or better performance features. Buyers have low costs in switching to substitutes.
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Chapter 4: Evaluating a Companys Resources, Capabilities, and Competitiveness
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107 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) A company's strategic options for remedying cost disadvantages in internally performed value chain activities do NOT include:
A) revamping its value chain to eliminate or bypass some cost-producing activities (particularly low value-added activities).
B) implementing the use of best practices,particularly for high-cost activities.
C) investing in productivity-enhancing,cost-saving technological improvements.
D) switching to activity-based costing.
E) outsourcing the performance of high-cost activities to vendors that can perform them more cheaply.
Q2) Which of the following is NOT an analytical tool for revealing a company's competitiveness and for helping to match the strategy to the company's own particular circumstances?
A) Resource and capability analysis
B) SWOT
C) Value chain analysis
D) Best practice concept
E) Competitive strength analysis
Q3) Why do a company's core competencies matter in crafting strategy?
Q4) Explain why a weighted competitive strength assessment is important.
Page 6
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Chapter 5: The Five Generic Competitive Strategies
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Q1) What market conditions and circumstances make a low-cost provider strategy attractive? What are the pitfalls in pursuing a low-cost provider strategy? What can go wrong?
Q2) Best-cost provider strategies are appealing in those market situations where:
A) diverse buyer preferences make product differentiation the norm and where a large number of value-conscious buyers can be induced to purchase mid-range products.
B) a company is positioned between competitors who have ultra-low prices and competitors who have top-notch products in terms of both quality and performance.
C) buyers are more quality-conscious than price-conscious.
D) there are numerous buyer segments,buyer needs are diverse across these segments,only a few of the segments are growing rapidly,and sellers' products are strongly differentiated.
E) buyers are more performance-conscious than value-conscious.
Q3) What are the keys to sustaining a focused low-cost strategy?
Q4) What are the distinctive features of a best-cost provider strategy? Under what circumstances is a best-cost provider strategy appealing?
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Page 7
Chapter 6: Strengthening a Companys Competitive Position
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is defined as a formal agreement between two or more separate companies in which they agree to work cooperatively toward some common objective?
A) Joint venture
B) Vertical integration
C) Strategic alliance
D) Forward integration
E) Outsourcing
Q2) Relying on outsiders to perform certain value chain activities offers such strategic advantages as:
A) ensuring more costly components or services.
B) improving the company's inability to innovate by allying with "best-in-class" suppliers.
C) reducing the company's risk exposure to changing technology and/or changing buyer preferences.
D) increasing the firm's inability to assemble diverse kinds of expertise speedily and efficiently.
E) reducing its information technology and operational costs so that organizational flexibility is maintained.
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Page 8
Chapter 7: Strategies for Competing in International Markets
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115 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The big problem a franchisor faces is:
A) allowing franchisees to achieve scale economies.
B) maintaining quality control due to a lack of commitment to consistency and standardization.
C) eliminating the costs and risks associated with establishing a foreign business location.
D) sharing foreign facilities and marketing strategies with local businesses.
E) achieving higher product quality and better product performance than with an export strategy.
Q2) Identify and briefly describe the strategic options for tailoring a company's strategy to compete in emerging country markets.
Q3) When is a global strategy "superior" to a multidomestic strategy?
Q4) Discuss why a company desirous of competing in foreign country markets needs to pay close attention to the advantages of the cross-border transfer of competencies and capabilities.Are these transfers often a key to competitive advantage? Why or why not?
Q5) When should a company choose to set up operations from the ground up?
Q6) Briefly identify the special features of competing in foreign markets.
Q7) Explain why an acquisition is better than a greenfield venture.
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Chapter 8: Corporate Strategy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Briefly discuss when it makes good strategic sense for a company to consider diversification.
Q2) One strategic fit based approach to related diversification would be to:
A) diversify into new industries that present opportunities to transfer specialized expertise,technological know-how,or other valuable resources and capabilities from one business's value chain to another's.
B) diversify into foreign markets where the firm has unrelated businesses.
C) acquire rival firms that have broader product lines so as to give the company access to a wider range of buyer groups.
