MGT657

JUNE 2016
 PART A
Question 1
5 strengths of Daibochi:-
• Strong market position in malaysia.
• Have board clients includes F&B, fast moving consumer goods,
phamarceutical & industries sectors.
• Strong financial performance.
• Good plans & strategies
• Good customer-company relationship
• International market reputation & market base.
Question 2
Potential threats:-
• Continue increasing or drecreasing global oil prices.
• Fluctuate local & foreign exchange currencies.
• Changing government policies and rules & regulation. Eg; GST
• Economic encertainties
• Competition in industry
• Political instability
• Terrorism issues
• Environmental problems
Question 3
Business strategies:-
• Established strong regional client base.
• New product innovation.
• Effective internal processess/ production strategy.
• Product development
• Market development
Question 4
Competitive pressures from its rivals:-
• Meaning of rivalry among competitors (1 mark)
• Effects of rivalry (1 mark)
• Ways to reduce competitive pressures from its rivals(3 marks)

Competitive pressures from substitute product:-

• Meaning of competitive pressures from substitute product(1
mark)
• Effects of substitute (1 mark)
• Ways to reduce competitive pressures from substitute
product(1 (3 marks)
 PART B
Question 1
Effective guidelines in conducting a good planning process:-
• SM in the firm must be consideres a people or paper process.
• SM must be self-reflecting learning process.
• SM process as simple and non-routine
• SM process which is open minded that encourage members to
share spirit & learning.
• SM should welcome bad news
• SM should not be too formal, rigid and predictable.
Question 2
a) How to conduct external strategic-management audit:-
• Meaning of external SM audit (1m)
• Explain on PESTEL/ PEST (8 m)
• Conclusion (1mark)

b) Distinctive competence is refer :

• A firm’s strength that cannot be easily match or imitate by
competitors.
• Firm can sustain its competitive advantage & gain superior
performance in the industry.
• A firm’s resources and capabilities
• A firms try to improve weaknessess & capitalise its strengths.
Question 3
4 reasons collaboration in R&D:-
• Advancement in ICT and internet.
• New competitive pressures such as new substittute products
• Increasing new research regulations.
• Increasing cost of R&D
• Fast product development and product life cycle.
• Increase no. of reseearhers, research centers & universities.
• Multicultural work environments.
• Limites resources in business environment.
Question 4
Firm’s strategies should be visibale or hidden from
stakeholders:-
• Meaning of strategy (1m)
• Example of strategy (2 m)
• Explain why should visible (4m)
• Explain why should be hidden (4m)
• Rationale (3m)
• Conclusion (1m)
 MGT657

DECEMBER 2015
 PART A
Question 1
5 internal problems:-
• Issues in land lease agreement.
• Additional depreciation of assets due to acquisitions.
• Lower crushing margin of its canola crishing plants in canada.
• Cost of production is high when compare to competitors.
• Higher percentage of tree age profile of 20 years & above.
Question 2
3 strategies to encounter challenges:-
• Reduce cost of production of CPO per tonne.
• Strengthening asset-backed trading.
• Improve capital efficiency.
• Defensive strategy

Question 3
3 types of defensive strategies:-
• Retrenchment strategy – company can reorganize the
business thru’ cost & asset reduction.
• Divestiture strategy – selling a division or part of the firm.
• Liquidation strategy – selling all of company’s assets in exiting
the market.
Question 4
2 main competitive advantages:-
• FGV got vast area of plantation. The group’s tree age profile of
20 years and above now represents about 46 % of total
planted area compare with 57% when FGV was listed in 2012.
• FGV still has RN466mil left out of the RM4.5bil proceeds
raised from its IPO exercise in 2012.
• Continued government support.
 PART B
Question 1
5 reasons why som firm refuse to pursue strategic planning:-
• Poor rewards structure
• Waste of time
• Too expensive
• Laziness
• Fear of failure
• Overconfidence
• Prior bad experience
• Suspicion
Question 2
Porter’s 5 generice strategies:-
• Type 1: Cost leadership –low cost
• Type 2: Cost leadership – best value
• Type 3: Differentiation
• Type 4: Focus – low cost
• Type 5: Focus –best value
Question 3
Industrial organization view:-
• External factors vs internal factors
– External factors are more important than internal factors in achieving
competitive advantage.
– To compete in attractive industries, avoid weak industries & gaining
full understanding of key external factor relationships.
• Facots affectinf firm performance
– Primarily based on industry properties such as economies of scale,
barriers to market entry, product differentiation, & level of
competitiveness.
– Global economic recessions impact on both strong & weak firms
– Instability od oil prices
Question 3
Resource based view:-
• Internal factors vs external factors
– RBV approach to compettive advantage contends that internal
resources are more important than external factors from a firm
achieve & sustain competitive adv.
• Internal resources come from 3 categories
– Physical resources : plant, equipment, location, etchnology, raw
materials, machine.
– Human resources: employees, training, experience, intelligence,
knowledge, skills, abilities.
– Organization resources: firm structure, plannning processes,
information systems, patents, trademarks, copyrights, database.
Question 4
4 marketing issues:-
• Market segmentation
• Product positioning
• Target market
• Channel of distribution
• To use heavy, loght, or no TV advertising
• To use exclusive dealerships or multiple chhanels of
distributions
• To be a price leader or follower
• To offer a complete or limited warrabty
• To advertise online or not.
Question 5
a) 5 key trends:-
• Dramatic increase in environmental complexity.
• Difficult in predicting the future.
• Rapid rate of obsolescence of products
• Decreasing time spancs of planning
• Increase no. of domestic and world events affecting the company.

b) 4 perspectives of balance scorecard:-

• Fianancial performance
• Customer knowledge
• Internal business processes
• Learning & growth.