Q.Why should a Canadian service organization worry about being world class if it does not compete outside Canada? What impact does the Internet have on this? 1.As the environment changes, firms can find themselves faced with competition from outside their industry or from outside their home country. 2.Even if they do not, the principles of a world class firm can be applied to any and all manufacturing and service concerns. Benchmarking or rating your firm’s performance to the best in your industry or class can provide future strategic directions for improvements. The Internet is global by its very nature. Retail stores must now compete with Internet stores. Local auction houses will be in competition with Internet auction sites such as eBay. Virtually all organizations will be impacted in some form by the Internet. It is important that this impact be considered. Q.What are the major priorities associated with operations strategy? How has their relationship to each other changed over the years?describe the unique characteristics of the 4 different priorities in market niche with which it is most compatible?four major imperatives-cost, quality, delivery, flexibility. In the sixties, these four imperatives were viewed from a tradeoff’s perspective. Eg.this meant that improving quality->higher cost. However, more recent thought posits that these 4 imperatives can improve simultaneously, and in many industries may be necessary for success. The problem then becomes one of prioritizing and managing towards orderly improvement. Cost is most compatible with products that are commodities (highly standardized products with many alternative suppliers). Quality provides companies a means of 1) differentiating a product and winning orders or 2) competing in a market and qualifying for orders.Quality is now pervasive among all market niches in that customers now expect high quality. Speed and reliability of delivery are essential in those markets where there is a large degree of customization. In addition, reliable delivery may be a competitive advantage in some regions of the world where delivery is difficult due to geographical or political reasons. Flexibility is important where customers demand low volume but wide varieties of products.Q.Why does the “proper” operations strategy keep changing for companies that are world-class competitors?top three priorities have generally remained the same over time: make it good, make it fast, and deliver it on time. Others have changed. Part of this may be explained by realizing that world class organizations have achieved excellence in these three areas and are, therefore, focusing attention on some of the more minor areas to gain competitive advantage.The changes in the minor priorities may result from recognizing opportunities or from changes in customer desires or expectations.Q. Do business schools have competitive priorities?1Quality of professors&curriculum->consistent quality&high performance;2Leader in development of new curriculum topics->changes;3 Academic level of student attracted-quality;4Quantity and quality of research published—consistent quality;5Quality of library resources—quality;5What companies recruit at the school—after sales service;6Success rate of graduates—consistent quality;7Availability of financial aid—low price and after sales service;8Cost of tuition—low price.*having a few high-quality, dependable suppliers located in different geographical regions. *The big cost other than manufacturing is the cost to transport material to the USA versus the cost of transporting the completed bags to the USA. Here we assume that the material would be sourced in China. This is probably not a bad assumption. Q. What might be some of the external influences on strategy formulation?External influences on strategy formulation: Government and professional regulations regarding practices and performance standards in the medical industry, e.g. what technologies have been