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CHAPTER 4 • THE INTERNAL ASSESSMENT 125

6. If you and a partner were going to visit a foreign country where you have never been before,
how much planning would you do ahead of time? What benefit would you expect that
planning to provide?
7. Even though planning is considered the foundation of management, why do you think it is
commonly the task that managers neglect most?
8. Are you more organized than the person sitting beside you in class? If not, what problems
could that present in terms of your performance and rank in the class? How analogous is this
situation to rival companies?
9. List the three ways that financial ratios should be compared/utilized. Which of the three
comparisons do you feel is most important? Why?
10. Illustrate how value chain activities can become core competencies and eventually distinctive
competencies. Give an example for an organization you are familiar with.
11. In an IFEM, would it be advantageous to list your strengths, and then your weaknesses, in
order of increasing “weight”? Why?
12. In an IFEM, a critic may say there is no significant different between a “weight” of 0.08 and
0.06. How would you respond?
13. List six desirable characteristics of advertisements in recessionary times.
14. Why are so many firms cutting their dividend payout amounts?
15. When someone says dividends paid are double taxed, what are they referring to?
16. Draw a breakeven chart to illustrate a drop in labor costs.
17. Draw a breakeven chart to illustrate an increase in advertising expenses.
18. Draw a breakeven chart to illustrate closing stores.
19. Draw a breakeven chart to illustrate lowering price.
20. Explain why prioritizing the relative importance of strengths and weaknesses in an IFE
Matrix is an important strategic-management activity.
21. How can delegation of authority contribute to effective strategic management?
22. Diagram a formal organizational chart that reflects the following positions: a president,
2 executive officers, 4 middle managers, and 18 lower-level managers. Now, diagram three
overlapping and hypothetical informal group structures. How can this information be helpful
to a strategist in formulating and implementing strategy?
23. Which of the three basic functions of finance/accounting do you feel is most important in a
small electronics manufacturing concern? Justify your position.
24. Do you think aggregate R&D expenditures for U.S. firms will increase or decrease next year?
Why?
25. Explain how you would motivate managers and employees to implement a major new
strategy.
26. Why do you think production/operations managers often are not directly involved in strategy-
formulation activities? Why can this be a major organizational weakness?
27. Give two examples of staffing strengths and two examples of staffing weaknesses of an
organization with which you are familiar.
28. Would you ever pay out dividends when your firm’s annual net profit is negative? Why?
What effect could this have on a firm’s strategies?
29. If a firm has zero debt in its capital structure, is that always an organizational strength? Why
or why not?
30. Describe the production/operations system in a police department.
31. After conducting an internal audit, a firm discovers a total of 100 strengths and 100 weak-
nesses. What procedures then could be used to determine the most important of these? Why
is it important to reduce the total number of key factors?
32. Why do you believe cultural products affect all the functions of business?
33. Do you think cultural products affect strategy formulation, implementation, or evaluation the
most? Why?
34. Identify cultural products at your college or university. Do these products, viewed collec-
tively or separately, represent a strength or weakness for the organization?
35. Describe the management information system at your college or university.
36. Explain the difference between data and information in terms of each being useful to
strategists.
37. What are the most important characteristics of an effective management information
system?
38. Do you agree or disagree with the RBV theorists that internal resources are more important
for a firm than external factors in achieving and sustaining competitive advantage? Explain
your and their position.
39. Define and discuss “empirical indicators.”