Exam 1 (Chapters 5-6)

Question 1

Purpose of internal analysis

Answer 1

internal analysis creates the information and analysis necessary for an organisation to identify the key assets and competencies upon which a strategic position can be built.

Question 2

Difference between organization assets and competencies

Answer 2

Organisational assets are the accumulated capital, both financial and non- financial, that a company has at its disposal. These assets are both tangible and intangible and include: financial, physical, operational, people, legal, systems and marketing assets.

Organizational competencies are the abilities and skills available to the company to marshal the effective exploitation of the company’s assets. The combination of assets and these skills, allow an organisation to undertake specific activities.

Question 3

Purpose of auditing tools

Answer 3

Any audit will therefore need to carry out a thorough analysis of company’s resources to establish assets and competencies, that either currently or potentially could assist the marketing function, and support strategic marketing developments. These wider non-marketing assets and competencies will fall into five categories; financial resources, managerial skills, technical resources, organisation and information systems.

Question 4

Different types of competencies

Answer 4

Strategic competencies: These relates to the management skills, the drive and the strategic direction of the organisation.
Functional competencies: These refer to the skills available to the organisation to manage its activities in the various functional areas such as finance, operations and marketing.
Operational competencies: These skills are necessary to run the day- to-day operations across the functional areas of the organisation.
Individual competencies: These are the abilities and skills that lie with individuals in the organisation.
Team competencies: It is necessary for individuals in organisations to work together in teams
Corporate-level competencies: There are the skills, that apply to the organisation in its entirety, to execute tasks at strategic, functional and operational level.

Question 5

Identifying long term issues

Answer 5

Yesterday’s view of what worked is unlikely to be appropriate in the changed environment of the future.

What is critical is for managers to form a fully developed understanding of the market they are in and to establish the strategic issues that could have an impact on the business in the longer term. This will allow them to establish the key areas where changes in the environment could affect critical factors such as the industry’s structure, market demand or competitive reactions. Effectively this entails establishing the key questions that need to be answered in order to form a view of the future. These questions are unlikely to be important in terms of the day-to-day operation of the business but will be crucial to its long-term direction.

Question 6

Describe strategic responses to future events anticipated in the environment

Answer 6

Where an event has a high impact on the organisation and the prob- ability of it happening in the near future is high and then the company needs to undertake more in-depth analysis and develop a strategy that addresses the impact of the development. Where the impact of an event is high but the probability of it happening is low, or the event is only likely to happen far into the future, then the organisation should monitor and analyse data and begin developing contingency plans. Events that only have a low impact will be given a much-reduced emphasis in terms of monitoring and analysis undertaken by the company.