2. Which of the following is a valid reason or a strong signal that a company should consider changing from a low-cost/low-strategy for branded footwear to a different strategy?

A. Too many other companies in the industry are also pursuing a low-cost/low-strategy strategy for branded footwear to a different strategy.

B. Company managers prefer not to build a plant in Europe-Africa.

C. The company's cost are far above the industry average for many of the benchmarked cost strategies contained in the FIR

D. The company's market share is not the largest in at least 2 geographic regions.

E. The company's profit margin per branded pair is not above the industry average in all geographic regions.

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3. Which of the following options is usually an appealing way to try to increase a company's ROE?

A. Maintain a high (above 75%) dividend payout ratio.

B. paying a minimal dividend (probably not more than $0.10 per share), so as to keep retained earnings by a sizable amount each year

C. Issuing additional shares of stock and using the proceeds to retire long-term debt and avoid short-term loans

D. Paying a dividend each upcoming decision round that exceeds projected EPS by $2.00

E. Not paying a dividend and issuing all available cash to pay down debt.