SBL*** P3 December 2014 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

exactly, there is no right answer to most of these kind of questions. if you can justify then you get the marks so be happy :)

outgrowing the market is about gaining further mkt share (you are taking competitions share) ... this doesn't put you in star position. cow is high mkt share, very prof, but steady slow market growth star is high mkt share but on very attractive (growing mkt) and not necessarily profitable as you are competing with fierce competition attracted by growing market...

i used harmon in q2b, but only saying that the call service should remain in-house, nothing about the technical support, contract service and the refunds. (it didn't crossed my mind at all to break down the call service in this 3 process) i hope still earning enough marks here, also did some calculations for q2b as the figure was given. q4a, what is the strength and weaknesses of the primary activities? i only wrote about the strength/weakness based on the calculation given about the costs of the pet's food. i spend the entire time on q4a, leaving q4b unattempted at all. and q1b unattempted. which means losing 20 marks. still hoping for a pass on the 80marks which i attempted. q1ai,ii, was very long. road is cash cow, the other 2 is question mark. for airport, use SAF to evaluate.

I used BCG matrix for Q1 and had roads as cash cow, warehouses as problem child and railways as the dog - same as somebody else who posted earlier. Also mentioned that the railways was the dog more because of the inexperience of the roam group and that it could become a star with the right management due to the green factor and supermarkets wanting to be associated with rail freight - so it has the market offering itself to it. The Godiva Airport acquisition was a bit of a gift really. The industry average ratios given just meant using the Airport's financials to calculate and compare the same ratios, so there was a lot to talk about with those. Not sure about anybody else, but I calculated debtors and creditors days as well, and (hopefully they're correct) found that creditors were being paid almost 2 weeks before debtors were paying. Q2 I couldn't really see the text in the 'swim lanes' diagram. Was as if it was a bit blurred, and it was tiny anyway, Making recommendations for improvement was quite straightforward though. Q3 I found it quite hard to join the dots in relating answer to the scenario. I felt as if the info given for the two projects was a bit too vague to relate to the requirements of the question. All in all, it didn't strike me as a difficult paper, but then it's P3, it's not a technical exam and it's open to your imagination in many ways. It's done now anyway and best of luck to everybody who sat it today.

also some ashridge display in q1ai and also synergy manager. q2a was ok, considering the weakness was clear.

Sublime, I said cash cow for the road company too. High market share but only a small market growth. Market growth didn't seem high enough to be a star. All ACCA exams are time pressured. But this was by far the most time pressured paper I have done. Q1 was sooo lengthy that I was really struggling to get the other 2 Qs done. 1ai) BCG Matrix and Financial analysis - There were 9 different aspects to talk about in this question. Performance, contribution and significance to strategy for 3 separate companies! ii) SWOT and Financial analysis for airport b) Only put a few brief comments because of time. I put about the hybrid and differentiation categories on the strategy clock and a couple of points about pricing and differentiation strategies 3a) Didn't write much because I ran out of time and did this Q last. Put a couple of points about the project initiation document and the financial analysis of the software company b) Didn't answer due to time 4a) Wrote about outbound logistics, operations, marketing and sales and after sales. Didn't seem to be much info on inbound logistics b) A couple of brief points about trends c) Didn't answer due to time Overall I think I did a reasonable job in Q1 and 4a but probably only completed about 75% of the paper due to the very lengthy Q1. Therefore probably need more or less full marks on Q1ai which isn't going to happen!

I also used harmons process strategy matrix on 2b but im thinking I should have used the popit model also on 2a i forgot about application controls etc until was too late. question 1 rushed b so didnt apply a model but came to the conclusion it wasnt a good investment done the ratios and got a explanation down but I ran out of time on it and didnt get much time on question 3b. Was resitting got 48 percent last time hope ive done enough to get through this time think it will be close.

@lola1234 I have P2 tomorrow and not holding out much hope so I actually NEED this to not be a fail.

Very best of luck for tomorrow! P2 is not the easiest of exams, but it's definitely more interesting than P3. :)

fingers crossed for everyone xx

yes good luck @iola1234 x

i got $1500 for the cost if it is held in house. 24/8= 3 shifts, for ten people since TCG is using currently 10 people for the process, and $50 for 1 person for 8 hours. So 10 x 3 x 50 gave me $1500 per day as compared to $ 600 charged by TCG for the avg call of 600 per day

i came tot he conclusion that the second one was a dog but i got 1st and last the same as u

Didn't use any specific model in Q1-a in Part b used SFA and wrote in conclusion that acquisition should be carried as planned but perhaps gearing was high and attention needs to paid to it. Q1-c explained whats hybrid and how SRRT is able to achieve hybrid that is low price and high quality. Did q3 alright and left 10 marks of last question un attempted.

one solution i gave for q2 (a) was TCG could ask the customers themselves for the password and id and so this could saves time as much of the support staff time appears to be spent on customers who forgot their personal infos. However this would imply that tcg would have access to Stella databases and a close relationship would have to be created, maybe a lengthy contract between the two companies will enable this process to work

i did the calc like you icedawn. god knows what the answer is. i put to carry on outsourcing on that basis. anyway. i have to try and hit p1 now. really cant be bothered after today lol!

