Business Strategy Midterm (4) – Flashcards
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The difference between a company competence and a core competence is that
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a company competence is an activity that a firm performs consistently well and at acceptable cost whereas a core competence is an activity that a company not only performs quite well but is central to its strategy and competitiveness.
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Which one of the following provides the most accurate picture of whether a company is cost competitive with its rivals?
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How the combined costs of a company's internally performed activities, the activities performed by its suppliers, and the activities performed by its forward channel allies compare against the costs of the supplier-performed, internally-performed, and forward channel ally-preformed value chain systems employed by rival firms
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Which one of the following is not an example of a potential market opportunity that a company may have?
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A situation where several of the company's weakest competitors are acquired by one of the company's strong competitors, thus making it easier to steal away customers of the weak competitors
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Which one of the following is not an example of a potential resource weakness or competitive deficiency that a company may have?
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A product offering that is not strongly differentiated from rivals
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In a weighted competitive strength assessment, the sum of the weights should add up to
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1.0
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The competitive power of a company resource strength is not measure by which one of the following tests?
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Does the resource strength help the company improve the cost efficiency of its value chain?
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Calculating weighted competitive strength scores for a company and comparing them against the weighted strength scores of key competitors
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helps a company decide what offensive and defensive moves strategic moves to make -- which of its competitive strengths to exploit in winning business away from rivals and which competitive weaknesses to try to correct
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Benchmarking involves
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comparing how different companies perform various value chain activities and then making cross-company comparisons of the costs of these activities
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To build a competitive advantage by "out-managing" rivals in performing value chain activities, a company must
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beat rivals in performing value chain activities more proficiently (such that it gains a differentiation-based competitive advantage keyed to delivering what customers perceive as a superior product offering) or else beat rivals in performing value chain activities more cheaply (thus achieving a cost-based competitive advantage).
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Which of the following is not a means of lowering the otherwise high costs of internally-performed value chain activities?
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Implementing an activity-based cost accounting system that identifies high-cost activities and then eliminating those activities with the highest costs from the company's value chain
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Which of the following is not an example of an external threat to a company's future profitability?
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Having too few resource capabilities that are well-matched to the company's available market opportunities
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A company's value chain
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consists of two broad categories of activities: the primary activities foremost in the company's scheme for creating and delivering value to customers and the requisite support activities that facilitate and enhance the performance of the primary activities
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Which of the following is not a component of evaluating a company's resource capabilities, relative cost position, and competitive strength versus rivals?
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Scanning the environment to determine which company resource strengths offer the best prospects for achieving sustainable competitive advantage
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According to the discussion of weighted competitive strength assessment, the company with the highest overall strength score
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enjoys a net competitive advantage vis-a-vis key rivals, with the size of its advantage being signaled by how much its overall strength score exceeds the overall strength scores of each of the other companies included in the assessment
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Which one of the following statements is false when it comes to using value chain analysis to determine a company's cost competitiveness?
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Whether a company's costs are competitive with those of its close rivals depends on how the costs of its internally-performed value chain activities compare with the costs of the internally-performed value chain activities of its close rivals
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Which one of the following is not part of conducting a SWOT analysis?
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Determining whether the company's resource strengths are appropriately matched to the industry's key success factors
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Three good indicators of just how well a company's present strategy is working are
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whether the company is gaining customers and market share, is an above-average industry performer, and is achieving its stated financial and strategic objectives
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Which of the following is most likely to represent a resource strength?
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One of more core competencies in performing competitively important value chain activities
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SWOT analysis is a powerful tool for
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sizing up a company's resource capabilities and deficiencies, its market opportunities, and the external threats to its future well-being
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Which of the following is central to the task of identifying the strategy-related issues and problems that merit the front-burner attention of company managers?
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Compiling a "worry list" of "how to...", "whether to...", and "what to do about..." -- this worry list should be based, in part, on assessment of the company's external environment and an evaluation of the company's own resources and ability to compete successfully
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Two useful tools for determining whether a company's customer value chain proposition, prices, and costs are competitive are
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value chain analysis and benchmarking
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Which of the following is not something that can be learned from doing a competitive strength assessment?
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Which of the rated competitors are employing offensive strategies and which are employing defensive strategies
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Which of the following is not an example of a potential resource weakness or competitive deficiency that a company may have?
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Having a single, unified functional strategy instead of several distinct functional strategies
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Which of the following is not pertinent in identifying a company's present strategy?
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The number and type of core competencies a company has and the kinds of activities that comprise its value chain
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Which of the following is not part of conducting a SWOT analysis?
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Determining whether the company's resource strengths are appropriately matched to the industry's key success factors
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In a weighted competitive strength assessment, the measures selected as indicators of competitive strength should be based on
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industry key success factors and other important determinants of competitive strength or weakness
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Which of the following is not one of the objectives of benchmarking?
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To learn which company in an industry is using the greatest number of best practices in performing its value chain activities and thus very likely has the industry's lowest cost value chain
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Which one of the following is not a part of determining whether a company's prices and costs are competitive?
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Resource value analysis
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Which of the following is not one of the five questions that comprise the task of evaluating a company's resource capabilities, relative cost position, and competitive strength versus rivals?
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What are the company's most profitable geographic market segments?
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Which of the following statements is false when it comes to using value chain analysis to determine a company's cost competitiveness?
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Whether a company's costs are competitive with those of its close rivals depends on how the costs of its internally-performed value chain activities compare with the costs of the internally-performed value chain activities of its close rivals
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The best example of a company strength is
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having proven technological expertise and ability to churn out new and improved products on a regular basis
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Once managers have identified the external threats to the company's well-being and future prospects, they should
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evaluate what strategic actions can be taken to neutralize or lessen the impact of these external threats
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The external market opportunities most relevant to a company are those that
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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
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The value of doing a weighted competitive strength assessment is to
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lean 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-a-vis rivals
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Which of the following is not an option for lowering the costs of distribution-related activities?
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Implementing an activity-based cost accounting system for all distribution-related activities and ceasing to perform all those distribution-related activities having unacceptably high costs
