Strategic Management: A Competitive Advantage Approach Concepts and Cases 17th Edition Instructor ma

1-4.  Diagram the comprehensive strategic-management model.
 
Answer:  See Figure 1-1 in Chapter 1.
 
1-5.  Develop a diagram to reveal the benefits to a firm for doing strategic planning.  Include “improved understanding,” “enhanced communication,” “all managers and employees on a mission,” and “greater commitment” – in the correct order.
 
Answer:  See Figure 1-2 in Chapter 1.
 
1-6.  How important do you feel “having an excellent game plan” is to winning a basketball or football game against your university’s major rival? Discuss.
 
Answer:  Having an excellent game plan oftentimes is the key difference between winning and losing in an athletic event. A reason for this is that in most leagues in most sports, there is growing parity in terms of talent and skills among players. Player desire, motivation, and other intangible factors play a significant role in winning or losing, but every player relies on the head coach to develop an effective game plan by watching film of rivals’ prior games and studying the opponents’ strengths, weaknesses, and strategies – and devising a winning plan of action.  Outstanding coaches are often paid millions of dollars, for example in Division 1 college football and basketball, partly because they have demonstrated superior expertise in devising excellent game plans versus rival teams.
 
1-7.  Are “strategic management” and “strategic planning” synonymous terms? Explain.
 
Answer:  The term “strategic management” in this text is used synonymously with the term “strategic planning.” The latter term is more often used in the business world, whereas the former is often used in academia. Sometimes the term “strategic management” is used to refer to strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation, with “strategic planning” referring only to strategy formulation.
 
1-8.  Why do many firms move too hastily from vision/mission development to devising alternative strategies?
 
Answer:  Firms that move too hastily from vision and mission development to devising alternative strategies are overlooking two important steps in the strategic management process:  1) identify and evaluate internal strengths/weaknesses and 2) identify and evaluate external opportunities/threats.  Reasons why many firms are negligent in this regard include 1) laziness, 2) lack of time, 3) lack of knowledge, 4) unwillingness to do research to find specific facts and figures, and 5) being unaware that matching key external with internal factors is a key to strategy formulation.
 
1-9.  Why are strategic planning retreats often conducted away from the work site? How often should firms have a retreat, and who should participate in them?
 
Answer:  The rationale for periodically conducting strategic-management meetings away from the work site is to encourage more creativity and candor from participants. Good communication and feedback are needed throughout the strategic-management process in order to 1) formulate effective strategies and 2) achieve understanding and commitment that are vital to strategy implementation.
 
1-10.  Distinguish between long-range planning and strategic planning.
 
Answer:  Long-range planning is striving to optimize for tomorrow the trends of today, whereas strategic planning is striving to exploit and create new and different opportunities for tomorrow.   Strategic planning requires much more work and diligence as indicated by the activities and stages described in the chapter.
 
1-11.  How important do you think “being adept at adapting” is for business firms? Explain. 
 
Answer:  Being adept at adapting is vital for survival of business firms (and organisms). The strategic-management process is based on the belief that an organization’s survival can depend on how well the firm continually monitors internal and external events and trends and makes timely changes as needed.
 
1-12.  As cited in the chapter, Edward Deming, a famous businessman, once said, “In God we trust. All others bring data.” What did Deming mean in terms of developing a strategic plan? 
          
Answer:  The strategic-management process can be described as an objective, logical, systematic approach for making major business decisions in an organization. The process attempts to organize qualitative and quantitative information in a way that allows effective decisions to be made under conditions of uncertainty. Mr. Deming insisted on facts and figures because he knew that vague generalities were not helpful in choosing among many attractive alternative strategies. Mr. Deming insisted on seeing #’s, $’s, ratios, and %’s across regions and products in order to best chart a path forward for any organization.