Which of the following is NOT accurate as concerns the task of identifying the strategic issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention?

Which of the following is NOT accurate as concerns the task of identifying the strategic issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention? 

A. It entails drawing upon the results and conclusions from analyzing the company's external environment.

B. It entails drawing on the results and conclusions from evaluating the company's own resources and competitive position.

C. It entails developing a "worry list" of "how to...," "whether to...," and "what to do about..."

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 issues and problems that management need 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.


Answer: 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.

Which of the following is NOT part of the task of identifying the strategic issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention?

Which of the following is NOT part of the task of identifying the strategic issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention? 

A. Analyzing the company's external environment

B. Evaluating the company's own resources and competitive position

C. Surveying a company's board members, managers, select employees, and key investors regarding what strategic issues they think the company faces

D. Developing a "worry list" of "how to...," "whether to...," and "what to do about..."

E. Assessing what challenges the company must overcome to be financially and competitively successful in the years ahead


Answer: Surveying a company's board members, managers, select employees, and key investors regarding what strategic issues they think the company faces

Identifying the strategic issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention:

Identifying the strategic issues and problems that merit front-burner managerial attention: 

A. is accomplished solely by analyzing the company's internal working environment.

B. helps set management's agenda for taking actions to improve the company's performance and business outlook.

C. is done solely by evaluating the company's own internal situation—its resources and competitive position—to help come up with a "worry list" of "how to...," "whether to...," and "what to do about..."

D. is done solely as a basis for drawing conclusions about whether to stick with a company's present strategy or to modify it.

E. None of these.


Answer: helps set management's agenda for taking actions to improve the company's performance and business outlook.

Identifying the strategy-related issues and problems that company managers need to address and resolve for the company to be more financially and competitively successful entails all of the following EXCEPT:

Identifying the strategy-related issues and problems that company managers need to address and resolve for the company to be more financially and competitively successful entails all of the following EXCEPT: 

A. drawing on the results of both industry analysis and the evaluations of the company's own competitiveness.

B. drawing on the evaluations of the company's own resources, internal circumstances, and competitiveness.

C. locking in on what challenges/obstacles/roadblocks the company has to overcome in order to be financially and competitively successful in the years ahead.

D. developing a "worry list" of "how to...," "whether to...," and "what to do about..."

E. developing a competitive strength assessment that details the strategic moves and countermoves necessary for ensuring the company's financial future.


Answer: developing a competitive strength assessment that details the strategic moves and countermoves necessary for ensuring the company's financial future.

Identifying the strategic issues a company faces and compiling a "worry list" of problems and roadblocks is an important component of company situation analysis because:

Identifying the strategic issues a company faces and compiling a "worry list" of problems and roadblocks is an important component of company situation analysis because: 

A. without a precise fix on what problems/issues a company confronts, managers cannot know what the industry's key success factors are.

B. the "worry list" sets the management agenda for taking actions to improve the company's performance and business outlook.

C. without a precise fix on what problems/roadblocks a company confronts, managers are less clear about what value chain activities to benchmark.

D. the "worry list" helps company managers clarify their thinking about how best to modify the company's value chain.

E. these issues and obstacles must be cleared before management can focus clearly on what is the best strategy for the company to pursue.


Answer: the "worry list" sets the management agenda for taking actions to improve the company's performance and business outlook.

A company's competitive strength scores pinpoint its strengths and weaknesses against rivals and:

A company's competitive strength scores pinpoint its strengths and weaknesses against rivals and: 

A. suggest the company use its strengths to exploit its own competitive liabilities.

B. point directly to the kinds of offensive/defensive actions it can use to exploit its competitive strengths and reduce its competitive liabilities.

C. point directly to the company to use its weaknesses as offensive moves to challenge rivals' weaknesses.

D. suggest receptivity for astute companies to drive their operating practices if the strength scores are very low.

E. point directly to accepting the competitive strength scores on face value.


Answer: point directly to the kinds of offensive/defensive actions it can use to exploit its competitive strengths and reduce its competitive liabilities.

