Reference no: EM132694941

Question 1:

Given the amount of data monitoring and computer power, isn't the world more predicatable?

Select one:

a. Yes. The economic crisis is just a glitch.

b. No. The pace of globalization continues to create uncertainty and we are unable to fully predict the future.

c. Yes. We can now analyse the risks of globalization and confidently predict the future.

d. It predicts a global economic catastrophe.

Question 2

What are some characteristics of the 2008-2009 crisis?

Select one:

a. Very few people saw it coming.

b. It affected the entire global financial structure very rapidly, regardless of the place of origin.

c. There was a very rapid global lack of available bank credit.

d. All of the above.

Question 3

Which areas and principles can help firms to navigate the current crisis?

Select one:

a. Top management need to concentrate on cashflow and survival.

b. A comprehensive, exhaustive strategic review is called for.

c. Management needs to cut prices.

d. All of the above.

Question 4

Which performance criterion is paramount in times of recession?

Select one:

a. Liquidity: having enough cash to pay the bills.

b. Long-term strategic forecasting.

c. Market share.

d. Earnings per share.

Question 5

What is the main problem inside many companies regarding shareholder value creation?

Select one:

a. It is interpreted in such a way as to maximise executive remuneration, and thus short-term profits.

b. It is interpreted by management to mean the management of the firm's long-term prospects.

c. It is interpreted by management to mean the maximisation of growth.

d. It is interpreted by management to mean the management of the firm's market share.

Question 6

Which factors explain the corporate disasters of the last decade?

Select one:

a. Management opting for high-risk strategies which took little account of those risks, and which overestimated their capability.

b. The uncertainty and the turbulence of the business environment in general.

c. Top manager's greed, the absence of any ethics, and human nature.

d. The complexity of the environment, and a misfit between the marketing strategies of the firms involved, and their product characteristics.

Question 7

If firms are social institutions that must identify with the values of society, then:

Select one:

a. when society's values change, the strategies and behaviours of firms must change as well.

b. there will need to be additional members of society on the board of directors.

c. firms have no freedom to make profit.

d. shareholders will invest elsewhere if their values are not met.

Question 8

In option theory, an attractive resource is:

Select one:

a. one that can be deployed in different businesses.

b. one that can support alternative strategies.

c. the one that is able to generate the largest number of capabilities.

d. Answers a and b.

Question 9:

Ultimately, the only sustainable competitive advantage which matters is:

Select one:

a. the ability to perform better than rivals.

b. the ability to be flexible.

c. the ability to maintain an acceptable situation in terms of available cash.

d. the ability to create new sources of competitive advantage, although this is not very practically helpful.

Question 10

If a business is inherently unpredictable, then:

Select one:

a. only statistical management can achieve excellent results.

b. the managerial challenge is to design a structure which is inherently flexible and adaptable.

c. no one can act in any way to manage a firm.

d. there's no longer any point in having a strategy.