Choosing Strategic Direction | AQA A-Level Business (7132)

Choosing Strategic Direction

75 questions
6 subtopics
Strategy, assessed on all three papers
Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3

Choosing strategic direction is examined on Papers 1, 2 and 3.

It covers the two decisions at the heart of strategy: which markets to compete in and what to offer, then how to compete once you are there.

Sample questions from Choosing Strategic Direction

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

The Ansoff matrix: penetration and market development

Why is market penetration typically considered the lowest risk strategy in the Ansoff matrix?

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Because the business operates with familiar products and customers, reducing uncertainty.
The Ansoff matrix: penetration and market development

Why does market development carry moderate risk?

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The product is already proven, but the business must understand new customer segments or geographic regions.
New product development and diversification

Define diversification as a growth strategy.

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A growth strategy that involves selling new products to new markets.
New product development and diversification

What is unrelated diversification?

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When a business moves into completely different markets and products with no connection to current activities.
Influences on the choice of strategic direction

How do customer needs influence product decisions?

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Products should be designed to meet identified customer requirements and preferences to ensure demand.
Influences on the choice of strategic direction

A company's flagship product is entering the decline stage in its home market. How might market development address this situation?

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The company could enter new geographic markets or target new customer segments where the product is unfamiliar, creating fresh demand and extending the product's life cycle beyond what would be possible in the saturated home market.
Porter's generic strategies

Define Porter's differentiation strategy.

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A strategy where a business competes by offering products or services with unique features or qualities that customers value and are willing to pay a premium for.
Porter's generic strategies

What are the two variants of Porter's focus strategy?

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Cost focus and differentiation focus.

The 6 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The Ansoff matrix: penetration and market development	The two axes, market penetration as the lowest-risk route, and taking a product into a new market.	14
New product development and diversification	The risk each carries, and related against unrelated diversification.	9
Influences on the choice of strategic direction	Market size and growth, competition, barriers, resources, risk appetite and available finance.	18
Porter's generic strategies	Low cost, differentiation and focus, and the two variants of a focus strategy.	8
Choosing a positioning strategy	How the market, competitors, resources and customers decide which strategy fits.	15
Competitive advantage and the threats to it	What competitive advantage gives a business, and how imitation, changing tastes and complacency erode it.	11

Choosing Strategic Direction is 75 of the 1,819 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.