Operations Strategy and Performance Management

Introduction

Operations strategy concerns the long-term pattern of decisions through which an organisation configures its resources, processes, technologies, people and relationships to support business strategy. It is not merely a functional plan for a factory or service department. It is the logic that connects what an organisation promises to customers with how it creates and delivers value.

A firm may compete through low price, rapid delivery, dependable service, innovation, customisation, quality, sustainability or a combination of these priorities. Operations determines whether such promises can be delivered consistently and profitably. Strategic operations management therefore requires more than improving individual processes. It requires coherence among corporate objectives, market requirements, operating capabilities, performance measures and investment decisions.

This chapter explains how operations strategy is formulated and translated into measurable performance. Particular attention is given to order winners and qualifiers, performance objectives, strategic fit, capabilities, key performance indicators, benchmarking and balanced performance systems.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, the reader should be able to:

1. Explain the role of operations strategy in corporate and competitive strategy.
2. Distinguish order winners, order qualifiers and less important competitive factors.
3. Analyse the principal operations performance objectives and their trade-offs.
4. Evaluate strategic fit between market requirements and operational capabilities.
5. Design meaningful KPIs and interpret leading and lagging indicators.
6. Apply benchmarking and balanced performance systems to operational decisions.
7. Critically assess implementation, governance, technology and sustainability issues.

1. The Strategic Role of Operations

Corporate strategy defines the organisation's overall scope, purpose and allocation of resources. Business or competitive strategy explains how a business unit intends to compete in a particular market. Operations strategy translates that intent into decisions about processes, capacity, facilities, technology, supply networks, workforce design, quality systems and improvement priorities.

A useful hierarchy is:

• Corporate strategy: Which businesses, markets or geographical areas should the organisation serve?
• Business strategy: How will a business unit create superior value relative to competitors?
• Functional strategies: How will marketing, finance, human resources, information systems and operations support the business strategy?
• Operational plans: What specific programmes, targets, schedules and control mechanisms will implement the strategy?

The hierarchy does not imply one-way instruction. Operational capabilities can also shape strategy. For example, a firm with exceptional cold-chain capability may enter pharmaceutical logistics, while a retailer with sophisticated data analytics may adopt a highly personalised service strategy. Strategy is therefore both top-down and capability-informed.

Operations strategy has two complementary dimensions. Structural decisions include capacity, facilities, process technology and vertical integration. Infrastructural decisions include planning and control systems, organisation, skills, quality management, supplier relations and performance measurement. Structural investments are often costly and difficult to reverse; infrastructural practices may be more flexible but require sustained managerial discipline.

Strategic fit

Strategic fit exists when the organisation's operating configuration is consistent with its competitive priorities, environmental conditions and available resources. Fit has at least three dimensions:

1. External fit: Operations respond to customer and market requirements.
2. Internal fit: Processes, resources and policies reinforce one another.
3. Dynamic fit: The operating system can adapt as technology, regulation, competitors and customer expectations change.

A cost-focused strategy is weakened by excessive product variety, frequent engineering changes and premium service promises. Conversely, a premium customisation strategy may be undermined by rigid standardisation and cost-only purchasing decisions. Fit does not mean that every operation must pursue one objective exclusively; it means that priorities and trade-offs are deliberately configured.

2. Competitive Requirements: Order Winners and Qualifiers

Customers evaluate suppliers through a set of competitive factors. The importance of each factor differs by market segment and may change over time.

An order qualifier is a minimum standard that a supplier must meet to be considered by a customer. Failure to qualify removes the supplier from consideration. Examples include regulatory certification, basic product reliability, acceptable delivery coverage or a minimum cybersecurity standard.

An order winner is a factor that directly contributes to winning a customer's order relative to competing offers. Depending on the market, it may be price, speed, design, customisation, dependability, sustainability or after-sales support.

A factor can move between categories. In early markets, a technological feature may be an order winner. Once competitors adopt it widely, it becomes an order qualifier. In mature markets, a new service model may again become an order winner. Managers must therefore review competitive factors rather than treat the categories as permanent labels.

A third category is a less important factor, which has limited influence on a customer's decision in a particular segment. It should not automatically be ignored, because regulatory or technological changes can increase its importance.

The analysis should be segment-specific. A hospital procurement decision may treat regulatory compliance and clinical reliability as qualifiers and responsiveness as an order winner. A fashion retailer may qualify through acceptable price and availability but win through design, speed to market and assortment freshness.

