WorksheetsStrategic Management Worksheet Questions
Total questions: 110
Worksheet time: 55mins
The term ___ is used to refer to strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation, with ___ referring only to strategy formulation.
strategic evaluation; strategic management
assessment; planning
strategic management; strategic planning
management cycle; brainstorming
Which of these requires a firm to establish annual objectives, devise policies, and allocate resources?
Strategy formulation
Strategy implementation
Strategy manipulation
Strategy evaluation
Anything that a firm does especially well compared to rival firms is referred to as:
Competitive advantage
Comparative advantage
An external opportunity
Opportunity cost
___ help an organization gather, analyze, and organize information.
Ethics officers
Operatives
Lobbyists
Strategists
___ and ___ refer to economic, social, cultural, demographic, environmental, political, legal, governmental, technological, and competitive trends and events that could significantly benefit or harm an organization in the future.
Internal strengths; external threats
External opportunities; external threats
Internal weaknesses; external opportunities
Internal strengths; internal weaknesses
The term "environment" of PESTEL includes all of the following except:
Air
Water
Firms
Natural resources
During what stage of strategic management are a firm's specific internal strengths and weaknesses determined?
Formulation
Implementation
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Which phase of strategic management is called the action phase
Strategy formulation
Strategy implementation
Strategy evaluation
Allocating resources
___ is not a strategy-implementation activity.
Taking corrective actions
Establishing annual objectives
Devising policies
Allocating resources
Which individuals are most responsible for the success and failure of an organization?
Strategists
Financial planner
Personnel directors
Stakeholders
The first step in strategic planning is generally:
Developing a vision statement
Establishing goals and objectives
Making a profit
Developing a mission statement
What are enduring statements of purpose that distinguish one business from other similar firms?
Policies
Mission statements
Objectives
Rules
Internal ___ are activities in an organization that are performed especially well.
Opportunities
Competencies
Strengths
Management
Long-term objectives should be all of the following except:
Measurable
Continually changing
Reasonable
Challenging
The strategic-management process
Occurs once a year.
Is a single process.
Is a continuous process.
Applies mostly to companies with sales greater than $100 million
Which of the following is not included in the strategic management model?
Measure and evaluate performance.
Perform internal research to identify customers.
Establish long-term objectives
Implement strategies
According to research, organizations using strategic management are ___ than those that do not.
More profitable
More complex
Less profitable
Less static
Which statement should be created first and foremost?
Strategic
Vision
Objectives
Mission
The purpose of a mission statement is to declare all of these except:
A reason for being.
An annual financial plan.
A mission statement is sometimes called all of the following except:
A statement of intent
A statement of law
A statement of beliefs
A creed statement
The mission statement answers which question?
What is our business?
How can we improve ourselves!
What do we want to become?
Who are our stakeholders?
The vision statement answers which question?
What is our business?
How can we improve ourselves?
What do we want to become?
Who are our stakeholders?
Which group would be classified as a stakeholder?
Communities
Banks
Employees
All of these
The three characteristics of a mission statement are a declaration of attitude, a declaration of social policy and:
An employee orientation.
A customer orientation.
A shareholder orientation.
An environmental orientation
Effective mission statements can vary in
Content.
Format.
Specificity
All of the above
Which question(s) are answered in an effective mission statement?
What is the purpose of our organization?
What is our company philosophy or self-concept?
What technology will we employ to achieve our objectives?
All of the above
___ are external forces affecting organizations
Technological forces
Political forces
Economic forces
All of the above
To perform an external audit, a company first must
Get an approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Perform an internal audit.
Gather competitive intelligence and information about external trends.
Hire a consultant to develop a comprehensive strategic plan
An example of a(n) ___ external variable is tax rates.
Economic
Political
Governmental
Demographic
Consumption trend is an example of a(n) ___ variable.
Political
Economic
Social
Demographic
Stock market trends, monetary policies and inflation rates are all ____
Economic variables that could indicate opportunities and threats.
Wildly unpredictable, and therefore not of any use to strategists.
Moving up and down together.
Good predictors of a company's profit margin
Religion is an example of a(n) ___ of force.
Economic
Cultural
Political
Technological
The number of marriages and divorces is an example of a(n) ___ force.
Social
Political
Economic
Governmental
All of the following except ___ are examples of social trends.
Increased level of education
Delays in childbearing
Rising interest rates
Increasing numbers of women workers
If a company benefits by way of a tariff against imports the company would be taking advantage of
An economic trend
A political trend
A competitive trend
A social trend
Technological advancements can create new ___ advantages that are more powerful than existing advantages.
Economic
Social
Environmental
Competitive
Technological advances are important for which of the following?
Service organizations
Computer organizations
All organizations
No organizations.
According to Michael Porter, which of the following is not a competitive force?
