ACCA Paper APM exam was – March 2021 Exam – Instant Poll and comments

Should have been easy but I think I fell into the trap of answering the question I wanted to answer as opposed to the one asked.

Long 6 week wait now. Just need to put it to the back of my mind, concentrate on ATX and pray for a miracle.

I had version with Q1 TV company perf report, benchmarking and regulator, Q2 hairdresser balanced scorecard, IT and Q3 manufacturer cost gap, quality cost. This was my second attempt and I had better time management this time and managed to do all questions. Finger crossed for pass rate as this is my last exam.

For the regulator I just tried to comment on the numbers stated. If they have more or less fines this year then previous year or what is the percentage of compliance compared to whole country. Hope to get at least a few marks.

For the balanced score card.. I recommended other measures that linked better to misson.. Like eva instesd of roce.. Concluded that it represented a balanced view.. As it had quantative and qualatative info and planning and control elements.. Hope that was the right track!

I agree. I have difficulty understand the question.
There is one to evaluate the usefulness of data used for benchmark, and the following request to evaluate the source of information used for benchmark.
Also, what is ‘a summary of’ quality cost? BSC ‘well-balanced’?
So confusing

Spent a lot of reading the questions over and over. Run of time eventually

I had Finnart food company (50 marks), Finnon hair salon and then Taays company for the last question. Finished all apart from approx.10.5 marks on the last question. Really hoping for a pass but very time demanding exam. Had it been a 4 hour exam i would be more confident for a pass!

I have been reading comments on another platform and some people say they didnt make any reccomendations for new measures for q1 as the q said. The board dont want more changes to the report as too many changes had been made previously… I made reccomendations though….. Think im wrong now.. Anyone make measure reccomendations?

Me too.. Sure there was nothing to say if you couldnt do that!

That is so true.. I dont have a great feeling about it!

I also remember a question on quality cost areas and then at the end realised I didn’t even open appendix 2 with quality cost figures in lol although the question seemed to ask for a generic description for the quality cost areas. I wasn’t too sure how to go into much detail about the figures even when I did see them?

Q1, i evaluated the performance report. it had everything needed. It was aligned with objectives. However i should have mentioned also, it was helpful to have the variances and the commentary was aligned.

Part b was EVA calculation. This was straight forward but I’m sure i left some mistakes. As silly as i am, i added back corporate tax, instead of deducted it ;(

ROCE, RI for divisional performance..i argued here and RI was my final suggestions and ROI as it was more fitted (no further funding was going to be received)

BCG- this i did not quite understand. So i analysed the appendix and mentioned the dog could be de invested and use the cashcow for the research and development of a new product instead. Cash cow, try to innovate on the products, pizza is liked by many but maybe the price could be lowered to attract more growth.

As for the healthy food (?), Use cash cow and invest in appropriate marketing strategies to create awareness of this new range of product. This will perhaps move it to the star quadrant.

Q2 stakeholders matrix- i explained briefly the chair man was key player and how he should be treated.

Employees i argued they have interest on opportunities but less power as opposed to the interest. So they should be kept informed via emails, regular meetings about opportunities.

Bank: they had low interest and power therefore minimal activities for them..however not to ignore them because they have a level of trust on the business now but in the future they might start showing interest.

B ) Risk appetite- here i struggled a bit because not much information was given about the three stakeholders mindset. I wrote anyway:

Chairmain doesn’t want mishap to be repeated. Therefore no risk taking person. He was risk averse

Employees value their job and hence they would like to do things which they dont regret later or have a very minimal regret.

Bank has a certain level of trust because company is compliant and has a good cash flow..they were neural. (Not sure).

C) optimistic / pesimistic approach.
I calculated contribution then argued it was not enough as the products have massive FC to be considered. So i calculated profit under both approach, under pesimistic i had chosen silver as highly profitable and gold under optimistic. However i mentioned it was worth waiting for the election to be over to avoid any issue of regret. But if there is a need to go for the production now, its better to take the pessimistic approach. Produce 50k only and get a lower profit to start with., Then if election is favorable, demand will rise, profit will rise. Hence company can switch to production of gold type.

Q3. BSC- i criticised the kpis given. Financial, eva would be more appropriate to measure shareholder wealth.

%of revisitng customers gives a measure of how many customers are satisfied thats why they come back. This can be collected also through surveys.

% of successful service based on appointment. This shows whether the internal process of taking orders manually works or not. As company caters for man power and resources based on appointment..if customer take appointment but don’t turn up, this means the internal process is not efficient.

No. Of cusomers requesting their hairdresser. This would show how they value the training/ qualifications. I also added another one which concerns % revenue but i dont quite remember. My point here was to emphasize its not about the qualifications which the staff already have but how much they are updated with new hair styling techniques. This is whats more important in this industry.

B) i mentioned why bsc is good. It reduces dysfunctional behaviour. It pushes managers to look at the bigger picture. It meets the objectives of the business. but what makes it unsuitable for this business. Reluctance of staff members esp managers were focussing much on financial aspects before., If objectives changes, we need to ensure they still lead to goal congruence. Outdated IT system which the company was using will need to be updated/changed if they wanted to implement bsc. And i have forgotten the remaining.

Boris12345 wrote:Hi,

I had the same.