E3 Practice Exam Questions with Answers E3 Strategic Management Certification

HHH is a mobile telecommunications provider in Country D. HHH presently offers telephone and text services at a price per unit (a unit is defined as 1 minute or 160 text characters). It provides Internet connection from handsets at a fixed fee per month. Select the appropriate strategic response to each of the industry developments listed below.

VWX manufactures and sells a wide range of products. All these products utilise lenses and digital imaging technologies. VWX is considering how to manage its product portfolio.

Management is concerned about two product ranges in particular: cameras and home projectors.

VWX's cameras are Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras featuring interchangeable lenses and provide detailed, high quality images of objects both at very close range and at considerable distances. VWX has the largest share of the camera market but the market sales are falling as people increasingly use their mobile phone handsets to take and share photographs. 

VWX has a small share of the home projector market. As a consequence the range is loss making. The home projectors are used to show photographs or films on large wall-sized formats. There is a growing trend for customers to buy home projectors to connect to mobile phones, tablets and games consoles to project the content into a larger image and in order to share it.

Which THREE of the following product management strategies should VWX adopt?

SSS is a large department store. It operates a chain of stores throughout Country Z. It offers a wide range of products, from cosmetics through to home furnishings.

SSS's Value Chain is presented below. 

Which of the following generic strategies is being undertaken by SSS?

MMM is a multi-national company that manufactures and sells consumer durables.  MMM has recently experienced severe trading losses and its Marketing Director has decided to revise the Marketing Strategy paying due regard to MMM's key external drivers. Which THREE of the following are key external drivers for MMM?

MMM operates leisure parks in Country S. a mature economy in Europe. These are parks that are popular with people between the ages of 8 and 25 years who visit them to ride on the high speed roller-coasters and to visit other attractions at the parks. Nearly 60% of visitor expenditure is to buy meals and drinks at the park MMM estimates that 20% of its visitors travel to its parks from outside Country S.

Which THREE of the following environmental changes will have the greatest impact on MMM in the next five years?

FFF manufactures and sells three consumer products. The Marketing Manager has enough funds to commission an advertising campaign for only ONE of the three products. 

The Marketing Manager's criterion for allocating funds for an advertising campaign is that the product should be a "Star" according to the BCG matrix.

Which product should receive the investment? 

JJJ is a frozen food delivery business in Country Q. Competition is high and JJJ prices its delivery services very competitively. JJJ has doubled its market share to 35% in the last five years.

In order to continue to improve its competitive position in Country Q, JJJ has invested in 100 new delivery vans. These vans have been designed to increase the speed and efficiency in loading and unloading the frozen food products. JJJ has to meet tight delivery deadlines to its customers or penalties for late delivery are charged to JJJ by its customers. Drivers of the vans undertake regular training. 

Which of the following would be the most appropriate critical success factor within the 'Customer' perspective of a Balanced Scorecard for JJJ?

Company Y is a global business selling a selection of technological items including phones, laptops and other computer related items. In addition Y sells accessory items, music downloads, apps: digital books and video downloads including films and television series through a cooperative partnership with other companies, designed to create value for the customer.

Which of the following terms best describes what Y has created?

TTT is a conglomerate with two divisions, AAA and BBB. Advise TTT on the most appropriate strategy to adopt for each division.

XYZ is a local tourist attraction. XYZ has a website on which it advertises all of its forthcoming events. XYZ's customers can also use the website to book tickets for these events and can also contact XYZ by email. XYZ's website also uses a range of interactive technologies including geographical location and map facilities and links to external information sites such as the local tourism board and local hotel listings.

Which of the following best describes the range of interactive technologies used by XYZ within its website? 

RRR is a state-funded hospital serving a major city. It is under political pressure to reduce the waiting times of patients requiring surgical operations who need to stay at the hospital for several nights. The doctors blame a lack of bed spaces and are calling for more investment in extra beds.

You have been conducting some research into the problem and have discovered the following problems affecting the utilisation of the existing beds at RRR:

   • many patients stay extra nights due to lack of communication with the health professionals needed to monitor the patients at home

   • beds are left empty each day when patients miss their admission date but there are no processes to inform other patients to offer them the space

   • patients are admitted on days when there are no spaces available on the special equipment needed to treat their particular condition

Which THREE  linkages between Primary Activities in the Value Chain of RRR need to be improved to provide extra bed spaces at RRR?

GGG is a manufacturer of four different components produced in four separate facilities. The Production Director has sufficient funds to modernise one of the facilities.  GGG's decision rule in these circumstances is that investment is permissible in either a 'Cash Cow' or a 'Star' but not a 'Dog' or a 'Problem Child?'. Which facility should be modernised?

