[nathan488]

@nupur said:
Hi Nathan488

What time did you receive your result? I am still wiating

Around 8:30am UTC – UK based

[nathan488]

@nupur said:

I did Topic 19 and passed yes

[nathan488]

Received my results at 8:30am (UTC) and achieved an “A” grade on the report, overall achieving a first class honours. Very pleased and thanks to everyone at Open Tuition for providing some very helpful guidance.

[nathan488]

Certainly possible and advisable. My friend took both SBL and AFM in the June sitting and passed both comfortably today 🙂

I personally like doing one numbers and one writing paper at the same time as it gives you something different to do versus doing APM and SBL (which are both big writing papers).

Just be warned with AFM that it’s very numbers based and a lot of students who aren’t comfortable with that may struggle but to answer your question, yes doing SBL with AFM is a good idea if you like both 🙂

[nathan488]

@gillianm said:
Take it from me as a former marker that it is the overall word count only that is assessed.

I actually tell (yes tell!) my students that they plan 5,000 words for Part 3 and arrange the rest accordingly.

@gillianm That’s great news to hear and will certainly ensure I have a broader range to cover all my points raised. Thanks for all your help on these matters!

[nathan488]

@gillianm said:
I am nor surprised you have run out of words if you have included all of that!

Topic 19 is a balance between quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis – however the most important thing is that you show evidence of doing some analysis for youself and you seem to be doing that. In fact you have what sounds like a very good report so well done.

Where count is an issue I urge my own mentees to edit parts 1 & 2.

@gillianm
Hi Gillian, firstly thank you for taking the time to review and respond to my concerns noted above, having some external perspective over my report has really helped assure me that I’m staying on the right track 🙂

I’m glad its a good mix between both quantitative/qualitative since I was worried the question focused too much on financial ratios pre/post.

Word count wise, I definitely could scope out paragraphs from my part 1/2 but unfortunately I’m currently on ~4,800 for part 3 and I assume although the overall limit is 7,500 that each part 1/2/3 has to be limited to the prescribed amounts (1,000,2,000,4,500)? It’s no worries as there is certainly some content I can rephrase/amend to reduce my words 🙂

Thank you again Gillian, your advice is most appreciated and I hope you have a lovely weekend!

[nathan488]

@trephena Firstly thank you for replying so promptly, it means a lot!
I like the idea of examining trends of the post-acq financials, I suppose my only worry was based on some of the earlier comments you raised in this forum that the examiner doesn’t like speculative answers and I feel if I said “x has increased…this shows the acq of the company was beneficial” etc – but this is better analysis of the financial position than none at all.

Yes I have tried to evidence as much as I can from a variety of sources to back up all my claims, so instead of just citing sources, I’ve found data, analysed it and provided graphs etc to support these points of view.

My companies were actually Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods

As a summary:
Economies of scale: WF’s struggled due to low no. stores, high prices to consumers – poor e.o.s
AMZN: Benefits big time from e.o.s due to size and scale and operating on “no profit model”
Post acq: AMZN can offer these e.o.s to WF’s and lower prices of WF’s to improve foot traffic and thus sales of WF’s and awareness
Supported by: I made various graphs of prices of WF’s pre/post acq and showed impact of prices pre/post and how after AMZN’s acquisition, they lowered proving AMZN has used its e.o.s to make an impact. Also added survey in which long term WF shoppers were asked if they’ve noticed any difference in price since AMZN acq

Share price reaction:
Share price and trade volume graphs of AMZN/WF’s during the week of acq showing a clear spike on date of announcement as well as graphs of competitors (walmart, costco etc) all which declined and commented why this was the case (AMZN’s threat of low margin model, big e.o.s, monopoly presence)

Synergies:

