ACCA SBL interactive practice
ACCA SBL Interactive Case Study — World Adventure Tours Co
Work through the World Adventure Tours Co case using the current three-task SBL format, interactive exhibits, a live spreadsheet and OpenTuition video guidance.
Current SBL format
This practice case now follows the current SBL structure: one integrated case, pre-seen information, three tasks, 80 technical marks and 20 professional-skills marks. The original OpenTuition videos remain valuable for application technique, but they were recorded before the move to three tasks and a 3 hour 15 minute exam.
Start here: how to use the case
Watch the short OpenTuition guidance before opening the timed attempt. The case organisation and core teaching have been retained; the requirements, marking and response areas have been rebuilt for the 2026–27 SBL syllabus.
Meet World Adventure Tours Co
The introduction explains how to read the organisation, identify the role and use each exhibit as evidence rather than repeating a memorised model.
Do not watch passively
Pause after the introduction and write down five matters you expect the board to care about. Then compare your list with the pre-seen and exam-day exhibits inside the mock.
What the interactive mock gives you
A separate pre-seen exhibit followed by current-style exam-day information.
Three integrated tasks totalling 100 marks.
A word processor for every task and a spreadsheet response area for the IT business case.
All five SBL professional skills, each assessed once for four marks.
Model answers, marking grids and feedback after submission.
Open the full-screen World Adventure Tours mock
The old PDFs are no longer the exam
The former question pack used five tasks and older timing. It has therefore been retired rather than left beside the current interactive version. Use the mock above when practising to time.
Warm-up 1: see the strategy choices
Write the WAT proposal that belongs in each Ansoff quadrant, then compare with the tutor and mark your own answer. The model helps organise evidence; it does not replace evaluation.
WAT growth choices — Ansoff matrix
Write a short answer in each quadrant before you open the tutor's. A good commercial answer compares risk, capability, brand fit and likely synergy before recommending a sequence.
Existing products, existing market — what should WAT do here?
Market penetration
Compare with the tutor
The tutor's answer
Market penetration: repair the existing premium adventure product and remove failure costs.
The points this answer earns marks for:
- Names market penetration — the existing product sold to the existing market.
- Applies it to WAT: repair the existing premium adventure product.
- Identifies removing the costs of the service and booking failures as the gain.
- Treats the core business as the place WAT's capability and brand already are.
You do not need identical wording. Look for the point and its application to the scenario.
New products, existing market — what could WAT offer its current customers?
Product development
Compare with the tutor
The tutor's answer
Product development: offer adjacent holidays to existing younger customers.
The points this answer earns marks for:
- Names product development — a new product sold to the existing market.
- Applies it to WAT: adjacent holidays rather than the current adventure tours.
- Identifies the existing younger customers as the market being sold to.
- Recognises that WAT already knows and can reach these customers.
You do not need identical wording. Look for the point and its application to the scenario.
Existing products, new market — who else could WAT sell its current tours to?
Market development
Compare with the tutor
The tutor's answer
Market development: adapt suitable tours for older customers.
The points this answer earns marks for:
- Names market development — the existing product sold to a new market.
- Applies it to WAT: older customers as the new market.
- Notes that the tours must be ADAPTED, and that only some are suitable.
- Recognises this uses capability WAT already has.
You do not need identical wording. Look for the point and its application to the scenario.
New products, new market — what is the diversification on the table, and what does it risk?
Diversification
Compare with the tutor
The tutor's answer
Diversification: buy the unrelated gym chain. The commercial answer must compare risk, capability, brand fit and likely synergy before recommending a sequence.
The points this answer earns marks for:
- Names diversification — a new product sold to a new market.
- Applies it to WAT: the acquisition of the unrelated gym chain, Best4Fitness.
- Identifies it as the highest-risk quadrant because both product and market are new.
- Challenges capability, brand fit and likely synergy rather than accepting the proposal.
- Recommends a SEQUENCE — fixing the core before diversifying — not simply a choice.
