ADMS 1000
Exam-AID
Review Package 1
Tutor:
Bushra Shujaat |
[email protected]
1 York SOS Preface
This document was created by the York University chapter of Students Offering
Support (York SOS) to accompany our ADMS 1000 Exam-AID session. It is
intended for students enrolled in any section of ADMS- Administrative Studies-
Challenges of Business‟ 2010/2011 ADMS 1000 course who are looking for an
additional resource to assist their studies in preparation for the exam.
References
Karakowsky, L. (2007). The challenges of Business: Managing in the Canadian
and Global Context. Concord, ON: Captus.
Contents
Tips for General Midterm Success | page 3
Chapter 5: Developing Business Strategy | page 4
Chapter 6: The Competitive and Technological Environment| page 8
Chapter 7: The Global Environment| page 10
Chapter 8: The Political Environment| page 14
Chapter 9: Managing in a Changing Environment | page 17
What is Students Offering Support?
Students Offering Support is a national network of student volunteers working
together to raise funds to raise the quality of education and life for those in
developing nations through raising marks of our fellow University students.
This is accomplished through our Exam-AID initiative where student volunteers
run group review sessions prior to a midterm or final exam for a $20 donation.
All of the money raised through SOS Exam-AIDs is funneled directly into
sustainable educational projects in developing nations. Not only does SOS fund
these projects, but SOS volunteers help build the projects on annual volunteer
trips coordinated by each University chapter.
2 York SOS Tips for General Midterm Success
Use mnemonics to remember concepts better. An example of a mnemonic
would be acronyms. For instance, knowing the word “ocean” can help you
remember the Big Five personality traits: openness to experience,
conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
Do practice multiple choice questions. Doing these practice questions can
assess your understanding of what you‟ve learned and can help you identify
areas of weakness. Practice multiple choice questions are found in textbooks, on
textbook companion websites, and/or provided by your professor. Psychology:
Themes and Variations has practice questions in it and on its online companion
website (http://www.themesandvariations2ce.nelson.com/student/chapter/).
Read a multiple choice question and try to answer it BEFORE looking at the
possible answers. Having an answer in mind before looking at possible
answers can reduce the chances of being fooled by wrong answers.
Use logic and process of elimination on multiple choice questions. For
example, if you know that answer A is wrong, then logically an answer “A and B
are correct” in the same question must also be incorrect. When you don‟t know
the answer, eliminating wrong answers (as opposed to just random guessing)
can increase your chances of getting the question right.
Practice writing answers to short answer questions. If you know ahead of
time what the questions will be on the short answer section, make a list of
essential points you want to include in each answer and practice writing the
answer on paper. If you don‟t know what questions will be on the short answer
section, you could try scanning the material to identify concepts that have
enough content to be a possible short answer question. Again, you can make a
list of essential points you want to include in each answer and practice writing the
answer on paper. Even if the question you thought of doesn‟t show up on the
short answer section, doing this can help solidify what you learned.
Don’t spend too much time on a difficult question. It is better to move onto
easier questions to ensure getting those marks than to get hung up on a difficult
question, especially when time is limited.
Get adequate sleep the night before your test. Sleeping at night helps
consolidate what you learned during the day into memory so that it is better
remembered in future. Not only does staying up late the night before a test
3 York SOS destroy your concentration during the test the next day, but your brain has not
effectively learned the material.
CHAPTER 5
Strategic Management: consists of the analysis, decisions
implementations and evolutions a firm undertakes in order to sustain
and create its competitive advantages
• Analyze its internal and external environment
• Make decisions about strategies
• Implement and evaluate the strategies
Strategy: plans made or the actions taken, in an effort to help an
organization/firm obtain its intended purposes.
Industry: a group of organizations/firms that share similar resource
requirement.
• Labour, raw material, technology, and customers
Five forces model: allows us to systematically
assess the industry environment.
1. Bargaining power of suppliers
2. Bargaining power of buyers
3. Threats for new entrants
4. Threats of substitute products
5. Rivalry
EXPLANATION:
1) Threats of new entrants:
• new start-ups or diversification of existing firms
• create entry barriers
§ Economies of scale
§ The more units you buy the less each unit
costs. For example, if Walmart buys 5000
shoes, each shoe will cost them less to buy,
4 York SOS but if a small store buys 500 shoes, the cost of
that shoe will be more compared to Walmart.
§ Capital requirement
§ Very high start up costs. For example, it is
very expensive to start a business that
requires the use of machinery, because those
machines will require a lot of money (capital)
to purchase.
§ Switching cost
§ Switching from one business to another can
be very costly
§ Barrier of new entrants increase, as switching
cost increase.
