FAQ
Quality Asphalt, Inc. - 1996

Note that these responses are not official additions to the questions; only explanations of what is required to answer them. Be sure you read the question and understand it fully before answering.

1.  I'm somewhat confused on the ratings. According to David, the ratings are the current strategies response to the factor ( p. 114).  In class, I was under the impression that the ratings for the EFE are based on the industry.

The EFE is an analysis of the environment outside the company as it effects the company. That is an analysis of opportunities and threats. It does NOT consider the company's response. Opportunities and threats could effect only the company or they could effect the entire industry. See EFE - Factor Ratings.

1. & 2. I have a question with the IFE and EFE matrices. For each strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat, I have about a one to two sentence description for each factor. Am I doing this correctly?

Probably. That is long enough, but what counts is the actual words and whether they are clear and specific.

    I've been looking through the text to find a definition for economy of scale, but I haven't found one. Will you define this term and give me an example?

Economy of scale or economies of scale. As an organization becomes larger it reduces its costs per unit. I've added a section on the first page for 704 (at the bottom) with some business dictionaries if the term isn't in the David book.

    Do I need to write a text for questions 1 & 2 or just the actual matrix and label them as Questions 1 & 2?

You need a table to assign numerical values for the IFE and EFE. If there isn't room in the table to adequately explain the factors, then they need to be explained in the paper.

4. A. Do I need to research Porter's theory further before answering this question?

No. All you need to know about Porter was covered in the text and class discussion. Reading a variety of other interpretations will only add confusion.

5. A. I have a question concerning question #5, where we have to discuss our strategy.  When we select a strategy. For example we are moving our company to another city. "hypothetical" Would we have to tell you the financials, dates of the move, how we would make the move, Would we keep the same staff, etc. How in depth does this question have to be, 2 pages, 3, 4, etc.

No, you do not need to explain implementation. However, you can't just say move to another city. You would need to specify the city and why it is better, etc. Implementation is not the issue, but you must have a specific strategy and COMPLETELY support why this specific strategy (e.g. move from Chicago to Atlanta) and why this is the ONE best strategy for this company at this time. This usually takes several pages. Actual length depends on your writing.

5. A. & B.  I am a bit confused as to what exactly you are asking for the paper, the handout you gave us to answer question 4 doesn't seem to match what you are asking on case questions?

The handout on "Question 4" covers, generically, the last question of every case. In terms of this case, that would be Question 5, Part A.

The part B answers given are not the same theories as on Quality Asphalt. You must answer Part B in terms of the specific Part B for each case - for this case that would be the I/E recommendation and the Competitive Strategy recommendation. There are sample Part B answers on the web for both of those.

- 05/09/2000 last updated 02/02/2002 -