Chapter 5

Question 1

Strategic Management

Answer 1

Strategic Management reflects what a firm is doing to achieve its mission and vision as seen by its achievement of specific goals and objectives.

(Achieving goals to achieve the mission and vision)

Question 2

Strategic Management Equation

Answer 2

Strategic Management Process = Strategy Formulation + Strategy Implementation

Question 3

What Planning/Strategy Formulation Consists of::

Answer 3

1. Mission & VIsion
2. Strategizing
3. Goals and Objectives

Question 4

Strategy Formulation is concerned with

Answer 4

How Mission and Vision will be achieved and which goals and objectives will put us on the right path to achievement

Question 5

Strategizing: Corporate Strategy

Answer 5

This where you figure out what strategic business units you want to have, and what kind or relationship they will have to head quarters. In Corporate strategy you ask:

1: What Business or Businesses should we be in?
2. How does being in one business help us compete with our other businesses?

Question 6

Corporate Strategy Considers:

Answer 6

Synergy and Diversification

Question 7

Synergy:

Answer 7

The act of combining two or more inputs to make the output greater then the sum of its parts.

1 + 1 > 2

Question 8

Diversification

Answer 8

Participating in separate entities simultaneously in order to spread out risk and opportunities over a larger set of businesses.

Question 9

General Goal of Strategic Management **

Answer 9

Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Something you are better at than your competitors, that they can not beat you at. This is your bread and butter, especially from an economic perspective. It helps to think about this in terms of specialization and gains from trade.

Question 10

Related Diversification

Answer 10

This is what happens when you operate multiple businesses within the same industry. An example of this is

Question 11

Unrelated Diversification

Answer 11

This is what happens when you operate multiple businesses in industries that lack similarity from one another. Ex: Berkshire Hathaway invests in Geico and Coke.

Question 12

Strategizing: Business Strategy

Answer 12

This asks the question: How should do we need to compete, in order to be effective?

This part of strategic formation revolves around finding a strategy that satisfies your mission, vision and goals.
If you’re Mcdonalds you might want to keep existing customers, grow your business and enter new markets. As a result, your business strategy should be designed to incorporate those goals in a manner that you should expect success.

Question 13

Competitive Advantage

Answer 13

Something that you excel at relative to other people that perform the same duty.

Question 14

Defining Strategy

Answer 14

A purposefully chosen set of activities performed differently from rivals, that carve out a unique position from an organization in an industry that leads to sustainable competitive advantage.

Question 15

Purposefully Chosen

Answer 15

Involves Tradeoffs, you need to build the understanding that you cannot do everything at once.

Question 16

Performed Differently

Answer 16

Done so to capitalize on sustainable developement

Question 17

Carve out a Unique Position

Answer 17

If you miss your exit on the highway, its very difficult to go back to where you missed. That is why you need a unique path that is successful as it takes time to return to the highway.

Question 18

How do we get to Sustainable Competitive Advantage?

Answer 18

We need to examine our external and internal environments together.

Question 19

External Analysis - PESTEL

Answer 19

Involves examining and analyzing the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal environment.

Question 20

Internal Analysis - Broken into two sections

Answer 20

1. Strengths and Weaknesses (SWOT)

2. Resources and Capabilities

Question 21

SWOT Analysis

Answer 21

SW = Internal Analysis while OT = External Analysis

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats which compose four areas all business can analyze to strategize and understand there businesses position.

Question 22

Porters Five Forces (External)

Answer 22

Four outputs that play into the relationship that competitors have. These outputs are Bargaining Power of Suppliers, Bargaining Power of Buyers, Threats of New Substitutes and Threats of New Entrants. All of these outputs play into the Rivalry Among Competitors.

Question 23

Industry Attractiveness (External)

Answer 23

Competitors, Threat of New Entrants, Substitutes, Suppliers, and Customers (Buyers)

Question 24

Three Generic Strategic Positions to Take

Answer 24

1. Low Cost Leadership
2. Differentiation
3. Focus/Niche

Question 25

Low Cost Leadership

Answer 25

This involves offering the lowest cost or service for consumers in the market. Typically this is ideal in cases where goods are homogeneous and the consumer is indifferent regarding quality.

Question 26

Differentiation

Answer 26

This involves offering a unique product or service where the customer is sensitive to the degree of quality that competing products have.

Question 27

Focus/Niche

Answer 27

Focus on a very specific target market and proceed to offer the Low Cost Leadership or Diversification strategy to that target market.

Question 28

Zero Sum Competition

Answer 28

This occurs when firms strictly compete on price. Generally it is not the healthiest form of competition as typically many things do not grow in the company.

Question 29

Positive Sum Compeititon

Answer 29

You compete on more than just price. There is a market offering that you as a firm generate and you may want to compete based on that. Based around elements other than price.

Question 30

Differentiation

Answer 30

You are offering a unique product to a broad based environment.

Characterized by: Unique Product + Broad Market

Question 31

Focused Differentiation

Answer 31

You are offering a unique product to a focused and narrow

Characterized by: Unique Product + Unique Market

Question 32

Porters Value Chain (Internal)

Answer 32

Porter created a value chain that categorized two types of business activities

. The first was Primary activities and the second was Support activities. Primary activities are the ones that add true value to a product. They consist of: Inbound Logistics, Operations, Outbound Logistics, Marketing and Sales, Service

The second was support activities. These are business activities that don’t add value specifically to the product itself, but are still equally as important in the business organization process. They consist of: Firm Infrastructure, Human Resource Management, Technological Development, and Procurement.

All of these categories are important in the process to structure a business.

Question 33

VRIO (Internal) ** add slides about specific results

Answer 33

VRIO is an internal analysis strategy that stands for valuable, rare, inimitable and organization. This strategy asks the question how great are your resources? It is only when firms resources are said to be valuable, rare, inimitable and supported by the organization are they said to bring forward a long term sustainable competitive advantage.

Question 34

Strategic Implementation

Answer 34

When it comes to actually implementing ones strategy, it is important to remember that Theory =/= Application. You are going to learn and have to adjust an infanancy of things in your management career.