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A company's ability to marshal adequate resources in support of new strategic initiatives and steer them to the appropriate organizational units is more important to the strategy execution process because

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changes in strategy often require reallocation and organizational units need the proper funding to carry out their part of the strategic plan effectively

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Managers charged with implementing and executing strategy need to be deeply involved in the budgeting and resource allocation process because

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A. too little funding deprives organizational units of the resources to carry out their piece of the strategic plan and too much funding wastes organizational resources. B. a change in strategy nearly always calls for budget reallocations and resource shifting.

question

From a strategy-implementing/strategy-executing perspective, budget allocations should

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C. be strategy-driven and based primarily on how much each organizational unit needs to carry out its piece of the strategic plan efficiently and effectively.

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New strategies often entail budget reallocations because

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units important in the prior strategy but having a lesser role in the new strategy may need downsizing while units and activities that now have a bigger and more critical strategic role may need more people, new equipment, additional facilities, and above-average increases in their operating budgets

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Visible actions to reallocate operating funds and move people into different organizational units

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signal a determined commitment to strategic change and can help catalyze and give credibility to the implementation process

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Prescribing policies and operating procedures aids the task of implementing strategy by

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placing limits on independent action and painting new white lines to steer the actions and behavior of company personnel in a manner that is more conducive to good strategy execution and operating excellence

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Prescribing new policies and operating procedures can aid the task of implementing strategy

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by helping align the actions and behavior company personnel with the requirements for good strategy execution, placing limits on independent action, and helping overcome resistance to change.

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A useful guideline in designing strategy-facilitating policies and operating procedures is

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to prescribe enough policies to give organizational members clear direction in implementing strategy and to place desirable boundaries on their actions, then empower them to act within these boundaries however they think makes sense.

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Which one of the following is not a benefit of prescribing policies and operating procedures to aid management's task of implementing strategy?

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Helping build employee commitment to adopting best practices and using the tools of TQM and Six Sigma

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Company managers can significantly advance the cause of superior strategy execution by

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A. using various process management tools to drive continuous improvement in how internal operations are conducted. B. benchmarking the company's performance of particular activities and business processes against "best-in-industry" performers. C. examining "best-in-company" performers if a company's different organizational units is performing the same functions at different locations. D. benchmarking the company's performance of particular activities and business processes against "best-in-world" performers. E. All of these.

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A "best practice" refers to

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a technique for performing an activity or business process that at least one company has demonstrated works

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A "best practice"

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is a technique for performing an activity or business process that at least one company has demonstrated works

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The idea behind benchmarking and best practices is to

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identify companies that are the best performers of an activity and then modify and adapt their practices to fit the company's own specific circumstances and operating requirements.

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The backbone of identifying, studying, and implementing best practices is

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benchmarking

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Which one of the following is not a tool that company managers can use to promote operating excellence in performing value chain activities?

answer

Adoption of standard industry techniques

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Which of the following is not a tool that managers can use to promote operating excellence and further the cause of good strategy execution?

answer

Strategic resource training

question

Because functional organization structures often result in pieces of strategically relevant activities and capabilities being scattered across many different functional departments, companies have found that

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there's merit in using business process reengineering to pull the pieces of strategy-critical processes out of different departments and unify their performance in a single department or cross-functional work group that has charge over the whole process

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Business process reengineering is a tool for

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pulling the pieces of strategy-critical activities out of different departments and unifying their performance in a single department or cross-functional work group that has charge over the whole process and can be held accountable for performing the activity in a more strategy-supportive fashion.

question

Reengineering how a firm performs a business process

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is a tool for pulling the pieces of strategy-critical processes out of different departments and unifying their performance in a single department or cross-functional work group that has charge over the whole process and can be held accountable for performing the activity in a cheaper, better, and/or more strategy-supportive fashion.

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Total quality management (TQM)

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is a philosophy of managing a set of business practices that emphasizes continuous improvement in all phases of operations, 100% accuracy in performing tasks, involvement and empowerment of employees at all levels, team-based work design, benchmarking, and total customer satisfaction.

question

Total quality management (TQM) emphasizes all but which one of the following?

answer

Widespread adoption of industry standard operating practices

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Total quality management (TQM) programs

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entail creating a corporate culture bent on continuously improving the performance of every task and every value-chain activity.

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Which one of the following statements about total quality management (TQM) is false?

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TQM produces significant results very quickly—very little benefit emerges after the first six months.

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Six Sigma quality control

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consists of a disciplined, statistics-based system aimed at producing not more than 3.4 defects per million iterations for any business process.

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Six Sigma processes

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can be used for both improving existing business processes and for developing new processes or products.

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The Six Sigma process of define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC) is

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an improvement system for existing processes falling below specification and needing incremental improvement.

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Six Sigma's DMADV process of define, measure, analyze, design and verify is a particularly good vehicle for

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developing new processes or products at Six Sigma quality levels

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The statistical thinking underlying Six Sigma is based on the following three principles:

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All work is a process, all processes have variability, and all processes create data that explains variability.

