SBL*** ACCA Paper SBL December 2019 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

Your have very persuasive answers. What are your thoughts concerning environmental footprint and disruptive technology for change drivers and how it influence the speed of adoption? This is considering JJ being socially responsible and they gaining competitive advantage as being a first mover.

I didnt write the same for 1-a. I choosed cable vacuum the dog (declining) cordless vacuum as a cash cow (medium growth) robotic one as a star (high growth) I emphasized Porter 's three competitive strategies as 1 - b also had a competitive strategy theme. I wrote about be cheapper, be better, be nisher. 2-a I couldnt write anything. 2-b was easy presantion slide about strenghts of new battery technology 3 rd question was about comparing two countries. I used Porter's Diamond in this question. 4 th I explained the current leadership in the company. I made an assessment in the context of "cultural web" since it expresses the cultural structure with the effect or similar expression in the cultural structure of the company. I wish all of you the best.

I will add my responses, should it provide any relief, though I mirror the uncertainty felt by everyone else. 1a - I completely forgot the terms of the matrix e.g star etc. However I answered not to invest in the corded declining market, they should invest in the cordless as they have a strong market share. Large sales and the market is still growing. I advised against further investment in the robotic due to the initial high sales price which has attracted a lot of competition and will ultimately lead to lower long term margins. 1b - if this was the question about the restructuring or refocus. I was stuck for theory so I just suggested that the marketing would need to change and be prioritised as this is a much higher value purchase and a brochure will not suffice etc. I also said they could tap into their existing customer base and offer them promotional offers on the new vehicle given their loyalty to the brand with previous purchases. 2a - external factors to speed - government and local council resistance to large coverage of charge points. Ppl will not want to buy if planning permission is hard to obtain if they wanted to build their own charge point near home, or if there are not enough across country. Won't buy car if not large coverage of charging facilities. 2b unanswered. 3 - used porters diamond and found this question OK. 4. Email was a joke. No theory applied. I just emphasised the project managers point of first to market being critical, therefore confidentiality needed to be maintained. And that we as an intraprenurial company encourage ideas from anyone who believes the process to market can be made quicker. We have a strong brand and demand, just need to get it done first. The most shocking part of all, was the guy sat a few tables in front of me who put his pen down at 12.30 and genuinely didn't pick it up again. Wish I had that confidence (or glad I didn't)

I felt the first question required good judgement and analyses as it was asking to recommend which product will increase long term value if More investment is made on it. I recommended the robot vaccums because of it high growth market and decreasing unit selling price and also being a new technology. For 1 b , at first i didnt know what to write. However as i started writing I understood its requirement which was the changes that will be needed in the value chain with the production of electric cars. There were alot of points here to add. for 2 a & b, i just wrote about two external factors that will speed up adoption of the cars and benefits of new battery such as customer demands will be met, environmental expectations will be met, as a unique resource it will disrupt other technologies. Three was just comparing the two countries, both had good factors to be considered. Last one was bit tricky, but i just ended up writing about leadership and culture which have contributed to jjtechs success and will be key in the success of phase 2 as well.

This was my second attempt. I did find that there was a lot more information to work with compared to the sept exam. However, trying to understand exactly what the examiner wants you to do is the trickiest thing about SBL. I don’t believe any of the previous specimen or exams can ever fully prepare you for these each exam sitting. It is a lottery. Other than BCG no other theory was really tested. I’m hoping I have applied myself better in this exam compared to September, but god only knows!! I really think that there is one to many questions in this exam. There never seems adequate time for Q4.

