Superior Strategy Execution-Another Path to Competitive Advantage Answer Key 2

21. The organizing challenge of a decentralized structure that stresses employee empowerment is  A. how to keep empowered employees from making lots of stupid decisions. B. establishing a collegial, collaborative culture so that decisions can be made by gaining a quick consensus on what to do and when to do it. C. how to avoid de-motivating employees (because empowered employees are expected to take responsibility for their actions and decisions). D. how to exercise adequate control over the actions and decisions of empowered employees so that the business is not put at risk while trying to capture the benefits of empowerment. E. how to convince lower-level managers and employees that they are empowered.  22. In a highly centralized organizational structure,  A. top executive retain authority for most strategic and operating decisions. B. the thesis is that strict enforcement of detailed procedures backed by rigorous managerial oversight is the most reliable way to keep the daily execution of strategy on track. C. tight control from the top makes it easy to fix accountability when things do not go well. D. one of the basic tenets is that most company personnel have neither the time nor the inclination to direct and properly control the work they are performing and, further, that they lack the knowledge and judgment to make wise decisions about how best to do their work. E. All of these.  23. Which one of the following falsely characterizes a centralized organizational structure?  A. Top executives should retain authority over most strategic and operating decisions and keep a tight rein on business-unit heads, department heads, and the managers of key operating units. B. Strict enforcement of detailed procedures backed by rigorous managerial oversight is the most reliable way to keep the daily execution of strategy on track. C. Tight control by the manager in charge makes it easy to fix accountability when things do not go well. D. Most company personnel have neither the time nor the inclination to direct and properly control they work they are performing, and they lack the knowledge and judgment to make wise decisions about how best to do their work. E. A company that draws on the combined intellectual capital of its people can outperform a company that relies on command and control.  24. The disadvantages of a centralized organizational structure include  A. making the organization sluggish in responding to changing conditions. B. a loss of top management control. C. putting too much decision-making authority in the hands of lower-level company personnel. D. making it hard to fix accountability when things do not go well and putting the organization at risk when bad decisions are made. E. impeding cross-unit coordination and capture of strategic fits.  25. A company's ability to marshal adequate resources in support of new strategic initiatives and steer them to the appropriate organizational units is important to the strategy execution process because  A. changes in strategy often require resource reallocation and, therefore, directing the proper amounts of resources to strategy-critical organizational units because they need the proper funding to carry out their part of the strategic plan effectively and efÏciently. B. accurate budgets are the key to exercising tight financial controls over organizational units. C. tight budget control is management's most powerful tool for first-rate strategy execution. D. lean, carefully managed budgets protect the company's financial condition and eliminate wasteful use of cash. E. lean, strictly enforced budgets are management's best and most used means of getting organizational units to exercise fiscal discipline.  26. A change in strategy nearly always entails budget reallocations because  A. revamping the performance of value chain activities can be costly. B. the accompanying policy revisions and compensation incentives tend to require different levels of funding than before. C. organizational units important in the prior strategy but having a lesser role in the new strategy may need downsizing, while units and activities that now have a bigger and more critical strategic role may need more people, new equipment, additional facilities, and above-average increases in their operating budgets. D. empowering employees to carry out the new strategy elements typically requires substantial new funding and budget revisions. E. adopting best practices and pushing for continuous improvement tends to reduce costs and reduce overall resource requirements.  27. Which one of the following is not a benefit of prescribing policies and operating procedures to aid management's task of implementing strategy?  A. Painting a set of white lines that provides boundaries for the independent actions of empowered personnel B. Providing top-down guidance to operating managers, supervisory personnel, and employees regarding how things need to be done C. Promoting the creation of a work climate that facilitates good strategy execution D. Helping build employee commitment to adopting best practices and using the tools of TQM and Six Sigma E. Helping enforce consistency in how particular activities are performed  28. A useful guideline in designing strategy-facilitating policies and operating procedures is  A. to prescribe enough policies to give organizational members clear direction in implementing strategy and to place desirable boundaries on their actions, then empower them to act within these boundaries however they think makes sense. B. that strictly enforced policies work better than loosely enforced policies. C. that more policies/procedures work better than few policies/procedures and that strict enforcement always beats lax enforcement. D. to let individuals act in an empowered and self-directed way, subject only to the constraint that their actions and behavior be ethical and in step with the corporate culture. E. to prescribe enough policies and procedures that little is left to chance in performing value chain activities; employees should have no leeway to do things in a manner that deviates from the company's best practices standard.  29. The backbone of identifying, studying, and implementing best practices is  A. business process reengineering. B. a corporate culture that has a core value of operating excellence. C. benchmarkin g. D. Six Sigma quality control techniques. E. innovative application of TQM techniques.  30. Which one of the following is not a tool that company managers can use to promote continuous improvement (operating excellence) in performing value chain activities?  