Trimester: 2018 Winter

Level : Master Trimester : Winter Year : 2018

Programme : MBA Full Marks : 100
Course : Strategic Management Pass Marks : 60
Time : 4 hrs
Candidate are required to give their answers in their own words as far as
practicable.
The figures in the margin indicate full marks.
Attempt all the questions:
1. Define the meaning of strategy management. What factors determine the
degree of formality in strategic management? Explain. 10
2. “A computer on every desk, and in every home, running on Microsoft
software”. This was the declaration of Microsoft Corporation some 3
decades back. How would you describe this statement? Explain with
considering the essential components for mission statement formulation
process. 10
3. Plot the positions of SBU A, SBU B and SBU C of a diversified company
in a BCG matrix and suggest appropriate strategies for each of them
based on all relevant information given in the table below. Also give
appropriate justifications for your choice. 10
Strategic Business Units
(SBUs)
A B C
Relative Market Share 0.25 0.5 0.35
(RMS)
Industry Growth Rate 10% 15% -10%
(IGR)
Profit Margin 5% 25% 15%
IFE Total Weighted 1.5 3.5 2.4
Score
EFE Total Weighted 2.5 2.0 2.8
Score
4. Suppose you are a newly appointed CEO of a large manufacturing
company and you want to identify key strengths and weakness of your
company in the strategy formulation process. How would you apply
Porter’s value chain analysis framework to accomplish this purpose?
What are the various value chain activities as well as the factors of
strategic importance that should be considered to this end? Discuss. 10
 Strategic Management … 2
5. What do you mean by “Premise Control”? Why constant and uniform
maintenance of this control mechanism is important starting from
formulation through the completion of implementation of strategy? 10
6. Discuss the role of appropriate organizational structure, employee
empowerment and strategy supportive organizational culture in effective
implementation of strategy. 10
7. Write short notes on any two. 2×5
a) Quality control tools
b) Backward and forward Integration
c) Strategic control vs. operational control
8. Read the following case and answer the questions that follow. 3×10
Nepal Bank Limited (NBL) is the oldest commercial bank of Nepal
established in November 15, 1937 (Kartik 30, 1994 B.S.). NBL has, at
present, 51 percent ownership of the government of Nepal and 49
percent ownership of the general public. It provides various services –
credit, deposit, remittance and other services to approximately 2 million
customers across the country. It has experienced top management but
sometimes it faces undue government interventions. As of Ashadh end,
2075, some of the important financial performance indicators of NBL vis –
a- vis other banks In the industry are given in the table below.

NBL’s
Particulars Highest (1st) Lowest (28th)
Position

NRs 90.81 NRs. 153.15 NRs 37.02

Deposit
billion (9th) billion (RBBL) billion (CBL)

Loan and NRs. 79.88 NRs. 118.86 NRs 35.20

advances billion (10th) billion (NIB) billion (CBL)

Non-performing
2.91% (5th) 3.90% (PRVU) 0.13% (SBI)
assets

Cost of fund 2.97% (27th) 8.88% (CBBL) 2.14% (RBBL)

Earning per NRs. 42.57 NRs. 49.51 NRs. 6.84

share (3rd) (NABIL) (CBL)

Despite some challenges like political uncertainties, fierce competition

among existing banks, multiplicity and politicization of trade unions, no
fair accounting of borrowers etc., there is immense potential for further
expansion and growth of the bank. Public trust is generally high since it is
the oldest bank of Nepal and the government owns majority of its shares.
Additionally, a large number of people still do not have access to banking
services in Nepal. Furthermore, there is almost no threat from new
3… Advance Saraswati’s MBA Questions Bank
entrants due to central bank’s policy to consolidate the existing ones. As
a matter of fact, NBL has impersonal customer service with lengthy credit
turnaround time (TAT) compared to many other commercial banks.
Moreover, the corporate demography is dominated by older adults with
the lack of special competencies like speed and learning capacity.
Likewise, there are several problems in its existing culture in terms of
attitude towards time, propensity towards risk, goal orientation, power
distance, respect for people, customer care etc. Mr. Devendra Pratap
Shah who has long experience in banking industry is the current CEO of
Nepal Bank Limited. He is now interested to initiate the new strategy
formulation process for FY 2076/077 to FY 2081/082. Before the formal
start of strategy formulation process, he called a meeting of top-level
executives including the heads of all departments in order to discuss the
need for strategic planning and brainstorm the ideas on strategic priorities
for the forthcoming period. Each of them had good but quite divergent
ideas including the stabilization of existing business, concentric growth,
market development, product development, market penetration,
diversification, acquisition of other BFIs, internationalization and so on.
Likewise, there was no consensus regarding the major sources of
competitive advantage to exploit for the next strategy cycle.
Questions:
a) Do a SWOT analysis of Nepal Bank Limited (NBL).
b) If you were a consultant for the NBL, what directional strategy would
you suggest for the bank? Give reasons.
c) Which competitive strategy should the bank follow? What
suggestions would you provide to sustain the chosen competitive
strategy? Discuss.

