Week 1

Question 1

How do you gain a competitive advantage?

Answer 1

You gain competitive advantage by being better than your competitors at doing valuable things for your customers. But what does this mean, specifically?

To succeed, what must managers deliver? The fundamental success drivers are innovation, quality, speed, and cost competitiveness.

Question 2

What is innovation?

Answer 2

The introduction of new goods and services.

Question 3

What is quality?

Answer 3

quality

The excellence of your product (goods or services).

Question 4

Fast and timely execution, response, and delivery of results.

Answer 4

speed

Question 5

Speed context

Answer 5

often separates the winners from the losers. How fast can you develop and get a new product to market? How quickly can you respond to customer requests? You are far better off if you are faster than the competition—and if you can respond quickly to your competitors’ actions.

Question 6

Why is speed important?

Answer 6

Speed is no longer just a goal of some companies; it is a strategic imperative. Regarding quick delivery, Bruce Birnback, president of Rowe Furniture, said in November 2004, “Today it’s not critical, but 18 to 24 months from now, I believe it will be the difference between being in business and not.” 57

Cost Competitiveness

Question 7

Keeping costs low in order to achieve profits and be able to offer prices that are attractive to consumers.

Answer 7

cost competitiveness

Question 8

What is the most important factor concerning performance?

Answer 8

Don’t forget: Don’t focus on one aspect of performance and neglect the others. You might be better at or more interested in one than the others, but you should strive for all four.

Question 9

The process of working with people and resources to accomplish organizational goals.

Answer 9

management

Question 10

The management function of systematically making decisions about the goals and activities that an individual, a group, a work unit, or the overall organization will pursue.

Answer 10

planning

Question 11

The management function of assembling and coordinating human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals.

Answer 11

organizing

Question 12

The management function that involves the manager’s efforts to stimulate high performance by employees.

Answer 12

leading

Question 13

The management function of monitoring performance and making needed changes.

Answer 13

controlling

Question 14

Practices aimed at discovering and harnessing an organization’s intellectual resources.

Answer 14

knowledge management

Question 15

How do you be an effective manager?

Answer 15

To be effective is to achieve organizational goals.

Question 16

How do you become an efficient manager?

Answer 16

To be efficient is to achieve goals with minimal waste of resources, that is, to make the best possible use of money, time, materials, and people.

Question 17

What are the four pillars of competitive advantage?

Answer 17

Innovation, speed,Quality, and cost.

Question 18

What are the major way to change creating a competitive landscape?

Answer 18

Globalization, technical logical changes, knowledge management, and collaboration across organizational boundaries.

Question 19

What are the four functions of management?

Answer 19

Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

Question 20

What are the three aspects of planning?

Answer 20

Analyzing the situation, determining the goals, and deciding how to pursue those goals.

Question 21

What are the two aspects to organizing?

Answer 21

Assembling the resources to complete the job,and coordinating employees and resources to maximum success.

Question 22

What are the two aspects of leading?

Answer 22

Motivating people, and stimulating high performance.

Question 23

What are the two aspects of controlling?

Answer 23

Controlling is monitoring the progress of the organization or the work unit toward goals, and then taking corrective action if necessary.

Question 24

What are the three levels of management?

Answer 24

Top-level management, mid-level managers, and front-line managers.

Question 25

What is the function of top-level managers?

Answer 25

Top-level, strategic managers are the senior executives and are responsible for the organization's overall management.

Question 26

What is the function of middle level managers?

Answer 26

Middle-level, tactical managers translate general goals and plans into more specific objectives and activities.

Question 27

What is the function of front-line managers?

Answer 27

Frontline, operational managers are lower-level managers who supervise operations.

Question 28

What are the three skills managers need to be effective?

Answer 28

Technical skills, conceptual and decision skills, and interpersonal and communication skills.

Question 29

What are technical skills?

Answer 29

A technical skill is the ability to perform a specialized task involving a certain method or process.

Question 30

What are conceptual and decision skills?

Answer 30

Conceptual and decision skills help the manager recognize complex and dynamic issues, analyze the factors that influence those issues or problems, and make appropriate decisions.

Question 31

What are interpersonal and communication skills?

Answer 31

Interpersonal and communication skills enable the manager to interact and work well with people.

Question 32

What are the hierarchy of managerial skills?

Answer 32

Technical skills are more important on the lower level. As managers rise in the organization technical skills become less important and conceptual decision making become more important. Conceptual and decision-making skills are needed on all levels.

Question 33

What are the four goals to have a successful career?

