*** ACCA P3 September 2017 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

@andyt said:
I argued a merger would lead to cannibalizing our own sales and has strong cultural issues particularly as a different country

I suggested a strategic alliance

@jihwalai said:
Anyone opt Strategic Alliance for Q4 c?
Sharing of knowledge, knowhow in overseas market to overcome the lack of experience in overseas. As they hold patents of recipe, it is likely overseas alliance will work with Tramor, especially UTF as the main target market as of now.
Cost and benefit are shared.
Risk can be reduced and transfered or shared.

Anyone reckons this? Thnks

I wrote the same and I guess this is a totally acceptable answer. Fingers crossed!

@minythar said:
Can some one tell Q4 (C) is diversification or market development

Market develpoment

Struggled with time management in P3, largely due to the length of scenario in question 1. Insufficient time to analyse it properly and still have enough time for the rest of the paper. Overall I think it was an ok exam though.

Can someone tell me the question whether Q4 (a) part is to explain all 4 and then select why market development chosen or straightaway we have to assume why market development choose, please? I am worried as I was in rush and assumed diversification??

Q1 (C) was to identify and asses the barriers to converting to an e-commerce model from the point of the view of the customer.

Q4 (a) I thought was to explain what the type of strategy was and how relevant or non-relevant these were based on the factors identified in the SWOT analysis, whilst justifying why the strategy of Existing product, New market was identified by the consultancy company as the best option

Yes that’s right. You had to critically evaluate each option in turn but then support the consultants findings which means that you need to find a way of justifying that overall which wasn’t too hard given then scenario

Can i just ask if in Q1 people calculated the ratios given in the industry average but for the company in question. It really didn’t seem like it was asking for any ratios specifically but i did them anyway to hopefully get those extra 1-2 marks :S

@cm69170 said:
Can i just ask if in Q1 people calculated the ratios given in the industry average but for the company in question. It really didn’t seem like it was asking for any ratios specifically but i did them anyway to hopefully get those extra 1-2 marks :S

I calculated them and did a quick narrative, they weren’t really required, although the question says to incorporate the financial information into the contextual features answers? I wasn’t really sure how to do that, but I thought, the data was given, so I might as well do something with it, so time consuming, that paper was a nightmare.

I think the examiner needs to have more consideration in the marking process, cause the questions and case were too vague and unclear.

Well No doubt paper was lengthy, Too much to read in Q 1 & 4. These kind of papers will only produce bad quality answers, not much time to analyze. POPIT was not even in my knowledge. Q2 was easy. Did Q4 in just 15 mins. I had too much to write but could’nt due to Q1. Lets see now

Kaplan text books and Opentuition.com have always done it for me. Great combination!

I have combined a bunch of responses relating to past exam papers topics. I thought responding to this one would make sense as it would add to the pile.

Although I did not gamble (not covering the topics in June, do so at your own risk)… the topics in June did not come up in September.. Annoying!!

Bare in mind I have just copied and pasted the comments. So some may not be straight forward but I believe there are enough key words to help identify the topic which came up. if you cant identify the topic, I suggest some serious revising.

I hope this helps someone’s studying for December or at least stops them from having to compile it.. its a very boring process and not something you should be doing over month end tasks! (bad idea don’t do it)

P3 June

Q1 Models given in questions (PESTEL, 5 forces) + bits on KPI, CSF and Integrated reporting

Q2 Fin analysis performed on accounts of software house (primarily ratios) + 5 factors that affect selection of software house (apart from costs)

Q3 5 factors that make project work different from routine undertakings + value of PID, BC, project report… in the context of given scenario

Q4 i think pricing strategies referred to Bowmans clock? I think what did you use?
For Q4 I see a couple of you guys mentioning strategic clock its the one model I forgot about :(. I talked about Porters generic strategies of differentiation and cost leadership and said they had to be somewhere in in-between.

q4. a.advice electric company how to attain, priced based, differentiation, lock-in (another weird combination). got scared.

P3 March

Q1. all questions were based on change management.
part a is on swot for 18 marks. I had confusion on identifying the Swots.
part b. 10 mark question.( – contextual features readiness, time, compatiblity, persevation) . struggle a lot to write for 10 marks. may not score well.
part cNature and scope of change – .7 mark question on scope and nature of change. i dont understand what they expecting to write. which theory to apply. i wrote blah blah.
part d. startegy clock. wrote fairly I guess.

q2. was based on absorption costing and related. got scared. dont remember f5 topics.

q3. harmon process.
3. question. About DHS – social house provider for low income families
a). Harmons process strategy

q4.
slightly complicated scenario. they made me to think a lot. applying and writing my opinion and structuring the answer was too difficult. somehow I managed. I completed the answer, the inviligator announced only one minute left.

a guy runs a website to sell retail branded items. he has complicated supply chain. too confusing.

4. question. About red neal
a) . Supply chain management
i). Incoming – Wrote about additional quality checks for manufacturing of watches (not sure)
ii) Outgoing – wrote that branded goods can go straight to customers from their own warehouses, not going through central warehouse
b). Boundary less organisations- didn’t know term, but written about independence of location

P3 December 16

Q1:
a. Portfolio Analysis – Boston Consulting Group Matrix – 18 marks
b. Memo on Project management / Financial Appraisal – 32 marks

Q2:
a. Regression analysis – 15 marks
b. Big Data – 10 marks

Q3:
a. Marketing Mix using emarketing – 15 marks
b. e-procurement – 10 marks

Q4:
a. Cultural web – 15 marks
b. Continuing Development / The learning organisation – 5 marks each

P3 September 2016

Q1: external analysis using Pestel and Porter 5 forces, Suitability and Acceptability with regard to the acquisition of a foreign subsidiary.