Trimester: 2017 Fall

Level : Master Trimester : Fall Year : 2017
Programme : MBA Full Marks : 100
Course : Strategic Management Pass Marks : 60
Time : 4 hrs
Candidate are required to give their answers in their own words as far as
practicable.
The figures in the margin indicate full marks.
Attempt all the questions:
1. After graduation, you are not likely to move directly to a top-level
management position. In fact, few MBA graduates will ever reach the top-
 Strategic Management … 4
management level. Why, then, is it important for all MBA graduates to
study the field of strategic management? 10
2. State important criteria for evaluating a mission statement. Based on the
criteria you have stated, evaluate the following mission statement of
Gurdian Life Insurance Company. 10
“Our basic purpose is to enrich the lives of people we touch. By providing
highest performing financial products and services that reduce risk and
increase assets, we help individuals and employers fulfill their
responsibilities and build better tomorrows. Our culture is based on an
unwavering belief in integrity and fair dealings, treating our clients and
each other with dignity and respect. We meet the needs of the markets
we serve. We strive for excellence. We take prudent risks and work hard
to enhance continuously our reputation for accessibility, professionalism,
performance, and the depth and quality of our long-term consultative
relationships with clients. We endeavor to be valued as an industry leader
in client satisfaction, sales growth, product performance, financial
strength and profitability.”
3. Analysing the recent economic and technological development trends in
service industries of Nepal, what would be your strategic suggestions to
the service business in Nepal? Suggest strategies taking example of any
kind of service business in Nepal? Suggest strategies taking example of
any kind of service business Justifying the strategies, you suggest. 10
4. Suppose you are recently opening a fast food restaurant in your town.
Draw a strategic group map and explain the competitive positions and
strategic planning that you need to undergo as per the map you have
drawn. 10
5. Explain the concept of Balanced Scorecard and how does it help in
Strategy Formulation, Implementation and Control? Explain with a short
example. 10
6. Read the following case study, and then answer all questions that it
follows:
Innocent Drinks is a company that makes smoothies, juice and veg pots,
sold in supermarkets, coffee shops and various other outlets. The
company sells over two million smoothies per week. Innocent is over 90%
owned by the Coca Cola Company. Innocent was founded by three
Cambridge University graduates: Richard Reed, Adam Balon and Jon
Wright, then working in consulting and advertising. In 1999, after
spending six months working on smoothie recipes and £500 on fruit, the
trio sold their drinks from a stall at a music festival in London. People
were asked to put their empty bottles in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ bin depending on
whether they thought the three should quit their jobs to make smoothies.
5… Advance Saraswati’s MBA Questions Bank
At the end of the festival the ‘YES’ bin was full, with only three cups, in
the ‘NO’ bin, so they went to their work the next day and resigned. After
quitting their jobs, the three struggled to find investment, but eventually
had a lucky break when Maurice Pinto, a wealthy American businessman,
decided to invest £250,000. In total, it took fifteen months from the initial
idea to taking the product to market.
Revenue for the company declined in 2008 as a result of the global
financial crisis which led to an overall loss of £8.6m. On 6 April 2009,
Innocent Drinks announced on its website an agreement to sell a stake of
10-20% to The Coca Cola Company, with the three founder retaining
operational control for £30 million. As a result of the takeover Ethical
Consumer magazine reduced their ethical rating for the company. In April
2010, Coca-Cola increased its stake in the company to 58% from 18% for
about £65 million. In February 2013 Coca-Cola increased their stake to
over 90%, leaving the three founders with a small minority holding.
Innocent say their brand identity is nothing less than their entire business,
everything from the products to the adverts, how they answer the “banana
phone” to the way they interact with customers.
Smoothies are Innocent’s primary product. The Innocent smoothie
consists of whole crushed fruit and juices, but other ingredients such as
carrots and ginger have been used in some drinks. Innocent also makes
smoothies, fruit tubes and juice for kids; a not-from- concentrate juice
range; and noodle pots and veg pots, a range of ready meals. Innocent a
new range of ‘super smoothies’ in March 2014.
Innocent gives 10% of its profits to charity, the majority of which goes to
the Innocent foundation, a UK registered charity set up in 2004. The
Innocent foundation’s aim is to help the world’s hungry by providing
grants to charities and projects helping communities on a sustainable
path to a better life where they can escape poverty and hunger. The
Innocent foundation provides funding for four different types of project to
help the world’s hungry: seed funding, local food poverty, breakthrough
development and emergency relief. Since the foundation was set up it
has given over £2.4m to 55 projects, helping reach over 530,000 people
Innocent say “We want our packaging to have the lowest possible impact
on the world around us.
Our starting point is to understand the carbon impact of all our various
packaging components.
Our toolkit for reducing carbon looks a little like this:
 Use less: as little material as possible per pack
 Don’t use up new stuff: as much recycled or renewable material as
possible
 Strategic Management … 6
 Close the loop: materials and pack formats that are easy to recycle
 Lower its impact: deliberately avoiding high carbon materials”
Questions:
a. What is/are the sources of sustainable competitive advantage of
Innocent Drinks? 4
b. What sort of core competency would you like to recommend for
Innocent Drinks? 4
c. What alternative strategies do you believe are available for Innocent
Drinks? 4
d. Would the Innocent products be a suitable product for sale in your
country? What are the implications of difference in business culture
of the UK and that of your country on possible business strategies
upon entry of Innocent products in your country? 4
e. Is there any possibility for the following strategies at Innocent Drinks?
If so, give your ideas as to in which case the strategy would serve
good to Innocent Drinks
i. Forward integration
ii. Backward integration
iii. Horizontal integration
iv. Related diversification
v. Unrelated diversification
vi. Market development
vii. Product development
f. Which of Porter’s five generic strategies would be most successful do
you think? And why? 7
7. ABC Power Limited came with its long-term strategy in the year 2012.
The strategy has covered the period of 10 years. ABC had projected a
severe power shortage in Nepal while formulating its strategic plan. Major
products of the company were power generators and their parts and
accessories. The business of ABC was excellent for the first four years.
However, after four years of its successful business, its initial projection
turned to be wrong, that is, condition of power sufficiency conquered in
the country. In this circumstance, ABC would like to seek the way forward
from you in order to safeguard its investment of about NRS. 200 million
and the job of more than 100 employees. What should be the way
forward for the company? Why? 10
8. Draw a SWOT Matrix of your respective college/university indicating the
SO strategy and WT strategy explaining the strategy that you have
suggested to be matched as per the strengths – opportunities and
weaknesses – threats in order to formulate the strategy. 10
7… Advance Saraswati’s MBA Questions Bank

