Strategic Management Chapter 1 True and False


  1. Strategic management focuses on integrating management, marketing, finance and accounting, production and operations, research and development, and information systems to achieve organizational success.

    Answer: True
  2. Optimizing for tomorrow the trends of today is the purpose of strategic management.

    Answer: False
  3. Even though useful, strategic planning has been cast aside by corporate America since the early 1990s.

    Answer: False
  4. The decision to expand or diversify operations is a strategy-formulation issue.

    Answer: True
  5. The terms strategic management and strategic planning are synonymous in this text.

    Answer: True
  6. A vision statement identifies the scope of a firm's operations in product and market terms.

    Answer: False
  7. Strategy implementation is often considered to be the most difficult stage in the strategic-management process because it requires personal discipline, commitment, and sacrifice.

    Answer: True
  8. The final stage in strategic management is strategy implementation.

    Answer: False
  9. Formulation, implementation, and evaluation of strategy activities occur at three hierarchical levels in a large organization: corporate, divisional or strategic business unit, and functional.

    Answer: True
  10. One of the fundamental strategy evaluation activities is reviewing external and internal factors that are the basis for current strategies.

    Answer: True
  11. An objective, logical, systematic approach for making major decisions in an organization is a way to describe the strategic-management process.

    Answer: True
  12. Strategic management is an attempt to organize qualitative and quantitative information in a way that allows effective decisions to be made under conditions of uncertainty.

    Answer: True
  13. Analytical and intuitive thinking should complement each other.

    Answer: True
  14. According to Albert Einstein, "Knowledge is far more important than intuition."

    Answer: False
  15. Management by intuition can be defined as operating from the "I've-already-made-up-my-mind-don't-bother-me-with-the-facts mode."

    Answer: False
  16. By occasionally monitoring external events, companies should be able to identify when change is required.

    Answer: False
  17. Firms, like organisms, must be "adept at adapting" or they will not survive.

    Answer: True
  18. U.S. firms are not being challenged in the computer industry.

    Answer: False
  19. Anything the firm does especially well compared to rival firms could be considered a competitive advantage.

    Answer: True
  20. Once a firm acquires a competitive advantage, they are usually able to sustain the competitive advantage indefinitely.

    Answer: False
  21. Newspaper companies in the United States provide a good example of how a company can sustain a competitive advantage over the long-term.

    Answer: False
  22. Although e-commerce has increased in popularity, it has actually led to increases in company expenses.

    Answer: False
  23. While the number of people shopping online has increased, the average amount spent online has decreased.

    Answer: False
  24. One of the ways in which the Internet has transferred power from businesses to individuals is by making comparison-shopping quick and easy.

    Answer: True
  25. Most traditional retailers have tried in vain to use their online sales to boost in-store sales.

    Answer: False
  26. In order for a firm to achieve sustained competitive advantage, a firm must continually adapt to changes in external trends and events and effectively formulate, implement, and evaluate strategies that capitalize upon those factors.

    Answer: True
  27. Strategists are usually found in higher levels of management and have considerable authority for decision-making in the firm.

    Answer: True
  28. The middle manager is the most visible and critical strategic manager.

    Answer: False
  29. All strategists have similar attitudes, values, ethics and concerns for social responsibility.

    Answer: False
  30. A vision statement answers the question, "What is our business?" whereas a mission statement answers, "What do we want to become?"

    Answer: False
  31. In the last five years, the position of chief strategy officer (CSO) has diminished so drastically that today it is almost unheard of for companies to have such a position on staff.

    Answer: False
  32. A clear mission statement describes the values and priorities of an organization.

    Answer: True
  33. Strengths and weaknesses are determined relative to competitors.

    Answer: True
  34. In a multidivisional firm, objectives should be established for the overall company but not for each division.

    Answer: False
  35. Objectives should be measurable, challenging, reasonable, consistent, and clear.

    Answer: True
  36. Annual objectives are long-term milestones that organizations must achieve to reach short-term objectives.

    Answer: False
  37. Annual objectives are especially important in strategy formulation.

    Answer: False
  38. According to research, a healthier workforce can more effectively and efficiently implement strategies.

    Answer: True
  39. Identifying an organization's existing vision, mission, objectives, and strategies is the final step for the strategic management process.

    Answer: False
  40. Once an effective strategy is designed, modifications are rarely required.

    Answer: False
  41. Application of the strategic-management process is typically more formal in larger and well-established organizations.

    Answer: True
  42. Commitment and understanding are the most important benefits of strategic management.

    Answer: True
  43. The best thing strategists can do is develop strategic plans themselves and then present them to operating managers to execute.

    Answer: False
  44. Firms with planning systems more closely resembling strategic-management theory generally exhibit superior long-term financial performance relative to their industry.

    Answer: True
  45. Low-performing firms typically underestimate their competitor's strengths and overestimate their own firm's strengths.

    Answer: True
  46. According to Greenley, strategic management provides increased discipline, enhanced communication, and more effective allocation of time and resources.

    Answer: True
  47. The lack of monetary rewards is one reason managers do not engage in strategic planning.

    Answer: True
  48. Crises and firefighting in an organization give managers the extra time needed to plan ahead.

    Answer: False
  49. Making many intuitive decisions that conflict with the formal plan is one pitfall to avoid in strategic planning.

    Answer: True
  50. Managers must be very formal in strategic planning because formality fosters flexibility and creativity.

    Answer: False
  51. Many organizations mistakenly spend more time and effort on the implementation of a plan, than on the formulation of the plan itself.

    Answer: False
  52. Strategic-management must be a self-reflective learning process that familiarizes managers and employees in the organization with key strategic issues and feasible alternatives for resolving those issues.

    Answer: True
  53. The most effective strategic management is ritualistic, predictable, and formal.

    Answer: False
  54. For the strategic planning process to be effective, organizations must continually strengthen the "good ethics is good business" policy.

    Answer: True
  55. Military success is usually the happy result of accidental strategies, but business success is the product of continuous attention to changing conditions and insightful adaptations to those conditions.

    Answer: False
  56. In most respects, business strategy is very different than military strategy.

    Answer: False
  57. The element of surprise provides great competitive advantages in both military and business strategy.

    Answer: True
  58. Both military and business strategy are formulated, implemented, and evaluated with an assumption of competition.

    Answer: False
  59. Superior strategy formulation is well and good, but it cannot overcome an opponent's superiority in numbers and resources.

    Answer: False
  60. All firms have a strategy, even if it is informal, unstructured, and sporadic.

    Answer: True
  61. Firms can be more proactive with strategic management.

    Answer: True


Learn More :