1) reduced shipping costs/logistics: previously, AMZN has faced increasing costs in this matter (shown by graph of amazons shipping costs 2016-2018 rising as well as becoming larger proportion of cost of sales and net margin analysis of all competitors and AMZN/WF’s)
Then stated how acq of WF’s lowers this due to 450 network/distribution centers from acquiring the stores and the amazon locker (customer go to WF’s to pick up amazon orders) – overall these factors mean costs should fall for AMZN versus no acq at all so synergy realised
2) Enhanced reputation/brand: pre acq: both companies have good brands etc
post acq: AMZN bought a physical presence as opposed to just online, so awareness increases, backed up by YouGov survey of customer perception of WF’s brand increasing since acq by AMZN and AMZN presence increased by selling AMZN products and prime deals in WF’s
3) Exploit/successfully enter into grocery market: pre-acq: AMZN tried numerous occassions and failed (backed up extracted customer reviews of AMZN Fresh showing increasing number of 1/2 star reviews year on year
Post acq: Point 2 above shows its got better but, I took customer reviews of whole foods and 1/2 star reviews of whole foods actually increased past acq date, showing maybe acq of whole foods isnt yet fully exploited and thus synergy maybe not realised

Culture:
AMZN: customer focused, cost cutting, harsh treatment of workers
WF: Decentralised, autonomous employee decision making, high margin, high cost

Post acq: conflicts as reported workers being layed off, no decisions made and turning centralised etc – evaluating that clash of culture is limiting success of acq

SWOT analysis done for both companies pre acq and to link to rationale for acq

And then I need to do the remaining points.

Ironically, I’m going to go over my word count and after the first draft need to seriously tone down to keep within 7,500 due to having to include all the models

I apologise for stating so much in detail, but my concern is that I’m not answering enough points financially/operationally to warrant a pass or would you say from the above that my RAP sounds full enough/covers enough areas?

Many thanks in advance for all your assistance, my Mentor is away on Holiday and I am planning on finalising before I go away next week and this guidance is much appreciated.

[nathan488]

Sorry, can I also say that a drawback is that since the acquisition, the acquired company results are consolidated into the parent, therefore I cannot specifically look into how the acquired company has performed since being acquired.

I was hoping the above points of focus and my analysis would be sufficient to assess this?

I have access to the pre acquisition financials of both and the post acquisition of the acquirer company.

What approach would you recommend in this instance?

Sorry for the bombardment of questions, but any assistance on these matters would really be greatly appreciated 🙂

[nathan488]

Hi there,

I am planning on submitting for the November 2018 period and have chosen topic 19. I am around 75% complete on my first draft of the RAP and wanted to show my structure/topics so far and ask if you believe I am covering enough areas. I understand they should match my project objectives, but having some assurance over if I am answering the overall topic would be of great help (for the evaluation/analysis section):

– Economies of scales – pre for both companies and post acq’ (utilising various formed graphs and drawing to conclusions and how the acq’ has helped this)
– Share price reaction of competitors as well as how announcement of acq’ impacted two companies pre/post
-Synergies – describing 3 main synergies as a result and have provide graphs/analysis into how these have/have not been achieved from the acquisition
– Cultural analysis pre acq for both companies and then how the acq has led to a clash of culture and the impacts of this etc (ie: poorer service, inefficiencies)

I also plan on adding:
– Competitiveness (how the acq’ of the company has aided the acquires competitiveness
– Profitability of the company pre/post as well as competitors reaction
– Rationale for acquisition and type of integration

Finally, I will ensure to incorporate SWOT/PEST models (I’m thinking SWOT to support rationale for acquisition) and PEST post acq

EDIT: I should note, due to the nature of the companies being so large, I have not been been able to obtain primary information since it would not be of use (sample would not represent any valid support/conclusions), I therefore stated this limitation in my RAP under section 2 and to get around this, instead of just citing sources, I obtained various historic data and statistics, and created my own analysis to support my claims.

Ie: I obtained all the reviews of a company from 2011-2019, broke them down by star rating and period and showed how from the acquisition, that customers reputation of the company has decreased

Essentially, I have used other peoples data (surveys etc) and formed my own analysis and drew additional conclusions to support what I have written. Is this a good work around?

[nathan488]

@noushie2008 said:
Hi Amithr992,

I totally understand what you’re saying re: accounting ethics. However, I felt being an accounting exam they wanted something like that and really integrity, professional behaviour this isn’t just restricted to accountants – it really should be applicable for all people in business. So I guess that’s a good way to justify it if that’s what you used in your answer.

