Chapter1
Question 1 – Give a short account of the history of the
company, and trace the evolution of its strategy. Try to determine whether the strategic
evolution of your company is the product of intended strategies, emergent
strategies or some combination of the two.
Question 2 – Identify the mission and
major goals of the company.
Question 3 – Do a preliminary analysis of the internal
strengths and weaknesses of the company and the opportunities and threats that
it faces in its environment. On the
basis of this analysis, identify the strategies that you think the company
should pursue.
Chapter 2
Question 1 – Apply the competitive forces model to the
industry in which your company is based.
What does this model tell you about the nature of competition in the industry?
Question 2 – Are any changes takin place in the
macroenvironment that might have an impact, positive or negative, on the
industry in which your company is based?
If so, what are these changes, and how might they affect the industry?
Question 3 – Identify any strategic groups that might exist
in the industry. How does the intensity
of competition differ across these strategic groups?
Question 4 – How dynamic is the industry in which your
company is based? Is there any evidence
that innovation is reshaping competition or has done so in the recent past?
Question 5 – In what stage of its life cycle is the industry
in which your company is based? What are
the implications of this for the intensity of competition now? In the future?
Question 6 – Is your company part of an industry that is
becoming more global? If so, what are
the implications of this change for competitive intensity?
Chapter 3
Question 1 – Identify whether your company has a competitive
advantage or disadvantage in its primary industry. (Its primary industry is the one in which it
has the most sales.)
Question 2 – Evaluate your company against the four generic
building blocks of competitive advantage:
efficiency, quality, innovation, and responsiveness to customers. How does this exercise help you understand
the performance of your company relative to its competitors?
Question 3 – What are the distinctive competencies of your
company?
Question 6 – What are the barriers to imitating the
distinctive competencies of your company?
Question 7 – Is there any evidence that your company finds
it difficult to adapt to changing industry conditions? If so, why do you think this is the
case?
Chapter 5
Question 1 – Which market segments is your company serving?
Question 2 – What business-level strategy is your company
pursuing?
Question 4 – Take a blue ocean approach to the business of
your company and ask if it could and/or should change its business level
strategy by eliminating reducing raising or creating factors related to its
product offering.
Chapter 6
Question 1 – In what kind of industry environment
(embryonic, mature, etc.) does your company operate?
Question 2 – Discuss how your company has attempted to
develop strategies to protect and strengthen its business model. For example, if your company is operating in
an embryonic industry, how has it attempted to increase its competitive
advantage over time? If it operates in a
mature industry, discuss how it has tried to manage industry competition.
Question 3 – What new strategies would you advise your
company to pursue to increase its competitive advantage? For example, how should your company attempt
to differentiate its products in the future, or lower its cost structure?
On the basis of this analysis, do you think your company will
be able to maintain its competitive advantage in the future? Why or why not?
Chapter 7
