CIMA E3 flashcards

What is an ‘emergent strategy’? These were not part of the original plan and become apparent as time passes and new opportunities or threats have to be dealt with.

What is logical incrementalism? The idea that strategy should consist of small extensions of past policies.

What are four potential advantages of strategic planning?

• Establishes long-term objectives
• Better coordination
• Better focus on long-term change and lengthy projects
• A pro-active approach
• Implies looking ahead

 

What are three potential disadvantages of strategic planning?

• Paralysis by analysis
• Lack of flexibility and a reluctance to adapt the plan to circumstances
• Excessive costs in time and money

What is an organisation’s mission? An organisation’s mission is what it perceives its purpose to be.

What are the three suggested components of a mission statement?

• Purpose
• Vision
• Values

What are the three classifications of stakeholders?

• Internal
• External
• Connected

What are the two axes of Mendelow’s matrix? Interest and power

What are the missing labels on this diagram (Mendelow’s Matrix)?

 What are the four categories of drivers for change?

• Institutional and systemic eg Globalisation, geopolitics, regulations
• Social eg demography
• Market eg consumer empowerment
• Technology eg digital technology and automation

What is PESTEL?   A list of potential environmental influences: political, economic, social, technological, environmental/ecological, legal.

What is industry convergence?   Industry convergence is when industries, which had historically been separate, come together so that more diverse others products or services are offered by the same supplier. Examples can be airlines which now offer car hire, hotels, and insurance.

What is LoNGPEST?   The application of a PEST(EL) analysis at the local, national and global levels.  

What does Porter’s diamond attempt to explain?   Porter’s diamond puts forward and explanation as to why certain countries excel at certain activities eg Germany has an excellent reputation for car production.  

What are the four elements of Porter’s diamond?

• Factor conditions (basic and advanced)
• Firm strategy structure and rivalry
• Demand conditions
• Related and supporting industries

What does the Porter’s 5 Forces model attempt to analyse? The 5 forces model looks at industry attractiveness ie how easy a business will find it to make reasonable profits

What are the five elements of the Porter five forces model?

• Rivalry/competition
• Suppliers
• Buyers/customers
• Substitutes
• Potential entrants

What do the following statements define? “….  involves understanding and analysing businesses which compete directly or indirectly with your business in at least one market, product category or service.” “Identification and quantification of the relative strengths and weaknesses (compared with competitors or potential competitors), which could be of significance in the development of a successful competitive strategy.” Competitor analysis

Kotler identified four types of competitor. What are these?

• Brand competitors: Organisations which offer similar products to the same customers and which have a similar size and structure.
• Industry competitors: Suppliers who produce similar goods but who are not necessarily the same size or structure.
• Form competitors: Competitors who compete for the same needs, although they are technically quite different.
• Generic competitors: Competitors who compete for the same income.

 

What is the 4Cs mnemonic to the processes of competitor analysis? • Collecting information • Converting the information to intelligence • Communicating the intelligence to those who need it • Countering adverse competitor moves

What are resources and competences? Resources = things the company y has, like factories, patents, skilled people. Competences = how the resources are used.  

Capabilities are made up of which two items? Resources and competences

What are threshold and additional capabilities? Threshold capabilities are the minimum capabilities needed for the organisation to exist at all so that the company just survives. Additional capabilities are then the extra capabilities which give the organisation competitive advantage ie it has strategic capability.  

What is the difference between resource-based and position-based strategies? Position-based = an organisation should adapt its position to suit each environment it finds itself in. Resource-based = a realisation that an organisation’s resources and competences are often extremely valuable and they were the source of the organisation’s success. Therefore, organisations should not stray too far from their resources and competences but should try to use them in other ways if the environment changes.  

Which two labels are missing in the product life cycle diagram, below?

What are the primary activities of Porter’s value chain?

• Inbound logistics
• Operations
• Outbound logistics
• Marketing and sales
• Service

What are the support (or secondary) activities of Porter’s value chain?

• Firm infrastructure
• Technology development
• Human resource management
• Procurement

What is the difference between push and pull models of supply chains? Push: make goods for inventory usually according to historical demand. Pull: make goods to order. Sales orders pull production through the manufacturing process.

In SWOT analysis, which elements are internal and which external?

• Internal: strengths, weaknesses
• External: opportunities, threats.

What is meant by SMART target or objective setting?

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-limited

What is a CSF? CSF = critical success factor:

• Where an organisation must perform well if it is to succeed.
• 'Those product features that are particularly valued by a group of customers, and, therefore, where the organisation must excel to outperform the competition.

What is a KPI? KPI = key performance indicator. KPIs measure the extent to which CSFs are being achieved

What are the four ways in which KPIs can be classified?

• Internal
• External
• Monitoring
• Building

What are three types of benchmark?

• Internal
• Industry
• Best-in-class

What are the three aims of customer relationship management?  

• Customer acquisition
• Customer retention
• Customer extension

What is customer profitability analysis? The identification of the profits made from each customer or class of customer. Profitable customers should be looked after carefully. Unprofitable ones should be discarded, persuaded to change their buying habits or have the prices charged to them raised.

