Free CA-AM Practice Questions

Question 1

A distributor requests worldwide exclusivity before investing in a specialist installation team. It needs a protected mining market to recoup that investment; it has no expansion plans in other industries. The technology developer needs other distributors to serve hospitals and utilities. Both parties want to proceed, and the proposed investment is commercially justified. Which package best reconciles their interests?

Accepted Answer

Mining-sector exclusivity tied to agreed investment milestones, leaving other sectors open

Answer

Worldwide exclusivity with a higher sales commitment and annual performance reviews

Answer

Nonexclusive rights in every industry, with a larger distributor margin on each completed installation

Answer

Worldwide exclusivity for a shorter initial term, followed by renewal against agreed sales targets

Question 2

Three months after a joint offering launches, customer interest is strong but few account managers involve the partner. Interviews confirm that sellers understand the offering and can use the referral system. A direct sale earns full commission; a partner-assisted sale earns half, even when the seller does the same work. What is the most targeted recommendation?

Accepted Answer

Revise sales-credit rules so sellers are not penalized for appropriate partner involvement

Answer

Provide further product coaching to improve sellers' confidence in the joint offering

Answer

Suspend joint selling until the executive sponsors complete a formal review of the partnership

Answer

Increase joint marketing to generate more opportunities requiring the partner's support

Question 3

A partner-selection team agreed that each candidate must provide staffed, round-the-clock support from launch; this requirement cannot be waived. Among candidates meeting that requirement, the higher weighted fit score is preferred. Northstar scores 91 out of 100 but offers only business-hours support, with no funded expansion plan. Meridian scores 83 and has verified round-the-clock coverage. All other mandatory requirements are met by both. The defensible recommendation is to:

Accepted Answer

Select Meridian because Northstar has not met a mandatory condition for this launch

Answer

Shortlist both candidates and increase the importance of support coverage during final commercial negotiations

Answer

Select Northstar with a contractual service credit for support requests received outside its staffed hours

Answer

Reduce Northstar's fit score to reflect the coverage gap, then compare the revised totals before selecting

Question 4

An alliance launch requires four days of interface design. Integration testing then takes eight days and seller training takes five days; those activities run in parallel using separate staff. A two-day readiness review starts only after both finish. There are no other dependencies or waiting periods. Each proposed change below is feasible without reducing quality. Which single change makes a 12-day launch achievable?

Accepted Answer

Reduce integration testing from eight days to six days

Answer

Reduce seller training from five days to two days

Answer

Reduce interface design from four days to three days

Answer

Reduce the readiness review from two days to one day

Question 5

Two pharmaceutical partners use a responsibility matrix requiring one accountable owner for each activity. The joint project manager is accountable for launch coordination. Each company nevertheless reserves release approval for its own product to its quality director. A draft matrix makes both directors merely consulted on a single 'approve launch' activity. How should the matrix be corrected?

Accepted Answer

Record each company's release approval as a separate activity with its own accountable quality director

Answer

Make the project manager accountable for release approval and the quality directors responsible

Answer

Make both quality directors accountable on one release approval activity and the project manager responsible

Answer

Make the steering committee accountable for release approval, with the quality directors consulted

Question 6

A manufacturer needs a sensing capability for a product launch in six months. Building it internally would take 18 months. A specialist can supply the technology, but the product will require continuing joint design decisions and updates, not a fixed component purchase. Both firms want to retain ownership of their businesses, and neither needs to control the other. Which strategic route fits these conditions?

Accepted Answer

Establish a co-development alliance with agreed contributions and shared decision processes

Answer

Acquire the specialist while retaining its existing management team

Answer

Purchase a fixed specification from the specialist and handle subsequent changes as separate orders

Answer

Build the sensing capability internally and use interim product features for the first launch

Question 7

Both partners survey their entire ten-person delivery teams using the same question: 'Joint decisions arrive in time for us to meet our commitments.' Responses range from 1 to 5: never, rarely, sometimes, usually, consistently. Everyone responds. Partner A's mean is 4.5; Partner B's is 2.1; the combined mean is 3.3. Before recommending a governance change, the alliance manager should:

Accepted Answer

Compare recent decision requests and their delivery effects with representatives from both teams

Answer

Use 3.3 to set one improvement target for both teams and assess progress at the next survey

Answer

Ask Partner B to correct its internal decision process before changing any joint arrangements

Answer

Suspend further joint commitments until an independent governance audit explains the low score

Question 8

A company is comparing two mutually exclusive ways to serve the same market over the next year. A feasible alternative would yield $220,000 after all future costs. The proposed alliance would yield $500,000 in revenue and require $210,000 in delivery costs plus $95,000 in additional alliance-management costs. Another $40,000 has already been spent on diligence and cannot be recovered under either choice. Timing, risk, and strategic benefits are otherwise equivalent. Which assessment should guide the negotiation?

Accepted Answer

Seek more than $25,000 of improvement for the proposal to outperform the alternative

Answer

Accept the proposal; its expected contribution is positive at $195,000 after future costs

Answer

Seek $65,000 of improvement to match the alternative after including the diligence expenditure

Answer

Accept the proposal; it exceeds the alternative by $70,000 after deducting delivery costs

Question 9

A biotechnology company is evaluating a research-services partner to process 600 samples weekly and deliver results through the sponsor's data interface. The candidate's lead scientist demonstrates excellent analytical results, then manually reformats and emails the output. Routine technicians and the proposed data interface are not involved. What additional evidence would most directly establish readiness for the proposed work?

Accepted Answer

An end-to-end trial using assigned staff, the intended interface, and the required weekly volume

Answer

A repeat analytical demonstration using a larger set of samples and the same lead scientist

Answer

Additional customer references confirming the accuracy of the laboratory's analytical results

Answer

An independent financial review confirming that the candidate could fund replacement personnel and software

Question 10

An alliance operating plan counts partner-sourced revenue from deals the partner originated and partner-influenced revenue from deals it materially assisted. A deal can appear in both categories. Extra campaign funding requires more than $1.2 million in unduplicated quarterly revenue. Finance reports $900,000 sourced, $700,000 influenced, and $500,000 included in both; all amounts are recognized revenue for the same quarter. Which result belongs in the funding recommendation?

Accepted Answer

Revenue of $1.1 million; the condition for additional campaign funding is not met

Answer

Revenue of $1.6 million; the condition for additional campaign funding is met

Answer

Revenue of $900,000; the condition for additional campaign funding is not met

Answer

Revenue of $600,000; the condition for additional campaign funding is not met

Free CA-AM Practice Questions

Domain 1: Alliance-Specific Strategy

Question 1

Domain 2: Analysis and Selection

Question 2

Question 3

Domain 3: Building Trust and Value-Creating Negotiations

Question 4

Question 5

Domain 4: Operational Planning

Question 6

Question 7

Domain 5: Alliance Structuring and Governance

Question 8

Domain 6: Launching and Managing

Question 9

Question 10

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