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Exam 2: The External Environment: Opportunities, Threats, Industry Competition, and Competitor Analysis

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Question 61

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B.B. Mangler is a top U.S. business-to-business distributor of maintenance, repair, and service equipment, components, and supplies such as compressors, motors, signs, lighting and welding equipment, and hand and power tools. Its industry is typically referred to as MRO, which is an acronym for maintenance, repair, and supplies. MRO products are typically small, fairly inexpensive (light bulbs and washers), but often needed on short notice. It states its strategy as having the "capacity to offer an unmatched breadth of lowest total cost MRO solutions to business." Mangler's GoMRO sourcing center for indirect spot buys locates products through its database of 8,000 suppliers and 5 million products. Mangler has 388 physical branches in the U.S., including Puerto Rico (90% of sales), 184 in Canada, and 5 in Mexico. Customers include contractors, service and maintenance shops, manufacturers, hotels, governments, and health care and educational facilities. Mangler also provides materials-management consulting services. -(Refer to the above Case Scenario) How should Mangler respond to the threat of new Internet-based entrants?

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There are several possible avenues and t...

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Question 62

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Case Scenario : The Boys and Girls Club. The Boys and Girls Club (BGC) is a national non-profit organization geared to provide America's youth with the tools and skills they need to become healthy adults, responsible citizens, and effective leaders. By bringing parents, neighbors, educators, and civic leaders together with our youth, BGC believes it can instill these crucial life lessons at an age when they're most needed. The national organization is headquartered in Atlanta, GA, and serves as a service hub for over 3,700 club locations around the U.S. Each local club is directed by a volunteer board of directors and staffed by professional youth development workers (usually including an executive director, a program director, and an arts director) and many volunteers who just enjoy working with young people and want to make a difference in their lives. While affiliated with the national center, each local BGC is locally funded. -(Refer to the above Case Scenario) How might the BGC respond to threats to their donations at both local and national levels?

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Since BGC is governed locally by a board...

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Question 63

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The European sovereign-debt crisis and political upheavals in Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain and Syria illustrate uncertainties in the political/legal segment of the general environment that could affect the performance of business firms.

In analyzing the demographic segment of the general environment, one typically examines all of the following factors EXCEPT

Product differentiation refers to the

The Chapter 2 Strategic Focus notes that McDonald's has pursued green restaurant design, sustainable packaging, waste management, and energy efficiency all of which are aspects of the technological segment of the general environment.

According to the Chapter 2 Opening Case on BP, in response to the Deepwater Horozon oil spill, the company should expect increased scrutiny coming from which of the following segments of the general environment?

High exit barriers are factors that cause a company to remain in an industry even though the profitability of doing may be questionable.

According to the Chapter 2 Strategic Focus, in response to hard economic conditions, there is declining trend among many companies to reduce their impact on the physical environment.

The likelihood of entry of new competitors is affected by ____ and ____.

The external environment facing business stays relatively constant over time.

The recent bankruptcy filings by General Motors and Chrysler Corporation illustrate that firms cannot directly control the general environment's segments.

Suppliers are powerful when the industry is dominated by a few large companies, no satisfactory substitutes are available, the selling industry is relatively more concentrated than the purchasing industry, and switching costs are high.

Suppliers are powerful when

Microsoft's ability to achieve strategic competitiveness if affected by the threat of smartphones surpassing personal computer sales in the near future.

An industry is defined as

Global warming and energy consumption trends are aspects of the _____________ segment of the general environment that firms should monitor.

What do firms need to know about their competitors? What legal and ethical intelligence gathering techniques can be used to obtain this information?

Because of threats and risks in the global environment, some firms choose to take a more cautious approach by

Scanning involves detecting meaning through early signals of environmental trends.