In 2(a) i wrote if government does not provide SUBSIDY it may affect the purchase of cars and secondly i wrote that there may be possiblity that there may not be sufficient CHARGING STATION which will affect the consumer decision to buy a car.. in 4 i interpreted as project manager writing a email to project team explaining the culture and leadership..so that the project team can understand the culture style and leadership ( for ex. Project manager encouraging project team member to came up with your own suggestions as the project progresses as it is the culture of jj that it values every suggestion of an employee

Reassuring to see that other people shared my concerns. As a query did anyone head their answers up with a name, to/from and a title" like the following? "Report To: JJ Date: XX/XX/XX Prepared by: External consultant Report on XYZ" Q1a) I did corded Cash Cow (Declining growth; Highest market share), Cordless as Star with a note about the level of growth potentially making it shift towards Cash Cow (Medium growth; Highest market share) and, robotics as problem child (High growth; mid-level market share) Along with a recommendation of what should be done, although this was essentially just textbook but modified for the setting. So the cash cow, should in theory have less of a threat of new competition and with less vying for market share the margin could be exploited to fund other products rather than being plowed back. The star, I wrote about how they need to defend their market lead and how margins are likely to be low and thus, unable to fund other projects with it. And the problem child, that they essentially needed to go on the attack and promote their product to try and gain market share. Was a snippet of information about how it was best in the market at XYZ, so I wrote about that. (Could have been the quietest or something?) Q1b) Initially thought this question would be rather simple as what I've seen of practise questions and the like the value chain generally has a few differences companies employing a cost-saving element while persuing a differentiating strategy. I thought from reading things that both the current vacuum & the future car strategy would both be differentiation. Initially thought it was rather difficult as almost everything to my eye at least seemed to already be differentiation. As such, I just focused on the differences in this specific car market. So the vacuums use cutting edge tech, I suggested some hand-finished works for the car. They train people up internally for staff, I suggested that skilled people could be taken on as they attempting to be first to market with the car and this would reduce the setback. Various other points as well, the guarantee for the vacuums were 5 years, I didn't consider this especially long for a battery of a 60k car where 35% of the cost was the battery, so I suggested an increase, seeing as it stated that the customers wanted that. Professional marks were awarded for scepticism, and I felt rather sceptical of a lot of things on this list or rather the lack of. I wrote about how some sections had multiple bullet points whilst others had only one or two and wondered if this was because they were only cherry-picking the best elements for the report. Was also quite sceptical of some of the points they made when they simply wrote a statement as the way they generated value with no further explanation. So for example, they used high tech to generate value in production which is quite logical, but in another section, they wrote that they communicated R&D and production between each other well, with no further explanation of how they did this. tl;dr sceptical of everything being so rosy. Q2a) Two external forces for change. I did the environmental concern for carbon emissions & outlets being a potential limiting factor. Q2b) The slide presentation. Thought this was a pretty difficult one, didn't really know what they wanted for a "perfect slide". I did bullet points for the slide as I didn't think they would expect witty quotes from James Dyson to be recalled of the top of your head, nor did I see enough data provided to do a graph. So just did bullet points, short and snappy with notes that expanded upon them. Also made a note for JJ to read about sharing his enthusiasm with the group--had seen on a past exam paper that marks were awarded for encouraging the junior member of your team when doing a report and thought this would be of a similar nature(?) 3) I went to town on this, feel it was my strongest question. Was all about which country was better wrote about basically everything in the pestel, along with alot about the other sections. I personally made a recommendation, of the developing country. As I felt the growing pressure for environmental change, rising wages, rising cars per head, the large volume of steel, and the lack of real competition swayed it. That being said I had a lot going for the developed country as well such as the subsidies, higher min wage etc. Don't know if anyone else commented on it but I wrote a bit about the wages as a benefit to the developed country, given how skilled the labour required on these cars seemed to be I didn't think we would be seeking to recruit people for peanuts, but rather that the wages although minimum rather than medium instead reflected how affordable the product was. Not that I expect someone on a min wage of $6 an hour to buy a $60k car. Q4) Thought and still feel that this was the hardest question, really felt that it was very wishy-washy and struggled to pin down exactly what to do. I wrote about the leadership, culture, and organisational achievements as requested, but putting into an email format I felt like I was simply reiterating information from the case studies and disseminating it to the team with the findings that they should come forward if they have ideas. Struggled to see what else could be rewritten. But I guess marks would be awarded for the dissemination of this information as the members of the team wouldn't necessarily have the information themselves. Stuff like "As you may know we promote a culture of not criticising people if their ideas might seem unsuitable. So come forward with your ideas." type of thing. I felt like basically all of the information provided served to reinforce the fact that JJ and the rest of the gang wanted people to come forward with every suggestion no matter how stupid it might sound to others. Wrote a bit about the incorporation of the solar tech as well, and how the company said they were constant re-engineering the products in the value chain, so if you had an idea don't think its to late to include it.