3. Operations Performance Objectives

The classic performance objectives are quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost. Sustainability and resilience are increasingly treated as explicit strategic objectives, although they may also be embedded within the traditional five.

Quality

Quality means conformance to requirements and fitness for intended use. It includes technical performance, consistency, safety, usability and service experience. Quality improves operations by reducing rework, returns, complaints and disruption. It also supports differentiation and trust.

Quality should not be reduced to inspection. Inspection detects defects after they occur; process design, mistake-proofing, statistical control and employee capability help prevent them. Managers should distinguish internal conformance from customer-perceived quality because a technically conforming service may still fail to meet customer expectations.

Speed

Speed is the elapsed time between a customer's request and receipt of the product or service. Faster response can increase convenience, reduce customer inventory and allow rapid market learning. However, speed often requires capacity buffers, process redesign or higher transportation cost.

Useful measures include throughput time, response time, order cycle time and time to market. The relevant definition must be stated clearly. For example, order cycle time may begin at confirmed order entry or at the customer's initial request; comparisons are invalid if the definitions differ.

Dependability

Dependability is the ability to deliver as promised. It is distinct from speed: a fast but unpredictable service may be less valuable than a slightly slower dependable one. Measures include on-time delivery, schedule adherence, service availability and promise accuracy.

Flexibility

Flexibility is the ability to change. It may involve product variety, volume, mix, delivery timing, process routing or new-product introduction. Flexibility has economic value when demand is uncertain or segments differ, but variety can increase complexity, setup time, inventory and error risk. Effective flexibility often depends on modular product architecture, postponement, cross-trained staff and digitally integrated planning.

Cost

Cost is the resource sacrifice required to produce and deliver value. Relevant categories include labour, materials, energy, quality failure, inventory, logistics and capital. Low operating cost does not necessarily mean low customer price; an organisation may use cost advantage to fund service, innovation or resilience.

A basic unit-cost measure is:

Total relevant operating cost must be defined for the decision. If the measure is used for short-term incremental decisions, fixed costs may be excluded; for long-term capacity decisions, avoidable fixed costs and capital costs may be relevant. The numerator and denominator must cover the same period and output definition.

Sustainability and resilience

Sustainability concerns the environmental, social and economic consequences of operations across the life cycle. Resilience is the capacity to anticipate, absorb, recover from and adapt to disruption. Climate events, geopolitical uncertainty, cyberattacks and supplier concentration have made resilience a strategic performance concern.

Improving one objective can support another, but trade-offs are common. Energy-efficient equipment may reduce operating cost over its life but require substantial capital. Redundant suppliers may reduce disruption risk but increase purchasing cost. Strategic decisions should therefore use total-cost and life-cycle perspectives rather than isolated departmental targets.

4. Trade-offs, Cumulative Capabilities and Strategic Choice

The traditional trade-off view suggests that improving one performance objective may require sacrificing another. For example, extreme variety may increase cost, while maximum capacity utilisation may reduce speed and flexibility. Trade-offs are real when resources, technology or process designs impose constraints.

The cumulative capabilities perspective argues that capabilities can be built sequentially. Strong quality systems may reduce variability, which improves dependability, lowers cost and enables faster delivery. Lean operations illustrates this logic: defect prevention, flow and employee problem-solving can improve several objectives simultaneously.

These perspectives are not mutually exclusive. Some improvements remove waste and create cumulative gains; others require genuine choice. Managers should avoid claiming that every objective can be maximised simultaneously. A sound strategy identifies the dominant priorities, specifies acceptable levels for other objectives and invests in technologies or capabilities that reduce harmful trade-offs.

The order-winning profile can be represented as a target pattern rather than a single score. Suppose a business segment requires quality and dependability above threshold levels, while speed is the main differentiator and cost must remain within a feasible range. The operations strategy should allocate resources accordingly. A weighted average score could conceal failure on a non-negotiable qualifier; therefore, threshold constraints and strategic priorities should be used together.

5. Capabilities and Operations Strategy Formulation

An operational capability is the reliable ability to perform an activity at a specified level. Capabilities are not simply resources. A machine, database or skilled employee is a resource; the repeatable ability to use resources to achieve dependable outcomes is a capability.

