According to the “Business Unit Strategy as Situational Puzzle" article, the macro-environment of an organization includes all of the factors: a. Internal to the organization b. External to the organization c. External to both the organization and the industry d. Internal to both the organization and the industry

According to the “Business Unit Strategy as Situational Puzzle" article, as currency deflates in general: a. prices of goods decrease and consumers receive more goods b. prices of goods increase and consumers receive more goods c. prices of goods decrease and consumers receive less goods d. prices of goods increase and consumers receive less goods

According to the “Business Unit Strategy as Situational Puzzle" article, demographic changes refer to: a. Only increases in the composition and distribution of a population b. Only decreases in composition and distribution of a population c. Changes in both the composition and distribution of a population d. An inverse relationship between the number of younger and older people in a group

According to the “Business Unit Strategy as Situational Puzzle" article, for which of the following products would competition based only on price be least likely to occur: a. Bananas b. Gold c. Milk d. Cell Phones

According to the “Business Unit Strategy as Situational Puzzle" article, which of the following statements is true: a. The cost of a substitute product plus the cost of switching, limits the price a seller/producer can charge. b. The cost of a substitute product minus the cost of switching, limits the price a seller/producer can charge. c. The cost of a substitute product alone limits the price a seller/producer can charge. d. The cost of switching alone limits the price a seller/producer can charge.

Emergency loans are always a challenge for new businesses. In Capsim, what is the interest penalty (additional cost of interest) that Big Al adds to your emergency loan? a. 5% b. 7.50% c. 10% d. 12.50%

In Capsim, which of the following is NOT included in the customer’s buying criteria? a. Production Cost b. Reliability c. Positioning d. Awareness

According to the “Bringing Customers into the Boardroom” article, who/what is the most important aspect of Marketing? a. The product b. The advertising c. The customer d. The management

According to the “Bringing Customers into the Boardroom” article, how has Samsung managed its innovation and product pipelines better than most consumer electronics companies? a. By only selecting one or two “homerun” products and advertising them accordingly b. By pushing almost every idea through development so consumers can have it all c. By hiring only a few “genius” scientists who develop products based on customer data d. By having the CMO rank four or five “pillar” products to get to market in five months

In the “Bringing Customers into the Boardroom” article, the authors refer to select companies’ marketing strategies. According to the article, which company below adopted a marketing strategy that was designed to align with its corporate strategy? a. Kmart “everyday low prices” b. Lucent Technologies “not entering the networking services business” c. Southwest Airline ”grant refunds to all customers after the events of September 11 ” d. The Wiz “nobody beats the wiz”

According to the “Bringing Customers into the Boardroom” article, what factors comprise the backbone of marketing? a. The sum of advertising and promotion b. Product, price, place, promotion c. Humorous commercials d. Cold calling

According to the “Bringing Customers into the Boardroom” article, how did Starbucks “miss the mark” in terms of their customer satisfaction and marketing approach? a. Gave customers innovative products which significantly increased wait time b. Unknowingly devised an offensive ad campaign around the cultivation of coffee c. Greatly reduced their product selection in order to make their lines more efficient d. Only hired immensely talented baristas to converse with its clientele

In Capsim, increasing MTBF usually has the following effect on gross margins: a. Increase b. Decrease c. No effect d. Depends on the segment

In Capsim, to discontinue a product for which you have remaining inventory, what action should you take? a. Set the product’s R&D specs to 0.0 b. Remove the marketing spend for all products in the segment c. Set the product’s material costs to 0 d. Sell off all but one unit of production capacity

According to the “Best Value Supply Chains” article, for the last couple of decades,

most firms have emphasized maximizing ______ and/or minimizing ________ within

their supply chains.

a. costs, value

b. supply, demand

c. profits, pollution

d. speed, costs

According to the “Best Value Supply Chains” article, which one of the following is NOT

one of the three strategic sourcing ‘enablers’ in best value supply chains?

a. Human resources

b. Strategic sourcing design

c. Measurement systems

d. Brand management

Based on customer's needs, a cellphone manufacturer positions some inventory close

to customer locations while other items are warehoused centrally. According to the

“Best Value Supply Chains” article, this is a typical example of _____ in best value

supply chains.

a. Strategic sourcing

b. Supply chain information systems

c. Adaptability

d. Customer relationship management

According to the “Best Value Supply Chains” article, the time that it takes to fulfill a

customer’s needs is the:

a. Cycle Time

b. Delivery Time

c. Production Time

d. Customer Time

According to the “Best Value Supply Chains” article, inbound portion of supply chains

are from the:

a. Manufacturer to the distributor

b. Distributor to the retailer

c. Retailer to the customer

d. Raw materials to the manufacturer

In Capsim, when you buy capacity what units does it come in and when does the new

capacity become available to you?

a. in units of ten, delivered in three months

b. in units of hundreds, delivered in six months

c. in thousands of units, delivered on December 31st of this year

d. none of the above

In Capsim, each time that you raise automation (in production) by 1 point it will

decrease labor cost by what percentage:

a. 5%

b. 10%

c. 20%

d. 25%

What is considered to be the least liquid current asset and can be manipulated by a

company’s management, and is therefore eliminated from the numerator of the ratio

when calculating the Quick Ratio?