I can’t imagine you’ll be marked down as it was poor professional behaviour, lack of integrity and if the company published in general they weren’t adhering to professional competency and due care element.

Well said. You can use any model or style as long as you relate to the case and apply it correctly to the question.

Ie: you can use ACCA code as framework for supporting your answer but you’d need to relate it by example to the case to score.

I just wrote specific points from my plan such as:

– factual errors can lead to large recall costs
– reputational damage from customers if false inaccurate book published
– did he write and misquote the book to gain the film series – therefore unethical
– expert classed it as fiction, therefore commercial issue since Fiveoaks only sell non fiction books

[nathan488]

@matela said:
What was the Question on 4b again?

Recommend ways in which the current digital platform can be enhanced to attract customers and create more value – professional marks in commercial acumen for identifying realistic solutions that would meet the criteria (10 marks and 3 p marks)

[nathan488]

@bradeastham said:
I definitely wrote enough to pass the exam, it just depends on if enough of what I wrote was correct!

I didn’t use the format for the last question but I did use each section + heading and then answered. Hoping this is okay.

Don’t worry I did the same as you for the format of Q5 doing one a page using all 3 headings each time. There’s no way I could do the exact format required as it would severely restrict my ability to write enough!

[nathan488]

@olia8 said:
For Q4(b) I used 6I model for inspiration. I wrote more or less the same, except for I didn’t mention loyalty cards/filtering. Also, I suggested that there should be option to sell books online / deliver by downloading. And that website should be available in other languages too, because they trade globally.

Yeah I like the language/sell books one ideas!

It’s a strange one since I remember writing down “6 i’s” when first reading the question but I think it was one of those questions where if you tried to force the model you’d find it harder to generate ideas like the ones above

What about your Q5, as I was confident but unsure if I put the right points in the right boxes. I had the following in summary:

Development/appraisal: one way feedback, feel they can’t further their career / management is bad due to standard box ticking, only annual review / fix by more frequent reviews and 2 way reviews

Participation: employees are not wanting to participate due to their ideas being stolen / management issue due to stealing and crediting ideas as their own without rewarding employee / introduce open door policy of rewarding employees with good ideas to increase participation

Communication: employees aren’t finding out big changes and leading to rumours and not getting to talk to customers or departments / management poor by actively discouraging talk cross boundary / fix by weekly departmental meetings and monthly whole org meetings etc

Leadership: employees fed up due to company always lacking innovation and being behind competitors in progress and hence leaving / management issue for not innovating enough and being aware of competitors actions / fix by investing more in r&d and revise focus on strategy to be in a better strategic position

[nathan488]

@annaborakowska said:
I mentioned :
– Get the basics right (review customers’ negative feedback)
– Social media regular posts and communication
– Interactive elements on the website where readers can review and talk about books
– Development of a Mobile App
– Subscription link and following email communication

I feel relieved that we mentioned around the same things! I also mentioned about the mobile app too now that I think back to it.

That’s the thing about these questions, it’s hard to know how “on the ball” you were.

Seems like we’ve got some valid points 🙂

[nathan488]

@olia8 said:
I just assumed that if there were published articles before then everybody was already aware of mistakes (factual, guotes, omissions etc) and would not use book for studying anyway.

Anyways, I wish that was the only thing I got wrong. Unfortunately I got this creative answering the rest of the questions too ((

Remember though, it states on the mark scheme that any valid suggestion by students can gain equal credit.

We’ve just proven that with our two points and that in my opinion we’d both get credit as long as we’ve rationalised them.

What did you say for the ideas on digital platform?

I wrote along the lines of:

– online forum/community
– loyalty cards
– allow author submission and community voting
– increase Facebook/Twitter interaction
– enhance filtering even more
– profile system/birthday rewards

[nathan488]

@olia8 said:
For question 2b, I was not sure what I had to be sceptical about, and I guess I was wrong, but I wrote that the impact of the book might not be as big as expert said, because book was based on articles that were already criticised, so academic world was aware of an issue well in advance. And so book could be used to attract attention to the ancient cultures, not as study book.

The point about the criticisms – I had this as an ethical concern since I interpreted that dr Xavier has had previous criticisms from esteemed publishers and has not acted upon them or learnt.