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Which one of the following statements about Six Sigma quality programs is true?

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While Six Sigma programs often improve the efficiency of numerous operating processes, there is evidence that the approach can stifle innovative activities

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The big difference between business process reengineering and continuous improvement programs like TQM or Six Sigma is that

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reengineering is a tool for achieving one-time quantum improvement whereas TQM and Six Sigma programs aim at incremental improvement (striving for inch-by-inch gains again and again in a never-ending stream).

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To obtain maximum benefits from benchmarking, best practices, reengineering, TQM, and Six Sigma programs aimed at facilitating better strategy execution, managers need to

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start with a clear idea of what specific outcomes really matter, such as a Six Sigma defect rate or superior customer satisfaction, and then build a total quality culture that is genuinely committed to achieving these outcomes.

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To build a total quality culture and achieve full value from the use of TQM or Six Sigma initiatives, managers can take such action steps as

answer

signaling unequivocal and unyielding commitment to total quality and operating excellence; encouraging quality-supportive behaviors on the part of employees, empowering employees to make changes to improve quality; and using online systems to give employees immediate access to best practice information and experiences.

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Installing well-conceived state-of-the-art support systems are an important managerial component of implementing and executing strategy because

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such support systems not only enable better strategy execution but also strengthen organizational capabilities (perhaps enough to provide a competitive edge over rivals).

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Well conceived, state-of-the-art information and operating systems

answer

not only enable better strategy execution but also strengthen organizational capabilities (perhaps enough to provide a competitive edge over rivals).

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The areas that information systems need to cover include

answer

A. Financial performance data B. Supplier/partner/collaborative data C. Customer data D. Operations data E. All of these

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The areas that information systems need to cover include all but which one of the following?

answer

Corporate culture data

question

Information systems provide managers with a means for monitoring

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A. daily team performance in real time. B. the performance of empowered workers to see that they are acting within the specified limits. C. daily and weekly operating statistics. D. All of these.

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Management's most powerful tool for mobilizing employee commitment to competent strategy execution and operating excellence is

answer

proper use of incentives and rewards.

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Management's most powerful tool for winning employee commitment to good strategy execution and operating excellence is

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a system of rewards and incentives tied tightly to the achievement of the targeted strategic and financial performance.

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The strategic role of a company's reward system is to

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enlist employees' energetic commitment to competent strategy execution and operating excellence by rewarding them, both monetarily and non-monetarily, for their contributions.

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Enlisting employees' sustained and energetic commitment to good strategy execution and achievement of the targeted strategic and financial objectives is best done by

answer

resourceful and effective use of motivational incentives, both monetary and non-monetary

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In trying to gain employees' wholehearted commitment to good strategy execution and operating excellence, managers are well advised to use such incentives as

answer

A. attractive perks and fringe benefits. B. frequent words of praise, special recognition at company gatherings, stimulating assignments, and opportunities to transfer to attractive locations. C. more (or less) job security. D. opportunities for rapid promotion (or the risk of being sidelined). E. All of these.

question

Which one of the following is not likely to be effective in trying to gain employees' wholehearted commitment to good strategy execution and operating excellence?

answer

Aggressive management efforts to eliminate stress, anxiety, and job insecurity from the work environment

question

A motivation and incentive system that is aimed at spurring stronger employee commitment to good strategy execution

answer

should focus on incorporating more positive than negative motivational incentives.

question

From the standpoint of promoting successful strategy execution, it is important that the firm's motivation and reward system

answer

accentuate positive rewards but also carry the risk of punishment for poor performance.

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A reward system that accentuates positive rewards for good performance

answer

has considerable appeal because when cooperation is positively enlisted and rewarded, rather than strong-armed by orders and threats (implicit or explicit), people tend to respond with more enthusiasm, dedication, creativity, and initiative.

question

Motivational and incentive compensation practices that aim at winning the commitment of company personnel to good strategy execution typically

answer

strike a middle ground—entailing decidedly positive rewards for meeting or beating performance targets but also imposing sufficiently negative consequences when actual performance falls short of the target.

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The most dependable way to keep people focused on strategy execution and the achievement of performance targets is to

answer

generously reward and recognize people who meet or beat performance targets and to deny rewards and recognition to those who don't.

question

A well-designed reward system

answer

aligns the well-being of organization members with their contributions to competent strategy execution and the achievement of performance targets.

question

An important consideration in designing a strategy-supportive reward system is to

answer

make non-monetary rewards and recognition an integral part of the reward system.

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The guidelines for designing an incentive compensation system that will help drive successful strategy execution include

answer

making the payoff for meeting or beating performance targets a major, not minor, piece of the total compensation package.

question

Which of the following is not a sound guideline for designing a reward and incentive system that helps promote good strategy execution?

answer

Ways must be found to reward deserving non-performers who, for some reason, do not fare well under the incentive system.

question

Which of the following is not characteristic of a compensation and reward system designed to help drive successful strategy execution?

answer

A reward system that involves 50 percent non-monetary rewards and a work environment that avoids placing pressure on managers and employees to perform at high levels

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