Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases 23th edition

77)  Mad Magazine pivoted unsuccessfully in 2019 to eliminate future newsstand sales and publish only one issue per year, to republish recycled content from 67 years of publication, and also to reassign the space formerly occupied by new content to high-priced advertisements. Subscriptions to Mad Magazine as a result have fallen precipitously and are now available for deep discounts. What do we learn from this example about strategies that yield sustainable competitive advantage?

 

      
       A)   Mad Magazine no longer possesses a competitive advantage that enables this company to achieve its strategic objectives.
       B)   Mad Magazine failed to attract sufficiently large numbers of buyers who have a lasting preference for its products or services over those offered by rivals, owing to the efforts of competitors to offset that appeal and overcome the company’s advantage.
       C)   Mad Magazine’s competitive advantage no longer stems from the company’s strategic vision.
       D)   Mad Magazine’s decreases in shareholder value were contingent on an unsustainable competitive advantage.
       E)   Mad Magazine’s poor planning and execution of a strategy that changed or evolved the customer value proposition led to its failure.
      

 

ESSAY. Write your answer in the space provided or on a separate sheet of paper.
78)  What is strategy and why is it important?

 

 

 

79)  Briefly define each of the following terms:
   ● sustainable competitive advantage
    ● deliberate strategy
    ● emergent strategy
    ● realized strategy
    ● abandoned strategy
  

 

 

80)  What are the three tests of a winning strategy?

 

 

 

81)  Identify and briefly describe the five most frequently used strategic approaches to achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. Provide examples.

 

 

 

82)  What is the connection between a company's strategy and its quest for sustainable competitive advantage?

 

 

 

83)  Provide at least two examples of a company's competitively valuable capabilities.

 

 

 

84)  What are the three questions that managers can use to distinguish a winning strategy from a so-so or flawed strategy? Briefly explain why each question is important.

 

 

 

85)  Should a company's strategy be tightly connected to its quest for competitive advantage? Why or why not? What difference does it make whether a company has a sustainable competitive advantage or not?

 

 

 

86)  During a recession, a high-end beverage producer facing strong competition in a saturated market has decided to phase out all its flagship products and introduce a new line of second-label beverages at lower price points in reaction to its falling market share. Would this type of a reactive strategy revive its position? Why or why not?

 

 

 

87)  Compare the business models of Gillette and Epson.