Also, general query did anyone do any real number crunching? The girl sat next to me seemed to be furiously typing away on her calculator for at least an hour, which I found rather disconcerting given I think I used mine about once in the whole exam for the opening question

@beatab said: For Q2b I didint really write anyhing, was supposed to come back to it but run out of time. Q4 was quite weird, I just wrote about how communication, suggesting new ideas etc is important for the company- all in 'lifting spitits' tone... I used BCG and SAF in 1a, in Q3 i used Porter's Diamond. In value chain and Q4 I didnt really use any theory and the same in 2b- benefits. And I feel that was not good I could not apply any theory to more than half of the exam...

me too.. same answer.. I used saf and bcg , and value chain taken data from portal chain, in question 2 i think i used current vaccum market and recommended additional activities they need to provide.. could not understand much the last question, But i tried to answer it..it was lengthy, but i was stucked with 3 and 4 quite some time, in number 3 they didnt want any recommendation so i was struggling .. so far confusing, did not use much theory which actually confused me a lot

I've just realised after reading this that I didn't actually touch my calculator during exam.

@sabrina006 said: me too.. same answer.. I used saf and bcg , and value chain taken data from portal chain, in question 2 i think i used current vaccum market and recommended additional activities they need to provide.. could not understand much the last question, But i tried to answer it..it was lengthy, but i was stucked with 3 and 4 quite some time, in number 3 they didnt want any recommendation so i was struggling .. so far confusing, did not use much theory which actually confused me a lot

there was another ACCA paper exam too.

guys I had forgot BCG matrix components...so for 1(a) I used SWOT for each product line and in the end explained in which product line to invest....will I be able to score any marks despite of not using BCG?

wasn't question 2 talking bout the hurdles (external factors) from speeding up the adoption of electric cars?

@adityasoin said: guys I had forgot BCG matrix components...so for 1(a) I used SWOT for each product line and in the end explained in which product line to invest....will I be able to score any marks despite of not using BCG?

absolutely, there's no one definitive model for any question, in fact you don't even have to use any model at all, as long as your answer makes the relevant points, you'll score marks

@eamkevin8 said: wasn't question 2 talking bout the hurdles (external factors) from speeding up the adoption of electric cars?

Yes it was, I for one, couldn't think of any? everything looked to be on a plate for the phasing in of electric cars, I made some points about the starting price and lack of general awareness of the benefits, and safety fears but i felt I was making them up as i tried to offer some discussion

Pretty much echo what everyone is saying about the questions. What struck me was how little of the overall syllabus was testing. No governance, internal control, financial analysis or risk. Would have thought atleast one of these major topics would come up and I'm sure people would have spent a lot of time on preparing for these.

Friend, Corded Vacuum Cleaner had a lower market share with declining demand. Do you think these are OK for assessing the product as being "cash caw"? Corded Vacuum Cleaner (low share and declining demand)= Cash Cow???

Did anyone use Porter Diamond for analysing the 2 markets for production?

@caspian087 said: Friend, Corded Vacuum Cleaner had a lower market share with declining demand. Do you think these are OK for assessing the product as being "cash caw"? Corded Vacuum Cleaner (low share and declining demand)= Cash Cow???

I thought that the corded and cordless both had 20% market share, with their nearest competitor being 18% - 17.5% respectively or something to a similar effect. With only the robot vacuum cleaner not being a market leader.

