Business Strategy Development Flashcards
7 cards from real CMC practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Business Strategy Development flashcards as text
Which of the following best defines 'emergent strategy' as described by Henry Mintzberg?
Answer: A strategy that develops through patterns of decisions made in response to unplanned circumstances
Emergent strategy arises from consistent patterns of behavior not originally intended, contrasting with deliberate (planned) strategy in Mintzberg's strategy continuum.
A CMC advising a company in a declining industry should first consider which strategic response?
Answer: Assess whether to harvest, hold, consolidate, or exit based on the firm's competitive position
In declining industries, strategic options include harvesting cash, holding position, consolidating, or exiting—the right choice depends on the firm's relative competitive strength.
In the context of strategic alliances, 'opportunistic behavior' by a partner is most effectively mitigated by:
Answer: Establishing clear contractual protections and governance mechanisms
Contractual safeguards and governance structures such as joint oversight committees reduce the risk of partners acting in self-interested ways that harm the alliance.
The 'resource-based view' (RBV) of strategy asserts that competitive advantage stems from:
Answer: Internal resources and capabilities that are valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable
The RBV, associated with Barney, holds that sustainable competitive advantage comes from unique internal resources meeting the VRIN criteria, not from external positioning alone.
A 'value innovation' approach, central to blue ocean strategy, requires firms to simultaneously:
Answer: Pursue differentiation and low cost
Value innovation breaks the conventional differentiation-cost trade-off by pursuing both lower cost and higher buyer value at the same time.
Which of the following is a key characteristic of a 'viable' strategy in the SAF evaluation framework?
Answer: The strategy can be funded and implemented with available or obtainable resources
Feasibility in the SAF framework asks whether the organization has or can obtain the financial, human, and operational resources needed to execute the strategy.
A company shifts from a functional organizational structure to a divisional structure to support its new strategy. This reflects which strategic management principle?
Answer: Structure must follow strategy
Chandler's principle states that structure follows strategy—as a firm's strategy changes, its organizational structure must adapt to support execution.