Exam 1: What Is Business Strategy?

Which of the following is true of competitive advantage?

Which of the following statements is true of external analysis?

A company's primary purpose that often specifies the business or businesses in which the firm intends to compete -or the customers it intends to serve-refers to its _____.

Gems Corp.is a leading jewelry brand that finds it hard to make as much profit as its competitors.In order to overcome this, the employees of Gems Corp.decide to work harder to provide unique value to customers and increase the sales of the company.After a year, it is able to make more profits than its competitors.This scenario best illustrates _____.

SunLite Corp.runs fitness centers which are owned by the parent company Cyan Inc.Ryan, the manager of Cyan Inc., needs to decide on how to overcome competition by other fitness centers.He finally decides to bring in advanced facilities, such as imported gym equipment, to give faster results and keep SunLite centers open for patrons 24x7.Ryan feels that this will allow the company to gain more profits.This scenario best illustrates a _____.

MindaX is a beverage manufacturing company.Despite its various promotional efforts, the company finds it difficult to get more customers.Its market analysts later determine that its price is the reason.They are sold at $10 per liter, which makes it difficult for customers to buy this beverage frequently, so, they opt for other lower priced sodas instead.This scenario best illustrates _____.

What is the first decision that a company which is developing a strategic management process must make when it is initiated?

The management of Winters Corp., a small company, pursued an unexpected opportunity and gained huge profits over a period of 10 years.At the end of this period, Winters Corp.grew as a company and successfully established itself as a highly valued brand in the industry.This is an example of a(n) _____.

What does the term cost advantage mean?

Femi, the founder of Pluto Inc., feels that the company has been able to continuously maintain competitive advantage due to the plans of action she initiated years ago.The plan involved establishing and maintaining contacts with influential business personnel, amicably taking over small companies that would help bringing in profits for Pluto Inc., and creating raw materials from scratch rather than buying from other companies.This type of planning is an example of _____.

Summer Inc., a departmental store, wants to provide better service to its customers.This includes providing expertise in each type of product and brand.In order to accomplish this, the general manager of the store suggests that they should begin by identifying the different types of customers.By classifying customers, into various groups, such as mothers, athletes, tech-savvy customers and so on,, the store's customer care personnel can specialize on detailed product information.With the help of this classification, the store is able to provide better service to each customers by offering more brands to choose from.This scenario best illustrates _____.

The industry and geographic area that a company competes in, is referred to as its _____.

Sheng, the CEO of Mirrorz Inc., comes up with a plan to implement business unit strategies successfully.He decides to do this by making technical advancements in the manufacturing process of the products and developing a solid financial system run by an efficient team.He also plans to establish a marketing team that would sell to people who would not normally buy the product.The ultimate mission of the company would be to provide a customer friendly environment.The plan initiated by Sheng can be best categorized as a(n) _____.

List the four primary stakeholder groups and give explanations for each.

The board of directors of Indigo Bank implements a sound strategy that will help them gain overall profits and maintain competitive advantage.It claims that supervising and measuring the efficacy of the functional strategies of the company are more than sufficient to implement the company's strategies.However, Klark, one of the board members, argues that this alone is not enough and that the company should think of creating an emotional appeal toward its employees.Which of the following statements strengthens Klark's argument?

The Board of Directors of Miranay Corp.assesses and evaluates the firm's industry structure.In order to track the factors that could affect Miranay's performance, it tries to scan the industry's positive and negative trends.The Board of Directors of Miranay Corp.is involved in a(n) _____.

Lavender Furniture established itself in 1965 as a small firm.It was situated on a small stretch of land located miles away from the town.Over the years, due to the high quality of its products, it acquires enough profits to own multiple assets, such as a bigger plot and machinery, recruit employees and establishe itself as a brand.Which of the following is an element of the strategic management process that Lavender Furniture has acquired?

Ravi, a supervisor at Autumn Inc., notices that the company has been successful in outperforming its competitors in the industry and declares that the company has achieved competitive advantage.Yolanda, a manager at Autumn Inc., argues that this is not true.Which of the following strengthens Ravi's claim?

The employees of Flamingo Inc., a greeting card company, focus on providing unmatched customer satisfaction.Unlike its competitors, the employees of Flamingo take the time to listen to the needs of individual customers and design custom-made cards upon request.The customers of Flamingo state that the company provides a large variety of affordable products to choose from.The company has won many awards for providing complete customer satisfaction.In this scenario, which of the following does Flamingo Inc.provide to its customers?

The managers at Marker Inc., a movers and packers company, wants to formulate a plan of action to implement their mission, "We deliver what we promise.Always." To achieve this, the company chooses the best markets to invest in, buys state-of-the-art transportation vehicles, employs spill and damage proof style of packaging equipment, and develops a service-oriented mentality.This method of conducting business earns them a reputation.This scenario is an example of _____.