This is the case with this book since he’s made a plethora of mistakes

As such as I said fiveoak should be very skeptical about retaining him since he obviously is continuing to not learn/improve and it shows unethical traits

Do you think that’s valid?

[nathan488]

@olia8 said:
For question 2b, I was not sure what I had to be sceptical about, and I guess I was wrong, but I wrote that the impact of the book might not be as big as expert said, because book was based on articles that were already criticised, so academic world was aware of an issue well in advance. And so book could be used to attract attention to the ancient cultures, not as study book.

I just found the question so badly written that I struggled in the exam to know what they wanted me to write about. I’m hoping I’ve made enough makes elsewhere to get me above 50%!

Questions I liked with confidence:
– governance of the board
– financial and non financial factors
– project management weaknesses
– last question about the different employee upsets
– online digital platform

It was just that dr Xavier question 2a/b I’m meh on!

[nathan488]

@Hebist said:
Yes I did for professional ethical issues. But what was the commercial ethical issue?

From what I said that I can remember:
– since the expert said it can’t be classed as a non fiction book that they’d have to sell it and state that it’s a fiction book if they went onto sell it and they don’t have competencies or isn’t their niche area etc

– bad reputation from customers

– large recall costs due to factual errors

[nathan488]

@falmata said:
it was part of the question to use that format.

The professional marks were in analysis not communication.

As long as you addressed the requirements (employee problems, management issues and actions) then you’ll be fine.

I personally knew it would be too messy to write in that format so I did one issue a page going sequentially over each criteria in the table.

I essentially did the table but re adjusted it to fit my amount of words to say

[nathan488]

@rsi88 said:
Think I might have been the only one that spent time on 2b and I wish I hadn’t as I ran out of time towards the end. I agree the question was poorly worded I just wrote about how the criticism of his articles should have been picked up if they’d carried out due diligence on new authors. Also said you could actually internally review the foot notes and quotes to ensure they are genuine and quoted by sources other than oneself. Also to maybe consider more than just one external reviewer as historians can have difference if opinion.

Agree I hated that layout for the last question I kept page portrait and was completely squashing in my recommendation. Plus it specifically said to write the notes in the sections of the table not afterwards like you would with presentation slides. It was an odd choice I feel my answers may not have been readable or in depth enough.

Agree that nothing in the paper was that ground breaking. The time was just incredibly tight.. I’m hoping I e done enough to pass but will kick myself if I’ve a few marks off as just simply better choices like ignoring the layout at the end would probably have served me a lot better.

For Q5, does the format matter much?

The professional marks was for ANALYSIS, not communication, so as long as you answered the questions requirement, you’ll be fine.

For me personally; the format was poor since i knew I couldn’t write enough in the lack of space.

I wrote on one page the title (ie communication)
Wrote some notes; then the next header (staff problems) then another header (management problems) and so forth and repeated 4 times so I ended up with 4 pages.

I think this is fine since no communication p marks and this allowed me to write enough?

[nathan488]

For the last question guys with the presentation I answered in a different format to fit my answers:

I took a page and wrote “leadership” I then subsequently wrote “employee problems” and discussed then left a line and wrote “management issues” then left a line and wrote “actions” so ended up doing 4 pages for the 4 different areas as I felt I couldn’t replicate the exact format as i wouldn’t be able to fit enough words in.

Remember, the professional marks were for ANALYSIS, not communication, therefore you shouldn’t get anymore than 1 Mark for doing in the format.

As long as you addressed the three criteria on each issue, then you’ll get the marks.

[nathan488]

@noushie2008 said:
Thanks, Nathan.

So you mentioned purchasing system too?

Did you use ACCA ethics plus tucker’s five for the ethics part?

I am also wondering if I messed up by not splitting financial and non-financial out for Q3 – I used SAF but ended up only using financial in the acceptability part which I only ended up speaking about shareholders and employees (I think I made a massive mistake trying to blag it here because I said employees could benefit with a bigger company and there would be more job potential) I was majorly running out of time and was at acceptability with one minute left for the question – so the last part was a massive load of nonsense I think – blocked it out of my mind.

