Answer ALL the questions below. QUESTION ONE (1)

a) Discuss Ten (10) major external forces that affect organizations: economic, social cultural, demographic, environmental, political, governmental, legal, technological and competitive.

QUESTION TWO (2)

a) Identify Ten (10) types of business strategies.

QUESTION THREE (3)

a)Explain the importance of financial ratio analysis.

b)Discuss the nature and role of management information systems in strategic management.

QUESTION FOUR (4)

a)Discuss Porter's five generic strategies

( 5 marks)

b)Explain why strategy implementation is more difficult than strategy formulation.

QUESTION ONE (1)

a)List Five (5) ethics of gathering competitive intelligence.

b)List five (5) ethics of cooperating with rival firms

QUESTION TWO (2)

a)Explain how to determine and priotize firms internal strenghs and weaknesses.

b)State Five (5) question on Audit Checklist about marketing must be examined in strategic planning

QUESTION THREE (3)

a)What are the major advantages and disadvantages of diversification?

b)What are the major advantages and disadvantages of an integrative strategy?

c)How does strategic management differ in for-profit and nonprofit organizations?

1.To employ one successfully, a firm must ensure that its total costs across its overall value chair are lower than competitors' total costs

A)Unrelated diversification

B)Horizontal integration

C)Cost leadership

D)Cost leadership strategies

2.-Depends on an industry segment that is of sufficient size, had good growth potential, and is not crucial to the success of other major competitors

-Most effective when consumers have distinctive preferences

A)Cost leadership

B)Objectives

C)Focus strategies

D)Forward integration

3.Best-value strategy that offers products/services to a wide range of customers at the best price-value available on the market

A)Type 4

B)Type 2

C)Type 1

D)Type 5

4.Seeking ownership or increased control over suppliers

A)Forward integration

B)Horizontal integration

C)Product development

D)Backward integration

5.Regrouping through cost and asset reduction to reverse declining sales and profit

-Also called a turnaround or re-organizational strategy

-Designed to fortify a firm's basic distinctive competence

A)Objectives

B)Differentiation

C)Cost leadership

D)Retrenchment

6.Adding new but related products/services

-Value chains possesses competitively valuable cross-business strategic fits

A)Related diversification

B)Horizontal integration

C)Market penetration

D)Unrelated diversification

7.-Cooperation among competitors

-Joint venture/partnering

-Merger/acquisition

-First mover advantages

-Outsourcing

A)Porter's 5 generic strategies

B)Diversification strategies

C)Cost leadership strategies

D)Other, more specific strategies

8.-Specific

-Measurable

-Achievable

-Relevant

-Time bound

-Congruent among organizational units

A)Product development

B)Objectives should be

C)Intensive strategies

D)Market penetration

9.Low-cost strategy that offers products or services to a wide range of customersat the lowest price available on the market

A)Type 1

B)Type 4

C)Type 2

D)Type 5

10.-Cost leadership

-Differentiation

-Focus

-Cost focus

-Differentiation focus

A)Other, more specific strategies

B)Forward integration

C)Porter's 5 generic strategies

D)Horizontal integration

11.External dimension in the SPACE Matrix

A)ST strategies

A)Business portfolio

B)Industry position (IP)

C)Financial position (FP)

12.Internal dimension in the SPACE Matrix

A)a. Attractiveness scores (AS)

B)b. Conservative quadrant

C)c. stability position (SP)

D)d. Competitive position (CP)

13.Determined by examining each key external or internal factor, one at a time, and asking the question "Does this factor affect the choice of strategies being made?".

A)Aggressive quadrant

B)Competitive quadrant

C)Attractiveness scores (AS)

D)Competitive position (CP)

14. Four-quadrant framework indicates whether aggressive, conservative, defensive or competitive strategies are most appropriate for a given organization

A)Strategy Formulation Framework

B)Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) Matrix

C)Attractiveness Scores (AS)

D)Strategic Position and Action Evaluation (SPACE) Matrix

15.External and internal critical success factors is the key to effectively generating feasible alternative strategies

A)matching

B)WT Strategies

C)directional vector

D)culture

16.Technique objectively indicates which alternative strategies are best

A)Strategy-Formulation Framework

B)Competitive Position (CP)

C)Total Attractiveness scores (TAS)

D)Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM)

17.Involves a single technique, the Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM)

A)Input stage

B)Matching stage

C)Decision stage

D)SO Strategies

18. Competitive strategies, including backward, forward, and horizontal integration, market penetration, market development and product development.

A)Defensive quadrant

B)Competitive quadrant

C)Aggressive quadrant

D)Conservative quadrant

19.Defensive tactics directed at reducing internal weakness and avoiding external threats

A)WT Strategies

B)ST strategies

C)Input stage

D)WO Strategies

20.Represent the organization's best long-run opportunities for growth and profitability

A)Stars

B)WT strategies

C)Input stage

D)Culture

21.Avoidance are includes ignoring the problem in hopes the conflict will resolve itself or physically separating the conflicting individuals

True False

22.Self-interest change theory is one that attempts to convince individuals that the change is to their personal advantage (most effective)

True False

23.Defusion is Playing down differences between conflicting parties while accentuating similarities and common interests

True False

24.Managing resistance to change is one that presents information to convince people of the need for change (more effective)

True False

25.Strategy implementation is:

-Is managing forces during the action

-Focuses on efficiency

-Is primarily an operation process

-Requires special motivation and leadership skills

True False

26.Restructuring is:

-Re-configuring or redesigning work, jobs, and processes for the purpose of improving costs, quality, service, and speed

-Also called process management, process innovation, or process redesign

True False

27.Policies are:

-The means by which annual objectives will be achieved

-Specific guidelines, methods, procedures, rules, forms and administrative practices established to encourage work towards stated goals

-Set boundaries, constraints, and limits on the kinds of admin actions that can be taken to reward and sanction behavior

-Clarify what can and cannot be done to pursue an organization's objectives

-Should feed directly in the objective trying to be accomplished

True False

28.Conflict is:

-Defusion

-Confrontation

True False

-Avoidance

29.Managing conflict is:

-Disagreement between two or more parties on one or more issues

-Establishing annual objectives can lead to conflict because individuals have different perceptions, schedules create pressure, personalities are incompatible, and misunderstandings occur

True False

30.Confrontation is:

Exchanging members of conflicting parties so that each can gain an appreciation of the others point of view or hold a meeting so that the conflicting parties can present their views and work through their differences (really great yet under utilized)

True False