Directions (next 10questions) : In the following passage, there are blanks, each of which has been numbered. These numbers are printed below the passage and against each, five words/phrases are suggested. One of which fits the blank appropriately. Find out the appropriate word/phrase in each case.
Around the world, companies that have achieved international leadership employ strategies that … (91)… from each other in every respect. But, when every successful company will employ its own particular strategy, the company will employ its own particular strategy, the company will employ its own particular strategy, the …(92)… mode of operation-the character and trajectory of all successful companies is fundamentally the same.
Companies ….(93)… competitive advantage through acts of innovation. They approach innovation in its broadest sense, including both new technologies and new ways of doing things. They perceive a new basis for competing or better means to competing in old ways. Innovation can be ….(94)… in a new product design, a new production process, a new marketing approach or a new way of conducting training. Much innovation is mundane and incremental, depending more on accumulation of small insights and advances …(95)… on a single, major technological breakthrough. It often involves ideas that are not even ‘new’ ideas that have been …(96)… but never vigorously pursed. It always involves investments in skill and knowledge, as well as in physical assets and brand reputations.
Some innovations create competitive advantage by perceiving an entirely new market opportunity or by serving a market segment that offers have ….(97)… When competitors are slow to respond, such innovation …(98)… competitive advantage. For instance, in industries such as autos and home electronics, Japanese companies …(99)… this initial advantage by …(100)… on smaller more compact, lower capacity models that foreign competitors declared as less profitable, less important and less attractive.