Calculating competitive strength ratings for a company and comparing them against strength ratings for its key competitors helps indicate:

Calculating competitive strength ratings for a company and comparing them against strength ratings for its key competitors helps indicate: 

A. which weaknesses and vulnerabilities of competitors the company might be able to attack successfully.

B. which competitors are in profitable strategic groups and which competitors are in unprofitable strategic groups.

C. which competitors are employing offensive strategies and which competitors are employing defensive strategies.

D. which competitors are likely to make money and which are likely to lose money in the years ahead.

E. what the industry's key success factors are.


Answer: which weaknesses and vulnerabilities of competitors the company might be able to attack successfully.

The company with the highest rating on a given measure has an implied competitive edge on that specific measure, with the size of its edge:

The company with the highest rating on a given measure has an implied competitive edge on that specific measure, with the size of its edge: 

A. providing the company with an overall net competitive score that is reduced by the weighted measure.

B. signaling a weak position and competitive disadvantage.

C. reflecting the difference between its weighted rating and rivals' weighted ratings.

D. reflecting an area of potential improvement in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

E. requiring reevaluation of the weighted measure.


Answer: reflecting an area of potential improvement in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

Which one of the following is NOT something that can be learned from doing a competitive strength assessment?

Which one of the following is NOT something that can be learned from doing a competitive strength assessment? 

A. The factors on which a company is competitively strongest and weakest vis-à-vis key rivals

B. Whether a company should correct its weaknesses by adopting best practices and revamping the makeup of its value chain

C. Which of the rated companies is competitively strongest and what size competitive advantage it enjoys

D. Whether a company has a net competitive advantage or a net competitive disadvantage relative to key rivals (with the size of the advantage/disadvantage being indicated by the differences among the companies' competitive strength scores)

E. Which rival company is competitively weakest and the areas where it is most vulnerable to competitive attack


Answer: Whether a company should correct its weaknesses by adopting best practices and revamping the makeup of its value chain

Which one of the following is an accurate interpretation of the scores that result from doing a competitive strength assessment?

Which one of the following is an accurate interpretation of the scores that result from doing a competitive strength assessment? 

A. High scores signal a strong competitive position and possession of a competitive advantage over companies with lower scores.

B. High scores indicate that a company is a power-user of best practices, while low scores signal minimal or ineffective adoption of best practices.

C. The company with the lowest score has the lowest-cost value chain.

D. The company with the lowest score has the strongest net competitive advantage over its rivals.

E. High scores indicate which rivals are most vulnerable to competitive attack.


Answer: High scores signal a strong competitive position and possession of a competitive advantage over companies with lower scores.

Quantitative measures of a company's competitive strength:

Quantitative measures of a company's competitive strength: 

A. signal which competitor has the most distinctive competencies and which competitor has the fewest.

B. provide useful indicators of how a company compares against key rivals, factor by factor and capability by capability—thus indicating whether the company has a net overall competitive advantage or disadvantage against each rival.

C. reveal which competitors are in the best and worst strategic groups.

D. show which industry rival has the best overall market opportunities and which competitor has the poorest market opportunities.

E. pinpoint which industry rival is subject to the least amount of competitive pressures from the five competitive forces.


Answer: provide useful indicators of how a company compares against key rivals, factor by factor and capability by capability—thus indicating whether the company has a net overall competitive advantage or disadvantage against each rival.

Calculating competitive strength ratings for a company and its rivals using the industry's most telling measures of competitive strength or weakness:

Calculating competitive strength ratings for a company and its rivals using the industry's most telling measures of competitive strength or weakness: 

A. is a way of determining which competitor has the highest overall competitive advantage in the marketplace and which competitor is faced with the lowest overall competitive disadvantage.

B. is the most reliable indicator of which industry member has the highest overall product quality.

C. is a powerful way of revealing which competitors are in the best and worst strategic groups.

D. is the most reliable indicator of which industry member has the lowest overall costs and is the low-cost leader.

E. pinpoints which industry rivals are most insulated from the industry's driving forces.


Answer: is a way of determining which competitor has the highest overall competitive advantage in the marketplace and which competitor is faced with the lowest overall competitive disadvantage.