a. prepaid expenses

b. inventory

c. short term investments

d. interest receivable

e. None of the above

According to the “Analysis of Financial Statements” article, the Auditor’s Report is

written by

a. the company’s internal auditor

b. the company’s external legal team

c. the external members of the board of directors

d. an independent auditor

e. None of the above

According to the “Analysis of Financial Statements” article, to arrive at ROE from ROA,

one has to multiply ROA by:

a. Debt/equity ratio

b. Assets/ Stockholders’ equity

c. Asset Turnover Ratio

d. Stockholders’ equity/Assets

e. None of the above

According to the “Analysis of Financial Statements” article, in the DuPont Model how

can one compute return on assets (ROA)?

a. Net profit margin x leverage

b. Return on equity x financial leverage

c. Net profit margin x total asset turnover

d. Return on equity x total asset turnover

e. None of the above

According to the “Analysis of Financial Statements” article, days accounts payable

outstanding is the ratio of Accounts payable to:

a. Inventory Purchases/Average Accounts Payable

b. Cost of goods sold/Average Accounts Payable

c. Accounts Payable Turnover 95% sure????

d. (a) and (b) are both correct

e. (a) and (c) are both correct

In Capsim, trade shows as a marketing channel are less important (less effective as

marketing initiatives, and thus are rated “fair” or “poor”) in the following segment(s):

a. High End

b. Performance

c. Size

d. Both (a) and (b)

e. Both (b) and (c)

In Capsim, what is the effect of increasing automation in the production process?

a. Trades off Increased R&D costs for lower labor costs

b. Trades off increased fixed costs for lower variable costs

c. Trades off increased R&D costs for a higher contribution margin

d. Trades off increased fixed costs for lower material costs

e. None of the above

SAMPLE QUESTIONS POSTED ON ANGEL

1. According to the “Business Unit Strategy as a Situational Puzzle” article, which of the

following types of change can an organization influence?

A. Macroeconomic and Technological

B. Demographic and Sociocultural

C. Sociocultural and Political/legal

D. Political/legal and Technological

2. According to the article “Business Unit Strategy as a Situational Puzzle”, price

competition is most likely to be seen in which of the following:

A. Technology industry

B. Automobile industry

C. Pharmaceuticals industry

D. Commodities (can not differentiate)

3. According to the article “Bringing Customers into the Boardroom”, which of the

following is an example of a key driver that companies should not put on their management

dashboard?

A. One that measures performance relative to competitors, like share of wallet.

B. One that measures the customers’ experience, such as loyalty.

C. One that measures the overall cost that a customer is willing to pay, such as distance

that customers are willing to drive.

D. One that measures the growth of retained customers’ business, such as average annual

expenditures.

You cannot measure C

4. According to the “Bringing Customers into the Boardroom” article, a company needs its

marketing division to work together with its corporate strategy and be connected to its

customer’s needs for all of the following reasons except:

A. To come up with product features that the customer wants

B. To not miss important trends

C. To induce customers to make repeat purchases

D. To increase market share

5. According to the “Best Value Supply Chains” article, for which of the following issues

must managers adopt a holistic “big picture” view of their role in the company?

A. Logistics management

B. Strategic sourcing

C. Relationship management

D. Supply chain information systems

6. According to the “Best Value Supply Chains” article, which of the following is

recommended if a firm wants to keep its supply chain agile?

A: It should maintain a lean supply chain and only focus on reducing inventory

B: It should employ all three buffers i.e. excess capacity, inventory & management information

systems regardless of costs.

C: It should only focus on co-locating with the customers and increasing face-time with the

customers

D: It should employ only those buffers that are applicable to its specific industry and seek

to optimize costs for employing these buffers

7. According to the “Analysis of Financial Statements” article, which of the following is

true about financial ratios?

A. There are certain “rules of thumb” that should always be followed when interpreting

financial ratios

B. There are a set of financial ratios that are not important to analysis

C. Financial ratios are not predictive

D. All of the above

8. According to the “Analysis of Financial Statements” article, which of the following are

reasons why the current ratio provides limited feedback on short-term liquidity?

A. The liquid assets as of the balance sheet date (from which the current ratio was computed)

may not reflect the current position of liquid assets

B. Accounts receivable may be of inferior quality

C. Inventory might only be able to be sold at discounted prices

D. All of the above

9. According to the article “Clear Complete and Concise: Avoiding the Seven Deadly Sins

of Analytical Writing”, when writing analytically, the main focus of the document should

be:

A. Why a recommendation was made

B. What was done to get to the recommendation

C. A detailed restatement of the source documents

D. What analysis was performed in arriving at the recommendation

10. According to the article “Clear Complete and Concise: Avoiding the Seven

Deadly Sins of Analytical Writing”, which of the following statements is true about

good analytical writing?

A. It’s best to include as much information as possible for the reader to reference later

B. Dense sentence structure will help the reader understand the importance of the subject

matter

C. The structure of the piece conveys the author’s judgment and recommendation

rather than background information

D. All of the above