*** March 2022 ACCA SBL exam – Instant Poll and comments ***

Did anyone sit today?

Can’t find a thread on it?

How did everyone find it?

Yes I didn’t feel they gave us much information.

I had

Chairman and ceo roles

Merger

Letter to employees

Investment proposal – customisation vs sport fishing

Risks

E-Marketing

Yes was a nice paper

CEO strategy committee proposal

Letter to CEO customer dissatisfaction implications on organisational change

Letter to CEO to be sent to concerned employees

Investment araisa Sailing Dinghis VS Luxury Yachts

Risk level and risk mitigating activities

Benefits analysis of an advertising agency (Seeyachts Co)

Btw guy I have a question….

Did you write
TO:CEO

Or

TO: TONY BURSHAM

Was there any task with 2 parts except for the one where we had to (a)explain employees impact on organisational change and (b)write a letter to the employees addressing their concerns?

Only q 2 had a, b

Other q had multiple requirements but just bullet points

Also was this the first ever sbl without slides question?

Thank you very much! 🙂
Also, I had no slide questions.

I didn’t feel i used many models tbh mostly topic knowledge.

What did everyone write for the investment proposal?

There was a really strong case to be made for the dinghis

But I recommended the luxury yachts coz that’s what would help Yexmarine achieve their goals strategically

Legally, Jarnam had innovation which Yexmarine didnt and the move to Lympool was probably not gonna change that as the guy un the yacht magazine said
So they have to differentiate like focus-differentiater strategy

But I guess however u reason it should be fine

I got the case of Yexmarine

Q1 was related to a strategy committee

Q2
A) Change management Q how to manage the survey issues or something for each stage of change( I was stumped in this question)

B) how to address the concerns of the employees

Q3
Evaluate two projects and recommend what to choose.
Financial, non financial benefits and drawbacks
Recommendation with the reason why it was chosen

Q4
Evaluate the risi assessment, impact and the mitigating actions done by operation director as well as recommend further if needed

Q5
What are the benefits the company will get from acquiring the services of a marketing agency seeyatch co

It was quite a tough paper, mentally and physically draining because of the long hours. I didnt think I’ll feel it cause it’s just 45mins longer than the other papers but little did I know those 45 mins felt like I played a very demanding first half of a champions league final. Wow!?

Anyone else got this and how did you approach to answer these questions?

Not sure If I di the risk assessments questions right (Data and Reputation risk). Data risk assessment as serious in the proposal but I said I disagree with it as it not very IT based so the risk is not that serious.

For sceptisitm skill I said there should be more mitigation activities mentioned

For Q with the impact of employees on the change process I said potential delays as they are too resistent and more time must be spend for encouraging them

for the Q how to address their concerns

Satisfactionary pay

Development opportunities

Extra pay for overtime

Communication

The investments options

Sport fishing higher NPV higher gross profit margin but high investment cost which means big financial risk

It said that to pick one / recommend one IF any should be taken as a new investment so really could’ve said no to both because it was forecast for within 10 years and those margins weren’t good and the shareholders or whoever wanted specific margins anticipated for 5 year mark at 45% or something so within 10 years those projects had ones still low for the target.

overall okay paper hopefully pass! but its hard as you never know if you’ll get marks for what you actually wrote.

I wrote similar things and for those employees who didn’t want to change themselves, I asked them to do it for our loyal customer base. That was it. I hope that I have written enough.

How was it?

I had the Yexmarine case study

Q1 – on the strategy committee suggested benefits and issues with proposal such as no FD or no independence on the committee

Q2a – To do with organisation change, was a bit confused (feel this question was not well written?) Discussed how rapid change can affect moral and uncertainty, employees feel they are not being heard

Q2b – In the letter tried to be reassurance, stated taking risk analysis on flooding, will provide training and employee representation on the board

Q3 – Evaluation of the two projects, I discussed each element and concluded with the Dinghies as they payback quicker, less risky and allow contingency funds to support other important strategic decisions

Q4 – On the risks of the move to Lympool discussed using the risk map and couple of other suggestions such as ensuring insurance cover loss of income in case of flooding and more proactive approach to the obsolescence products

Q5 On benefits of the e-marketing company, discussed benefits of outsourcing and the 6I’s

I generally felt the paper was okay apart from question 2 which was a bit confusing and didn’t really fit into anything i studied. It seems that there was a lot to study and only a couple of areas came up.

Best of luck to everyone, this is a mammoth paper in terms of things to know.

(Seeyacht Co’s campaign strategy I mean)