Important capability categories include:

• Process capability: The ability of a process to produce consistent outputs.
• Innovation capability: The ability to develop and introduce new products, services or processes.
• Reconfiguration capability: The ability to change capacity, technology, suppliers or processes.
• Relational capability: The ability to coordinate effectively with suppliers, partners and customers.
• Analytical capability: The ability to convert operational data into timely decisions.
• Learning capability: The ability to identify causes, retain knowledge and improve performance.

A resource-based analysis asks whether a capability is valuable, difficult to imitate, supported by the organisation and relevant to customers. Capability should also be tested for scalability and obsolescence. A process that performs well at current volume but fails during growth is not a robust strategic capability.

A practical formulation cycle is:

1. Segment markets and identify customer requirements.
2. Classify competitive factors as qualifiers, winners or less important factors.
3. Assess current performance and capability gaps.
4. Choose structural and infrastructural decisions.
5. Set objectives, measures, owners and investment priorities.
6. Implement through projects, governance and operating routines.
7. Review assumptions and adapt as the environment changes.

The process is iterative. Market research without operational feasibility produces unrealistic promises; operational analysis without customer insight produces internally efficient but commercially irrelevant systems.

6. Performance Measurement and KPI Design

Performance measurement converts strategic intentions into observable evidence. A key performance indicator (KPI) is a deliberately selected measure used to monitor a strategically important result or driver. A metric becomes a KPI only when its purpose, owner, frequency, target, data source and decision consequence are clear.

Good KPIs are relevant, valid, reliable, timely, understandable and difficult to manipulate. They should be linked to decisions rather than collected merely because data are available.

Common operational measures

On-time delivery can be expressed as:

The measure assumes that each order has a documented promised date and that partial deliveries are treated according to a stated rule. The organisation must specify whether the denominator includes cancelled, disputed or customer-rescheduled orders.

First-pass yield is:

This measure excludes the misleading effect of repairing defective units and measures process effectiveness at the first attempt.

Inventory turnover is commonly calculated as:

The numerator and denominator must use the same accounting basis. Average inventory is often calculated as opening inventory plus closing inventory divided by two, although more frequent observations are preferable when inventory is seasonal. Turnover is not automatically better when higher: excessive turnover can indicate under-stocking and lost sales.

A useful service-level measure is the fill rate:

It differs from cycle-service level, which typically measures the proportion of replenishment cycles completed without a stockout. The definitions should not be interchanged.

Leading and lagging indicators

Lagging indicators measure outcomes, such as profit, complaints, defects or delivery performance. Leading indicators measure conditions that influence future outcomes, such as preventive-maintenance completion, training, supplier risk reviews, process audits or forecast-bias correction. A balanced KPI system includes both. Relying only on lagging indicators delays intervention; relying only on activity measures can reward motion without results.

Behavioural consequences

Measures shape behaviour. A purchasing team rewarded only for price reduction may buy poor-quality materials or increase supply risk. A warehouse rewarded only for picking speed may damage products or create inventory inaccuracies. KPI design should therefore include countermeasures and review unintended consequences. Targets should encourage system performance rather than local optimisation.

7. Benchmarking and Performance Comparison

Benchmarking is the systematic comparison of processes or results with a reference point in order to identify learning and improvement opportunities. It is not simply ranking departments.

Types include:

• Internal benchmarking: Comparison across sites, departments or periods within the same organisation.
• Competitive benchmarking: Comparison with direct competitors, subject to legal and ethical constraints.
• Functional benchmarking: Comparison with organisations performing similar activities in different industries.
• Process benchmarking: Comparison of how work is performed, not only of final outcomes.
• Best-practice benchmarking: Study of leading methods, with attention to transferability.

Benchmarking requires comparable definitions, contexts, product mixes, volumes, accounting rules and service promises. A hospital, airline and manufacturer may all report “on-time performance,” but their operational definitions and constraints may differ substantially.

The benchmarking gap can be represented as:

The sign and interpretation depend on whether a higher or lower value is desirable. For a defect rate, a positive gap may require a reversed convention. Therefore, managers should state the direction of desirability explicitly rather than interpreting numerical difference mechanically.

Benchmarking does not prove that the reference organisation's method is appropriate. It generates hypotheses for investigation. The organisation must identify causal mechanisms, test local feasibility and adapt practices instead of copying visible techniques superficially.

