Term
| Explain what is meant by competitive advantage |
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Definition
| Competitive advantage is something that a company has over its rivals that allows the company to out perform its rivals by making profitability greater than the average and profit growth of other companies competing for the same set of customers. This competitive advantage can be sustained, sustained competitive advantage if the company maintains above average profitability for a number of years. An example of this is Walmart, has sustained competitive advantage from 1994 to 2008 against Costco, Target, and Kmart. |
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Term
| What does a business model describe |
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Definition
| A business model describes how the company will select its customers, define and differentiate its product offerings, create value for its customers, aquirie and keep customers, produce goods or services, lower costs, deliver those goods and services to the market, organize activities within the company, configure its resources, achieve and sustain a high level of profitability, and grow the business over time. |
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Term
| Discuss the strategic role of managers at different levels in an organization |
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Definition
| There are two types of managers: general managers who are responsible for the overall performance of the company or for one of its major self-contained subunits or devisions and functional managers who are responsoble for supervising a particular function, that is a task or activity or operation such as accounting, marketing, research, and development, information technology, or logistics. |
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Term
| Explain the three levels of management in an organization. |
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Definition
The corporate level managers are the CEOs, other senior executives, and corporate staff.. The are at the highest level of decision making in the company. The CEOs are agents of the shareholders. It is their responsibility to ensure that the corporate and business strategies that the company peruses are consistent with maximizing profitability and profit growth.
The business level managers are the managers of their departments or divisions (finance, marketing, IT)
The functional level managers are responsible for the specific business functions or operations (Human Resources, purchasing, product development, customer service) |
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Term
| Identify the main steps in a strategic planning process |
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Definition
The mail steps on the strategic planning process are:
1)Select the corporate mission and major corporate goals
2) Analyze the organization's external competitive environment to identify opportunities and threats
3)Analyze the organization's internal operating environment to identify the organization's strengths and weaknesses
4)Select strategies that build on the organization's strengths and correct its weaknesses s in order to take advantage of external opportunities and counter external threats. These strategies should be consistent with the mission and major goals of the organization. They should be congruent and constitute a viable business model.
5) Implement the strategies |
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Term
| Define a goal. What are the four characteristics of a goal? |
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Definition
A goal is a precise and measurable desired future state that a company attempts to realize with its mission or vision.
The four characteristics are:
1) A goal must be precise and measurable.
2) A goal must address a crucial issue
3) A goal must be challenging but realistic
4) A goal must specify a time period in which the goals should be achieved, when that is appropriate. |
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