You do not need identical wording. Look for the point and its application to the scenario.
Warm-up 2: diagnose change as a whole system
Write what has to change in each of the four POPIT views at WAT, then compare. Ask what will happen if WAT buys software but leaves the other three views unchanged.
POPIT — four connected views of change
Write what must change in each view at WAT before you open the tutor's answer. Then ask what happens if WAT buys software and leaves the other three views unchanged.
People — what has to change at WAT?
The first of the four views
Compare with the tutor
The tutor's answer
Roles, skills, motivation, training and ethical behaviour.
The points this answer earns marks for:
- Names roles and skills — who does the work and whether they can do it.
- Names training as the route to the skills the new processes need.
- Names motivation — staff must want the redesigned way of working to succeed.
- Names ethical behaviour, connecting to the bribery and fraud allegations.
You do not need identical wording. Look for the point and its application to the scenario.
Organisation — what has to change at WAT?
The second of the four views
Compare with the tutor
The tutor's answer
Structure, oversight, authority and reporting lines.
The points this answer earns marks for:
- Names the structure — how WAT is organised to deliver.
- Names oversight and authority — who is accountable for the failures.
- Names reporting lines — how problems reach the people who can act.
- Connects weak oversight to the failures going unaddressed.
You do not need identical wording. Look for the point and its application to the scenario.
Processes — what has to change at WAT?
The third of the four views
Compare with the tutor
The tutor's answer
Bookings, suppliers, complaints, capacity and controls.
The points this answer earns marks for:
- Names the booking process — the origin of the service failures.
- Names suppliers and capacity — the tours WAT does not deliver itself.
- Names complaints handling — how a failure is recovered once it happens.
- Names controls — the checks that stop the failure recurring.
You do not need identical wording. Look for the point and its application to the scenario.
Information technology — what has to change, and what would go wrong if WAT changed only this?
The fourth of the four views
Compare with the tutor
The tutor's answer
Reliable data and systems which support redesigned processes. The booking failures are not automatically an IT problem: people, organisation, processes and information technology must be redesigned together.
The points this answer earns marks for:
- Names reliable data and systems as the requirement, not software for its own sake.
- States that the technology must SUPPORT the redesigned processes, not lead them.
- Rejects the assumption that the booking failures are automatically an IT problem.
- Concludes that all four views must be redesigned together.
- Says what a technology-only change would produce: new software over unchanged people, structure and processes.
You do not need identical wording. Look for the point and its application to the scenario.
Warm-up 3: challenge the business case
Use the spreadsheet before writing your answer. Recreate the discounted cash flows, then remove the “increase in goodwill” row and observe what happens to NPV. Also test a delay or lower booking-error savings.
You are a sceptical finance manager. What should you notice about this business case?
Work the spreadsheet above first — remove the goodwill row, then test a delay or lower booking-error savings.
Compare with the tutor
The tutor's answer
A positive NPV does not make a weak business case reliable. Goodwill is not an annual cash flow; the error savings, timing, project life and discount rate are unsupported; implementation, migration, training and cyber-security costs are missing; and no sensitivity analysis is provided.
The points this answer earns marks for:
- States that a positive NPV does not by itself make the case reliable.
- Identifies the increase in goodwill as not being an annual cash flow at all.
- Challenges the booking-error savings, the timing, the project life and the discount rate as unsupported.
- Identifies missing costs: implementation, migration, training and cyber-security.
- Notes that no sensitivity analysis is provided to test the assumptions.
You do not need identical wording. Look for the point and its application to the scenario.
Professional-skills checklist
Analysis: connect evidence across exhibits and explain causes, implications and relationships.
Communication: use the requested format, board-level tone, headings and prioritisation.
Scepticism: challenge unsupported claims and seek corroborating evidence.
Evaluation: weigh advantages, disadvantages, risk and feasibility before concluding.
Commercial acumen: recommend action that is practical for WAT and protects long-term value.