APM*** ACCA Paper APM September 2018 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

Thought the exam was very fair in content. Nothing too challenging, very much application of case study as expected. Fingers crossed!

Not convinced... that was a quietly deceiving paper lots could go right but I feel more could go wrong!!!

I am agree

Felt cheated!

I agree it’s a quietly deceiving paper! So different from previous exams.

What was required for the last part of Question 1? About management target setting and use in appraisal systems?

I thought this was asking how would the firm decide what targets to set for staff, so I used the building blocks model to explain that targets set would need to be considered achievable, fair and have ownership. In the appraisal systems the above would stand plus they managers would need to clearly articulate to the staff both financial and non-financial measures in a clear manner so staff are assured that they are in control of those targets.

I suggested using the SMART process along with financial and non financial targets, with financial and non financial reward systems.

@alexbenson1992 said: I suggested using the SMART process along with financial and non financial targets, with financial and non financial reward systems.

snap

From what i remember... BSC + KPI Issues with Non-financial perf indicators Management Styles Management Targets + Appraisals Usefulness of Z-Score Are they in risk of failure Financial + Operational Gearing BPR affect on retailers 2 demands Development of information systems BPR affect on high ethical standards

@saraf said: I thought this was asking how would the firm decide what targets to set for staff, so I used the building blocks model to explain that targets set would need to be considered achievable, fair and have ownership. In the appraisal systems the above would stand plus they managers would need to clearly articulate to the staff both financial and non-financial measures in a clear manner so staff are assured that they are in control of those targets.

Did very similar, applied building block model principles on that section on the rewards and standards aspects linked to the new nfpis and fpis I suggested in part a. Thought Q1 on the whole was a decent question. Q2 was ok too and almost a carbon copy of a past paper question that was on the specimen re corp failure models. Q3 was on BPR which again was similar to the last question from 2016 on the subject, albeit different application. Part b was on info systems and again very similar to the past paper. Part c on issues was good as it was signposted in the Q what to focus on (outsourcing risks to employees, customers and environment when thinking ethics). Will be massivley disappointed to fail the paper given some past papers had more difficult EVA / MIRR questions and more data to disseminate

@saraf said: I thought this was asking how would the firm decide what targets to set for staff, so I used the building blocks model to explain that targets set would need to be considered achievable, fair and have ownership. In the appraisal systems the above would stand plus they managers would need to clearly articulate to the staff both financial and non-financial measures in a clear manner so staff are assured that they are in control of those targets.

Thats the approach i also took

Same 4.75

I got 4.7 ish. Can't remember exactly. Pretty close though. Grey area. Needing more detailed investigation.

Grey area too. Sounds like we all got it wrong haha! Joke

Same 4.75

I am interested in what others got for 3a. Possible improvements from the BPR with specific attention to the two performance indicators set by customers - Low price to pass on to consumers and lead time and quality. Did anyone find that it was potentially good but possibly not once you added shipping and import duty? I said that the factory overheads were still to be incurred overall as only 50% of manufacturing was moving to an outsourced manufacturer, meaning they would still have to retain the factory and the cost would be absorbed in to the cost of the other 50% of swimwear and the cycling clothing. But improvements were technically possible, but a more radical approach may be required.

Hey, Which performance indicators did everyone write for 1a) and what were your opinions regarding the financial ones? ROCE I got 28. something and 31 point something. I felt that revenue growth would have been a better option than revenue. ROCE is more for manufacturing companies than services and was not an appropriate measure. 1c) I got a profit conscious style intitally and my suggestion was to have both a profit conscious and non accounting. 3a) i got not much of a cost difference between the outsourced product and inhouse. I think 0.65 difference after taking in to account the poss of exchange rate fluctuations and the possibility of shipping to be higher.This being said would still reduce the cost to the retailer. Quality- did anyone talk about multiskilling and quality circles and employees being responsible for quality?

With regards to the rewards, I also used the building block model in that the staff performance should not be measured based on financial aspects as this is not an area they can directly control. As per the balanced scorecard, non financial indicators are important and staff bonuses should be based on these as these are aspects of performance that staff can control. # Low motivation and lack of clarity about financial targets as they are not from a financial background? Am i correct to have thought of the staff in this qstn as the security guards?

I believe they said KPIs for the three other areas of the balanced scorecard. I suggested profit focused historically but used non accounting to enable them to innovate, which would help motivate staff as they would feel valued. I suggested the company needs to be careful due to import costs legal costs through spillages, imports which would bed costly, extra transport costs etc. Lots to talk about as long as you could justify it. I got the corporate failure calculation wrong but still in the Grey area so should get marks

Again as long as you can justify your points you should be okay. They already focused on maximising profits with a heavy focus on dividends. As they were looking to grow under new establishment into new markets, i ascertained that non accounting would be best to gain a competitive advantage in new markets

Q1: I talked about the use of ROCE being something budget constrained style management would use, and that the recent good performance suggested it isnt a bad style for this business. I then suggested where profit conscious measures focussing on value would help supplement this and would be a good appraoch to expansion in new geographies- treating each new country as a “project” and working out an NPV based on risks known to that country as a disc factor. Also mentioned that EVA would align with wanting to get cash for dividends better than ROCE. Q2: If you look at Culam from Dec 14 and specimen paper I basically adapted this answer to fit the circumstances (ie model is backwards looking, has all companies on stock exch which have sectoral diffs, the long nature of oil projects Freeze and Thor deliver means there will be lifecycle cost implications not consideres when you take a snapshot at a point in time). I messed up the gearing bit to start but quickly got back into it - just hope my poor presentation at the start of this doesnt detract from the points I made about fixed vs variable costs and risk, then on financial gearing the serviceability of diff types of debt and risk profile being different etc. Q3: I talked about the possible outsourcing savings being lost if the BPR project wasnt implemented successfully- did some calcs to show cost per unit if you only had 8000 goods in the container vs 10000. I also talked about the challenges of implementing but related everything back to the question as best as I could in this regard. I think any answers suitably justified are worthy of merit based on what tutors tell us so fingers crossed!

i pray i pass. 3rd time and am not sure till the results are out. God help me!!!

Consider data piling and the relevance and reliability of data etc. Time consuming to mine through it, subjective etc. Everyone relax hopefully we all do well

Alex yes we did have to suggest KPI's in section 1a for the other three perspectives but we also had to evaluate the use of the current financial ones and recalculate the incorrect roce figure or something like that. What KPI's did everyone write about?

Oh yeah I talked about sub optimisation and short termism etc for financial Kpis. Just didn’t recalculate ROCE

Did you all answer 100% of the paper?

Good question.

It was my first attempt and I don't feel happy with my attempt. Throughout the exam I felt I was in a hurry and so I coudn't think properly how to structure concise but relevant responses. I ended up giving more general responses which is bad. I read Q1 (d) five times as I couldn't understand the question asked. I responded, as many, using the building block model characteristics of standards and rewards. I do consider that the examiner could do better in formulating his questions in a clearer way. I think my paper is a 40, I hope in a 50. I am in God's hands now.

I had a similar approach. Used building block principles and spoke in reference to the scorecard and wider objectives. First question on KPIs was tricky as had to be linked to the current situation Fearties was faced with (i.e. global expansion and quality problems). Thought the corporate failure question was okay and pretty straight forward. Advantages and disadvantages of the quantitative models. Gearing was interesting as Thor had high fixed costs but Freeze had the oil spill problem. BPR question was tricky and wasn't like the previous questions asked. Overall, tough but fair exam. P5/APM is a funny one as you may get a completely different answer to someone else but both score highly. Fingers crossed for everyone