Exam 14: Implementing Corporate Strategy: Managing the Multibusiness Firm

The primary purpose of the "Ashridge portfolio display" is to:

Oliver Williamson said two main corporate governance advantages of the multidivisional structure ("M-form")for large,diversified companies were:

Portfolio planning techniques,(also called portfolio matrixes),contribute to the following corporate management function:

Which of the following is not a key difference between a multidivisional company and a holding company?

The main purpose of a portfolio planning matrix is to:

In large multibusiness,multinational companies shared service organizations are almost always located close to their corporate headquarters.

According to Jack Welch,the advantages of focus that single business companies possess are outweighed the advantage that multibusiness companies possess in terms of their ability to share the ideas from many different sources.

Sharing resources and activities between business units can often impose costs which exceed the value of the synergies gained.

The Ashridge portfolio display is distinguished by the fact that it takes account of fit between each business and the corporate owner.

A strategic inflection point is a point where major changes in a firm's competitive environment require a complete change of strategy

The mechanisms through which the corporate headquarters exercises control over individual businesses can be classified into "input control" and "output control." Performance management systems represent a form of "input control."

A major limitation of the BCG matrix in guiding corporate strategy is:

Multibusiness corporations with close linkages between their businesses tend to have smaller corporate headquarters than multibusiness corporations with more independent businesses.

The type of corporate strategy through which most leading private equity groups such as Carlyle Group,Kohlberg Kravis Roberts,and Blackstone create value for their investors is best described as:

The company which has done most to pioneer innovations in corporate management during the second half of the 20^th century is:

Goold,Campbell,and Alexander's concept of parenting advantage proposes that a key criterion for whether a company should own a particular business corporation whether the value added from owning that business exceeds the costs of administering that business.

Jack Welch's approach to corporate management at General Electric incorporated the principle that sustaining a high level of internal stress within the organization counteracted complacency and increased responsiveness to external change.

The corporate headquarters of companies comprising independent business such as Berkshire Hathaway,Danaher,Jardine Matheson,and the Tata Group as compared to those of closely-linked business such as Royal Dutch Shell,IBM,BASF,and Unilever tend to be:

What are the two dimensions of the Ashridge portfolio display?

Michael Porter believes that managing linkages among businesses through transferring skills and sharing resources offer greater potential for creating value than portfolio management because: