Strategic Planning & Execution Flashcards

Which strategic planning tool maps an organization's activities to identify where value is created and competitive advantage can be built?

Answer: Value Chain Analysis

Value Chain Analysis, developed by Michael Porter, breaks down organizational activities into primary and support activities to identify sources of competitive advantage.

A company sets a strategic goal to increase market share by 15% over three years. Which element of the Balanced Scorecard would this goal fall under?

Answer: Customer Perspective

Market share is a customer-facing metric that reflects how well the company is acquiring and retaining customers, placing it in the Customer Perspective.

What is the primary purpose of conducting a competitive analysis during the strategic planning process?

Answer: To understand rivals' strengths, weaknesses, and strategies

Competitive analysis helps organizations understand the landscape of rivals, enabling them to differentiate their strategy and anticipate competitive moves.

A firm pursues a strategy of offering the lowest prices in the industry while maintaining acceptable quality. According to Porter's Generic Strategies, this is best described as:

Answer: Cost Leadership Strategy

Cost Leadership Strategy involves becoming the lowest-cost producer in an industry to compete on price while still generating profit.

During strategy execution, a manager notices that actual results consistently lag behind targets. The FIRST corrective action should be to:

Answer: Analyze root causes of the performance gap

Diagnosing root causes is essential before taking corrective action, as the gap could stem from flawed assumptions, poor execution, or external factors.

The concept of 'strategic alignment' in execution refers to:

Answer: Matching departmental goals and resources with the overall organizational strategy

Strategic alignment ensures that every department's objectives, initiatives, and resource allocations are consistent with and support the organization's overarching strategy.

Which of the following is the BEST example of a leading indicator in a strategic performance measurement system?

Answer: Employee training hours completed

Employee training hours is a leading indicator because it predicts future capability improvements, whereas revenue and profit are lagging indicators of past results.