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

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

The best quantitative evidence of whether a company's present strategy is working well is

C. The caliber of results the strategy is producing, specifically whether the company is achieving its financial and strategic objectives and whether it is an above-average industry performer

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

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

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

A. SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is a powerful tool for

B. Sizing up a company's resource capabilities and deficiencies, its market opportunities and the external threats to its future well-being

SWOT analysis

D. Provides a good overview of whether a company's situation is fundamentally healthy or unhealthy

The payoff of doing a thorough SWOT analysis is

E. Assisting strategy-makers in crafting a strategy that is well-matched to the company's resources and capabilities, its market opportunities and the external threats to its future well-being

Which one of the following is not part of conducting a SWOT analysis?

B. Benchmarking the company's resource strengths and competitive capabilities against industry key success factors

The two most important parts of SWOT analysis are

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

The three steps of SWOT analysis are

A. Identifying the company's resource strengths and weaknesses and its opportunities and threats, drawing conclusions about the company's overall situation and translating the conclusions into strategic action to improve the company's strategy

A company resource strength can concern

E. All of these

Which of the following most accurately reflect a company's resource strengths?

A. Its human, physical and/or organization assets; its skills and competitive capabilities; achievements or attributes that enhance the company's ability to compete effectively; and whether it is engaged in competitively valuable alliances or cooperative ventures

A company's resource strengths are important because

B. They represent its competitive assets and are big determinants of its competitiveness and ability to succeed in the marketplace

A company's resource strengths

C. Signal whether it has the wherewithal to be a strong competitor in the marketplace or whether its capabilities and competitive strengths are modest, thus relegating it to a trailing position in the industry

The best example of a company strength is

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

Which of the following is not a good example of a company strength?

C. Having higher earnings per share and a higher stock price than key rivals

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

B. A core competence

When a company is good at performing a particular internal activity, it is said to have

E. A company competence

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

D. 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

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

C. 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

A core competence

E. All of the above

A core competence

A. Gives a company competitive capability and is a genuine company strength and resource

When a company performs a particular competitively important activity truly well in comparison to its competitors, it is said to have

C. A distinctive competence

Which of the following does not represent a potential core competence?

D. Having a wider product line than rivals

A distinctive competence

E. All of the above

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

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

The competitive power of a company's core competence or distinctive competence depends on

B. How hard it is to copy and how easily it can be trumped by the different resource strengths and competitive capabilities of rivals

The competitive power of a company resource strength or competitive capability hinges on

E. All of these

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

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

The competitive power of a company resource strength is not measured by which one of the following tests?

B. Is the resource strength something that a company does internally rather than in collaborative arrangements with outsiders?

If a company doesn't possess a distinctive competence,

C. It can still marshal competitive power in the marketplace via a collection of adequate-to-good resource strengths

A company resource weakness or competitive deficiency

E. Is something a company lacks or does poorly (in comparison to rivals) or a condition that puts it at a disadvantage in the marketplace

A company's resource weaknesses can relate to

E. All of these

In doing SWOT analysis, which one of the following is not an example of a potential resource weakness or competitive deficiency that a company may have?

B. Having a single, unified functional strategy instead of several distinct functional strategies

Sizing up a company's overall resource strengths and weaknesses

A. Essentially involves constructing a "strategic balance sheet" where the company's resource strengths represent competitive assets and its resource weaknesses represent competitive liabilities

The external market opportunities which are most relevant to a company are the ones that

C. Match up well with the firm's financial resources and competitive capabilities, offer the best growth and profitability and present the most potential for competitive advantage

The market opportunities most relevant to a particular company are those that

A. Offer the best growth and profitability

In doing SWOT analysis and trying to identify a company's market opportunities, which of the following is not an example of a potential market opportunity that a company may have?

B. Growing buyer preferences for substitutes for the industry's product

Which of the following best describes the market opportunities that tend to be most relevant to a particular company?

D. Those market opportunities that match up well with the firm's financial resources and competitive capabilities, offer the best growth and profitability and present the most potential for competitive advantage

Which of the following is not an example of an external threat to a company's future profitability?

A. The lack of a distinctive competence

Which of the following is not an example of an external threat to a company's future profitability?

B. The lack of a well-known brand name with which to attract new customers and help retain existing customers

One of the lessons of SWOT analysis is that a company's strategy should
A. Be grounded in its resource strengths and capabilities

E. All of these

Which one of the following is not something that can be gleaned from identifying a company's resource strengths, resource weaknesses, market opportunities and external threats?

D. How to turn a core competence into a distinctive competence

One of the most telling signs of whether a company's market position is strong or precarious is

B. Whether its prices and costs are competitive with those of key rivals

Two analytical tools useful in determining whether a company's prices and costs are competitive are

C. Value chain analysis and benchmarking

A company's value chain identifies

B. The primary activities it performs in creating value for its customers and the related support activities

A company's value chain

C. Consists of two broad categories of activities: the primary activities that create customer value and the requisite support activities that facilitate and enhance the performance of the primary activities

Identifying the primary and secondary activities that comprise a company's value chain

C. Is a first step in understanding a company's cost structure (since each activity in the value chain gives rise to costs); assigning costs to each of the primary and secondary activities is called activity-based cost accounting

Activity-based cost accounting is used to

C. Determine the costs of each primary and support activity comprising a company's value chain and thereby reveal the nature and make-up of a company's internal cost structure

The value chains of rival companies

B. Can differ substantially, reflecting differences in the evolution of each company's own particular business, differences in internal operations, differences in strategy and differences in the approaches being used to execute strategy

The three main areas in the value chain where significant differences in the costs of competing firms can occur include

C. The nature and make-up of their own internal operations, the activities performed by suppliers and the activities performed by wholesale distribution and retailing allies

Which one of the following provides the most accurate picture of whether a company is cost competitive with its rivals?

