Strategy and Policy Solved Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Strategy and Policy explores the processes and frameworks organizations use to formulate, implement, and evaluate strategies that drive long-term success. The course examines how external environments, organizational capabilities, and stakeholder interests influence strategic decision-making within various industries. Through the analysis of real-world cases and contemporary issues, students will develop the ability to assess competitive dynamics, articulate mission and vision, and align policy recommendations with overarching organizational goals. Emphasis is placed on critical thinking, ethical considerations, and the integration of functional business knowledge to address complex strategic challenges.
Recommended Textbook
Crafting and Executing Strategy Concepts and Cases 22nd Edition by Thompson Jr
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12 Chapters
1434 Verified Questions
1434 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important?
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112 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why are the capabilities needed to build a sustainable competitive advantage so important to a winning business strategy? Cite one of the company examples in the chapter to illustrate your answer.
Answer: A strategy should be tailored to the company's collection of competitively important resources and capabilities. It is unwise to build a strategy upon the company's weaknesses or pursue a strategic approach that requires resources that are deficient in the company. Examples of winning business strategies cited in the chapter include (1)Pandora's superior capabilities in developing and using algorithms to generate playlists based on listeners' predicted preferences and (2)Apple Inc.'s distinctive innovation and pricing strategies and proliferation across the globe. The capabilities of both of these companies have proven difficult for competitors to imitate or best and have allowed each to build and sustain competitive advantage.
Q2) Mediocre execution of a powerful strategy is a proven recipe for winning in the marketplace. Explain your answer.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Charting a Companys Direction
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Sample Questions
Q1) A VP of Global Products at Tiffany's is in the process of developing financial and strategic objectives. Tiffany's is a luxury jewelry and accessories company. The VP realizes she needs to add short-term and longer-term performance targets. Is it important for her to spell out both short-term and long-term performance targets? Which time frame is more important? Are there tradeoffs involved? Explain.
Answer: A company's set of financial and strategic objectives should include both near-term and longer-term performance targets. Short-term (quarterly or annual)objectives focus attention on delivering performance improvements in the current period and satisfy shareholder expectations for near-term progress. Longer-term targets (three to five years off)force managers to consider what to do now to put the company in position to perform better later. Long-term objectives are critical for achieving optimal long-term performance and stand as a barrier to a nearsighted management philosophy and an undue focus on short-term results. When trade-offs have to be made between achieving long-term objectives and achieving short-term objectives, long-term objectives should take precedence (unless the achievement of one or more short-term performance targets has unique importance).
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4
Chapter 3: Evaluating a Companys External Environment
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Sample Questions
Q1) The lower the user's switching costs, the
A)harder it is for the sellers of attractive substitutes to lure buyers to their offering.
B)more intense the competitive pressures posed by substitute products.
C)less intense the competitive pressures posed by substitute products.
D)greater the bargaining power from both suppliers and influential customers.
E)lesser the bargaining power from both suppliers and influential customers.
Answer: B
Q2) Driving-forces analysis helps managers identify whether
A)the collective impact of the driving forces will act to increase/decrease market demand, increase/decrease competition, and raise/lower industry profitability in the years ahead.
B)it will become more or less important to aim the company's strategy at being the industry's low-cost producer.
C)the driving forces will have a bigger impact on company profitability than competitive forces.
D)the industry is likely to become more or less vertically integrated and why.
E)competitive advantages are likely to grow or diminish in importance.
Answer: A
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5
Chapter 4: Evaluating a Companys Resources, Capabilities, and Competitiveness
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Sample Questions
Q1) The two most important parts of SWOT analysis are
A)pinpointing the company's competitive assets and pinpointing its competitive liabilities.
B)identifying the company's resource strengths and identifying the company's best market opportunities.
C)identifying the external threats to a company's future profitability and pinpointing how many market opportunities it has.
D)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.
E)making accurate lists of the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and then using these lists as a basis for ascertaining how well the company's strategy is working.
Q2) You have chosen as a course project to review CannaCraft, a Northern California integrated manufacturer and marketer of medical cannabis products. What indicators would you examine to determine whether or not CannaCraft's present strategy is working well?
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Page 6
Chapter 5: The Five Generic Competitive Strategies
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119 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Broad differentiation strategies are well-suited for market circumstances where
A)there are many ways to differentiate the product or service that has value to buyers.
B)most buyers have the same needs and use the product in the same ways.
C)technological changes are slow-paced.
D)barriers to entry are high and suppliers have a low degree of bargaining power.
E)price competition is especially vigorous.
Q2) A broad differentiation strategy is generally not suitable for attaining a competitive advantage when
A)buyer needs and preferences are too diverse to be fully satisfied by a standardized product.
B)few rivals are pursuing a similar differentiation approach.
C)products of rivals are weakly differentiated.
D)there are many ways to differentiate a product or a service and many buyers perceive these differences valuable.
E)technological change is fast-paced and competition revolves around rapidly evolving product features.
Q3) What are the keys to sustaining a focused low-cost strategy?
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Chapter 6: Strengthening a Companys Competitive Position
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Sample Questions
Q1) Merger and acquisition strategies
A)are nearly always superior alternatives to forming alliances or partnerships with these same companies.
B)may offer considerable cost-saving opportunities and can also be beneficial in helping a company try to invent a new industry.
C)are a particularly effective way of pursuing a blue-ocean strategy and an outsourcing strategy.
D)seldom are superior alternatives to forming alliances with these same companies because of the financial drain of using the company's cash resources to accomplish the merger or acquisition.