A higher company's overall weighted strength rating does not signal:

A higher company's overall weighted strength rating does not signal: 

A. greater implied net competitive advantage

B. stronger overall competitiveness versus rivals.

C. weaker overall competitiveness versus rivals.

D. the possession of a competitive advantage.

E. None of these.


Answer: weaker overall competitiveness versus rivals.

In a weighted competitive strength analysis, each strength measure is assigned a weight based on:

In a weighted competitive strength analysis, each strength measure is assigned a weight based on: 

A. its percentage share of total industry revenues.

B. the importance of each competitive strength measure in building a sustainable competitive advantage.

C. its perceived importance in determining a company's competitive success in the marketplace.

D. its percentage share of total industry profits.

E. what it takes to provide better analytical balance between the companies with high ratings and the companies with low ratings and thus get the sum of the weights to add up to 1.0.


Answer: its perceived importance in determining a company's competitive success in the marketplace.

In a weighted competitive strength assessment, the sum of the weights should add up to:

In a weighted competitive strength assessment, the sum of the weights should add up to: 

A. 100%.

B. 1.0

C. 10.

D. 100.

E. None of these.


Answer: 1.0

Competitive strength can be determined by assigning measures based on perceived importance because:

Competitive strength can be determined by assigning measures based on perceived importance because: 

A. it provides a more accurate assessment of the strength of competitive forces.

B. it eliminates the bias introduced for those firms having large market shares.

C. the different measures of competitive strength are unlikely to be equally important.

D. the results provide a more reliable measure of what competitive moves rivals are likely to make next.

E. weighting each company's overall competitive strength by the size of its market share produces a more accurate measure of its true competitive strength.


Answer: the different measures of competitive strength are unlikely to be equally important.

Assigning a weight to each measure of competitive strength assessment is generally analytically superior because:

Assigning a weight to each measure of competitive strength assessment is generally analytically superior because: 

A. a weighted ranking identifies which competitive advantages are most powerful.

B. an unweighted ranking doesn't discriminate between companies with high and low market shares.

C. it singles out which competitor has the most competitively potent core competencies.

D. weighting each company's overall competitive strength by its percentage share of total industry profits produces a more accurate measure of its true competitive strength.

E. all of the various measures of competitive strength are not equally important.


Answer: all of the various measures of competitive strength are not equally important.

Understanding where the company is competitive requires:

Understanding where the company is competitive requires: 

A. determining whether a company has a cost-effective value chain.

B. developing quantitative strength ratings for the company and key rivals on each industry key success factor and each pivotal resource, capability, and value chain activity.

C. identifying a company's core competencies and distinctive competencies (if any).

D. analyzing whether a company is well positioned to gain market share and be the industry's profit leader.

E. developing quantitative measures of a company's chances for future profitability.


Answer: developing quantitative strength ratings for the company and key rivals on each industry key success factor and each pivotal resource, capability, and value chain activity.

The value of doing competitive strength assessment is to:

The value of doing competitive strength assessment is to: 

A. determine how competitively powerful the company's core competencies are.

B. learn if the company's market opportunities are better than those of its rivals.

C. learn whether a company has a distinctive competence.

D. learn how the company ranks relative to rivals on each of the important factors that determine market success and ascertain whether the company has a net competitive advantage or disadvantage vis-à-vis key rivals.

E. determine whether a company's resource strengths are sufficient to allow it to earn bigger profits than rivals.


Answer: learn how the company ranks relative to rivals on each of the important factors that determine market success and ascertain whether the company has a net competitive advantage or disadvantage vis-à-vis key rivals.

The road to competitive advantage begins with management's efforts:

The road to competitive advantage begins with management's efforts: 

A. to build organizational expertise in performing certain competitively important value chain activities.

B. to understand the value chain activities providing opportunity for growth.

C. to build value-creating activities all along the value chain.

D. to give superiority over rivals in performing tasks and activities extremely well.

E. All of these.


Answer: to build organizational expertise in performing certain competitively important value chain activities.