CAL STATE FULLERTON COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS SEMINAR IN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT MGMT 449 DR. SEAN D.

JASSO SPRING 2014 EXAM 1 Below are the essay questions for your first take-home exam. The exam is intended for you to work independently. You may, however, use your teams data from the work you have done to date. Each question is worth a total of 20 points. Please answer each question as thoroughly as possible, providing rich detail from our lectures, readings, and discussions. The organization of your answers, the complexity of your analysis, and the clarity of your critical thinking are the key elements of your evaluationi 1. On the Basics a. We have said that strategic management is an evolution and a destination. What does this mean? Discuss in detail. b. Provide three examples of how your team company is or is not a strategic management firm. c. Lastly, clearly and succinctly describe your team companys mission statement as well as the 2014 goals and objectives of the firm. 2. On Corporate Governance a. Discuss three traditional roles of the board of directors. Also, identify and discuss the most urgent governance issue impacting your team companys board what are they doing to manage this important issue? b. Finally, identify and evaluate a major philanthropic initiative/program to which your team CEO company contributes or leads that aims to do good while also helping the firm do well. 3. On Competition & Porters Five Forces a. We have said that competition forces society to be better by providing superior value. Identify and discuss your CEO team companys competitive advantage and core competency in essence, the magic sauce that makes the company stay in the game. b. Lastly, provide a descriptive discussion of the Five Forces Model of your teams company and include what Wheelen and Hunger call the sixth force in your analysis. 4. On the Value Chain a. Identify and discuss the business model that best describes your CEO team company. b. Lastly, provide a descriptive overview of the various components of Porters value chain model include the firms current and target profit margin. i. Identify the areas within the value chain needing to be strengthened for your company to strengthen the profit margin of the firm. 5. On General Strategy a. Define and discuss the current business and corporate strategies of your team company using the language from our readings. i. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current strategies? b. Lastly, identify the most urgent decision needing to be made to ensure the competitive sustainability of the company or to move toward a sustainable competitive advantage.
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Recommendations on excellence ten pages is your minimum target; dig deep into the readings and language of our text and lectures; provide unique insight, reach for high-level presentation and formatting; use 12-point, Times New Roman font; pay attention to details; use end-notes to cite your sources from your readings. For example, at the end of a sentence that you either cite directly or summarize, you will insert an end-note such as this one. The end-note simply needs to indicate the author and page number such as, Wheelen and Hunger, p. 82; put some time into this assignment; teach me something new.