Trimester: 2017 Winter

Level : Master Trimester : Winter Year : 2017
Programme : MBA Full Marks : 100
Course : Strategic Management Pass Marks : 60
Time : 4 hrs
Candidate are required to give their answers in their own words as far as
practicable.
The figures in the margin indicate full marks.
Attempt all the questions:
1. Suppose you are a newly appointed CEO of a newly established Internet
Service Provider (ISP) company of Nepal. You know well that there are
both opportunities and threats in ISP industry of Nepal but money is no
longer a problem for you. Apply the strategic management model to your
company. Follow the process and identify the different elements such as
your bank’s vision, mission, values, strengths and weaknesses,
opportunities and threats, strategic objectives and the strategies that you
choose and how you would implement these strategies and evaluate
performance. Describe what you have thought systematically according to
the different phases of strategic management model. 10
2. What is the importance of having strong strategic intent in the form of
vision, mission, goals and objectives of the organization? What are their
roles and positions in the overall strategic management function in the
organization? Explain. 10
3. What is Balanced Scorecard and how it helps in Strategy Formulation.
Implementation and Control? Explain it with a short example. 10
4. What are the components of external analysis in the strategic
management process? Explain the strategic implications to the
businesses of Nepal resulting out of the recent changes in economic.
Socio-cultural and political environment. Explain it with suitable examples.
10
5. Choose a specific industry of Nepal and, relying solely on your
impressions, evaluate the impact of the five forces on a given industry
using insights from Porter’s Five Forces model of industry analysis. 10
6. Given the information in the following table, develop a BCG matrix and an
IE matrix for a diversified company. Based on the matrices you produce,
suggest appropriate options for different SBUs. 10

