Firstranker's choice www.FirstRanker.com
Seat No.: Enrolment No.
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
GUJARAT TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
MBA - SEMESTER (3) - EXAMINATION SUMMER- 2018
Subject Code: 2830001 Date: 30/04/2018
Subject Name: Strategic Management (SM)
Time: 02:30 To 05:30 PM Total Marks: 70
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
Instructions:
- Attempt all questions.
- Make suitable assumptions wherever necessary.
- Figures to the right indicate full marks.
Q.1 (a) Strategic controls allow corporate-level managers to
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
A. evaluate business-level B. concentrate on day-to-day corporate
performance on operations
objective criteria
C. assess performance of D. examine the fit between what the firm might
employees and do and what it can do
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
managers in each
business unit
To successfully implement a cost leadership strategy, there is a need for
A. freedom from B. centralization of authority
constraining rules
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
C. communication D sharing of competencies among divisions
between functional
disciplines
A primary objective of corporate governance is to
A. determine and control B. ensure that the interests of top-level managers
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
the strategic direction are aligned with the interests of shareholders
of an organization
C. lobby legislators to D. resolve conflicts among corporate employees
pass laws that are
aligned with the
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
organization's interests
Firms participate in strategic alliances for all the following reasons EXCEPT to
A. enter markets more B. acquire technology
quickly
C. create values-they D. retain tight control over intangible core
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
could not develop competencies
acting independently
Conglomerates follow the diversification strategy:
A. unrelated B. related constrained
C. related linked D. global
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
Multipoint competition occurs when
A. firms have multiple B. firms have multiple products in their primary
retail outlets industry.
C. unrelated D. firms have diversified portfolios of
companies
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
Q.1 (b) Define Above average returns, Vision, Stakeholders, Mergers, Strategic Alliance 04
Q.1 (c) Explain resource based model for strategic management. 04
Q.2 (a) Explore the concept of power of stakeholders and their influence on strategy. 07
Q.2 (b) What is the importance of collecting and interpreting data and information about competitors? What practices should a firm use to gather competitor intelligence and why? 07
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
OR
Q.3 (a) Discuss how the cost leadership strategy can be used to position the firm relative to the five forces of competition in a way that helps the firm earn above-average returns? 07
Q.3 (b) Discuss the outcomes associated with the various restructuring strategies in the short term and long term. 07
Q.4 (a) Explain the concepts of principal agent relationship, agency costs and managerial opportunism with a suitable examples. 07
OR
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
Q.4 (b) What are international corporate level strategies and reasons for firms to expand internationally. 07
Q.5 (a) Discuss value adding, value neutral and value reducing diversification with relevant examples. 07
Q.5 (b) What are the differences between strategic controls and financial controls and their importance? What does it mean to say that strategy and structure have a reciprocal relationship? Explain with an example. 07
Q.6 (a) What is strategic leadership? With suitable examples explain how strategic leaders manage a firm’s resources, human capital and social capital to achieve a competitive advantage? 07
OR
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
Q.6 (b) Discuss the various approaches to managing strategic alliances and the differences in these approaches. 07
Q.7 (a) If you were a strategic leader, what actions could you take to establish and emphasize ethical practices in your firm in the current industrial scenario? 14
Q.7 (b) The Walt Disney Company was founded as a cartoon studio in 1923 by Walt Disney and his brother Roy with a $500 loan from an uncle. In the early 1920s, cartoonist Walt Disney visited New York to pitch his idea for a cartoon rabbit called Waldo. During that trip, through a complicated series of events, Disney lost the rights to develop Waldo. On the train-ride back to California he spoke with his wife about the importance of coming home with some alternative character. "I can't come back to our office and tell them I've lost Waldo;" he bemoaned. This hardship inspired Disney to develop a new character, Mickey Mouse, and release the world's first fully-synchronized sound cartoon, "Steamboat Willie" (starring, of course, Mickey Mouse). Disney's creative genius was now coupled with a fierce instinct to protect and control his creative output. Never again would he lose "Waldo." Consequently, the Walt Disney Company was pushed by Walt to tirelessly create timeless and universal entertainment, consistently innovate and take risks to deliver that entertainment, stress a vision of being the provider of choice of quality family entertainment, and maintain rigorous control over the quality of customers' experiences with Disney products and its image. Such a personal passion for control led the Walt Disney Company into theme parks because Disney did not want Mickey's reputation sullied by the dirty, cheap theme parks that littered the land during those days. All films had to be new and of the highest quality animation (taking a minimum of five years to create, including hand-painted backgrounds); sequel films were not tolerated. Walt's vision and risk taking propensity led him in the early 1960s to buy acres in Florida (creating Walt Disney World), a new market for the future on a high-risk, uncertain venture. Amidst such a flurry of activity, Walt Disney died just before Christmas 1966, and the company was literally stopped dead in its tracks. Walt Disney's blueprint was being followed to the letter, but no further (Walt Disney World opened in 1971). No "new" creations were undertaken until 1982, when the company finally launched such businesses as the Disney Channel, Touchstone, and their home video business. Had it not been for the appointment of Michael Eisner as Disney's new CEO in 1984, the company would likely not have survived its perilous financial situation and stifled creativity. Eisner returned the company to its roots of family entertainment and values of quality, fairness, creativity, entrepreneurialism, and teamwork.
A. What value-creating legacy did Walt Disney leave to the Walt Disney Company? 14
B. To what extent had the Walt Disney Company become a reflection of Walt up to the time that he died in 1966?
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
OR
Norning International (NI) states that both its past successes and future growth strategies are based on an evolving network of wholly owned businesses and joint ventures around its core competency in glass making. Through their alliances and owned divisions they compete in four global business sectors: Specialty Glass and Materials (including materials for HDTV and LCD displays), Consumer Housewares (including microwavable dishware), Laboratory Sciences Products and Services (test tubes, testing equipment, and drug trials testing), and Communications (fiber optics and related technologies). As per the company's annual report, "binding all four sectors together is the glue of a commitment to leading edge glass making technologies, shared resources, and dedication to total quality." Each sector is composed of divisions, subsidiaries and alliances. However, the central role played by alliances is demonstrated by the fact that the combined revenue of its 30-some alliances is more than double that of NI on its own. Most of the alliances provide NI with access to particular geographic markets, industries, or channels, although an increasing number of alliances involve both market access and technological development.
A. Why would a company like NI place such emphasis on alliances as a growth vehicle? 14
B. NI appears to be managing a large number of alliances. What criteria should it use to exit particular alliances?
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---
This download link is referred from the post: GTU MBA Last 10 Years 2010-2020 Question Papers || Gujarat Technological University
--- Content provided by FirstRanker.com ---