1. A product is said to have superior quality when:
a. the price is higher than more than other similar, substitute products.
b. customers perceive that its attributes provide them with higher utility or value than the products sold by rivals.
c. the marketing and sales activity is a distinctive competency among the company's resources.
d. it is newer to the world and has the potential to replace existing products.
2. A non-profit organization dedicated to providing homeless people with hot meals served at a local church is reviewing its internal resources. For this non-profit, the organization is seeking to invite and serve all homeless people within a 20-mile radius at the church. Which strategy best aligns with the goal highlighted in bold for each option?
a. Quality. The non-profit is considering reducing the portion sizes of the meals to be able to serve more people.
b. Efficiency. The non-profit is seeking a partnership with a food pantry to purchase food at a discount compared to the supermarket supplier they have been using.
c. Innovation. The non-profit has a volunteer who is working on a cold-meal substitute that will be distributed on the streets instead of at the church.
d. Customer Responsiveness. The non-profit is considering changing its policy and now requires everyone to stand outside in a line to receive their meals, rather than coming in and sitting down to be served.
3. Your supervisor has asked you to take the lead in performing a VRIO analysis of the quality of the resources within your company. To perform the task, you must first identify the land, labor, management, plant and equipment, organizational architecture, process knowledge and intellectual property that make up the resources of the company. Then:
a. treat each resource you identify as equally important to the company and develop a strategy that utilizes each one to achieve superior profitability.
b. complete your report and submit it to your supervisor with a description of the resources you've identified.
c. test each resource by removing it from your production for a defined length of time and track your productivity, sales and profitability in each of those timeframes and use the data collected to quantify how important each resource is to your company.
d. evaluate each resource to determine if it can help the company take advantage of opportunities in the industry, if it's a resource that competitors don't have or would have trouble copying and if the company is managing the resource.