Strategic Management Exam

Strategic Management: MGMT 4369 90L

Summer II 2015

Midterm Exam

Professor: Wanrong Hou

Due: July 31st, 9:00 PM, 2015

Please submit YOUR ANSWERS in a word file to “Midterm Exam” in Blackboard

Essay questions:

1. Please briefly describe the major steps of the Strategic Management Process and the key elements of strategy (Check out Chapter 1 slides, 20 points).

The strategic management process begins with a vision and mission. This encompasses the fundamental organizational purpose and the values in which the firm wants to follow. Next comes both internal and external strategic analyses which leads to implementing a strategy. The strategy is the central, integrated, extremely oriented concept of how a firm will achieve its objectives. Once a strategy is in place next comes the implementation levers and strategic management. This step and the strategy step go back and forth.

By answering key questions in each area, you paint a picture of your strategy with increasing clarity. The five key parts of strategy are:

• Arenas – “Where will we be active and with how much emphasis?”

• Which core technologies?
• Which geographic areas?
• Which market segments?
• Which product categories?
• Which value-creation stages?

This indicates where the business will be active, and how much emphasis will be placed on each area. It encompasses choices made about where to compete: the external environment such as product or service markets, geographic markets or channel. Arenas also identify value chain activities or value creation stages that are insourced or outsourced.

• Vehicles – “How will we get there?”

• Acquisitions?
• Joint ventures?
• Internal development?
• Licensing/franchising?

These are the means to enter the arenas chosen. Deciding appropriate vehicles is of strategic importance. A firm can decide to develop organically, may decide to form a joint venture or may acquire the business of an existing player in the targeted arena. A firm can use one or a combination of these different vehicles to penetrate arenas. Vehicles are the means of attaining the needed presence in a particular product category, market segment, geographic area, or value creation stage. They are the result of deliberate strategic choice.

• Differentiators – “How will we win?”

• Customization?
• Image?
• Price?
• Product reliability?

These are the factors that are believed to allow the firm to “win” in its targeted arenas, particularly external arenas. Differentiators refer to attributes that enable a company to distinguish itself from its rivals and gain market share. It can include image, price, reliability, and other key inputs. They require strategists to make up-front, conscious choices about which strategic assets will be assembled, refined, and deployed to beat competitors in the fight for customers, revenues, and profits.