Students pursuing MBA from any university must prepare yourself to write answers of theme based questions. I have shared few questions from Business Policy & Strategy.
Instructions [BPS Phase 2]
You have to choose TWO questions from the themes below. You should answer all the subsections if there are any.
Each theme is expected to be 3 to 5 pages. Do not fall short and do not exceed.
Themes from phase 1 are also included. You should NOT include any themes which you may have submitted during phase 1 submissions. If the theme you wrote in phase 1 is a part of the question, then also do NOT attempt it.
T1
- Identify the core competency of your organization. Justify your answer using the following criteria –
- Firm performs this competency best in the industry
- The competency is built on a tangible / intangible resource
- The competency is valuable to the customer
- The customer sees the competency in your firm
- The competency is hard to imitate
- And your firm is organized to exploit the competency
- Create a Vision and Mission statement for your organization. Explain the thought process behind the statements. Do not use any existing statements. Create fresh assuming you are the CEO of the firm
T2
- Perform an Environment analysis for your firm. Identify a minimum of 7 environment factors
- Classify each environment factor as Opportunity (Major or Minor) or Threat (Major or Minor)
- Classify (use scale below) with justification on how effective is your organization in responding to each of the environmental factor.
- Firm has lot of strengths to exploit this opportunity
- Firm will not be able to do full justice to this opportunity
- Firm can safely ignore this threat
- This threat will cause a lot of trouble for the firm
- What is your overall assessment on the environment effect for your firm?
- Perform an Industry Analysis for the industry your firm operates in.
T3
- Create the Value Chain for your firm and that of an important client.
- Identify areas where Value Chain integration can be performed.
- Which one of the generic strategies is predominantly used by your firm. Justify your statement
T4
Analyze the products of your firm using the BCG matrix. Justify the placement of each product. What are the consequent strategies?
Explain the functional strategy of your work place. How does it fit in with the corporate strategy?
T5
Assume that your organization has decided to pursue a cost leadership strategy. Porter states that cost behaviour is governed by Cost Drivers. Identify how the cost drivers can be used in the context of your organization. Recommend the top 3 cost drivers with justification
T6
Assume that your organization has decided to pursue a differentiation. Identify how the drivers of uniqueness that can be used in the context of your organization. Recommend the top 3 drivers with justification.
T7
- Identify the signalling criteria used by your organization. How do they create buyer value?
- Identify the business strategy pursued by your organization. Explain the organization structure. How does the organization structure align with the business strategy? Recommend some changes.
T8
- Using the McKinsey 7S framework, identify how culture influences the other parameters in your organization.
- In your organization identify people with different basis of power. Classify and justify. You must cover a minimum of three power bases.
T9
Develop a Balanced Scorecard for your organization. Your starting point must be the vision statement. Do not use an existing one. You should a have a minimum of 3 goals in each quadrant. The linkage Vision – Mission – Strategic Objectives – Balance Scorecard Goals must be developed.
T10
Assume that your department has decided to benchmark the processes. List the process and procedure done by your department. Identify organizations where this bench marking can be performed. Justify your choices.
T11
- Identify process(s) in your organization that can be re-engineered using Artificial Intelligence. Justify your choices.
- Professor C K Prahlad stated that denominator management never made an organization better, it only made it smaller. Do you agree with this? Justify your answer by analyzing an instance (should be from India)
T12
Assume that your organization wants to expand its business in China (by operating there). Which of the routes do you think should be used (a) Joint Venture (b) Merger & Acquisition (c) Strategic Alliance (d) Organic growth. Justify your reason. If the option chosen is (a), (b) or (c) then identify potential Chinese organizations and shortlist a minimum of three. Justify the shortlist