1. This exam is open book and open note; you are encouraged to reference your study questions for this exam. Students will not use examples from the textbook for their responses.
2. Students will answer five essay questions. Each essay is worth 15 points. Essays should be between 250-300 words in length; to receive full credit, essays must meet the minimum length requirement. 
3. Compile your essays in a single Word document, with each question clearly marked to distinguish it from the others.
4. Each short essay should be free of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

Questions:

1. Choose a business or industry leader and describe how they leverage vision, mission, and values to gain and maintain a competitive advantage.
2. Choose a business or industry leader and identify three resources it possesses. Explain how each of the resources meets the criteria below and how they are used to gain and maintain a competitive advantage. 
   • One should be valuable, but not rare or costly to imitate.
   • One should be valuable and rare, but not costly to imitate.
   • One should be valuable, rare, and costly to imitate.
3. Choose a business or industry leader; using the PESTEL framework, describe how two of the six factors within the strategic environmental impact its operations and how the organization mitigates those effects to remain competitive.
4. Consider the statement, “Risk is a potent catalyst that fuels opportunity.” How can a strategic leader leverage risk to gain and sustain a competitive advantage?
5. Choose a business or industry leader and describe how it can use the “Why, What, Who, and How” framework to adapt to changes in the market. Use specific examples and expand your answer to include elements of our classroom discussion.