Thanks all! Going to need it x

i said the airport was a bad idea since it didnt fit with the other sbus in the portfolio and its strategy was to acquire related businesses to create synergistic benefits. In this case, The company will have to develop new competences and there was poor opportunity for synergy and the same problems could arise again as in the acquisition of the rail thing.

good thing as someone said above, if you can provide clear reasons for your conclusion, then you are most probably going to get your marks:)

Q1 all I did was bcg matrix, don't think it went too well, very similar question in the kaplan exam kit nothing about synergy managers just basic bcg and a bit of pest. Did market growth vs market share - few calcs could've been wrong, will get very little on this Q1b just did sfa by jsw. Said should accept as fits their objective set out at the beginning, was acceptable by shareholders, feasible have the money, acceptable as not making a loss and could use expertise - just tried to justify Didn't really do it as a report so none of the 4 marks. Q1c talked about it been on strategy clock, could differ through knowledge management or branding etc. cost could not update trucks every three years to decrease costs. Didn't really discus hybrid meaning much. Q2 talked about positive and negatives, suggested getting rid of some activities that didn't add value, came up with a few solutions Q2b said to keep in house, more expensive but service key part of value chain and customers not happy it's outsourced. Did some calcs and reduced line opening hours to get it to not cost so much. Said refunds could be outsourced using harmons but not to bother. Q3 risk management followed identify asses plan and monitor(sitting p1 on Wednesday so fresh in the mind) chose a risk for each of them and how they risk mapped it. Added in alarp probably not in right context. Q3b no idea how to relate to context, got the cost section wrong (did financial not cost out weighting benefits). Talked about how deadlines are already pushing it may need to increase another area, all interrelated. Harder than I expected, think it will be hard to pass, q1 was too many marks and didn't write much for it

Hello Can anyone explain me - why in Q1a many people wrote about BCG. BCG relate to product. The question ask to write about The Roam Group portfolio (separate SBU's) -> Ashridge model?

I thought it was very time pressured exam. Used BCG in Q1 a then SAF for b last part just tried to gain some marks but don't think I did great on it. Q2 just identified about 4 issues and suggested improvements like introducing answering systems where customers can dial numbers after being asked questions about supplier or the purpose of the call. Part b Harmons for all 3 think I decided that only technical advice should be in house and calculated the costs difference then added few points on other factors issues to consider. Q4 mainly wrote about 4 primary activities and their weaknesses, good brand and reputation was a strength. Then part b was ok just general points on change in trends few calc and that overall market doesn't grow (mature market) no time for last part. Fingers crossed hopefully marker can read my handwriting as it wasn't the best due to time pressure! 50% please!!!

For Q3b 1st project i got the problem as the company didnt review its business case as the project went forward. This could result in project drift since the environment is always changing and by not reviewing its business case, the deliverables could have become irrelevant after the completion of the project. Hence cost would be saved and the project done in a timely manner but the scope of the project itself becomes obsolete. For 2nd project , i got the problem as the product not being ready before the venue date thing. So i proposed some solutions such as hiring and allocating more staffs to the project but this would increase cost, i assumed the product had to be tested before being demonstrated to the public, so i proposed that the testing phase could be ignored which means the scope reduced but this may affect the quality of the product or worst case, the product doesnt even work at the demonstration venue and finally proposed to extend the period of the project and postpone the venue.

A past paper by kaplan had a very similar question on shoal pro and their 3 companies and the contribution . Bcg was used in the model answer, it's called a portfolio analysis, ashridge is a parental developer portfolio whether the company can add value to it which I didn't think was relevant in q1a bit the kaplan practise exam says ashridge could've been used too so both should hoepfuly be right!, it was more useful in part b on whether to acquire the business

@joanna1 , u got it wrong, bcgs is most suited to SBUS and product life cycle relates to product but bcg could also be used for products assessment.

@ Joanna actually BCG is meant for SBUs it doesnt really apply to products though we use. The most applicable for products is product lifecycle etc

I expect that Ali will be on early next year as the ACCA and no doubt open tuition prizewinner. I look forward to congratulating you at that point as you found it so easy!!

The exam were quite doable; nothing too tasking was require, BUT! The time was NOT doable. Q1 was very long and spent most of my time writing that report. The second part was done very quickly in hopes of getting some marks. Q1 did not leave much time to properly read and think about answers from the options. It was a read and write and reread while writing situation. Think the time compromised the quality of my responses. Hoping for the pass, expectations set low though lol.

Going through comments i got to know a lot of people used different models i used none, IMO you shall get marks for every point which makes sense, Using BCG or Ashridge both were alright not using any was alright as well. I focused on the financial analysis and told the examiner significance of each company to group and what strategies should they adopt regarding them.

This was definitely in my opinion, the toughest exam I have sat in ACCA. Q1... Quite frankly mock exams do not prepare you for this, the scenario is very time consuming. a. i. In my evaluation of each company of portfolio I used balanced score card. It seems that most people used BCG Matrix, but I hope the score card worked just as well. I think I spent too long on this and probably waffled a bit too much. ii. I used SAF to evaluate acquisition b. I felt like I completely winged this one, I tried to make 10 points on how the company might try to get competitive advantage by differentiation and price. Q2. Evaluating the processes I felt was an easy one, however I did not evaluate positives of the processes, as I couldn't really point any out, so I focused on negatives and suggesting improvements Q4. Can anyone clarify whether Milton was different to Noble? My understanding of the scenario was that Noble and Milton were the same, so when analysing Strengths and Weaknesses I feel that I was talking about both Milton & Noble... Overall I waffled way too much, I should of used my time better, praying I've scraped enough for a pass, can't face a resit!

How can u fit Harmons matrix into the question 2 (b)? That is just not possible. Its just one call center - you either outsource it or keep in-house. therefore this is wrong Service contract – automate Refunds – outsource Technical support – improve Its all going through the same call center. You just cannot outsource one function of it and keep one function in-house. The question 2(b) asked us to analyse the situation, calculate the cost if they bring it in-house. In my calculation it came up to $1500 per day for just staff cost. That is 10 staffs x 3 shifts x $50 per staff, assuming it runs 24 hrs. There are other costs as well, equipment, office space and so on... currently they spend about 600 per day for handling those queries. so obviously they have to keep the way it is now. Its not about Harmons theory. Its just commonsense!!!