In Q3, I compared and contrasted each PESTEL elements in Westland and Amutland one by one. However, after the exam, I just found that the most suitable model for Q3 was Porter's Diamond, but I didn't use Porter's Diamond on Q3 in the exam. Why I was not smart enough at the exam hall?

@kachun19 said: In Q3, I compared and contrasted each PESTEL elements in Westland and Amutland one by one. However, after the exam, I just found that the most suitable model for Q3 was Porter's Diamond, but I didn't use Porter's Diamond on Q3 in the exam. Why I was not smart enough at the exam hall?

I also just compared them one by one. I don't think it's necc a problem to not do it within a model so long as you make relevant points including similar points to one's you would have made under the model. Like mentioning more buyer power regarding the fact that one of the countries supplied more steal etc.

I used both Diamond and 5 forces models for this question

@saeedbostan said: Pretty much echo what everyone is saying about the questions. What struck me was how little of the overall syllabus was testing. No governance, internal control, financial analysis or risk. Would have thought atleast one of these major topics would come up and I'm sure people would have spent a lot of time on preparing for these.

Looks like we should have mentioned something about risks in q 2a

In question 4 Baldrige matrix could have been used- visionary leadership, focus on success, value employees

I agree - the theories and frameworks are only there to help you generate points... once the points are relevant and sensible I think you will get marks regardless of whether a model was used or not

Summarisations from my answer.. the first vacuum i wrote dog and closing down the production line and there is no clear statements to say that the production line will become a supplier to Cash Cow and Stars. Cordless cash cow i wrote stars and the investment needed for improvement in its innovative and technology of it as it will reach maturity level and effect to decline in LT. This is because the robotic seems like to be the substitute product that can bring greater benefit where the product specifications stated already it is better and convenient for the consumer. So, i consider this robot as a cash cow where the income of it will be transferred to Stars for further investment and potential of robot to become main production has been forecasted to be expected to improve in 10 years time! Which means no need to worry on robot as its potential to become a market production line leader! Thus it is important to focus on Stars which is cordless to ensure the prodcution line will not cease!

Summarisations from my answer.. the first vacuum i wrote dog and closing down the production line and there is no clear statements to say that the production line will become a supplier to Cash Cow and Stars. Cordless cash cow i wrote stars and the investment needed for improvement in its innovative and technology of it as it will reach maturity level and effect to decline in LT. This is because the robotic seems like to be the substitute product that can bring greater benefit where the product specifications stated already it is better and convenient for the consumer. So, i consider this robot as a cash cow where the income of it will be transferred to Stars for further investment and potential of robot to become main production has been forecasted to be expected to improve in 10 years time! Which means no need to worry on robot as its potential to become a market production line leader! Thus it is important to focus on Stars which is cordless to ensure the prodcution line will not cease!

@jjacca said: And how did you map the product in BCG matrix Q1a? I mapped the corded as a cash cow, unusually not needing investment as market was in decline and no point. I mapped the other two as question marks. As cordedless had ok market grown and decent relative market share. The robot was high growth with lower relative market share! not sure if that was correct! Exam was extremely lengthy

Summarisations from my answer.. the first vacuum i wrote dog and closing down the production line and there is no clear statements to say that the production line will become a supplier to Cash Cow and Stars. Cordless cash cow i wrote stars and the investment needed for improvement in its innovative and technology of it as it will reach maturity level and effect to decline in LT. This is because the robotic seems like to be the substitute product that can bring greater benefit where the product specifications stated already it is better and convenient for the consumer. So, i consider this robot as a cash cow where the income of it will be transferred to Stars for further investment and potential of robot to become main production has been forecasted to be expected to improve in 10 years time! Which means no need to worry on robot as its potential to become a market production line leader! Thus it is important to focus on Stars which is cordless to ensure the prodcution line will not cease!

I had not used any models just wrote depending on the case and it was difficult . Can anyone tell me using models is necessary ?. Will i loose marks for that.

The models can be used as a guide and so it is not imperative that they are mentioned... it's good to know them so you can use them as tool for answering questions ?