SBUs A B C

Relative Market Share Position Poor Good Good

 Strategic Management … 8

Industry Growth Rate Saturated Declining Growing

IFE Total Weighted Score 1.6 3.1 2.2

EFE Total Weighted Score 2.5 1.8 3.3

7. “Structure follows strategy” or “strategy follows structure” which one is

true? Validate your point. Briefly explain the strategic significance of
restructuring and re-engineering. 10
8. Read the following case and answer the questions that it follows. 30
Rastriya Banijya Bank Ltd. (RBBL), the only one fully government owned
commercial bank of Nepal, was established in 1966 (Magh 10, 2022)
under the Rastriya Banijya Bank Act 2021 and presently operating under
Bank and Financial Institution Act, 2063. Now it provides various services
– credit, deposit, remittance and other services – to more than 1.7 million
customers across the country. It has experienced top management but
enjoys less autonomy in strategy and operations mainly due to political
intervention. It has a very low cost of fund compared to many o other
commercial banks in Nepal. Moreover, it has huge deposits of 100 billion
rupees approximately and the CD ratio is around 60 percent against 72
percent industry average. Despite some challenges like political
uncertainties, fierce competition among existing banks, multiplicity and
politicization of trade unions, no fair accounting of borrowers etc., there is
immense potential for further expansion and growth of the bank. Public
trust is generally high on government banks and the large number of
populations still does not have access to banking services in Nepal.
Furthermore, there is almost no threat from new entrants due to central
bank’s policy to consolidate the existing ones. As a matter of fact, RBBL
has impersonal customer service with lengthy credit turnaround time
(TAT) compared to many other commercial banks. Moreover, the
corporate demography is dominated by older adults with the lack of
special competencies like speed and learning capacity. Likewise, there
are several problems in its existing culture in terms of attitude towards
time, propensity towards risk, goal orientation, power distance, respect for
people, customer care etc.
Recently, Mr. Kiran Kumar Shrestha was appointed as CEO to steer
RBBL. He is trying to understand the strategic position of the bank
through the objective type of environmental analysis in order to initiate the
new strategy formulation process. Before the formal start of strategy
formulation process, he called a meeting of top-level executives including
the heads of 18 different departments in order to discuss the need for
9… Advance Saraswati’s MBA Questions Bank
strategic planning and brainstorm the ideas on strategic priorities for the
forthcoming period. Each of them had good but quite convergent ideas
including the stabilization of existing business, concentrated growth,
market development, product development, market penetration,
diversification, acquisition of other FIs, internationalization and so on.
Likewise, there was no consensus regarding the major sources of
competitive advantage to exploit.
Questions:
a) Prepare an IFE matrix for RBBL.
b) If you were a consultant for the bank, what directional and
competitive strategies would you suggest? Why?
c) Suggest the various ways to empower people and create strategy-
supportive culture for RBBL in order to ensure better implementation
of your suggested strategies.

