Business Strategy Test

Consultant

This test is about 40 multiple choice questions and should take less than 40 minutes to complete

Business Strategy Test Contents

Strategy Plans

Evaluating Past Performance

Setting Strategic Priorities

Planning for Contingencies

Evaluating the Industry and Economic Landscape

Implementing Strategic Plans

Creating the Plan

Competitive Advantages

oDesk Business Strategy Test Questions

Question: 01

 What else must a company have besides an advantage in order to succeed in the long term?

a. Sustainability

b. Solid management

c. Open communication

d. Loyal shareholders

Question: 02

 What is the simplest way to make sure that a plan is launched and completed by all parties involved?

a. Threaten the project leaders with layoffs if they do not perform.

b. Give excessive compensation to the leaders.

c. Allow people to run the planning process whichever way they want regardless of its effectiveness.

d. Create a simple project plan with specific deliverables.

Question: 03

 How does a firm prioritize which threats to their business would be most damaging?

a. It considers all threats equally damaging.

b. It weighs the probability of the event occurring and how it will impact the business.

c. It looks at the threats which have impacted other companies and assumes that they will impact them also the extent of damages.

d. It considers only those threats damaging which impact employee morale.

Question: 04

 What are the three levels of competitors?

a. Direct, Indirect, Substitute

b. Market, Governmental, Jurisdictional

c. Makers of the same product, Makers of a similar product, Makers of a different product

d. Situational, Substitutional, Governmental

Question: 05

 Which of the following is a reason for the failure of a strategic plan?

a. The management was 100% above board.

b. The plan looked at past successes and failures while planning for the future.

c. The mission statement was only two sentences long.

d. It was not communicated to everyone who needed to know.

Question: 06

 What is a SWOT Analysis?

a. An analysis of the company's financial performance over the last year

b. A list of standard operating procedures

c. Listing of managerial options regarding hiring employees

d. Listing of a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats

Question: 07

 Which of the following needs to be addressed before implementing a plan?

a. Deciding how the board of directors may react

b. How to motivate people to implement the plan

c. How the next strategic plan will be drafted

d. Determining if it is worth the time of the management

Question: 08

 Which of the following non financial factors from the past should be examined as they impact the company the most?

a. Net Income

b. Geographical Trends

c. Economic Trends

d. Population Growth

Question: 09

 How should a strategic plan be evaluated for financial viability?

a. By seeing if the strategic initiatives are profitable as a whole

b. By ensuring that the strategy does not impact finances

c. By estimating revenues and expenses for each of the strategic initiatives, and determining if they will be profitable

d. The management should make a rough judgment call.

Question: 10

 How can a firm maintain its competitive advantage?

a. By trying to deceive the competition

b. By continually improving on its advantage

c. By forcing customers to purchase their products

d. By sabotaging the plans of competitors with close substitutes

Question: 11

 What would examining the supply and demand dynamics for a supplier's goods accomplish?

a. Allow your firm to determine how much quantity to order based on their availability

b. Allow your firm to determine what pricing schedule your competitors are receiving

c. Allow your firm to determine the relative price setting power of the supplier compared to other suppliers

d. It would not be of any use

Question: 12

 How is the SWOT analysis used in setting priorities?

a. Combinations of weaknesses and threats from the SWOT analysis become priorities

b. Combinations of strengths and opportunities from the SWOT analysis become priorities

c. Combinations of opportunities and threats from the SWOT analysis become priorities

d. SWOT is not used in setting priorities

Question: 13

 Why is it important to reflect on past successes?

a. The past can be copied and repeated.

b. The company can apply the same strategy to past failures to turn them around.

c. The company can see what it achieved and how.

d. Past trends always indicate future performance.

Question: 14

 What significance does a "debt to equity ratio" have to a business owner in evaluating how the company has performed?

a. It allows them to determine the profitability of the company

b. It allows them to determine how leveraged the company is

c. It allows them to determine how effectively cash was managed

d. It allows them to compare profits against other industry leaders

Question: 15

 What is the correct order for creating a strategic plan?

a. List current problems, create solutions for the problems, and make financial analysis

b. Articulate your mission statement, review your current position, agree on priorities, and organize a plan

c. Create a project map, have a company-wide meeting, finalize the plan

d. Forecast the estimated cost to implement a plan, elect project managers, and hold company meetings

Question: 16

 How should firms plan for unknown future economic events?

a. By spending as excessively as possible

b. By firing people whenever possible

c. By predicting future direction and making decisions accordingly, knowing that the economy runs in cycles

d. By hiring only contract labor rather than regular employees

Question: 17

 What are the three main elements to a strategic plan?

a. Mission, Goals, Management

b. Managerial, Operational, Financial

c. Where are we now? Where are we going? How will we get there?

d. What went wrong? How to fix it? How much it will cost?

Question: 18

 Why consistency is considered an competitive advantage?

a. Consumers value consistency although it is not a competitive advantage.

b. It is not very costly.

c. Customers expect to receive the same good or service regardless of the location.

d. It reduces the cost of production.