§ Access to distribution channels
§ Barrier of new entrants decrease, as access
to distribution channel decrease
§ Cost disadvantage independent of scale
§ Advantages such as government policies,
legal protection (ex. Patents and trademarks)
and proprietary products
2) Bargaining power of Suppliers
• suppliers can demand better prices or they will lower their
quality
• two factors contributing to supplier’s power
§ criticality of resources suppliers provides
§ Number of suppliers relative to number of
incumbents
§ Ex. Many computers companies (Dell, H.P,
IBM, etc) and only two processor chip supplier
(Intel and AMD)
3) Bargaining power of Buyers
• buyers can demand lower prices and/or better quality
5 York SOS • factors contributing to buyer power
§ switching costs
§Undifferentiated products
§Importance of incumbents’ products to buyers
§The number of incumbent relative to number of
buyers
§ Ex. Grocery store: high number of
incumbents, more choice for buyers and low
switching cost for retailers.
4) Threats of substitutes
• Firms in an industry compete with other firms in a different
industry
§ Ex. Newspaper face substitutes such as T.V.,
internet, radio stations, etc that take advertising
from newspapers.
5) Rivalry among Existing Firms
• Compete for customers
§ Lack of Differentiation or switching cost
§ Intensifies rivalry
§ Numerous or Equally balanced Competitors
§ Rivalry is highest when firms are similar in
size and resources
§ Target similar market niches, share similar
resource requirement
§ High Exit barriers
§ Visible fixed costs
§ Specialized assets
§ Escalating commitment of management
§ Government and social pressures.
VRIO MODEL – valuable, rare, hard to imitate, and organization
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
STRATEGIES:
6 York SOS 1. Business Level
a. Cost leadership
b. Product differentiation
c. Niche markets/focus
2. Corporate level
a. Diversification
i. TYPES:
1. Unrelated (completely new business)
2. Related (adding on to the new business)
3. vertical integration (expanding towards raw
material/customers)
ii. HOW:
1. Merges
2. acquisition
3. Strategic alliances
7 York SOS CHAPTER 6
The Competitive and Technological Environment
The life cycle of an industry:
1. Introduction
a. Where new ideas are introduced, heavy on R&D. Small
entrepreneurs starting business. Easy for small
companies to enter (less to lose). A lot of innovation and
creativity. Entrepreneurs must prove their products are
worth buying. Satisfy the norms. Early adopters buy the
products.
2. Growth
a. The market converges from a single dominant design.
This phase is all about sales and market share. No
uncertainty now. Most business builds up on the dominant
design. This phase also experiences a shakeout in which
all the weak competitors exit the market, as the aggregate
output of the industry increases. As prices fall, the weak
competitors are not able to cope up and exit. At this
stage, process innovation, sales and marketing becomes
important. Rivalry increases and firms build brand
recognition and position themselves.
3. Maturity
a. The phase where a firm is making the maximum profits.
The competition is fierce. None or very few weak
competitors. Little or no product differentiation. The
market is more concentrated. Little growth in the profits.
4. Decline
a. When the firm goes down, sales drop, less profit, the
environment, consumer, demographics, technology
changes and the firm has to be innovated and introduce
8 York SOS new products to increase sales and meet the new
demands. Possibilities in the decline stage.
i. Maintain a leadership stance – wait for others to exit
ii. Pursue a niche strategy- focus on a smaller market
iii. Harvest profit – get the most of what is left.
iv. Exit early- taking advantage of early exiting while
there is still value
v. Consolidate- combine with other competitors to
become one
Technological Innovations
1. Discontinuous/Radical
2. Continuous/Incremental
Technological Change:
Dominant Design à Era of Incremental Change à Technological
Discontinuity à Era of Ferment
S- Curve graph
9 York SOS CHAPTER 7
The Global Environment
Globalization: the integration of markets and economies and the free
flow of goods and services, capital and labour
• A process that is expanding the degree and forms of cross -
border transactions among people, assets, goods and services.
• The growth in direct foreign investment in regions across the
world
• The shift towards increasing economic interdependence: the
process of generating one, single, world economic system or a
global economy.
Push and Pull factors of Globalization
PULL
• Potential for sales growth
o World market vs. Domestic market
• Obtaining needed resources
PUSH
• Competition
o Going global as a response to competitors entering
domestic market
• Democracy
o Emerging world democracies open new markets that may
have been restricted
• Reduction in trade barriers
o Increases global competitiveness of business
• Technology
o Advancements in communication and transportation
Channels of Global Business
• Import/Export
o Goods or services
o Advantages to exporting
• Outsourcing
10 York SOS o Right to make/distribute/market
