Intro to Strategy

1. What’s the key difference between strategy and tactics?

• Strategy is about day-to-day tasks, tactics are long-term.
• Strategy is the long-term plan, tactics are short-term actions.
• Strategy requires no planning, tactics need planning.
• Tactics allocate resources, strategy executes them.

2. Which describes strategic decisions?

• Made quickly with little information.
• Easily reversed, few resources needed.
• Involves resources, hard to reverse.
• Always reversible with minor impacts.

3. What defines a successful strategy?

• Long-term stability without market awareness.
• Achieving short-term financial goals quickly.
• Ignoring competition and focusing internally.
• Deep understanding of market and good execution.

4. How does strategy link a firm to its environment?

• Keeps the firm isolated from market trends.
• Focuses mainly on internal resources and strengths.
• Emphasizes customer feedback over everything.
• Aligns goals with external threats and opportunities.

5. What is a core focus of corporate strategy?

• How can we lower production costs?
• What price should we charge for products?
• Which businesses should we be in?
• How can we maximize daily revenue?

6. What is the "rate of profit above the cost of capital"?

• It represents the total value of all company assets.
• It tracks how much revenue comes from new products.
• It shows how a firm makes money sustainably.
• It's the overall annual budget allocation.

7. Why is committing to a plan important?

• It stops teams from being flexible or adaptive.
• It ensures all are aligned to the same goals.
• It focuses mainly on quarterly profits.
• It prevents changes to the strategic plan.

8. Why is job design key to strategy execution?

• Jobs must align with strategy for success.
• Roles are irrelevant to strategic alignment.
• Job design focuses only on employee happiness.
• Execution depends on external factors.

9. What boosts successful strategy implementation?

• Reducing resources for new initiatives.
• Keeping strategic plans secret.
• Limiting decision-making to the CEO.
• Engaging and rewarding employees.

10. What’s the difference between Operational Efficiency (OE) and strategy?

• OE involves innovation, strategy doesn’t.
• OE improves efficiency; strategy positions differently.
• Strategy focuses on short-term results, OE long-term.
• OE is about creativity, strategy is standardization.