JJJ is a private company belonging to a famous former athlete. It operates gyms and fitness clubs across its home country. Each gym or fitness club is treated as a profit centre and the manager of each centre is paid bonuses based on its financial performance.

Three years ago it introduced multidimensional performance measures into its management control systems. These measure capacity utilisation, financial performance, competitiveness, innovation, and the flexibility of its centres to cope with changing demands.

The managers of its centres have been leaving at a very high rate over the last two years. They have claimed that the measures are too open to interpretation and when they think they are improving the centre's performance they are told they are doing the wrong thing. They also complain that the managers in the centres near big cities find it much easier to reach their targets than the managers of other centres.

Using Fitzgerald and Moon's Building Block model,  where does the problem lie?

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) defines exactly what services a service provider will provide and the required level or standard for those services.

Which of the following statements regarding Service Level Agreements is NOT correct?

Data mining is an important part of an Organization's knowledge discovery process.

Effective data mining provides insight and can help unlock previously hidden opportunities.

Which of the following are disadvantages of Data Mining?

Select ALL that apply.

AB uses Johnson, Scholes and Whittington's criteria of 'Feasibility and Acceptability' to evaluate potential strategies. AB has begun a project to re-engineer its best selling product.

Apply the appropriate criterion to each of the questions below:

E is a company run by a well balanced Board of Directors. E is performing well, but is looking to reduce costs in the current year Which of the following activities would lack integrity'' Select ALL that apply.

Z is an organisation that designs and manufactures fibre optic connectors. It works closely with its suppliers and has built an online area that it uses to share documents, designs, and photographs with its suppliers. The area also facilitates real time communication with suppliers either via a computer or a mobile phone.

Which of the following best describes Z's online area?

Ansoff has provided a product/market growth matrix which denotes possible strategic directions that an organization can follow.

Which of the following statements correctly describe the strategic options generated by the matrix? (Choose all that apply.)

Which THREE of the following are valid reasons to follow a Corporate Social Responsibility strategy?

Company RR operates in the finance sector. It is experiencing increasing delays in approving loan applications, due to customers not promptly returning their signed copy of the application forms back to RR.

RR is now wanting to introduce e-signatures which allow customers to sign the document on their computer and return it back to RR through the Internet. This change will help to simplify the process and ensure that customers obtain their loans quicker.

To achieve this change, RR has established a project and has appointed you as the Project Leader to lead the change.

Select the THREE valid statements in respect of leading change.

TUV had an employee turnover rate of 25% among new recruits and was becoming short of skilled workers. The Board of TUV realized there was something dramatically wrong and called in consultants to assess the problem. The consultants recommended transformational change in that TUV should redesign the entire production system, change the placement of all equipment and the flow of work, redefine every job and give all workers new assignments.

Which type of change did the consultants recommend for TUV?

Which THREE of the following frameworks are used solely to evaluate the external environment of an organization? (Choose three.)

A company runs a distribution warehouse. Its information systems constantly monitors inventory levels, with automatic re-order processing occuring with suppliers when inventory items reach a specified level. It operates a robotics system which automatically picks inventory from its location in the warehouse and delivers it to the pick-up area. The company also has a large database of customer information which it uses to analyse buying behavior and sales trends so that it can provide customers with relevant and targeted marketing information.

Which THREE of the following activities of the Value Chain have been affected by the use of IT/ IS?

BBB discharges small quantities of non-harmful material into the atmosphere as a by-product of its manufacturing process. BBB has been criticised by an environmental journalist who called BBB a polluter.

BBB wishes to influence opinion in its favour and has identified a number of strategic responses to achieve this objective.

Which of the following strategic responses should BBB implement?

F is an entrepreneur who runs a chain of health food shops in Country M. There are no other similar health food shops operating in Country M and the chain has rapidly grown over the last three years. F wishes to continue to grow his chain of shops but is aware that he lacks the funds to enable him to grow at the pace which the market is demanding. He is also concerned that continued rapid growth will result in him losing control over the strong brand reputation and identity that he has built up for the chain of shops. 

Which of the following would be the most feasible strategy for F to adopt to continue to grow his business?

JJJ is a publically quoted advertising agency. JJJ’s competitive advantage is based on the expertise of its staff and its reputation in digital media advertising. JJJ has robust systems to protect its intellectual property. These include patents and copyrights. JJJ has also restricted access for most of its staff to its most sensitive data, such as studies of its customers' profitability.