E)are one of the best ways for helping a company strongly differentiate its product offering and use a differentiation strategy to strengthen its market position.
Q2) What are the purposes of defensive strategies? Give at least two examples of defensive moves.
Q3) What are the strategic advantages of being a first-mover? Are there any strategic advantages of being a follower or late-mover?
Q4) When is a strategic alliance most likely to be unsuccessful?
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Chapter 7: Strategies for Competing in International Markets
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132 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Sandi is considering conditions that make an internal startup strategy appealing over an acquisition, and has determined that she would ONLY choose an internal startup strategy when an internal startup
A)is more costly.
B)affects the supply-demand balance by increasing production capacity.
C)is unable to gain distribution access advantages.
D)has the necessary scale and resource strengths to compete with rivals.
E)lacks the experience in establishing new subsidiaries.
Q2) When seeking to develop competitive strength in a foreign market, firms generally DO not evaluate the
A)differences among buyer tastes for a particular product or service from country to country.
B)competitive pressures to lower costs.
C)competitive risks associated with a fluctuating exchange rate.
D)degree of country political risk.
E)level of industry-related support activities to foster customization of products and services.
Q3) What are the pros and cons of using strategic alliances to try to enhance a company's ability to compete in foreign markets?
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Corporate Strategy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Under what circumstances might a diversified firm choose to divest one or more of its businesses?
Q2) The businesses in a diversified company's lineup exhibit good resource fit when A)the resource requirements of each business exactly match the resources the company has available.
B)individual businesses have matching resource requirements at points along their value chain and add to a company's overall resource strengths and when solid parenting capabilities exist without spreading itself too thin.
C)each business generates just enough cash flow annually to fund its own capital requirements and thus does not require cash infusions from the corporate parent.
D)each business unit produces sufficient cash flows over and above what is needed to build and maintain the business, thereby providing the parent company with enough cash to pay shareholders a generous and steadily increasing dividend.
E)there are enough cash cow businesses to support the capital requirements of the cash hog businesses.
Q3) What is meant by the term "resource fit" as it applies to evaluating a diversified company's business lineup?
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Chapter 9: Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility,
Environmental Sustainability, and Strategy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Internal administrative costs which are incurred by companies for ethical wrongdoing include all of the following EXCEPT
A)costs attached to adverse effects on employee productivity.
B)costs of remedial education and ethics training to company personnel.
C)costs incurred in taking corrective actions.
D)administrative costs associated with future compliance.
E)legal and investigative costs.
Q2) According to integrated social contracts theory, the ethical standards a company should try to uphold
A)are governed by the school of ethical universalism.
B)are governed both by a limited number of universal ethical principles and the circumstances of local cultures, traditions, and shared values.
C)are governed by each country's Code of Required Ethical Conduct, which sets forth that each individual/group/business/organization has a "social contract" to observe the ethical and moral standards that the country has adopted.
D)should be determined by the company's moral managers.
E)should be absolute and avoid wiggle room according to the circumstances of the situation.
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Chapter 10: Building an Organization Capable of Good Strategy Execution
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Sample Questions
Q1) Organizing a company's work effort to promote successful strategy execution involves
A)deciding how much to spend on training managers and employees.
B)deciding which value chain activities to perform in-house and which to outsource, and making internally performed strategy-critical value chain activities the main building blocks in the organization structure.
C)choosing an organization structure that is a tight fit with the corporate culture.
D)hiring an inexpensive yet capable management team.
E)instituting a compensation structure that reduces employee turnover and thus stabilizes the makeup of work teams.
Q2) Does Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., have sole responsibility for strategy execution and for making sure that the task of implementing and executing the strategy for that company goes well?
Q3) Identify and briefly discuss the four types of organizational structures that can be aligned with strategy execution.
Q4) Explain what is involved in building capabilities internally. What steps are required? How much time does it take? How hard is it? Support your answer.
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Chapter 11: Managing Internal Operations
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why would Belinda, owner of GC Micro, a $70 million company that manufactures customized IT equipment and software for Fortune 1000 companies and defense contractors, decide to invest in a total quality management (TQM)program?
A)because a TQM program deals exclusively with procedures to achieve defect-free manufacturing and assembly
B)because a TQM program nearly always contributes more to the achievement of operating excellence than either business process reengineering or Six Sigma quality control techniques
C)because a TQM program entails creating a corporate culture bent on continuously improving the performance of every task and every value chain activity
D)because TQM programs are considerably more effective in improving manufacturing and assembly activities than they are in improving such value chain activities as R&D, human resources management, supply chain management, information technology, sales, and marketing and finance
E)because TQM programs are generally considered the best tool for reengineering strategy-critical business processes
Q2) How has Wegmans created a strategy-supportive reward structure?
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Corporate Culture and Leadership
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Sample Questions
Q1) When a company's culture is out of sync with what is needed for strategic success and good strategy execution
A)the strategy has to be changed as rapidly as possible to regain harmony with cultural norms.
B)company personnel need to cling to familiar practices, be wary of change, and blame top management for any shortfalls in performance.
C)management needs to go on the offensive to reinterpret the culture and explain to company personnel why there really is good overall cultural fit with the strategy.
D)any unhealthy or dysfunctional cultural traits must be changed as fast as possible and management needs to be aggressively striving to ingrain new behaviors and work practices that will enable first-rate strategy execution.
E)management must sanction any company personnel who refuse to participate in an all-out effort to create a different portfolio of competencies and capabilities that will permit the strategy to be changed in ways that will fit the culture.
Q2) What are the two things involved in the leadership challenge to consistently achieve good strategy execution?
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