BSG Comprehensive Study Exam Questions With 100% Verified Solutions

BSG Comprehensive Study Exam Questions With 100% Verified Solutions Q: If a company invests in production improvement option D, labor costs per pair produced will decline: - ANSWER - From $8.00 per pair to $5.33 for a production facility in Europe-Africa that currently has labor productivity of 4,000 pairs per worker and total regular compensation (which does not include overtime pay) of $32,000 annually. Q: Most effective approach to reduce/eliminate impact of tariffs in Europe-Africa: - ANSWER - Build and equip a production facility in Europe-Africa and then expand it as may be needed to supply all (or at least most) of the pairs the company intends to try to sell in Europe-Africa. Q: What company managers should do if they have unappealingly low branded market share in North America: - ANSWER - Use the information in the prior year's Comparative Competitive Efforts page for North America to explore the benefits and costs of (1) upgrading the company's competitive efforts in the upcoming decision round to eliminate most/all of the company's sizable percentage competitive disadvantages and (2) selectively strengthening the company's competitive efforts on 2-3 competitively-important factors in the Internet and Wholesale segments by amounts sufficient to produce high-percentage competitive advantages vis-a-vis its North America rivals in the upcoming decision round. Q: To boost company's credit rating from B+ to A: - ANSWER - An increase in the company's interest coverage ratio and a decline in the company's debt-to-assets ratio. Q: Value of industry benchmarks for costs per branded pair sold: - ANSWER - Are worth careful scrutiny by the managers of all companies because when the benchmarking data signals that a company's branded costs or operating profitability for one or more of the benchmarks are out-of-line, managers are well advised to take corrective action in the next decision round. Q: Benefits of pursuing social responsibility and corporate citizenship: - ANSWER - The positive impact that such a strategy has on the company's image rating/brand reputation, provided the company spends a meaningful amount on socially responsible activities and such spending is sustained over a multi-year period. Q: Most important results managers need to review/study to guide strategic moves: - ANSWER - The Comparative Competitive Efforts data for each geographic region in the Competitive Intelligence Report. Q: Which is NOT one of the optional initiatives for social responsibility strategy: - ANSWER - Using recycled packaging materials to box each pair of athletic footwear at the company's distribution centers. Q: If actual results are worse than projected, the reason is usually: - ANSWER - Some or many of the competitive efforts of rival firms in one or more geographic regions turned out to be stronger than anticipated by company managers (based on the entries for the Competitive Assumptions on the Internet Marketing and Wholesale marketing decision screens in the four geographic regions). Q: One benefit of contracting with celebrities to endorse company's brand: - ANSWER - That celebrity endorsements strengthen a company's overall competitive effort vis-a-vis rivals and make a company's brand more appealing to the buyers of branded athletic footwear, thereby boosting the company's branded sales volume. Q: Valid signal that company's costs are likely too high relative to rivals: - ANSWER - Your company's total compensation package for production workers is about 10% above the industry average in those geographic regions where your company has production operations. Q: If management team wishes to boost company's stock price: - ANSWER - Pursuing actions to meet or beat the annual investor-expected EPS targets, raising the company's dividend each year by $.30 per share or more, and repurchasing shares of common stock. Q: Best combination of actions for differentiation-based competitive advantage: - ANSWER - Offering 400 models/styles to buyers in all four geographic regions, maintaining a celebrity appeal rating of 200 or higher in all four geographic regions, selling branded footwear with a 7.2+ star S/Q rating in all four geographic regions, offering a mail-in rebate of $5 in all four geographic regions, and selling branded footwear at prices $3 above the industry-average in both the Internet and Wholesale segments in all four regions. Q: Dependable way to boost company's EPS: - ANSWER - Repurchase shares of the company's common stock. Q: Which is NOT a way to improve S/Q rating: - ANSWER - Increasing incentive pay per non-defective pair produced. Q: Cost-saving actions that can result in sustainable cost advantage: - ANSWER Investing in production improvement option A to reduce reject rates by 50%, big reductions in the incentive bonus paid to production workers per non-defective pair produced, and never spending any money on corporate social responsibility and citizenship. Q: Flawed ways to pursue competitive efforts that will successfully differentiate a company's branded footwear from the branded offerings of rival companies include: - ANSWER - concentrating the company's differentiation efforts on a single differentiating factor (like S/Q ratings or models/styles offered) rather than 3, 4, 5, or more competitively important factors that can set a company's branded footwear offering much further apart from the offerings of rivals. Q: In which one of the following situations does it make the most sense for a company to consider modifying its strategy to achieve a competitive advantage over rivals based on "high" S/Q ratings (8.5 stars or higher) that is marketed at well above-average prices?: - ANSWER - When the company is struggling to achieve the sales volumes needed to meet or beat the five investor-expected performance targets because the global marketplace for branded footwear is crowded with companies locked in a fierce competitive battle to sell branded footwear with high S/Q ratings at premium prices to the same relatively small high-end buyer segment Q: Which one of the following is the most trustworthy sign that companies opting to install additional production capacity in the upcoming decision round will likely struggle to avoid the extra costs of having unneeded production capacity and/or excessively large year-end inventories of branded footwear?: - ANSWER - The number of pairs that can be produced worldwide at full production capacity (including overtime) already exceeds by 20% the combined demand for branded footwear and private-label footwear three years from now (as reported in the most recent year's FIR).