JJJ's new Managing Director, Z, is concerned that when staff leave JJJ, the company loses whatever tacit knowledge they possess. These losses also impact on JJJ's reported profits. In order to remedy the losses of knowledge and the reduced profits Z wants to introduce a knowledge management strategy.

Which of the following steps support the introduction of a knowledge management strategy? (Choose all that apply.)

Which of the following is NOT included in the Information Systems Strategy (ISS) of Earl's three levels of information strategy?

CCC has been given permission by the local government authority to build 500 houses and this will be a very profitable project for CCC. An animal charity is opposed to the building of the houses as fields where animals live will be built on.  Some people living nearest to the area of the proposed building are in favour because it will stimulate the local economy. Other people living near the area of the proposed development are opposed to it because their view will be spoiled. Which of the following activities should CCC undertake to resolve the stakeholders' competing objectives?

HHH is an international distribution company which operates a number of large distribution warehouses. HHH employs over 10,000 staff who operate the warehouses 24 hours per day and process over 500,000 packages and parcels each day. HHH operates in a highly competitive market and the senior management team recognize the importance of focusing upon its Critical Success Factors (CSF's). However, some senior managers are confused as to the difference between CSF's and Key Performance Indicators (KPI's).

Which of the following are Critical Success Factors for HHH? (Choose all that apply.)

Which of the following of Porter's Five Forces would affect the power of suppliers?

Company MM is wanting to build an out of town shopping complex. This will be located near a busy road which is surrounded by housing estates. MM has yet to obtain planning permission. It recognizes that unless it takes action, the local residents will object to MM's plans. As the Publicity Manager you have been asked to take over responsibility for Stakeholder Management.

Which of the following Stakeholder Management statements is NOT correct?

As a Group Management Accountant you have been asked to explain the different types of change currently taking place within a number of the Group's subsidiaries.

Select the appropriate type of change for each of the descriptions below:

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Company Y has recently attended a series of presentations on the six key roles that the World Economic Forum (WEF) recommend organisations fulfil in order to succeed in the digital age.

The CEO is particularly interested in changing the focus of Y from a five year, to a one year planning cycle, with more focus on experimentation and less focus on long-term planning.

Which of the six roles suggested by the WEF is the CEO particularly interested in?

Which of the following distinguishes a learning curve effect from a learning Organization?

RRR is an insurance company which maintains an extensive database of its customer transactions over the last 10 years. RRR is developing a new product and has carried out a SWOT analysis.

Within which of the following aspects of the SWOT analysis would RRR include its customer database?

ABC is an online bank which has just reported substantial trading losses. It has received advice from a leading business consultancy that it should implement the following two strategies:

1. Take advantage of its reputation and brand image by entering a new industry.

2. Update all its networks to fifth generation (5G) as soon as possible. Which TWO of the following strategies has ABC been advised to implement?

'Big data' refers to datasets whose size is outside the ability of typical database software tools to capture, store, manage and analyze.

Which of the following statements is NOT a valid statement with regard to 'big data'?

Communication is a critical element of the Organizational change process. Communicating the change vision is a component of Kotter's eight steps to transforming Organizations.

Which of the following statements support Kotter's component 'Communicate the change vision'?

Select ALL that apply.

CCC is a charity which has an excellent reputation within its home country. CCC employs over 300 highly experienced staff and also has 200 skilled volunteers. Its funding mainly comes from donations from the public but its public profile is low compared to larger, more publicised charities.

Due to the recent recession, public donations to CCC have fallen in the last five years, but demand for its services continues to grow.

The government of the country in which CCC operates is encouraging greater collaboration between charities and there have been several recent successful mergers within the charity sector. CCC has recently been approached by a high profile and well funded charity, PPP, with a proposal to merge. PPP offers complementary services to those offered by CCC.

Which TWO of the following factors would most likely be considered as an 'opportunity' for CCC?

You are a Management Accountant working for an Organization that includes commitments to 'sustainability' in its mission statement.

Which THREE of the following are contributions that a Management Accountant can make to the achievement of this part of the Organization's mission statement?

Country W hosts a large music competition every 5 years, which is attended by many international musicians. The success of the competition is dependent upon effective Customer Relationship Marketing being established with many different market groups around the world. These include music colleges who send their students, broadcasting companies who broadcast the event on radio and television, audience members, online ticket sellers and music journalists who write about the competition in specialist journals.

Using Payne's 'Six Markets Model', which of the following is the correct classification for the music journalists writing about the competition?