8. Balanced Performance Systems

A balanced performance system connects strategy, objectives, measures, initiatives and review. The Balanced Scorecard is a widely used framework involving financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth perspectives. In operations, the perspectives can be adapted to include sustainability, resilience and stakeholder outcomes.

A strategy map expresses causal hypotheses. For example, investment in employee capability and digital planning may improve process reliability; improved reliability may increase customer trust; stronger customer outcomes may improve revenue and cash flow. These are hypotheses, not guaranteed laws. Managers should test them with evidence and recognise time lags.

A balanced system does not mean giving every measure equal weight. Strategic priorities should determine attention and resource allocation. Nor does it mean multiplying measures. A small set of connected measures is usually more effective than a large dashboard that no manager uses.

Governance should specify who owns each measure, how data are validated, how exceptions are escalated and how targets are reviewed. Targets must be challenging but credible. If targets are imposed without understanding process variation, employees may conceal problems or manipulate records. Transparent definitions, audit trails and psychological safety are essential for useful performance information.

9. Worked Example: Selecting a KPI Portfolio

An illustrative distribution centre processes 10,000 orders in a month. Of these, 9,300 are delivered on or before the promised date. The centre records 9,600 orders that require no customer-initiated correction after delivery. It has a cost of goods sold of $12 million for the quarter and average inventory at cost of $3 million.

On-time delivery rate is:

The correction-free delivery rate is:

Quarterly inventory turnover is:

These measures reveal different issues. Quality or order accuracy may be relatively strong, while dependability is weaker. The centre should not respond by simply increasing inventory. Managers should investigate causes of late delivery: labour availability, upstream release timing, carrier reliability, slotting, replenishment, or inaccurate promise dates.

A balanced KPI portfolio could include on-time delivery as a lagging customer measure; pick accuracy and first-pass yield as process measures; preventive-maintenance completion and staffing coverage as leading measures; and cost per order as a financial measure. Each KPI should have a defined owner and a corrective-action routine.

10. Case Study: Northstar Medical Devices

This is an illustrative case. Northstar Medical Devices produces sterile diagnostic cartridges for hospitals. Its competitive strategy is based on dependable delivery, regulatory compliance and rapid introduction of improved designs. For several years, management focused heavily on equipment utilisation and unit cost.

Background and problem

Northstar achieved 92% equipment utilisation, but on-time delivery fell from 96% to 87%. Customer complaints concerned late deliveries and inconsistent documentation. Product defects remained below the regulatory limit, yet batch release delays were increasing. The purchasing department had also shifted to a low-price supplier whose materials created more inspection and rework.

The company initially proposed a single target: raise utilisation to 95%. Operations analysis showed that this target would worsen the problem by reducing maintenance windows and increasing queues between production and quality release.

Analysis

Customer interviews identified regulatory conformity and dependable delivery as order qualifiers. Reliable availability and rapid design change were order winners. Lowest unit cost was not a primary order winner. The existing KPI system rewarded local utilisation and purchase price but did not measure total flow time, release dependability, documentation accuracy or supplier-related disruption.

A capability assessment identified four gaps:

1. Preventive maintenance was routinely deferred.
2. Quality personnel became a bottleneck at batch release.
3. Supplier selection ignored inspection and failure costs.
4. Engineering changes were not supported by modular documentation and training.

Approach and solution

Northstar redesigned its performance system. Equipment utilisation became a diagnostic measure rather than the dominant target. The strategic KPI set included:

• on-time-in-full delivery;
• batch-release cycle time;
• first-pass yield;
• documentation-right-first-time rate;
• supplier defect rate;
• preventive-maintenance completion;
• total cost per conforming batch; and
• time required to introduce an approved design change.

The company protected maintenance time, cross-trained quality staff, introduced supplier total-cost reviews and created a cross-functional change-control team. A daily visual review distinguished immediate containment from systemic corrective action. Data definitions were standardised across production, quality and logistics.

Outcome

After six months, on-time delivery improved to 95%, batch-release cycle time fell by 28% and first-pass yield improved. Equipment utilisation declined slightly to 90%, but total conforming output and customer satisfaction increased. The result illustrates that local utilisation is not equivalent to system performance. A balanced system directed attention toward the capabilities that customers valued.