New entrants
Rivalry among existing firms
Bargaining power of unions
Bargaining power of suppliers
__, according to Porter, is usually the most powerful of the five competitive forces.
Potential development of substitute products
Bargaining power of suppliers
Bargaining power of consumers
Rivalry among competing firms
Whenever new firms can easily enter a particular industry, the intensity of competitiveness among firms
Stays the same
Increases
Decreases
Neutralizes
Bargaining power of consumers is when the products being purchased are standard or undifferentiated.
Marginal
Low
High
Negative
The total weighted score ranges from ___ in an EFAS.
0 to 4
1 to 4
0 to 5
1 to 5
___ is the first step in designing an EFAS.
Identifying key external factors in the industry
Summing the weighted score for each competitor
Calculating the sales of each competitor
Drawing the horizontal and vertical lines for the matrix
In the EFAS Matrix, the range of weights is ____.
1 to 4
-10 to +10
0 to 1
0 to 10
___ is the average weighted score on the EFAS.
3.0
2.0
2.5
4.0
What is the range for a firm's total weighted score in an EFAS?
0 to 5
0 to 4
1 to 5
1 to 4
A firm's strengths that cannot be easily matched or imitated by competitors are called
Internal audits
Distinctive competencies
External audits
Special properties
Empirical indicators are resources that are either rare, hard to imitate, or ___
Expensive
Inexpensive
Easily substitutable
Not easily substitutable
Which of the following is the first step in developing an IFAS?
Determining the organization's structure
Summing the weighted scores for each variable
Identifying the organization's strengths and weaknesses
Identifying the organization's functions of business
Long-term objectives are needed at the ___ of an organization.
corporate and divisional levels
corporate levels
corporate, business, and functional levels
divisional and functional levels
___ includes increasing the number of salespersons, increasing advertising expenditures, offering extensive sales promotion items, or increasing publicity efforts.
Market Development
Product development
Horizontal integration
Market penetration
When employing a ___ strategy, a firm must be careful not to use such aggressive price cuts that their own profits are low or nonexistent.
differentiation
focus
cost leadership
product development
Which strategy seeks to increase market share of present products or services in present markets through greater marketing efforts.
Market penetration
Forward integration
Market development
Product development
When a domestic company first begins to export to India, it is an example of
Product development
Backward integration
Forward integration
Market development
Which strategy generally requires large research and development expenditures?
Market penetration
Retrenchment
Forward integration
Product development
All of the following situations are favorable to market development except:
When an organization competes in a high-growth industry
When an organization is very successful at what it does
When new untapped or unsaturated markets exist
When an organization has excess production capacity
Which strategy is appropriate when an organization competes in an industry characterized by rapid technological developments?
Product development
BackWard integration
Liquidation
According to Porter, which strategy offers products or services to a small range of customers at the lowest price available on the market?
Low-cost
Best-value
Low-cost focus
Best-value focus
___ are defensive tactics directed at reducing internal weakness and avoiding external threats.
SW Strategies
WO Strategies
WT Strategies
ST Strategies
Which strategies aim at improving internal weaknesses by taking advantage of external opportunities?
SO
WO
ST
WT
If an organization were to match high employee turnover with increased local competition, what type of strategies would be appropriate?
SO strategies
WO strategies
ST strategies
WT strategies
Which strategies use a firm's strengths to avoid or reduce the impact of external threats?
SW
WO
SW
ST
___ strategies are defensive tactics directed at reducing internal weaknesses and avoiding environmental threats.
SO
WO
SW
WT
Which of the following is not a step of a TOWS Matrix?
List the firm's key external threats
Match strengths with external opportunities and record the resultant SO strategies in the appropriate cell
Match internal weaknesses with external threats and record the resultant WT strategies
List the firm's external weaknesses
Which of these is true about strategy implementation?
It is positioning forces before the action.
It is primarily an operational process.
It focuses on effectiveness
It requires intuitive rather than leadership skills
Which of these does NOT belong to strategy implementation?
Setting short-term objectives
Resources allocation
Redefining mission statement
Promoting corporate culture
What is the first step in the comprehensive strategic-management model?
Developing vision and mission statements
Performing external and internal audits
Measuring and evaluating performance
Establishing long-term objectives
___ can be defined as a disagreement between two or more parties on one or more issues.
Avoidance
Conflict
Compromise
Rational discussion
Which of these does NOT belong to marketing policies?
Market segmentation policy
Market positioning policy
Recruitment policy
4Ps policy
Setting short-term objectives are needed for which stage of strategic management?
Strategic formulation
Strategic implementation
Strategic evaluation
All of above
In order to deploy strategic successfully, strategic implementation requires:
To manage forces during the actions
To get special leadership skill
To coordinate among many individuals
All of above
Perhaps the most important limitation of a divisional structure is that it:
Allows local control of situations
Leads to a competitive climate within a firm
Streamlines staff services too much
Is more expensive than functional structure
The most widely used structure is the ___ type
Divisional
SBU
Functional
Matrix
Which of the following is not one of the ways divisional structures can be organized
By geographic area
By product
By suppliers
By process
Strategy formulation:
Is managing forces during the action.
Focuses on effectiveness
Is primarily an operational process.