Answer 33

Be both a specialist and a generalist; be self-reliant but also connected; actively manage your relationship with your organization; and continuously improve your skills in order to perform in the ways demanded in the changing work environment

Question 34

which includes legal, political, economic, technological, demographic, and social and natural factors that generally affect all organizations

Answer 34

macroenvironment

Question 35

Organizations that are affected by, and that affect, their environment.

Answer 35

open systems

Question 36

Goods and services organizations take in and use to create products or services.

Answer 36

inputs

Question 37

The products or services organizations create.

Answer 37

outputs | The products or services organizations create.

Question 38

All relevant forces outside a firm's boundaries, such as competitors, customers, the government, and the economy.

Answer 38

external environment

Question 39

The immediate environment surrounding a firm; includes suppliers, customers, competitors, and the like.

Answer 39

competitive environment

Question 40

The most general environment; includes governments, economic conditions, and other fundamental factors that generally affect all organizations.

Answer 40

macro-environment

Question 41

As competition increases what must managers focus on?

Answer 41

With increased competition, managers must pay particular attention to costs.

Question 42

Conditions that prevent new companies from entering an industry.

Answer 42

barriers to entry

Question 43

Fixed costs buyers face when they change suppliers.

Answer 43

switching costs

Question 44

The managing of the network of facilities and people that obtain materials from outside the organization, transform them into products, and distribute them to customers.

Answer 44

supply chain management

Question 45

Those who purchase products in their finished form.

Answer 45

final consumer

Question 46

A customer who purchases raw materials or wholesale products before selling them to final customers.

Answer 46

intermediate consumer

Question 47

The speed and dependability with which an organization can deliver what customers want.

Answer 47

customer service

Question 48

Bill Gates words of wisdom!

Answer 48

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Bill Gates

Question 49

Lack of information needed to understand or predict the future.

Answer 49

environmental uncertainty

Question 50

Searching for and sorting through information about the environment.

Answer 50

environmental scanning

Question 51

Name 5 things to consider in environmental scanning?

Answer 51

Who are our current competitors? Are there few or many entry barriers to our industry? What substitutes exist for our product or service? Is the company too dependent on powerful suppliers? Is the company too dependent on powerful customers?

Question 52

Information that helps managers determine how to compete better.

Answer 52

competitive intelligence

Question 53

A narrative that describes a particular set of future conditions.

Answer 53

scenario

Question 54

Method for predicting how variables will change the future.

Answer 54

forecasting Available publications such as BusinessWeek's Business Outlook provide forecasts to businesses both large and small

Question 55

The process of comparing an organization's practices and technologies with those of other companies.

Answer 55

benchmarking

Question 56

Name Three ways of responding to the environment.

Answer 56

These can be grouped into three categories: (1) adapting to the environment, (2) influencing the environment, and (3) selecting a new environment.

Question 57

The process of sharing power with employees, thereby enhancing their confidence in their ability to perform their jobs and their belief that they are influential contributors to the organization.

Answer 57

empowerment

Question 58

Creating supplies of excess resources in case of unpredictable needs.

Answer 58

buffering

Question 59

Leveling normal fluctuations at the boundaries of the environment.

Answer 59

smoothing

Question 60

Methods for adapting the technical core to changes in the environment.

Answer 60

flexible processes

Question 61

Strategies that an organization acting on its own uses to change some aspect of its current environment.

Answer 61

independent strategies

Question 62

Strategies used by two or more organizations working together to manage the external environment.

Answer 62

cooperative strategies

Question 63

An organization's conscious efforts to change the boundaries of its task environment.

Answer 63

strategic maneuvering

Question 64

Entering a new market or industry with an existing expertise.

Answer 64

domain selection

Question 65

A firm's investment in a different product, business, or geographic area.

Answer 65

diversification

Question 66

One or more companies combining.

Answer 66

merger

Question 67

One firm buying another.

Answer 67

acquisition

Question 68

A firm selling one or more businesses.

Answer 68

divestiture

Question 69

Companies that continuously change the boundaries for their task environments by seeking new products and markets, diversifying and merging, or acquiring new enterprises.

Answer 69

prospectors

Question 70

Companies that stay within a stable product domain as a strategic maneuver.

Answer 70

defenders

Question 71

The set of important assumptions about the organization and its goals and practices that members of the company share.

Answer 71

organization culture

Question 72

Decisions encountered and made before, having objectively correct answers, and solvable by using simple rules, policies, or numerical computations.

Answer 72

programmed decisions

Question 73

New, novel, complex decisions having no proven answers.

