CSM Strategic Planning & Execution 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A company conducting a PESTEL analysis identifies rising interest rates as a major concern. Under which PESTEL category does this factor fall?
- Political
- Economic (Correct answer)
- Social
- Technological
Correct answer: Economic
Interest rates are an economic factor that affects borrowing costs, consumer spending, and investment decisions.
Question 2: Which strategic planning tool maps an organization's activities along a series of steps to identify where value is created or lost?
- BCG Matrix
- Value Chain Analysis (Correct answer)
- Ansoff Matrix
- Balanced Scorecard
Correct answer: Value Chain Analysis
Value Chain Analysis, developed by Michael Porter, dissects a firm's activities to identify sources of competitive advantage and areas of value creation.
Question 3: When a strategic plan consistently fails to translate into operational results, the most likely root cause is:
- Insufficient market research during planning
- A weak mission statement
- A gap between strategy formulation and execution alignment (Correct answer)
- Lack of competitor analysis
Correct answer: A gap between strategy formulation and execution alignment
The execution gap occurs when strategies are not operationalized through aligned processes, incentives, and accountability structures.
Question 4: In the context of strategic execution, what does the acronym OKR stand for?
- Operational Key Results
- Objectives and Key Results (Correct answer)
- Organizational Knowledge Repository
- Output and Key Ratios
Correct answer: Objectives and Key Results
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is a goal-setting framework that links ambitious objectives to measurable outcomes to drive execution.
Question 5: A firm's core competency is BEST described as:
- A product that generates the most revenue
- A unique bundle of skills and technologies that delivers value competitors cannot easily imitate (Correct answer)
- The largest department by headcount
- The company's primary geographic market
Correct answer: A unique bundle of skills and technologies that delivers value competitors cannot easily imitate
Core competencies, as defined by Prahalad and Hamel, are deeply embedded capabilities that differentiate a firm and are difficult for competitors to replicate.
Question 6: Which of the following BEST describes a 'stretch goal' in strategic planning?
- A goal achievable with current resources and no change
- An ambitious target that requires significant capability development beyond the status quo (Correct answer)
- A goal set below last year's performance to ensure success
- A short-term operational target for a single department
Correct answer: An ambitious target that requires significant capability development beyond the status quo
Stretch goals are intentionally ambitious targets designed to push organizations beyond incremental improvement toward transformational change.
Question 7: A strategic manager reviews the organization's portfolio using the GE-McKinsey Matrix. The two axes of this matrix are:
- Market share and market growth rate
- Industry attractiveness and competitive strength (Correct answer)
- Revenue and profit margin
- Product lifecycle stage and brand equity
Correct answer: Industry attractiveness and competitive strength
The GE-McKinsey Matrix plots business units on industry attractiveness (external) versus competitive strength (internal) to guide investment decisions.
CSM Strategic Planning & Execution 2
A company conducting a PESTEL analysis identifies rising interest rates as a major concern.
Under which PESTEL category does this factor fall?