Kaplan and Norton's model of the Balanced Scorecard contains a number of perspectives.  Which of the following are perspectives within Kaplan and Norton's model?

Select ALL that apply.

Which of the following is NOT a key attribute of a successful stretch target?

DEF is a medium sized business which manufactures children's clothing. In the last 5 years demand has steadily increased and DEF is struggling to meet this demand within its current manufacturing capacity. DEF's current manufacturing machinery was installed over 10 years ago and now requires updating, if DEF is to survive in the marketplace. 

DEF has established that the latest manufacturing technology would cost $2 million. This would be funded by the shareholders. It would payback within 2 years and would allow DEF to double output from its current level within this 2 year period. It will also improve product consistency and quality. However, it will result in the loss of 20% of DEF's manufacturing staff, most of whom are low paid and low skilled.

DEF is currently reviewing this proposed investment strategy, in terms of whether it meets the criteria of Suitability, Acceptability and Feasibility.

Which of the following correctly identifies the criteria which are met, in regard to DEF's proposed investment strategy?

You are a Management Accountant working for a logistics firm that wants to build collaborative relationships with each of its key clients.

Which of the following changes to the management accounting function would you recommend to help the development of collaborative partnerships with a client?

Select ALL that apply.

AB is a global car manufacturer. Management has agreed to spend $20 million on researching a new type of engine that uses liquid hydrogen to power the car. It believes it is important for AB to take a first step in developing this radical and uncertain new technology.

The $20 million will finance the research only and the program will last two years. Providing the research is successful, after two years it would cost a further $40 million to develop a car to sell. This development would take a further three years. Management is concerned that the international car market may not be willing to buy hydrogen powered cars for at least six years from now.

Which of the following options would NOT be available to AB after two years?

In order to implement a knowledge management strategy, an Organization must acquire suitable hardware and software so that knowledge can be stored and communicated. Which of the following would be appropriate systems to use in a knowledge management strategy?

Select ALL that apply.

Which THREE statements about scenario planning are correct?

Irvine and Martin presented the advantages of Foresight as the 5Cs. Which of the following are correct aspects of the 5Cs as defined by Irvine and Mart in? Select ALL that apply.

As a CIMA qualified Management Accountant working within a manufacturing company, you are subject to both CIMA's Code of Ethics and your company's Code of Business Conduct.

Which of the following statements are TRUE?

Select ALL that apply.

The following definition has been provided by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD):

'An activity which targets high performance and improvement at work and usually focuses on specific skills and goals, although it may also have an impact on an individual's personal attributes (such as social interaction or confidence). The process typically lasts for a relatively short period.'

Which of the following activities does the above definition describe?

Which of the following is an example of a value adding activity within the outbound logistics aspect of an Organization's value chain?

Porter suggests that competitive advantage can be attained by organising value-adding activities in support of the generic strategies which he identified.

Place the appropriate generic strategy against each of the value-adding activities.

Porter suggests that competitive advantage arises from the implementation of a 'generic strategy'. Which THREE of the following are NOT generic strategies?

LMN is a fast food manufacturer that makes 'Ready-meals'.

Place the appropriate stage of the Value Chain against each of the activities below:

The Financial Director (FD) of your company has heard it said that 80% of profits come from 20% of customers. The FD has accused the sales team of wasting time on serving customers who are not valuable to the business.

 The FD has instructed you to take a random sample of 100 customers and to calculate the total contribution the company earned from each customer in the past year. The FD intends to instruct the sales team to stop selling to the bottom 25% of these customers in order to improve profitability.

Which THREE of the following factors should the FD consider when he interprets your results?

Which THREE of the following issues relate to the Corporate Strategy of an organization? (Choose three.)

PPP is a state owned national railway operator. It has many divisions, each focusing on specific areas of the country.

PPP's mission statement is 'to provide a safe, punctual and reliable public transport service at lowest cost to its passengers and the government'.

Which THREE of the following divisional performance measures should PPP adopt?

Which of the following is NOT a fundamental principle specified in CIMA's Code of Ethics?

The Boston Consulting Group developed a matrix to assist managers in identifying the cash flow requirements of different businesses.  The matrix suggests a number of appropriate strategies. Select ALL the strategies that apply to the Boston Consulting Group's matrix.

AAA is a car manufacturer which has undertaken a strategy to lobby a regional authority to include Its flagship hybrid model in a regional initiative to grant low-emission cars access to faster moving vehicle lanes. These faster vehicle lanes were historically only available to cars carrying passengers. Given the benefits of AAA's low emission vehicles, AAA's cars were authorised to make use of the faster lanes, even when no passengers were on board providing AAA with a decisive competitive edge.

