Exam 4: Business Level Strategy

Strategic fit among many activities (in an activity map) is fundamental to

The key to Southwest Airlines' success has been its ability to continuously reduce costs while providing customers with superior levels of differentation such as an engaging culture.

One of the benefits of the integrated cost leadership/differentiation strategy is that it is less risky than either the cost leadership or differentiation strategies.

Blind taste-tests have shown that the taste of premium-priced vodkas and inexpensive vodkas are indistinguishable even to regular drinkers of vodka. But the sales of premium vodkas are thriving. This is an example of

The focused differentiation strategy differs from the differentiation strategy in that

As the television industry has changed in the last few decades from just three major networks to a multiplicity of networks, one of the major aspects of business strategy for the newer networks is ____ than the traditional networks.

In the Chapter 4 Strategic Focus, Walmart's same store sales have been declining and those of rivals Family Dollar and Amazon have been increasing. What explains this recent change?

All of the following are examples of differentiated products EXCEPT

When a firm chooses a business-level strategy, it must answer the questions "Who? What? and How?" What are these questions and why are they important?

New Balance Athletic Shoes target Baby Boomers' needs for well-fitting shoes. The company is unique in that it offers a very broad range of shoe widths. A realistic potential risk New Balance runs in this focused differentiation strategy includes the possibility that:

Which of the following is NOT a value-creating activity associated with the differentiation strategy?

According to the Chapter 4 Opening Case, part of Starbucks' success in 2011 was the decision to cease introducing new products and to discontinue international expansion in order to focus on reinvigorating its primary brand - the Starbuck's coffee house.

The new generation of lunch trucks serving high-end fare in cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles share which of the following a business strategies?

When implementing a focus strategy, the firm seeks to

Strategic fit among the many activities in the value chain is critical for competitive advantage because it is more difficult for a competitor to match a configuration of integrated activities than to imitate a particular activity such as sales promotion or a process technology.

Human resources and other support functions are not value-creating activities in the value chain; only the value chain activities create value.

Which of the following are central to implementing value-creating strategies and thereby satisfying customers'needs?

Business-level strategies detail commitments and actions taken to provide value to customers and gain competitive advantage by exploiting core competencies in

Case Scenario 1: International Cow Packers. International Cow Packers (ICP) is a $12 billion meat processor (slaughter, processing, and packing). Founded in 1943, ICP has grown to become the largest beef and pork processor in the United States (revenues come 90% from beef and 10% from pork) and also has a growing export market to Japan. The company follows a focused cost-leadership strategy, delivering USDA-graded meats primarily to the institutional (schools, prisons, hospitals) and supermarket channels. ICP's entire value chain is organized to deliver volume product at the industry's lowest per-unit cost. Its supplier industries, primarily cattle and swine feedlots, have relatively little power since prices for these raw materials are determined in the commodity markets. While entry barriers to the industry are high due to high minimum start-up costs, industry rivalry is extremely intense - primarily due to the fact that three large companies (including ICP) control 80% of the market for processed meats. The threat of substitutes is high with an increasing trend for consumers to favor poultry and other non-beef proteins. Buyers are also powerful since supermarkets are relatively concentrated at a regional level and end-consumers have ample choices. -(Refer to Case Scenario 1) What can ICP do to decouple itself from the ups and downs of the pure commodity markets? What specific actions might ICP undertake?

Firms implementing cost leadership strategies often sell no-frills standardized goods or services (but with competitive levels of differentation) to the industry's most typical customers.