CME Strategic Management & Leadership 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which change management model proposes three stages: Unfreeze, Change, and Refreeze?
- Kotter's 8-Step Model
- Lewin's Change Model (Correct answer)
- ADKAR Model
- McKinsey 7-S Framework
Correct answer: Lewin's Change Model
Kurt Lewin's three-stage model describes change as unfreezing current behaviors, transitioning, then refreezing new behaviors into place.
Question 2: A manager using 'management by exception' will:
- Intervene only when performance deviates significantly from standards (Correct answer)
- Manage every task detail personally
- Delegate all decisions regardless of outcome
- Focus exclusively on developing subordinates
Correct answer: Intervene only when performance deviates significantly from standards
Management by exception allows routine operations to proceed uninterrupted and only triggers managerial intervention when variances exceed acceptable thresholds.
Question 3: A first-mover advantage is MOST likely to be sustainable when:
- The market is slow-growing and mature
- The firm can establish strong customer switching costs or proprietary technology (Correct answer)
- Competitors have identical resource bases
- The product has a short lifecycle
Correct answer: The firm can establish strong customer switching costs or proprietary technology
First-movers maintain advantages longest when switching costs, proprietary assets, or network effects make it costly for customers to switch to later entrants.
Question 4: In strategic decision-making, 'bounded rationality' means that decision-makers:
- Have unlimited access to all relevant information
- Make decisions that are constrained by cognitive limits and incomplete information (Correct answer)
- Always choose the option that maximizes outcomes
- Delegate strategic decisions to AI systems
Correct answer: Make decisions that are constrained by cognitive limits and incomplete information
Herbert Simon's concept of bounded rationality recognizes that humans 'satisfice' rather than optimize due to cognitive limitations and imperfect information.
Question 5: The term 'strategic fit' refers to:
- The alignment between an organization's strategy and its external environment and internal capabilities (Correct answer)
- The physical office layout supporting teamwork
- The match between an employee's skills and job requirements
- A firm's ability to pivot strategy quickly
Correct answer: The alignment between an organization's strategy and its external environment and internal capabilities
Strategic fit measures how well a firm's chosen strategy aligns with its external opportunities/threats and internal strengths/weaknesses.
Question 6: Which approach best describes 'blue ocean strategy'?
- Competing aggressively in existing high-growth markets
- Creating uncontested market space by making competition irrelevant (Correct answer)
- Acquiring competitors to dominate existing markets
- Reducing prices to undercut all rivals
Correct answer: Creating uncontested market space by making competition irrelevant
Blue ocean strategy, from Kim and Mauborgne, focuses on creating new demand and market space rather than fighting for share in crowded existing markets.
Question 7: A leadership team conducting a 'pre-mortem' analysis is attempting to:
- Evaluate the performance of a completed project
- Proactively identify ways a future initiative could fail before it begins (Correct answer)
- Assess competitor strategies post-launch
- Document lessons learned after a crisis
Correct answer: Proactively identify ways a future initiative could fail before it begins
A pre-mortem has the team imagine a future failure and work backward to identify its probable causes, improving planning and risk management.
CME Strategic Management & Leadership 3
Which change management model proposes three stages: Unfreeze, Change, and Refreeze?