Which of the following strategies is AAA pursuing?

In order to organize the value-adding activities to support a chosen strategy, Porter's Generic Strategies are often applied within an organization's value chain.

Against each of the activities listed below, select the Generic Strategy which best defines the strategic approach being taken.

Kaplan and Norton developed a model called the Balanced Scorecard to assist in the formation and achievement of strategic policy.  Within this model are four perspectives. Which of the following statements is NOT applicable to a Balanced Scorecard perspective?

BCD is a small private hospital providing elective surgery to patients. Elective surgery is not essential to the patient's health and can be regarded as a luxury.

Match the performance measure to the strategic goal and match the direction of improvement to each measure.

DD is a medium size company and has decided to appoint a data mining company to collate information from a wide variety of sources and analyse the data into more meaningful information.

The Board of DD believes that by using a data mining company to undertake this work, it will add value to its business and help it to remain competitive. 

Which of the following statements does NOT apply to data mining?

McKinsey saw culture as seven interconnected elements and described these in the '7S' model. Which of the following is NOT a 'hard' factor within the '7S' model?

Which TWO of the following would be measures included within the 'Department and work centres' level of the Performance Pyramid?

In respect of mission statements, place the word "characteristic" or "purpose" against the relevant activity.

A resource audit identifies the resources that are available to an Organization and seeks to start the process of identifying competencies. By assessing the results from a resource audit, a company can evaluate how well its resources have been utilised and the efficiency and effectiveness of the Organization's systems.

The Ms model is used to help managers undertake a resource audit.

Which THREE categories will be included in a resource audit?

Rosabeth Kanter suggested that Organizations which managed change successfully ('change adept' Organizations) share three key attributes.

Which THREE of the following are the key attributes of change adept Organizations, suggested by Kanter?

HHH intends to introduce a Balanced Scorecard to assist with its strategic policy formation and achievement of strategic plans. Which TWO of the following stakeholders are addressed by a Balanced Scorecard perspective?

YC is a government funded hospital specialising in degenerative hearing conditions YC is renowned for it's pioneering work resolving chronic ear problems and has, in the last year, conducted a record number of operations and achieved high levels of success. The excellent reputation of YC has led to high demand and a considerable strain on resources

Although last year the average cost per patient fell, and success rates far exceeded targets, overall spend increased significantly. YC hospital is expected to provide value for money (VFM). Which aspect of VFM has YC NOT managed to achieve in the last year?

Which of the following is NOT a common barrier to group-based collaboration within Organizations?

Which of the following statements would encourage an Organization to use Scenario Planning?

Select ALL that apply.

ZZZ recently hired a new Chief Executive, Q, to lead it through a period of major change. Q immediately set up a change management team which consisted of several senior managers and directors from across the Organization. Together, they formulated an overall goal for change and then spent several weeks presenting the need for change to all of the staff  through a series of staff meetings. At these meetings Q involved staff and built their ideas into the final change strategy.

Q also set a series of interim goals to encourage ongoing performance throughout the change process. When the Organization reached these goals, she widely publicised these achievements to help motivate staff. 

However, after six months, ZZZ had failed to reach most of the interim goals that had been set. Most of the members of the change management team had not maintained a significant interest in the change process and many of the staff felt that there had been a lack of communication and reward following the initial few weeks of the change process.

Kotter suggested that there were eight steps required to successfully lead change.

Which TWO of the following of these eight steps did Q fail to achieve?

AAA manufactures and sells a range of travel suitcases. One model, the 'Executive'  has seen sales growth of around 3% for the last two years, following strong growth since its introduction eight years ago. This slow down in the 'Executive' sales growth is largely due to AAA's competitors offering products in direct competition with the 'Executive'. AAA has therefore had to reduce its price to match those of its major competitors. AAA has also recently upgraded the features of the 'Executive' model to include a variety of different colours and materials. It has also launched a marketing campaign to promote the benefits of the 'Executive' model against its competitors products.

Which stage of the product life cycle has the 'Executive' model of suitcases reached?

ZZZ is a retailing Organization that is suffering falling market share and falling profits.

ZZZ has a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who is urgently setting up a strategic performance evaluation system. This will involve identifying Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and then monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Advise the CEO which of the following statements is suitable for the role that a Chartered Global Management Accountant should undertake.

In 1989 Earl developed a framework to analyse the linkages between information systems, information technology and information management. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of Information Systems strategy?