Answer 73

nonprogrammed decisions

Question 74

The state that exists when decision makers have accurate and comprehensive information. I'm

Answer 74

certainty

Question 75

The state that exists when decision makers have insufficient information.

Answer 75

uncertainty

Question 76

The state that exists when the probability of success is less than 100 percent, and losses may occur.

Answer 76

risk

Question 77

Opposing pressures from different sources. Two levels of conflict are psychological conflict and conflict that arises between individuals or groups.

Answer 77

conflict

Question 78

decision makers should

Answer 78

(1) identify and diagnose the problem, (2) generate alternative solutions, (3) evaluate alternatives, (4) make the choice, (5) implement the decision, and (6) evaluate the decision.

Question 79

Useful questions to ask and answer in this stage include 13

Answer 79

Is there a difference between what is actually happening and what should be happening? How can you describe the deviation, as specifically as possible? What is/are the cause(s) of the deviation? What specific goals should be met? Which of these goals are absolutely critical to the success of the decision?

Question 80

Ideas that have been seen or tried before.

Answer 80

ready-made solutions

Question 81

New, creative solutions designed specifically for the problem.

Answer 81

custom-made solutions

Question 82

Alternative courses of action that can be implemented based on how the future unfolds.

Answer 82

contingency plans

Question 83

A decision realizing the best possible outcome.

Answer 83

maximizing

Question 84

Choosing an option that is acceptable, although not necessarily the best or perfect.

Answer 84

satisficing

Question 85

Achieving the best possible balance among several goals.

Answer 85

optimizing

Question 86

Balance in goal achievement.

Answer 86

It's easy to become so focused on maximizing on one goal that you lose sight of other important goals. You're optimizing if you make sure that no important result suffers too much, unnecessarily.

Question 87

A process in which a decision maker carefully executes all stages of decision making.

Answer 87

vigilance

Question 88

People's belief that they can influence events, even when they have no control over what will happen.

Answer 88

illusion of control

Question 89

A psychological bias influenced by the way in which a problem or decision alternative is phrased or presented.

Answer 89

framing effects

Question 90

A bias weighting short-term costs and benefits more heavily than longer-term costs and benefits.

Answer 90

discounting the future

Question 91

Trap of decisions and Pressure

Answer 91

You'll feel pressure to make quick decisions, but that makes it easier to make mistakes. Fortunately, you can be vigilant while moving quickly, and you can avoid the “speed trap.”

Question 92

Pit fall to group decision making?

Answer 92

Using a group may seem to slow down decision making. If one person dominates the discussion, it may feel like you're speeding up the decision making. But one dominant person reduces decision quality, and most of you will have wasted your time.

Question 93

A phenomenon that occurs in decision making when group members avoid disagreement as they strive for consensus.

Answer 93

groupthink

Question 94

A condition that occurs when a decision-making group loses sight of its original goal and a new, less important goal emerges.

Answer 94

goal displacement

Question 95

Issue-based differences in perspectives or judgments.

Answer 95

cognitive conflict

Question 96

Emotional disagreement directed toward other people.

Answer 96

affective conflict

Question 97

A person who has the job of criticizing ideas to ensure that their downsides are fully explored.

Answer 97

devil's advocate

Question 98

A structured debate comparing two conflicting courses of action.

Answer 98

dialectic

Question 99

Where do most creative ideas come from?

Answer 99

Most creative ideas come not from the lone genius in the basement laboratory, but from people talking and working together.

Question 100

A process in which group members generate as many ideas about a problem as they can; criticism is withheld until all ideas have been proposed

Answer 100

brainstorming

Question 101

Are idea creators initiators?

Answer 101

You may be an innovator if you come up with a creative idea. But you're not yet, until you implement it.

Question 102

A less-than-perfect form of rationality in which decision makers cannot be perfectly rational because decisions are complex and complete information is unavailable.

Answer 102

bounded rationality

Question 103

Model of organizational decision making in which major solutions arise through a series of smaller decisions. The

Answer 103

incremental model

Question 104

Model of organizational decision making in which groups with differing preferences use power and negotiations to influence decisions. I'm

Answer 104

coalitional model

Question 105

Model of organizational decision making depicting a chaotic process and seemingly random decisions.

Answer 105

garbage can model

Question 106

Key questions for developing alternatives

Answer 106

Key questions here are: 21 Is our information about alternatives complete and current? If not, can we get more and better information? Does the alternative meet our primary objectives? What problems could we have if we implement the alternative?