Question: 19

 What must a competitive advantage be in order truly to be an advantage?

a. It must be expensive.

b. It must be inexpensive.

c. It must be unique.

d. It must satisfy the marketing test.

Question: 20

 What purpose does a balanced scorecard serve?

a. It allows the company to measure its financial performance.

b. It tracks the progress and performance of key performance indicators

c. It maps out historical performance

d. It allows the management to effect process change

Question: 21

 Why must goals be measurable?

a. It is required by law.

b. It shows the employees that the management is serious.

c. A goal that can not be measured is no goal at all.

d. It allows the management to know if goals are being met or not.

Question: 22

 Which of the following is a method a company could use to evaluate its competitive advantage?

a. Determining where the company stands amongst the competition

b. Graph performance

c. Customer feedback

d. Determining if a new marketing campaign was successful

Question: 23

 Why is "skilled staff" not a competitive advantage?

a. Any competitor can easily hire skilled staff by tempting your own staff or that of others to join them.

b. Skilled staff can easily ruin good plans.

c. Skilled staff cost more than unskilled staff, offsetting the advantage.

d. Skilled staff is a competitive advantage.

Question: 24

 How can a company prevent a disaster related to the crash of company servers while facilitating the employees' ability to perform in their jobs?

a. By utilizing hardcopy reports as much as possible

b. By backing up data on a routine basis through live or at least daily backups

c. By cross training employees

d. By storing call data locally on the employees' machines

Question: 25

 Which of the following is an example of an internal priority?

a. Partnering with other firms

b. Training employees

c. Entering new markets

d. Developing new products

Question: 26

 Which of the following would help maintain a competitive advantage?

a. Aggressive marketing

b. The management's commitment to excellence

c. Communicating the company values to the entire organization

d. Patent or trademark on what creates the advantage

Question: 27

 Why is it important to continually communicate a plan to all employees?

a. To reinforce the plan and increase commitment

b. To tie raises and job security to measurable criteria

c. To make employees feel important even though they have no impact

d. To forewarn employees of layoffs

Question: 28

 What two factors are used in the GE Matrix for strategic analysis?

a. Market Attractiveness and Business Strength

b. Geographical Location and Consumer Spending

c. Business Strength and Geographical Location

d. Consumer Spending and Market Attractiveness

Question: 29

 Why is it important to have someone who was not involved in creating the plan review the final strategic plan?

a. To check for spelling mistakes

b. To verify the plan is compliant with regulatory bodies

c. To check the management's ability to manage the firm

d. To verify the plan makes sense to outside parties and integrates well with the company

Question: 30

 What should a company prepare financial ratios for?

a. Submit them to the bank for a loan.

b. Present them to all its employees.

c. Compare them to the past years and to industry norms.

d. Use them as a benchmark for all future performance.

Question: 31

 Which of the following is a barrier to entry?

a. Substantial capital investment needed to enter a market

b. Low set up costs

c. Easy access to qualified employees

d. Government grants for the specific industry

Question: 32

 Which of the following is the method often used to ensure that managers implement strategic plans?

a. Tie compensation rewards and growth to results which will be generated by implementing the plan

b. Threaten layoffs

c. Request them to implement the plans

d. Make the plans easy to implement

Question: 33

 Which of the following would be best to review to see trends and overall performance of the past?

a. Current Balance Sheet

b. Current Month Profit & Loss compared to Prior Year Profit & Loss

c. Current Cash Flow Statement

d. Trailing 12 Month Profit & Loss Statement

Question: 34

 How can a firm mitigate the risk of an employee with specialized knowledge leaving the company while empowering other employees?

a. By forcing the employees to sign commitment letters even when not allowed by law

b. By suing the employees who leave

c. By requiring weekly updates to employee procedure manuals

d. By cross training employees on all aspects of their positions as well as by creating documentation of job processes

Question: 35

 What section of the environment would your competitors be categorized as?

a. Market

b. Industry

c. Organization

d. Global environment

Question: 36

 What role do assumptions have in strategic planning?

a. Old assumptions should be the backbone of new plans.

b. Old assumptions should be forgotten and people should be encouraged to think using a blank slate.

c. New assumptions should be in line with old assumptions.

d. New assumptions should always be different from any old assumptions.

Question: 37

 Why would a company set strategic priorities for the next 5 years?

a. It takes several years in order to get approval

b. It takes several years for a good strategic plan to grow and show results

c. It guarantees management will stay with the company for several years

d. If set for 5 years, then no strategic plans need to be drafted until that time has passed

Question: 38

 What are the four main areas for setting priorities?

a. External, Managerial, Employee, Operational

b. Operational, Financial, Employee, Managerial

c. Financial, Customer, Internal, Employee

d. Decisional, Operational, Profitable, Managerial

Question: 39

 What is the main goal in setting customer related priorities?

a. To assign a value to customers

b. To determine which customers are the most profitable and focus only on them

c. To determine how to sell more to all customers

d. To determine how the firm adds value for the customers

Question: 40

 How should a company communicate a new strategic plan company wide?

a. Company meeting for all employees

b. An email to all employees

c. A meeting only for department managers

d. Only top management should be aware of strategic plans, no communication is necessary