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

I put something along those lines and mentioned an Intrapreneurship model as a remedy.

@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?

@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

@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 🙂

@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

@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!

@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)

No models used. The whole exam was about reporting to the chairman/executive/board. Models (if any) may only be imbibed, not expressly stated.

Very valid conclusion

@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

In overall the exam was not really difficult, however if I were to complain I’d complain on three things.
(1) Q2b requirement was not clear.

(2) TIME
I think if extra 15 minutes were given it would be far better. I left some points myself I’d make trying to make time for other areas of the paper. I am not sure wheather this has worked for me.

Q2) Book release:

Started off by mentioning that it had been done in the past, and couldnt have been so damaging if hes now got a tv show and another book. Mentioned that history isnt ever pure facts, and there’s always a touch of subjective. Also mentioned that this is one critic, and although described as independent, how can we know for sure? Advised for a 2nd opinion

Ethical i used Tuckers (with a crowbar)

Profitable = Could be if public dont veto. Would be unprofitable otherwise
Legal = Could be a potential lawsuit regarding credibility, but there’s no hard laws being broken.
Fair = Not fair to state something as factual if known it isn’t. Not fair on the students
Right = As an education publisher, its not right to include false facts.
Environmental/Sustainable: Knowledge is passed down from generation to generation, thus misstatements reduce the intelligence of future generations.

Financial:

Loss of wasted inventory, unless they can find a publisher willing to buy the books
Loss of sales/contracts as a result of reputation damage
Bad publicity might reduce Pendeans desire to merge