D. The costs of a company's internally performed activities, costs in the value chains of both the company's suppliers and forward channel allies and how all these costs compare against the costs that make up the value chain systems employed by rival firms

Determining whether a company's prices and costs are competitive

E. All of these

Activity-based cost accounting aims at

C. Determining the costs of each activity comprising a company's value chain by establishing expense categories for specific value chain activities and assigning costs to the activity responsible for creating the cost

Activity-based costing

A. Is an accounting system that assigns a company's expenses to whichever activity in a company's value chain is responsible for creating the cost

Benchmarking involves

A. Comparing how different companies perform various value chain activities and then making cross-company comparisons of the costs of these activities

Which of the following is not one of the objectives of benchmarking?

C. To help construct a company value chain and identify which activities are primary and which are support activities

A much-used and potent managerial tool for determining whether a company performs particular functions or activities in a manner that represents "the best practice" when both cost and effectiveness are taken into account is

E. Benchmarking

The options for remedying an internal cost disadvantage include

E. All of these

Which of the following is not a good option for trying to remedy high internal costs vis-à-vis rivals firms?

C. Implementing aggressive strategic resource mapping to permit across-the-board cost reduction

A company's strategic options for remedying cost disadvantages in internally performed value chain activities do not include

D. Switching to activity-based costing

The options for remedying a supplier-related cost disadvantage include

A. Trying to negotiate more favorable prices with suppliers and switching to lower priced substitute inputs

Which of the following is not an option for remedying a supplier-related cost disadvantage?

E. Persuade forward channel allies to implement best practices

Which of the following is not an option for remedying a cost disadvantage associated with activities performed by forward channel allies (wholesale distributors and retail dealers)?

D. Insisting on across-the-board cost cuts in all value chain activities—those performed by suppliers, those performed in-house and those performed by distributors-dealers

A company that does a first-rate job of managing its value chain activities relative to competitors

B. Stands a good chance of achieving competitive advantage by performing its value chain activities either more proficiently or at lower cost

Out-managing rivals in performing value chain activities

A. Is one of the most dependable ways a company can build a competitive advantage over rivals

For a company to translate its performance of value chain activities into competitive advantage, it must

A. Develop core competencies and maybe a distinctive competence that rivals don't have or can't quite match and that are instrumental in helping it deliver attractive value to customers or else be more cost efficient in how it performs value chain activities such that it has a low-cost advantage

To build a competitive advantage by out-managing rivals in performing value chain activities, a company must

C. Develop core competencies and maybe a distinctive competence that rivals don't have or can't quite match and that are instrumental in helping it deliver attractive value to customers or else be more cost efficient in how it performs value chain activities such that it has a low-cost advantage

The value of doing competitive strength assessment is to

D. Learn how the company ranks relative to rivals on each of the important factors that determine market success and ascertain whether the company has a net competitive advantage or disadvantage vis-à-vis key rivals

Doing a competitive strength assessment entails

B. Ranking the company against major rivals on each of the important factors that determine market success and ascertaining whether the company has a net competitive advantage or disadvantage versus major rivals

A weighted competitive strength assessment is generally analytically superior to an unweighted strength assessment because

E. All of the various measures of competitive strength are not equally important

A weighted competitive strength analysis is conceptually stronger than an unweighted analysis because

C. The different measures of competitive strength are unlikely to be equally important

In a weighted competitive strength assessment, the sum of the weights should add up to

B. 1.0

In a weighted competitive strength analysis, each strength measure is assigned a weight based on

C. Its perceived importance in determining a company's competitive success in the marketplace

Calculating competitive strength ratings for a company and its rivals using the industry's most telling measures of competitive strength or weakness

A. Is a way of determining which competitor has the biggest overall competitive advantage in the marketplace and which competitor is faced with the biggest overall competitive disadvantage

Quantitative measures of a company's competitive strength

B. Provide useful indicators of how a company compares against key rivals, factor by factor and capability by capability—thus indicating whether the company has a net overall competitive advantage or disadvantage against each rival

Which one of the following is an accurate interpretation of the scores that result from doing a competitive strength assessment?

A. High scores signal a strong competitive position and possession of a competitive advantage over companies with lower scores

Which one of the following is not something that can be learned from doing a competitive strength assessment?

B. Whether a company should correct its weaknesses by adopting best practices and revamping the makeup of its value chain

Calculating competitive strength ratings for a company and comparing them against strength ratings for its key competitors helps indicate

A. Which weaknesses and vulnerabilities of competitors that the company might be able to attack successfully

Identifying the strategic issues a company faces and compiling a "worry list" of problems and roadblocks is an important component of company situation analysis because

B. The "worry list" sets the management agenda for taking actions to improve the company's performance and business outlook

Identifying the strategy-related issues and problems that company managers need to address and resolve entails

E. All of the above

Identifying the strategic issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention

E. All of the above

Which of the following is not part of the task of identifying the strategic issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention?

E. Assessing what challenges the company has to overcome in order to be financially and competitively successful in the years ahead

Which of the following is not accurate as concerns the task of identifying the strategic issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention?

D. Identifying the strategic issues and problems that the company faces is the first thing that company managers need to do before starting to analyze the company's internal and external environment