Exam 4: Evaluating a Company Resources, Capabilities, and Competitiveness

A) it has more core competencies than close rivals.
B) its strategy is built around at least two of the industry's key success factors.
C) the company is achieving gains in financial strength.
D) it has been able to create new industry demand through the use of a blue ocean strategy.
E) it is subject to weaker competitive forces and pressures than close rivals (a good sign) .

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A) trying to negotiate more favorable prices with suppliers and switching to lower priced substitute inputs.
B) forward vertical integration.
C) shifting into the production of substitute products.
D) shifting from a low-cost leadership strategy to a differentiation or focus strategy.
E) cutting selling prices and trying to win a bigger market share.

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A) Drawing upon the results and conclusions from analyzing the company's external environment.
B) Drawing on the results and conclusions from evaluating the company's own resources and competitive position.
C) Developing a "worry list" of problems and issues for managerial strategy making.
D) Identifying the strategic issues and problems that the company faces is the first thing that company managers need to do before starting to analyze the company's internal and external environment.
E) Developing a list of what issues and problems that management needs to address (and to resolve) should always precede deciding upon a strategy and what actions to take to improve the company's position and prospects.

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A) likely entry of potent new competitors
B) acquiring rival firms or companies with technological know-how to enter new lines of business
C) expanding the company's product line to meet new customer needs
D) expanding into new geographic markets
E) falling trade barriers in attractive foreign markets

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A) SWOT analysis.
B) competitive asset/liability analysis.
C) competitive positioning analysis.
D) strategic resource assessment.
E) company resource mapping.

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A) that managers understand an industry's entire value chain system.
B) that managers understand the detail of their own company's value chain.
C) that managers are involved in functional strategy development.
D) that managers understand the firm's profitability outlook.
E) All of these choices are correct.

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A) likely entry of potent new competitors
B) lack of a well-known brand name with which to attract new customers and help retain existing customers
C) unfavorable shifts in buyer demographics and tastes
D) costly new regulatory requirements
E) increase(s) in interest rates

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A) consists of the primary activities that it performs in seeking to deliver value to shareholders in the form of higher dividends and a higher stock price.
B) depicts the internally performed activities associated with creating and enhancing the company's competitive assets.
C) consists of two broad categories of activities: the primary activities that create customer value and the requisite support activities that facilitate and enhance the performance of the primary activities.
D) concerns the basic process the company goes through in performing R&D and developing new products.
E) consists of the series of steps a company goes through to develop a new product,get it produced and into the marketplace,and then start collecting revenues and earning a profit.

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A) evaluating how well the strategy is working
B) scanning the environment to determine a company's best and most profitable customers
C) assessing whether the company's costs and prices are competitive
D) evaluating whether the company is competitively stronger or weaker than key rivals
E) pinpointing what strategic issues and problems merit front-burner management attention

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A) represents a problem that needs to be turned into a strength because weaknesses prevent a firm from being a winner in the marketplace.
B) causes the company to fall into a lower strategic group than it otherwise could compete in.
C) prevents a company from having a distinctive competence.
D) usually stems from having a missing link or links in the industry value chain.
E) is something a company lacks or does poorly (in comparison to rivals) or a condition that puts it at a disadvantage in the marketplace.

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A) should consider divesting assets and making future investments in promising new industries.
B) may be able to develop substitute resources that accomplish the same objective as the competitively valuable resource possessed by rivals.
C) can still marshal competitive power in the marketplace by incorporating product or service features desired by niche buyers.
D) is virtually blockaded from using offensive strategies and must rely on defensive strategies.
E) should abandon strategy elements that have caused its weakness in the marketplace.

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A) competitive advantage over rivals.
B) competitive capability.
C) distinctive competence.
D) resource-based strategy.
E) competence.

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A) essentially involves constructing a "strategic balance sheet" on which the company's resource strengths represent competitive assets and its resource weaknesses represent competitive liabilities.
B) is the same process as benchmarking.
C) is called competitive strength assessment.
D) is focused on making lists of a company's resource strengths and weaknesses.
E) is called company resource mapping.

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A) the steps it goes through to convert its net income into value for shareholders.
B) the primary activities that create value for customers and related support activities.
C) the series of steps it takes to get a product from a raw materials stage to a finished product.
D) the activities it performs in transforming its competencies into distinctive competencies.
E) the competencies and competitive capabilities that underpin its efforts to create value for customers and shareholders.

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A) supply chain management,operations,distribution,sales and marketing,and customer service activities.
B) product R&D,technology and systems development.
C) human resource management.
D) general administration.
E) All of these choices are correct.

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A) is a way to measure whether a company's value chain is longer or shorter than the chains of key rivals.
B) is a tool for benchmarking whether a firm's strategy is closely matched to industry key success factors.
C) reveals whether a company is competitively stronger than its closest rivals.
D) provides a good basis for crafting a strategy.
E) identifies the reasons a company's strategy is or is not working very well.

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