1. Give the major weakness of each of the three competitive strategies: (1) cost leadership, (2) differentiation, and (3) focus.
2. What is a balanced scorecard? What is the primary objective when using a balanced scorecard?
3. Contrast using the balanced scorecard with using only financial measures of success.
4. How can an analyst incorporate the industry-market-size factor and the interrelationships between the growth, price-recovery, and productivity components into a strategic analysis of operating income?
5. Why does balanced scorecard differ from company to company?
6. What is the difference between the delivery cycle time and the throughput time? What four elements make up the throughput time? Into what two classes can these four elements be placed?
7. Why does the balanced scorecard include financial performance measures as well as measures of how well internal business processes are doing?
8. If a company has a manufacturing cycle efficiency (MCE) of less than 1, what does it mean? How would you interpret an MCE of 0.40?