Trimester: 2016 Spring

Level : Master Trimester : Spring Year : 2016
Programme : MBA Full Marks : 100
Course : Strategic Management Pass Marks : 60
Time : 4 hrs
Candidate are required to give their answers in their own words as far as
practicable.
The figures in the margin indicate full marks.
Attempt all the questions:
1. Explain strategic management as a continuous and dynamic process.
Why do you think strategic management practices are important for
country like Nepal? 10
2. Explain Balanced Score Card as a strategic and performance
management tool. Give its framework with an illustration. Explain its utility
as a tool to bind short term activities to long term objectives relying on the
four processes, viz. Translating the Vision, Communicating and Linking,
Business Planning and Feedback and Learning. 15
3. Why most of the firms fail in strategy execution? How can it implement
strategy effectively? Explain. 10
4. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow: 30
TELEVISION INDUSTRY IN NEPAL
Television industry in Nepal has a history of only about two decades.
Transmission of television in the country started only since 1895 when
Nepal Television was founded to meet the desire and the need of the
 Strategic Management … 10
people of Nepal. Earlier to that Nepalese viewers relied upon Indian
channels, particularly Doordarshan India in order to fulfill their desire for
information and entertainment. The first experimental transmission was
launched from Singha Durbar, Kathmandu in August 13, 1985. Initially
NTV focused more on plans and policies that later led to merger with the
government. In February 1986 Nepal Television was officially established
as a government corporation under the communication act of His Majesty
Government/ Nepal. Since then its coverage area has beenexpanding
rapidly.
With the restoration of multiparty system, many television companies
under the private sector have entered the industry. Kantipur Television,
Image Nepal, Sagarmatha, Avenues TV, ABC TV, Himalayan TV,
Mountain TV, News 24, Nepal 1 are some of the private sector
companies that have appeared in the television industry in Nepal. Though
private sector participation in television broadcasting is a much recent
development, competition in this sector is ever growing and many players
are waiting to enter the industry. Nearly half a dozen of new private
Nepalese television channels are all set to barge into the airspace within
next few years. Contributions of these television channels in improving
the communication and providing information to Nepali viewers have
been very laudable. Many television companies have in recent years set
up stations in different areas of the countries. There are many new
satellite channels in pipeline such as Newsline Pvt. Ltd, National TV
Network, Uplink International, Everest TV Network, Bodhigram, SKTV,
Nobel Broadcasting, citizen TV, Moonlight TV, Tarai Media Network,
Namaste Nepali TV Network.
Television Industry comprises content providers who produce different
programs like tele-serials, movies etc, telecasters which include television
channels, and cable operators. In recent years the competition among the
television channels has become highly intense in all these fronts. The
market of television industry is both dominated by national telecasters like
Nepal Television, Kantipur Television and also fragmented with local
telecasters confining to certain particular areas. The television channels
acquire contents from the producers at certain royalty and telecast them
directly or through cable operators. Due to the quality of the reception,
viewers generally prefer to watch the programs telecast by the cable
operators. Currently there are Space Time Network, Skyline and Subisu
operating as cable line distributors.
Since the main source of revenue for the TV channels is the
advertisement, they compete fiercely to woo the customers and increase
their advertisement revenue. Experts opine that with the volume of
11… Advance Saraswati’s MBA Questions Bank
advertisement business remaining somewhere around Rs. 3.5 billion and
increasing number of players in the market, television industry may soon
enter into maturity stage leading to merger and acquisition among the TC
channels and exit of some.
Competition in the television industry is broadly classified into two
categories: those coming from the primary players and those coming from
the secondary players.
Primary competitors compete within the same industry and cause rather
direct threat to the structure, the management and the strategies of rival
organizations. Primary competitors create conditions and general rules for
competition within the industry. There is a sort of direct encroachment of
market shares among the primary competitors.
On the other hand, secondary competitors are the supplementary
competitors, which act as add-ons or supplements to related
organizations. The users or consumers retort to the supplementary or
secondary competitors in case there is deficiency or shortage of service
or product in the industry. Firms in any industry need to consider the
players in the secondary category seriously while formulating strategies.
The secondary competitors in the television industry are Radio, Print
Media, and out of home media such and billboards and electronic
hoarding boards.
TV industry in Nepal is beset with many challenges. The greatest
challenge facing these channels is to produce quality programs and
software’s. The television channels and the professional production
houses with expertise are engaged in production of programs. Currently
music videos are the most favourite software content of these channels
as they are cheaper to produce and are equally popular among young
viewers. But merely showing music videos or music and film-based
programs is not sufficient once someone enters as full-fledged
broadcaster. News-based programs, tale-serials (soap operas) and game
shows, too, form an integral part of program package. And they need
heavy investment as well.
Another problem is the lack of clear-cut policy of the government. The
government is in the process of setting up a regulatory body to monitor
and guide this sector. At present, the Nepalese government is strict
regarding the material of the programs that are broadcast by different TV
Channels and has been censoring severely. It has restricted the TV
channels to incline the news telecast towards the negative side disturbing
the peace and stability of the people in the country. It also seems to be
conservative regarding providing approach of satellite to the private TV
Channels.
 Strategic Management … 12
Questions:
a. Assess the competitive situation of the television industry in Nepal
and identify its driving forces.
b. What in your opinion are the key success factors of the television
industry?
c. What in your opinion are the key success factors of the television
industry?
d. Would you like to enter the television industry yourself in Nepal? If
yes, why? If not why? Explain.
5. Discuss the following concepts in the light of strategic analysis with
suitable illustration. 15
a) Agile Strategy in Business
b) Strategic intent
c) Value chain Analysis
6. How could QSPM be used in strategic management? What are the
positive features and limitations of QSPM? 10
7. Considering the increasing demand for construction materials, one of
your friends wants to set up a cement factory in Nepal. He understands
that cement industry is highly competitive. With firms producing cement
both under the government and the private sectors. Besides, cement is
also imported from India. There are high price differentials in cement
produced domestically and those imported from India and other countries.
There is general perception among the users that the quality of cement
produced by the government owned factories is superior to others and as
such the consumers pay higher price to these. Suggest your friend the
strategy he should follow in the light of Porter’s generic strategies along
with justifications. 10