D) acquire companies in forward distribution channels (wholesalers and/or retailers).
E) expand into foreign markets where the firm currently does no business.
Q3) What is the relevance of quantitatively measuring the competitive strength of each business in a diversified company's business portfolio and determining which business units are strongest and weakest?
Q4) Under what circumstances might an already diversified company choose to pursue corporate restructuring?
Q5) Discuss the pros and cons of a strategy of unrelated diversification.
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility,
Environmental-Sustainability, and Strategy
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Q1) When high ethical principles are deeply ingrained in the corporate culture of a company,culture can function as a powerful mechanism for all of the following EXCEPT:
A) communicating ethical behavioral norms.
B) gaining employee buy-in to the company's moral standards.
C) gaining employee buy-in to the company's business principles.
D) gaining employee buy-in to the company's corporate values.
E) boosting short-termism.
Q2) The contention that since there are cross-country or cross-cultural differences in ethical standards,it is appropriate to judge behavior as ethical/unethical in the light of local customs and social mores should take precedence over a single set of ethical standards or what may be applicable in a company's home market:
A) defines what is meant by ethical relativism.
B) defines what is meant by ethical universalism.
C) is the foundation of a social contract.
D) is the basis for the theory of ethical variation.
E) is the guiding principle for religious and moral standards across countries and cultures.
Q3) What is the case for why business strategies should be ethical?
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Chapter 10: Building an Organization Capable of Good
Strategy Execution
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Sample Questions
Q1) A decentralized organizational structure is predicated on the belief that:
A) top executives should establish a collegial,collaborative culture where decisions are made by general consensus on what to do and when.
B) strict enforcement of detailed procedures backed by rigorous managerial oversight is necessary because company personnel cannot be counted on to act wisely or keep costs to a bare bones level.
C) decision-making authority should be pushed down to the lowest organizational level capable of making timely,informed,and competent decisions.
D) most company personnel have neither the time nor the inclination to direct and properly control the work they are performing and that they lack the knowledge and judgment to make wise decisions about how best to do their work.
E) lower-level managers and employees should go up the ladder of command for approval on most all strategic and operating issues of much importance.
Q2) Identify and discuss the basic tenets,the chief advantages,and the chief disadvantages of centralized organizational structures.
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Managing Internal Operations
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Sample Questions
Q1) Motivational and incentive compensation practices that aim at winning the commitment of company personnel to good strategy execution typically:
A) use only positive rewards and never involve the use of tension,fear,job insecurity,stress,or anxiety.
B) entail decidedly positive rewards for meeting or beating performance targets,but also impose sufficiently negative consequences when actual performance falls short of the target.
C) aim at creating a no-pressure/no-adverse-consequences work environment.
D) entail paying the highest wages and salaries in the industry for all jobholder positions and also stressing nonmonetary rewards,like cash bonuses for high-performing employees.
E) put top priority on making employees happy and secure in their jobs.
Q2) Identify and describe ways that policies and procedures facilitate strategy execution.
Q3) Name the five broad areas that information systems need to cover and explain the significance of real-time tracking and reporting.
Q4) Why does a company's budget need to be closely linked to the needs of good strategy execution?
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Corporate Culture and Leadership
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Sample Questions
Q1) Frequently,a significant part of a company's culture is captured in:
A) the company's strategic vision and strategic intent.
B) the stories that get told over and over again to illustrate the importance of certain values and the depth of commitment that various company personnel have displayed.
C) how much stretch is built into the company's financial and strategic performance targets.
D) the vigor and enthusiasm with which it engages in benchmarking and seeks out best practices.
E) the company's track record in taking market share away from rivals.
Q2) A hallmark of a strong-culture company is:
A) strictly enforced policies and procedures.
B) a strongly entrenched competitive strategy.
C) the dominating presence of certain deeply rooted values and norms of behavior that are widely shared.
D) decentralized decision-making and empowered employees.
E) a deep commitment to benchmarking,best practices,and operating excellence.
Q3) What are the distinctive features of adaptive corporate cultures?
Q4) Briefly identify three types of unhealthy corporate cultures.
Q5) What are the distinctive features of high-performance corporate cultures?
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