Exam text content

 

TAMPERE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT

TTA-62036 Strategic Management, 4 cr
Exam 18.10.2013

Write your full name and student number on every answer paper. Indicate how your aswers proceed with
page numbers.

Pay special attention to the readability of your answers, with regard to both structuring your answers and

clarity of handwriting.

You may use a bilingual (e.g. German-English, or German-English-German) dictionary during the exam
provided that it has only the information content it had when it left the printing press (e.g. no handwirtten
notes). No additional literary material is permitted.

You may write your answers either in English or in Finnish.

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1. Assume that you have been invited to consult a mid-sized company which has suffered from being
unprofitable for three consecutive years. From a resource-based view (RBV
a. What would you suggest that the manager(s) of the company do, and why could doing this
help the company to become profitable again?
b. Are there some circumstances (or reasons for unprofitability) in which doing this would not
help the company to become profitable again? Provide the reasons for your answer.

2. Assume that you have been invited to consult another mid-sized company which is unsure about its
performance. The management of the company asks you to build a portfolio of performance
measures with which the management could monitor the performance of the company in the future.

a. What performance measures would you suggest to be included in the portfolio and why?

b. The management asks whether you can name one of these performance measures the
*master” measure (i.e. the most important one). Can you name such a *master” measure —
and if yes or no, why?

3. Assume that you have been invited to consult yet another mid-sized company which is thinking
about entering into a new industry (i.e. adding a new industry in addition to the ones in which it
already operates). According to your advice, what should the management of the company take into
account (study/evaluate) — and why — before making the decision to enter or not to enter?

4. Assume that you have been invited to consult yet another mid-sized company. The management of
the company has read news stories about business ethics being in fashion”, and they want to know
whether or not they too should take ethics into account in their business decisions. Would you
recommend for or against such ethical considerations and what reasons would you give in support of
your recommendation?