Learning points

The case demonstrates that strategy begins with market requirements, not with the easiest measure to collect. It also shows the importance of qualifier thresholds, cross-functional metrics, total-cost reasoning and leading indicators. Finally, performance management must be designed as a management system: measures should trigger learning and action, not merely report failure.

11. Implementation Challenges, Ethics and Contemporary Developments

Common implementation challenges

Operations strategies fail when they are disconnected from budgets, incentives and daily routines. Other difficulties include unclear ownership, inconsistent data definitions, excessive KPIs, short-term target pressure, underinvestment in skills and failure to revisit assumptions. Change programmes may also be copied from another organisation without adapting to process maturity, regulation or customer expectations.

Ethics and governance

Performance data can affect employees, suppliers, customers and communities. Managers should avoid targets that encourage unsafe work, concealment of defects, discriminatory scheduling or excessive surveillance. Data collection must respect privacy, access controls and applicable data-protection law. Supplier benchmarking must not involve unlawful exchange of competitively sensitive information. Sustainability claims should be supported by traceable evidence rather than selective reporting or greenwashing.

Regulated sectors require documented controls, auditability and accountability. Where AI supports forecasting, scheduling or workforce decisions, organisations should assess data quality, bias, explainability, cybersecurity and human oversight. An algorithm may optimise a narrow KPI while creating unacceptable service, labour or safety outcomes.

Technology and AI

Cloud platforms, Internet of Things sensors, digital twins, process mining and machine learning can improve visibility and prediction. Predictive maintenance may identify patterns preceding equipment failure; process mining can reveal actual process paths; AI-assisted forecasting can support scenario analysis. These technologies do not eliminate strategic judgement. Poor master data, unstable processes and unclear objectives can make advanced analytics unreliable. Technology should be selected because it improves a decision or capability, not because it is fashionable.

Best practices

Effective operations strategy and performance management generally involve:

• starting with customer and stakeholder requirements;
• separating qualifiers from genuine order winners;
• linking structural and infrastructural decisions;
• using a limited, balanced KPI portfolio;
• combining outcome measures with leading drivers;
• validating data definitions and comparability;
• reviewing unintended behavioural effects;
• benchmarking processes as well as results;
• integrating sustainability and resilience into strategic choices; and
• using formal review cycles to learn and adapt.

Chapter Summary

Operations strategy aligns the organisation's resources and processes with corporate and competitive strategy. Its effectiveness depends on strategic fit: operations must meet market requirements, reinforce one another internally and remain adaptable over time. Order qualifiers define the minimum conditions for consideration, whereas order winners influence the customer's final choice; both categories can change as markets evolve.

The major operations performance objectives are quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost, supplemented increasingly by sustainability and resilience. These objectives may reinforce one another when waste and variability are removed, but genuine trade-offs remain. Capabilities represent reliable organisational abilities, not merely individual resources, and must be assessed against customer value, scalability and change.

KPIs translate strategic intentions into measurable evidence. Useful systems combine leading and lagging indicators, clear definitions, accountable ownership and safeguards against dysfunctional behaviour. Benchmarking supports learning when comparisons are valid and causal mechanisms are investigated. Balanced performance systems connect financial, customer, process, learning, sustainability and resilience outcomes without assuming that all measures deserve equal priority.

The central managerial lesson is that performance management is not a dashboard exercise. It is a system of strategic choices, operational capabilities, measures, incentives, governance and learning. The strongest systems measure what customers value, expose trade-offs, support ethical decisions and promote improvement across the whole operation rather than optimisation of isolated functions.

Key Terms

Operations strategy: The long-term pattern of decisions that configures operations to support organisational strategy.

Strategic fit: Consistency among market requirements, operating capabilities, resources and strategic choices.

Order qualifier: A minimum requirement a supplier must satisfy to be considered by a customer.

Order winner: A factor that helps a supplier win an order relative to competitors.

Performance objective: A dimension on which operations are evaluated, such as quality, speed or cost.

Quality: Conformance to requirements and fitness for intended use.

Dependability: The ability to deliver as promised.

Flexibility: The ability to change products, volume, mix, timing or processes.

Capability: A reliable organisational ability to perform an activity at a specified level.

Structural decision: A relatively tangible and often capital-intensive decision concerning capacity, facilities or technology.

Infrastructural decision: A policy, system or organisational decision concerning people, planning, quality or relationships.

