P3 Business Analysis – Exam March 2017

P3 Business Analysis – Exam March 2017

Q1
Privatized college with good location (which is costly), good transport link and good reputation and also safe environment.
Was selected by one of the large bank to provide in-house course.
Students are constantly seeking low cost option.
Rising competitors. Established in cheap area with environment that is unsafe.
Relaxed employment law leads to employment of part timer (sub-con) in some new training company which is illegal.
Staff are promised to be paid certain dividend amount. But the dividend was never up to the expectation.
Staff are feeling under valued and demotivated.

Financial statement (IS and BS) – 2 years and yearly dividend data are given.

1 (a) SWOT analysis (18m)
1 (b) Balogun and Hope Hailey – time, preservation, *capacity or *capability (* either one, can’t remember), readiness (12m)
1 (c) Scope and nature of change (7-9m)
1 (d) Strategic clock – no frills, differentiation, differentiation focused (7-9m)

Professional marks (4m)

Q2
(something on absorption costing, I skipped the question)

Q3
Agency that provide housing needs to public. Source of fund is only from central government. Having 3 problems.
Problem 1 – Booking appointments issue. Receptionist records the appointment on the white board. Availability of agency adviser is uncertain. The agency has considered to opt in to off-the-shelf solution rather than bespoke solution.
Problem 2 – High staff turnover. Exit interview conducted. High emotional distress. Lack of training. Public has complained that the adviser is being rude. Training conduct annually. Manual procedures are printed out to the adviser.
Problem 3 – Country has complex legal system. Legislation changing regularly, additional law or amendment. The agency has a legal team which is under-utilised and facing difficulty to keep themselves up-to-date.

3 (a) Harmon grid – problem 2 and problem 3 (15m)
3 (b) (i) Justify the decision of problem 1 to purchase off-the-shelf solution rather than bespoke (7-8m)
3 (b) (ii) Risk of off-the-shelf solution and how to avoid (7-8m)

Q4
Online retailer company. Having a rapid growth year-by-year. Administrative works is struggling.
The company has its own product which is quite popular. However, customers complained on the quality.
The company also purchase from manufacturer and sell to customer. However, there is long delay in the supply chain resulting customer complained. Waiting list is too long.

4 (a) Restructure of upward and downward supply chain to gain competitive advantage (10-15m)
4 (b) Boundary-less organisation (10-15m)

P/S: Feel free to correct me. I can’t remember the marks. But is somewhere within the range. For Q2, since I’m not good with calculation so I skipped. Feel free to comment for Q2.