Requires coordination among many people
Which of these is true about strategy implementation?
It is positioning forces before the action.
It focuses on effectiveness.
It is necessary to establishing annual goals.
All of these
Strategy implementation is primarily a(n) ___ process
Intellectual
Operational
Analytical
Top-management
All of the following are tasks of strategy implementation except
Establishing long-term objectives
Establishing annual objectives.
Establishing policies.
Allocating resources
Because annual objectives ___, they are important for strategy implementation
Represent the basis for allocating resources
Are a primary mechanism for evaluating managers
Help establish organizational, divisional and departmental strategies
All of the above
Which of the following is not true about objectives?
They should be communicated throughout the organization.
They should have an appropriate time dimension.
They should incorporate policies.
They should be measurable
Which of these would not be a good objective statement?
Increase production of product A by 15 percent yearly
Reduce overhead costs 2 percent yearly
Increase the number of customers yearly by 50
Increase inventory sufficient to meet yearly increases in demand
What should annual objectives be?
As specific as possible
As general as possible
Tied into short-term profits
Similar to long-term objectives
A(n) ___ would not be considered a policy
Rule
Form
Milestone
Administrative practice
What are guidelines, methods, procedures, rules, forms and administrative practices known as?
Long-term objectives
Policies
Annual objectives
Strategies
All organizations have what four types of resources?
Buildings, money, human and goodwill
Human, compilers, boards of directors and physical
Financial, physical, human and technological
Accounting, marketing, management and financial
Which of the following are not resources that can be used by an organization to achieve desired objectives?
Financial resources
Natural resources
Technological resources
Physical resources
What type of organizational structure do most small businesses follow?
Divisional structure by product
Functional structure
Divisional structure by customer
Matrix structure
Which of the following statements is false?
Small firms tend to be functionally structured.
Small firms tend to be centralized.
Medium-sized firms tend to be divisionally structured.
Large firms that use an SBU structure often violate the unity-of-command principle.
What is the major disadvantage of a functional structure?
It forces accountability to the top
It enhances career development opportunities
It is often characterized by high employee spirit
All of the above
___ is NOT one of the basic ways a divisional structure can be organized.
By geographic area
By product or service
By customer
By cost
Which organizational structure is the most commonly used in Vietnam?
Divisional
Functional
Strategic business unit
Matrix
A ___ structure is the most simple and inexpensive.
Departmental
Strategic business unit
Functional
Process
A divisional structure by product form of organization is most effective when
Special emphasis needs to be placed on specific customers.
An organization offers many products.
Different marketing approaches are required for various products.
All of the above
A divisional structure by geographic area is most appropriate when
Organizations have similar branch facilities located in widely dispersed areas.
An organization offers only a limited number of products or services.
An organization has many skilled managers.
The firm serves one geographic area
Which is the most costly type of structure?
Divisional
Functional
Centralized
Matrix
A transporting company that organizes activities around customer groups such as colleges, secondary schools and private schools is an example of which type of structure?
Divisional
Centralized
Functional
Matrix
____ is the most complex structure.
Divisional
SBU
Matrix
Functional
What level of management is directly affected by strategy implementation?
Plant managers
Sales managers
Project managers
All of these
Which two variables are marketing policy?
Diversification and budgeting.
Marketing penetration and competition.
Product development and human development.
Market segmentation and product positioning
Subdividing a market into distinct subsets of customers according to their needs and the way they buy and use a product or service is:
Market penetration.
Product diversification.
Price policy.
Positioning
Why is market segmentation an important variable in marketing policy?
It allows a firm to operate with limited resources.
Mass production, mass distribution and mass advertising are not always required.
Market segmentation decisions directly affect marketing mix variables.
All of the above
Which of the following variables are not directly affected by market segmentation?
Product
Place
Process
Promotion
Which variable would be considered part of the product element of the marketing mix?
Advertising
Packaging
Payment terms
Inventory levels and location
Which variable would be considered part of the place element of the marketing mix?
Product-line
Numbers of distributors
Personal selling
Sales territory
Which variable would not be considered part of the promotion element of the marketing mix?
Advertising
Public relations
Sale promotion
Career promotion
Which of the following is (are) true about two different market segments?
They can usually be served with the same marketing strategy.
They usually require different marketing strategies.
They are always in different geographic locations.
They are usually incompatible
Strategy evaluation includes all of the following basic activities, EXCEPT:
Examining the underlying bases of a firm's strategy.
Comparing expected results with actual results.
Comparing results of competitors' strategies.
Taking corrective actions to ensure that performance conforms to plans
The purpose of strategy evaluation is to:
Improve R&D programs.
Evaluate employees' performance.
Make budget changes.
Alert management to problems or potential problems
A revised ____ matrix should indicate how effective a firm's strategies have been in response to key opportunities and threats
FAS
BCG
SPACE
EFAS
One of action in strategic evaluation process is:
Forecasting external opportunities and threats
Creating annual objectives
Adjusting the mistakes in strategic implementation
None of these