Key performance indicator: A strategically important measure used to monitor results or performance drivers.

Leading indicator: A measure of conditions or activities likely to influence future outcomes.

Lagging indicator: A measure of an achieved result.

Benchmarking: Systematic comparison with a reference point to identify learning and improvement.

Balanced performance system: A connected set of measures representing multiple strategic perspectives.

First-pass yield: The proportion of units that pass a process without rework.

Resilience: The capacity to anticipate, absorb, recover from and adapt to disruption.

Review Questions

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the difference between an order winner and an order qualifier?
2. Explain the meaning of strategic fit in operations management.
3. Distinguish a leading KPI from a lagging KPI and give one example of each.
4. Why can high equipment utilisation fail to indicate strong system performance?
5. What is the purpose of benchmarking?

Long Answer Questions

1. Explain how corporate strategy, competitive strategy and operations strategy are connected. Illustrate your answer with an example.
2. Discuss the five traditional operations performance objectives and evaluate the role of sustainability and resilience.
3. Critically compare the trade-off and cumulative-capabilities perspectives.
4. Explain how a balanced performance system can reduce dysfunctional local optimisation.
5. Describe a systematic process for formulating and implementing an operations strategy.

Analytical / Application Questions

1. A premium online retailer promises same-day delivery but has frequent stockouts and high return rates. Identify its likely qualifiers and winners, diagnose the strategic misfit and recommend a KPI portfolio.
2. A factory reports 98% machine utilisation, 6% rework and 82% on-time delivery. Analyse why utilisation is an incomplete performance measure and propose an improvement sequence.
3. Design a balanced performance system for a hospital diagnostic laboratory. Include customer, financial, internal-process, learning, sustainability and resilience measures, and explain potential trade-offs.

Multiple Choice Questions with Answers

Question 1

Which statement best defines an order qualifier?

A. A factor that guarantees the highest profit margin

B. A minimum requirement for a supplier to be considered

C. A measure used only for internal benchmarking

D. A capability that competitors cannot imitate

Correct Answer: B. A minimum requirement for a supplier to be considered

Question 2

Which performance objective primarily concerns delivering as promised?

A. Flexibility

B. Cost

C. Dependability

D. Innovation

Correct Answer: C. Dependability

Question 3

A process produces 950 conforming units without rework from 1,000 units entering the process. What is its first-pass yield?

A. 5%

B. 50%

C. 95%

D. 105%

Correct Answer: C. 95%

Question 4

Which is most clearly a leading indicator of future equipment reliability?

A. Last quarter’s repair cost

B. Customer complaints

C. Preventive-maintenance completion rate

D. Annual operating profit

Correct Answer: C. Preventive-maintenance completion rate

Question 5

What is the principal danger of measuring a purchasing department only on purchase price reduction?

A. It necessarily increases delivery speed

B. It may encourage poor quality or supply risk

C. It eliminates the need for supplier evaluation

D. It converts a qualifier into an order winner

Correct Answer: B. It may encourage poor quality or supply risk

Question 6

An organisation has cost of goods sold of $8 million and average inventory of $2 million. Its inventory turnover is:

A. 0.25 turns

B. 2 turns

C. 4 turns

D. 16 turns

Correct Answer: C. 4 turns

Question 7

Which activity is an example of process benchmarking?

A. Comparing two products’ advertising budgets

B. Studying how a leading organisation performs order fulfilment

C. Setting a target without collecting data

D. Replacing all internal measures with financial measures

Correct Answer: B. Studying how a leading organisation performs order fulfilment

Question 8

In a balanced performance system, employee skills and improvement capability are most closely associated with which perspective?

A. Learning and growth

B. Customer

C. Financial

D. External compliance only

Correct Answer: A. Learning and growth

Question 9

Why should order winners and qualifiers be reviewed periodically?

A. Their importance can change as markets and competitors evolve

B. Qualifiers are always more important than winners

C. Order winners are determined only by accounting rules

D. They apply only to manufacturing organisations

Correct Answer: A. Their importance can change as markets and competitors evolve

Question 10

Which statement best describes strategic fit?

A. Maximising every performance objective simultaneously

B. Aligning operating capabilities with market requirements and strategic priorities

C. Using the same process design as the market leader

D. Selecting the cheapest available technology

Correct Answer: B. Aligning operating capabilities with market requirements and strategic priorities