A. Variability reduction analysis in work processes B. Six Sigma quality control techniques C. Total quality management (TQM) D. Business process reengineering E. Adoption of standard industry techniques  31. Business process reengineering is a tool for  A. expediting the redesign of existing products and shortening the design-tomarket cycle. B. pulling the pieces of strategy-critical activities out of different departments and unifying their performance in a single department or cross-functional work. C. instituting total quality management. D. making the most effective use of Six Sigma techniques. E. rapid redesign of an organization's structure so as to rapidly create organizational competencies and capabilities.  32. Reengineering how a firm performs a business process  A. is a tool for pulling the pieces of strategy-critical processes out of different departments and unifying their performance in a single department or crossfunctional work group. B. is the most frequently used tool of total quality management (TQM). C. requires that a company have many strategic partnerships and alliances with outsiders. D. is typically cheaper and easier-to-do than using Six Sigma techniques to achieve the same cost savings. E. is usually a company's most important "best practice" for achieving operating excellence.  33. Total quality management (TQM)  A. is a philosophy of managing a set of business practices that emphasizes continuous improvement in all phases of operations, 100% accuracy in performing tasks, involvement and empowerment of employees at all levels, team-based work design, benchmarking, and total customer satisfaction. B. is a valuable tool for helping company managers identify what the best practice is for performing a particular activity. C. works best when used in conjunction with Six Sigma quality control techniques. D. is an excellent tool for reengineering business processes and making quantum gains in the efÏciency and effectiveness with which the processes are performed. E. is a philosophy of doing things that aims at mistake-free management of a company's entire business.  34. Total quality management (TQM) emphasizes all but which one of the following?  A. 100% accuracy in performing tasks B. Continuous improvement in all phases of operations C. Widespread adoption of industry standard operating practices D. Benchmarking and total customer satisfaction E. Empowerment of employees and team-based work design  35. Total quality management (TQM) programs  A. deal exclusively with procedures to achieve defect-free manufacturing and assembly. B. nearly always contribute more to the achievement of operating excellence than either business process reengineering or Six Sigma quality control techniques. C. achieve the biggest success when extended to employee efforts in all departments—human resources, R&D, accounting and records, information systems, and so forth. D. are considerably more effective in improving manufacturing and assembly activities than they are in improving such value chain activities as R&D, human resources management, supply chain management, information technology, sales and marketing, and finance. E. are generally considered the best tool for reengineering strategy-critical business processes.  36. Six Sigma quality control  A. is a strategy-implementer's best, most reliable tool for simultaneously achieving top-notch product quality and low manufacturing costs. B. consists of a disciplined, statistics-based system aimed at producing not more than 2.5 defects per million iterations for a manufacturing or assembly process. C. consists of a disciplined, statistics-based system aimed at producing not more than 3.4 defects per million iterations for any business process. D. consists of a disciplined, statistics-based system aimed at fewer than 5.0 complaints per million customer transactions. E. is a powerful tool for companies whose customers are very picky about product quality and product performance and who can't afford for the product they use to break down and require repairs.  37. The statistical thinking underlying Six Sigma is based on the following three principles:  A. All activities can be controlled, employee empowerment is the best control tool, and 100% control is possible. B. All work is a process, all processes have variability, and all processes create data that explains variability. C. All work activities can be done accurately most of the time, empowered employees are necessary for effective control, and good statistical data is an empowered employee's best control tool. D. All work is a statistically controllable process, 100% control is possible, and every well-controlled process is defect-free. E. Most business processes are subject to control, Six Sigma can remove variability in how processes are performed, and most defects can be eliminated.  38. The Six Sigma process of define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC) is  A. an improvement system for existing processes falling below specification and needing incremental improvement; the DMAIC process is a particularly good vehicle for improving performance when there are wide variations in how well an activity is performed. B. an improvement system used to develop new processes or products at 100% defect-free levels. C. a system of statistical procedures for achieving 100% control over how a task is performed. D. an improvement system used to develop new processes or products at Six Sigma levels. E. a system of statistical procedures for eliminating 100% of the variability in how a task is performed.  39. Six Sigma's DMADV process of define, measure, analyze, design and verify is a particularly good vehicle for  A. improving performance when there are small variations in how well an activity is performed; if there are wide variations, then the Six Sigma DMVSI process has to be used. B. achieving 100% control over how a task is performed and eliminating 100% of the variability in how a task is performed. C. improving performance when there are wide variations in how well an activity is performed. D. developing new processes or products at Six Sigma quality levels. E. improving customer satisfaction whereas Six Sigma DMADV is used to improve manufacturing processes.  40. The big difference between business process reengineering and continuous improvement programs such as TQM or Six Sigma is that  A. reengineering is a tool for installing process organization whereas TQM and Six Sigma concern defect-free production methods and delivering world-class customer service. B. reengineering helps create core competencies whereas TQM and Six Sigma are tools for making a core competence stronger and more efÏcient. C. reengineering is a tool for achieving onetime quantum improvements whereas TQM and Six Sigma programs aim at incremental progress improvement (striving for inch-by-inch gains again and again in a never-ending stream). D. business process reengineering requires benchmarking whereas TQM and Six Sigma do not. E. reengineering represents an effort to totally revamp a firm's value chain whereas TQM looks at incrementally improving the performance of two or three targeted value chain activities. 