DO NOT COMBINE THESE! 8 SEPARATE QUESTIONS!

tHESE ARE ALL SEPERATE QUESTIONS, NOT ONE ANSWER!

PART TWO

Please review the required You Tube video Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy, regarding Porter’s 5 forces. In the video, Mr. Porter discusses how Porter’s Five Forces Analysis is an important tool for assessing the potential for profitability in an industry. As an example, Mr. Porter applied these 5 forces to the airline industry. Think of another industry where profitability is low. In a response of no less than 250 words, apply the 5 forces to your chosen industry and demonstrate how those forces can lower profitability.

PART THREE

Through the use of strategic alternatives, companies may compete in a marketplace, achieve its vision, or if no vision has been articulated, decide where it might go and what it might achieve. Strategic alternatives do not consist solely of strategies, but rather bundles.

Explain what elements comprise strategic-alternative bundles and why creating more than a few bundles is extraordinary difficult. Describe the six criteria that strategic-alternative bundles should meet and discuss why it is essential that good bundles have addressed all of the key strategic issues.

PART FOUR

Due to the changing environment and external triggers, contingency planning is necessary. What qualities make a future issue a “trigger”?

Consider you are on the strategic planning team for a soft drink company. Here is your company’s future trigger:  “merger of our two major competitors next year.” Formulate the three-part trigger/contingency pair. Discuss the three guidelines that good contingency plans should follow.

PART FIVE

Discuss how an organization benefits from operational planning, and how operational planning and budget planning are related. Explain how “system thinking” improves operation decision making.

PART SIX

Read the following article: “Porter or Mintzberg: Whose view of strategy is the most relevant today?”. What is the difference between deliberate strategies and emergent strategies? How might emergent strategies help with a future strategic planning process? In your opinion, what are the potential consequences of ignoring emergent strategies?

PART SEVEN

In your own words, explain what corporate social responsibility (CSR) is. Name two examples of social responsible companies you know and explain why you consider them so.

We learned that CSR can be viewed as a pyramid with Philanthropic Responsibilities at the top. Discuss what particular advantages accrue to companies who proactively take steps to be philanthropically responsible.

PART EIGHT

When companies expand into the international arena, they do so either because their home market has matured or because they see real opportunities in the foreign market. Discuss which kinds of international strategies are most appropriate for companies in the following domestic industries:

• Producing movies
• Software
• Management consulting
• Breakfast cereals
• School of business