Generating points

I don’t thing that reading more newspapers etc will help a lot. The questions are self-contained and will have bee written about one year ahead. That’s not to say that a general business awareness isn’t useful and, of course, one of the higher skills is commercial acumen.

The following might help.

1 The questions are very carefully written and, generally, every bit of information given is of potential use. So ask yourself why the examiner has supplied each detail. Remember, information in the question is your friend as it gives you lots of ammunition. The hardest questions are the short ones with no information supplied (like “What is life?”For example:

>Being in a high tech business means it is vital for you products to stay up-to-date but there is a danger that the company goes for the wrong choice of technology.

>A family company raises issues of succession, expertise and loss of control is going public.

> services industry depends on staff more than machinery.

>Trading internationally opens up risks from exchange rates, quotas etc.

2 If you identify a helpful model, even a simple framework like PESTEL, then this provides a list of points to make (even though you might only comment on EST if nothing was said in the question about PL and the other E.

3 Think yourself into the situation. EG you actually are the manager (say) having to write a report to the FD. What points would you make to your manager in real life?