In the customer portfolio analysis cycle, what is Step 3 Build the strategy needed to move from the current to ideal portfolio

What is ‘hyperpersonalisation’? By recording web-site visits, each customer’s experience of the web-site and the company’s sales offers can be very precisely to their interests and buying habits.

What are the three generic strategies?

• Cost leadership
• Differentiation
• Focus

What are the three headings under which a strategy can be evaluated?

• Suitability
• Acceptability
• Feasibility

What are backward and forward integration? Backward integration = taking over (or establishing) a supplier Forward integration = taking over (or establishing) a distribution or sales operation.

What are the two axes on a Boston Consulting Group matrix?

• Market growth rate
• Relative market share

What headings should go into the blank boxes?

What are the four elements of Kaplan and Norton’s balanced scorecard?

• Financial perspective: this is the reward of success.
• Customer perspective: the immediate cause of financial success is a happy customer base.
• Internal business perspective: customers are happy when an organisation does well what it purports to do.
• Innovation and learning perspective: this perspective supports and sustains all the other perspectives.

What is the ‘Delphi technique’? The Delphi Technique is an iterative technique to predict future events in which experts give their opinions, which are then summarised and fed back to the same experts who are encouraged to look critically at the outcomes and, where necessary, modify their opinions. The experts answer questionnaires in two or more rounds.

What is ‘game theory’? Game theory uses number of players each of who can make their own specific choices in relation to a well-defined scenario. Choices made by one player affect the rewards received by the other players; the other players know this and will act accordingly. Therefore, when making a decision or choosing a strategy firms must take into account the potential choices and payoffs of others and vice versa.

Linear regression of volume of production v coats will produce a line of the general form: y = ax +b What do each of the characters represent?  

• y = total cost
• x = volume
• a = variable cost per unit
• b = fixed costs

What is scenario planning? Scenario planning is “building plausible views about how the business environment of an organisation might develop in the future….based on sets of key drivers about which there is a high degree of uncertainty”.

What are the three types of real option and give an example of each? Option to delay. Eg take a purchase option on a piece of land so that it can be bought in the future if the market looks good. Option to follow on. Eg option to extend a lease or distribution agreement. Option to abandon. Eg a break-clause in a lease  

What are the elements of the cultural web?

• Organisational assumptions/paradigm
• Symbols and titles
• Power relations
• Organisational structure
• Control systems
• Rituals and routines
• Myths and stories

How did Handy classify cultures?

• Power
• Role
• Task
• Person

What are the 7Ss of the McKinsey 7S model?

• Strategy
• Structure
• Systems
• Style
• Staff
• Skills
• Shared values

What labels are missing from the two blank quadrants below?    

What is Lewin’s force field analysis? Forces for change are resisted by opposing forces. Rather than go ‘head-to-head’ aim to reduce the resisting forces.

What are five change styles?

• Education and communication
• Collaboration and participation
• Intervention
• Direction
• Coercion or edict

What are CAD and CAM Computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing  

Describe a LAN and a WAN Local area networks (LANs): operate over a restricted area such as an office, hospital or university campus. There is usually a special machine called a file server where shared information is held and there might be a print server which allows a printer to be shared between many users. Wide area networks (WANs): operate over national and international distances, linking users in different cities and countries. They rely on public networks to transmit information from one local area network to another.

Is the following statement true or false? Cloud technology primarily uses data and programs stored locally. False: cloud-based systems store data and programs remotely

What is  intranet? Intranet = internal internet which access and presents data through a browser such as Chrome or Internet Explorer

What is an extranet? Extranet = an intranet which can also access external data and other intranets.

What are the four Vs of big data?

• Velocity
• Variety
• Volume
• Veracity (added later)

What is blockchain technology? Blockchain technology allows data to be added to a set of records, but once added it cannot be changed without detection. In blockchain technology information is held simultaneously in many computers and the copies of the information are continually compared and validated. This is known as a distributed ledger and means that the blockchain is secure from attack. If one computer is damaged, there are many copies still left on the network.

What are a DSS and an EIS? DSS = decision support system. Eg a financial model on a spreadsheet. EIS = Used by top management to help with decision-making. Characteristics include access to external information and a flexible interface.  

What is additive manufacturing? Additive manufacturing (or 3-D printing) involves adding material layer by layer to gradually built up the required shape of a component. Good for prototypes, complex shapes and short production runs.

What is artificial intelligence? Artificial intelligence (AI) is a general term that uses to a number of technologies to make machines ‘smart’. It can use techniques such as machine learning, image recognition, speech recognition and deep learning, which uses networks capable of learning unsupervised from data that is unstructured.

What is the ‘internet of things’? This s the concept that many different devices such as room thermometers and motion sensors are connected to the internet and, potentially can then ‘talk’ to each other. Eg tracking the movement of individual components and products through production.

What are the four ethical stances?

• Short-term shareholder interest
• Long-term shareholder interest
• Multiple shareholder obligations
• Shaper of society

What is corporate social responsibility? ‘The continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large’.

What is corporate governance? Corporate governance is a system by which companies are directed and controlled.