Q2: project management, risk management and Mendelow matrix

Q3: contextual features and boudaryless organisation

Q4: I am not 100% sure, but I think it was about swim lane analysis, for which I have an irrational dislike, so I skipped it without even reading it…..Tangible and Intangible Benefits

(B) POPIT Model

P3 June 2016

1a related to new product development on current market, new market development with current product and related diversification (new product on the new market), all have to be connected with SWOT analysis provided and comments from the CEO.

(b) decision tree, looks ok, some calculation, and some discussion about the weakness of trees, like the option X and option Y risk is different ..Due to the high demand cash flow and low demand cash flow, option Y has more steady cash flow

(c) Sources Finance How many marks ?

original receivables is 49 days and payables 24 days , adjusting it both to 30 days will realised about 589k from receivable , 134k from payables, add retained earning 775000 and will only gives you around 1.5m cash, which is still far away even cheapest option Y, since gearing ratio only 32%, pumping 1.7m cash into the company will become 60% gearing ratio, looks ok since 55% is the standard rate

stock issue is not an option because shareholder against it , they want retain control

however, even when loans of 1.7m has taken , only 3.2m raised , still 800k left, so the only last option is to persuade the current shareholder to buy more shares, in order to raise fund and retain their power

Q2(a) Wonderful question for those who is pro in IT, simply suggest solution for the weakness

(b) corporate governance! first CG question appeared in P3

Q3 a. 4 stages to software solution selection./A discussion was required on the four stage evaluation and implementation of the COTS solution. – WPHA

b. POPIT model.- New topic.

Q4(a)

Portal diamond – Engin

(b) Possible strategic, organisational and operational problems of expension. Tried to give at least 2-3 comment for each. Forget to mention that the entity had no experience and finance issues.

March 2016 Fred the owner initially

Q1 was on value chain

restructure of value chain in q1 c?

Q2) this was on strategic lenses and culture Q2a – strategic planning as design, ideas and experience;
Q2b – cultural web and changes with new CEO approach;

Q3???

It seems that Q3 is not a popular one because it’s quite long and requires bit of calculation from F5

Q4) 7Is of e-marketing;. i just applied the model and commented on how it would benefit the company. gave examples such as feedback and reviews on websites, independence of location.

on pricing strategy, again i didn’t write much because of time. i just said pricing should reflect their mission statement and the company was in the position to charge higher prices because it was providing bespoke high quality holidays

4c – pricing due to poor time management.I didn’t do much for questions 1b & 1c. For this reason, chances of passing that paper are very slim. Q1 was too long to absorb all that was happening!

?December 2015

Q1a) The question said identify the benefits to both the corporate parents and the SBU to be merged, so I just split my answer down on this basis. I’m not sure about SAF but as this is more suitable for evaluations but of course the content of the answer should be more important than the model which just gives a structure. – Question 4 on the institutional shareholder and the bank of which i wrote that the institutional shareholder was of pristines

Q1b. Contextual factors:

c) Seemed a lot of content for a 12 mark question. Organisational culture, cultural web and organisational forms. I just picked a few elements of the cultural web and talked about these pre and post acquisition and commented on the change from entrepreneurial/ basic bureaucracy to professional bureaucracy.

Q2a. Evaluation of cost benefit analysis:
– Payback period. I gave the disadvantages
– Comments on almost all the cost and benefits except the last benefit (I don’t remember)
. Hardware cost
. Software cost
. Time spent in obtaining quotes were subjective

Q3a

Obviously this question is easy …the process is so easily identified ..number 3 process..redundancy for posting another deadline ..number 9 ..the sorting is unwanted..providing no value ..instead should create an assignment mailbox online for each respective lecturer ..direct submit to lecturer …and lecturer direct download and mark the assignment

the process of submit, record, download feedback is in wrong sequence!the lecturer should record all the marks first..then submit online …then make it available for student to download for review…

Q2b. Purpose contents and importance of project plan

Q3 b about redesign jobs – Saw requirement was about people

Q4 a) weaknesses and threats to identify.

external analysis : PESTEL model, internal analysis: weak management and financial performance

Q4b. Social corporate responsibility. I didn’t do much

September 2015

in the end, Q1a was really easy…
the first project was to get rid of.. the office consumables supply (simple logic) -could make rent or profit on building used for it, and save money on labour costs vs getting the stuff cheaper from bigger outlets…

Q1b was also ok by the end…
using 35k households at 80% usage gives 28K households..

1c or d-the last part on the 3 stakeholders..

Q2a about the CRM software – out package vs bespoke then

Q2b i put in the stuff under CRM of the slide pack on opentuition..
e-commerce, e-marketing, automated sales, intelligence then used for individualisation, and knowledge management in order to improve and create an existing relationship so that customer goes from one-time customer to client to potential enthusiast and advocate etc.. didnt push it to partner level.. haha.. again, all from the opentuition slide packs…

or Q3 i thought that the Mission statement should included something like how they would strive to be the leader for the qualification etc

Q4. ABC costing and variances was a nice question,

@adeoluomosanya said:
Hi, I use Open Tuition only. And then attempt lots of past papers on the ACCA website. That is my method for ‘word’ based exams. For numbers based exams my employer pays for my tuition with BPP classroom. Thanks

Thanks a lot. Wishing you all the best for this paper and other coming ones (if any) 🙂