MGRADES
MBA Strategic Management UPDATED
ACTUAL Exam Questions and CORRECT
Answers
Articles to Read - CORRECT ANSWER - 1. What is strategy?
2. Porter's 5 Competitive Forces
3. Core Competency
4. Adaptability
5 Connect and Develop for Innovation
6. Using the Balance Scorecard
7. Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution
optional, but not on the test: Blue Ocean
What is Strategy? by Porter: Key Takeaways (week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) -
CORRECT ANSWER - A company can outperform rivals only if it can establish a
difference that is can preserve. Companies that try to be all things to all customers risk confusion
in the trenches as employees attempt to make day to day operating decisions without a clear
framework. Positioning trade-offs are pervasive in competition and essential to strategy. They
create the need for choice and purposefully limit what a company offers. The essence of strategy
is choosing what not to do. Operational excellence is about achieving excellence in individual
activities, while strategy is about combining activities. strategy requires constant discipline and
clear communication. improving operational effectiveness is pessary part of management, but
not its strategy. Strategic agenda is the right place for defining a unique position, making clear
trade-offs, and tightening fits.
operating effectiveness
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - means performing
similar activities better than rivals perform them. includes but no limited to efficiency. It refers to
any number of practices that allow a company to better utilize its inputs by reducing defects in
products or developing better products faster.
,MGRADES
strategic positioning
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - means performing
different activities from rivals' or performing similar activities in different ways
competitive strategy
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - is about being
different. It means deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of
value. The essence of strategy is in the activities - choosing to perform activities differently or to
perform different activities than rivals.
Strategic Positioning
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - emerge from three
distinct sources:
1. Positioning can be based on producing a subset of an industry's products or services (variety
based position - based on the choice of product or services varieties rather the customer
segments; makes economic sense when a company can best produce particular products or
services using distinctive sets of activities.
2. servicing mort or all the needs of a particular group of customers. (need based positioning -
targeting a segment of customers; arises when a group of customers with differing needs, and
when a tailored set of activities can serve those needs best)
3. Segmenting customers who are accessible in different ways. (access-based positing - can be a
function of customer geography or customer scale or of anything that requires a different set of
activities to reach customers in the best way).
Strategy
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - is the creation of a
unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities. It is also creating fit among a
company's activities. The success of a strategy depends on doing many things well-not just a
few- and integrating among them.
How companies imitate valuable position
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - 1. a competitor
can reposition itself to match the superior performance.
, MGRADES
2. straddling - a straddler seeks to match the benefits of a successful position while maintaining
its existing position. it grafts new features, services, or technologies onto the activities it already
performs
trade -off
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - more of one thing
necessitates less of another. occur when activities are incompatible.create the need for choice and
protest against repositions and straddlers
reasons for trade-offs
1. inconsistencies in image or reputation (a company known for for delivering one-kind of value
may lack credibility and confuse customers if it delivers another kind of value or attempt to
deliver two inconsistence things at the same time
2. arise in activities themselves. Difference positions (with their tailored activities) require
different product configuration, equipment, skills, employee behavior, and management systems.
3. arise from limits on internal coordination and control
Strategic Fit
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - Fit Locks out
imitators by creating a chain that is as strong as its strongest link. activities fit and reinforce one
another. These activities complement one another in ways that create real economic value
Three Fits; simple consistency, activities are reinforcing, and optimization of effort (purpose: the
whole matters more than any individual part)
Competitive advantage grows out of the entire system of activities. This approach reduces costs
or increases differentiation and makes it harder for competitors to imitate.
First Order Fit: simple consistency fit
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - simple consistency
fit between each activity (function) and the overall strategy. Consistency ensures that the
competitive advantages of activities cumulate and do not cancel themselves out. . Helps make the
strategy easier to communicate to customers, employees, and shareholders
MBA Strategic Management UPDATED
ACTUAL Exam Questions and CORRECT
Answers
Articles to Read - CORRECT ANSWER - 1. What is strategy?
2. Porter's 5 Competitive Forces
3. Core Competency
4. Adaptability
5 Connect and Develop for Innovation
6. Using the Balance Scorecard
7. Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution
optional, but not on the test: Blue Ocean
What is Strategy? by Porter: Key Takeaways (week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) -
CORRECT ANSWER - A company can outperform rivals only if it can establish a
difference that is can preserve. Companies that try to be all things to all customers risk confusion
in the trenches as employees attempt to make day to day operating decisions without a clear
framework. Positioning trade-offs are pervasive in competition and essential to strategy. They
create the need for choice and purposefully limit what a company offers. The essence of strategy
is choosing what not to do. Operational excellence is about achieving excellence in individual
activities, while strategy is about combining activities. strategy requires constant discipline and
clear communication. improving operational effectiveness is pessary part of management, but
not its strategy. Strategic agenda is the right place for defining a unique position, making clear
trade-offs, and tightening fits.
operating effectiveness
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - means performing
similar activities better than rivals perform them. includes but no limited to efficiency. It refers to
any number of practices that allow a company to better utilize its inputs by reducing defects in
products or developing better products faster.
,MGRADES
strategic positioning
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - means performing
different activities from rivals' or performing similar activities in different ways
competitive strategy
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - is about being
different. It means deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of
value. The essence of strategy is in the activities - choosing to perform activities differently or to
perform different activities than rivals.
Strategic Positioning
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - emerge from three
distinct sources:
1. Positioning can be based on producing a subset of an industry's products or services (variety
based position - based on the choice of product or services varieties rather the customer
segments; makes economic sense when a company can best produce particular products or
services using distinctive sets of activities.
2. servicing mort or all the needs of a particular group of customers. (need based positioning -
targeting a segment of customers; arises when a group of customers with differing needs, and
when a tailored set of activities can serve those needs best)
3. Segmenting customers who are accessible in different ways. (access-based positing - can be a
function of customer geography or customer scale or of anything that requires a different set of
activities to reach customers in the best way).
Strategy
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - is the creation of a
unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities. It is also creating fit among a
company's activities. The success of a strategy depends on doing many things well-not just a
few- and integrating among them.
How companies imitate valuable position
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - 1. a competitor
can reposition itself to match the superior performance.
, MGRADES
2. straddling - a straddler seeks to match the benefits of a successful position while maintaining
its existing position. it grafts new features, services, or technologies onto the activities it already
performs
trade -off
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - more of one thing
necessitates less of another. occur when activities are incompatible.create the need for choice and
protest against repositions and straddlers
reasons for trade-offs
1. inconsistencies in image or reputation (a company known for for delivering one-kind of value
may lack credibility and confuse customers if it delivers another kind of value or attempt to
deliver two inconsistence things at the same time
2. arise in activities themselves. Difference positions (with their tailored activities) require
different product configuration, equipment, skills, employee behavior, and management systems.
3. arise from limits on internal coordination and control
Strategic Fit
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - Fit Locks out
imitators by creating a chain that is as strong as its strongest link. activities fit and reinforce one
another. These activities complement one another in ways that create real economic value
Three Fits; simple consistency, activities are reinforcing, and optimization of effort (purpose: the
whole matters more than any individual part)
Competitive advantage grows out of the entire system of activities. This approach reduces costs
or increases differentiation and makes it harder for competitors to imitate.
First Order Fit: simple consistency fit
(week 1/Overview of Strategic Management) - CORRECT ANSWER - simple consistency
fit between each activity (function) and the overall strategy. Consistency ensures that the
competitive advantages of activities cumulate and do not cancel themselves out. . Helps make the
strategy easier to communicate to customers, employees, and shareholders