I didn’t mention purchasing although that would be a relevant point in justified.
I assumed the system already allowed it since they offered e books, but as long as you justified you’ll get credit so don’t worry. Remember the mark scheme says at the top “this solution isn’t fully coherent of all solutions and credit should be given for all valid suggestions”.

I didn’t actually use ACCA ethics or tuckers for this question, although they could’ve been used. I just used the case as I was rushed so for example: the fact he purposefully misquoted sources to fit his conclusion as opposed to considering all evidence was unethical and led to misrepresentation or the fact that he may have distorted the report to gain the TV show and so was acting like unethical etc.

Again I didn’t use SAF per say, as I find using it can restrict your answers, but I just stated a wide range of factors (fin and non financial) to evaluate both arguments using the SWOT and exhibits 🙂

[nathan488]

@noushie2008 said:
Hello,

Odd exam. As everyone mentioned – not outrageous but too much for such a short amount of time. I felt the questions were all over the place.

Didn’t like 2b – found it a bit random and hard to know exactly what to draw on. Said they should have a team reviewing all research, HR reviewing writers credentials etc

For Q4b I only managed three things – social media (way to connect with customers) I mentioned potential to have an online purchasing system to help customers to buy online. I also mentioned something about search partnership so it’s not all their data but customers can draw on many data platforms (google etc) so customer don’t need to go off the site (I think I was reaching here).

Q5 was a mess – what were they thinking? What an odd thing to do. Mine was an absolute mess. I am shamed of it. I could barely read it in the end – not sure how they will go.

Used two models really – SAF (but found it ended up restricting me) far more Non-Financial than Financial to draw on. I also said they should acquire but the board needs some direction and new people if they are going to be able to success with the new company. I used basic ethics for the ethics part (Professional Behaviour, Integrity etc) then used Tucker’s 5 for the Commercial Issues part.

Not feeling confident at all.

Used more than one book – did anyone else? I think I overdid it.

I used two books so don’t worry, remember the more the merrier for marks.

2b was very poorly phrased and only 6 makes

4b I mentioned similar ideals

Q5 I adapted the format to fit my words and the style of format was impossible given the 12 marks available.

I did one page a point and express the 3 criteria in each page for each category

[nathan488]

@arm2250 said:
I used same headlines but just not in the table

I did the same, as I had no room
To answer all requirements? Did you do one a page? But answered all the specific requirements?

[nathan488]

Very weird exam as felt easy but equally easy to waffle.

Q1) board composition and operation critiques (age, gender, age of service, lack of strategic focus, unaware of competitors etc)

Q2) ethical commercial issues of Dr Xavier (purposefully misquoting to fit conclusion, factual error etc all resulting in commercial damage etc)

Q2b) I felt this was worded very poorly so left this until the end, as 6 marks not as concerned

Q3) financial and non financial factors of attractiveness of company – could use SAF but I didn’t as didn’t want to restrict myself, could say a wide range of issues:

– competencies of the company in digital development so good match for the current platform
– much better financials (profit margins)
– performs better in Asian market so can assist fiveoak
– redundancies cost
– clash of culture between staff
– motivation and appraisal benefits
– governance differences (the company is private and insider system so less good systems/controls) whereas five hive is listed and more requirement for stricter compliance
– good reputation of the company can strengthen five hive
Etc etc

Q4) weakness of project management and improvements:
– lack of meeting regularly
– no proper project manager
– meetings but only IT so wrong
– poor supplier choice by IT – not wide perspective
– allowance of project slippage was not properly addressed
– etc

Q4b) how to retain and attract customers On its platform:
– online community to build interactivity
– loyalty cards online?
– increase Facebook and Twitter use as currently under-utilised
– increase more filter options (as customers moaning they want more)
– tailored emails on favourite books/birthday rewards
– allow authors to submit books and have voting by community for their favourite

Q5) staff feelings, management issues and action on leadership, participation, communication and appraisal

Appraisal: standard check list, one way, only once a year

Communication: actively discouraging cross boundary talk etc

Participation: managers stealing employees ideas and taking credit making them less wanting to participate

Leadership: lack of thinking ahead of the game, being behind competitors to employees frustration

Anyone else? 🙂

[Author]

Posts