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

I wouldn't worry about it guys there are no right or wrong answers in this paper eg if everyone done bcg then the markers will take that into account it's all relative as long as you got 85 percent of the paper done or so you should be ok. It's one mark for each relevant point remember

The paper was fair time was the major constraint especially with the detailed analysis needed for Question 1 Attempted 1,2,& 3 Left a total of 20 marks because of time

The exam paper is now out for those who want to torture themselves.

So where abouts does each one fit in the BCG matrix ? In terms of the outsourcing/ keep in house I accidently forgot to times my answer by 3 to give 8 hrs x 3 = 24 hours which is what they operated. I therefore got keeping in house as my answer instead of outsourcing. Will I get follow through marks? (This came to $500 to produce in house and $600 to outsource.) Really worried now!

I based that part of it on the fact that the TCG company made $600 per day with 10 staff dedicated to SE. Therefore it would cost SE $50 x 10 staff - $500 per day for the same level of staff in-house. But.. SE said $50 a day to "employ" a single member of staff, so I took that as the purely the cost of employing somebody without it including the other associated overheads of operating its own call centre, and suggested that it was still cheaper to outsource. Dropped in some advantages of it, and potential disadvantages of it. Brought in the points about unemployment in the area and the growing customer dissatisfaction with overseas call centres due to language barriers and how SE might consider accepting the extra costs to raise its profile. But concluded that I didn't have enough information to form an overall opinion as to whether or not to continue to outsource.

I put that the transport was a Cash Cow, warehouses were rising stars and the rail freight was somewhere between a dog and a problem child as it fitted with their corporate social responsibilities by finding alternative more eco friendly modes of transport but at the same time it was losing its % hold of the market. I put in my recommendations that maybe they could make a strategic alliance with one of the bigger competitors

It does seem from the number of comments that a lot of people found that question 1 took around 2 hours - myself included

The question said $50 per employee per 8 hour shift. Terra Call offered the services of 10 people 24/7 for $600. Therefore to bring in house would cost £1,500

Question 1, though being easy, was too lengthy. There was simply too many facts and financial data to digest for only 21 marks, which seemed very unfair to me. There was an almost similar question in Dec 2010 (Shoal Pro) where for 15 marks there was considerably less points to analyse to get the full mark on offer. Q1a(i) was the 'roller coaster' of the whole paper which seems never ending, and which together with part a(ii) took around 2 hours to get completed and that really took its toll on the remaining parts of the question paper. The real problem with P3 is the major confusion concerning the marking scheme. You have to write 1 relevant point to get 1 mark whatever the complexity of that point. Hence we are made to believe that in order to gain say 20 marks, we have to write around 20 clear and distinct points, which is seemly impossible under exam conditions, unless we could type the answers. Hence, in P3 proper planning and strict time allocation seems the key to passing the exam, not how comprehensively we can attempt a particular question. How could we take 1 hour for a 20 marker question that only requires around 30 mins to complete (according to strict time allocation). This is simply the real pitfall of this paper, which if we can overcome, then we can hopefully pass the paper!

One final issue: How many pages did you write for Q1 only, and the whole paper?

i've attempted q3&4.. q1 was too lengthy - did not get time to finish even though knew the answer, simply run out of time. I had a Cash cow, Child and Dog for q1 part a , part a(II) only started and b. did not attempt at all - had no time left :( Overall exam was OK but unfair in terms of time requirements. I've done many questions while revising, clocked, and thought was OK - in the exam only 3/4 completed :(

Anyone else notice that the 450 hectares of land owned by Godiva was worth $9m and hence the investment would be worthwhile purchasing the airport, not using it as an airport and either using it for warehousing or simply sell off the assets individually? I was unsure as to whether this was owned or not given the PPE of Godiva is only $6m.

Just hope for a pass, good luck guys

Q I was length and much detail,

@sam04071989 said: Anyone else notice that the 450 hectares of land owned by Godiva was worth $9m and hence the investment would be worthwhile purchasing the airport, not using it as an airport and either using it for warehousing or simply sell off the assets individually? I was unsure as to whether this was owned or not given the PPE of Godiva is only $6m.

I did notice the 450 hectares info, and wondered if giving that info was connected to the previous scenario of warehousing space becoming hard to find and getting increasingly expensive. But I didn't join the dots to suggest what you did. All round.. I'm heading for a resit I think.

Question 1 I applied a ashridge model and BCG. Someone mentioned about BSG being product only, I noted that the Roam Group co was set up to facilitate the acquisition of companies and hence by default they are dealing In buying and selling stocks, hence the application of BCG is applicable for SBUs in this instance. Granted very time pressured but managed to include ratio analysis and comments on the group branding. Wrt the ashridge model People mentioned about it being Alien; I went for Ballast and heartland given they are all within the logistics business, hence complimentary / a good fit for the group portfolio. Godiva: Ratios were shocking compared to industry average; advised against the acquisition unless to asset strip (land $9m - use for warehousing or make a $0.2m profit based on explicit financials provided - although wasn't 100% convinced with the figures provided). Question2: Evaluation of the process was pretty wooly; confused by the Evaluate section combined with recommendations - my understanding would be reviewing its effectiveness highlighting strengths as well as weaknesses, but recommendation only for weaknesses? Asked whether to continue outsourcing it's customer call handling process which implied all three individual processes as one. Suggested automating the password queries given there simplicity. The remainder in house given the notes about labour shortages in the home country, language issues amongst other financial and non financial factors such as why would you outsource something as important as negotiation of service contracts and technical queries (of which are redirected to specialists in house anyway). Mentioned the Harmon's process strategy matrix and applied to some extent but largely based in the explicit issues noted in the case as a heavier weighting as I felt these were more strategically important to the process than an application of the generic model. Question 4 Analysed the primary activities although inbound and outbound logistics were much of a likeness, missed the point in marketing being good (I think by this point my attention span had started to waiver and had glazed over part of the case). Operations, while once state of the art are now dated and referred to the poor cost per unit as evidence of this as well as the issues around transport in and out logistically. Found this question quite hard to provide substantial evidence of Milton plant adding much value to be honest. Regressions analysis was a fairly straight forward set of marks compared to the others - a switch in moist to dry food, reduction in demand for moist over time. Used the y = a + bx with the relevant values. Commented on the correlation coefficient being strongly negative indicating as time passes demand for moist food falls. Took the r squared to determine the variation in y explained by the variation in x being 89% which was also relatively high. All in all was writing right up until the wire, would defo agree question 1 was ridiculous for the marks awarded and only finished the paper because I was strict on allocating time; over ran by about 10 mins on Q1 so had to shave roughly 5 off each of the section B questions to answer all questions sufficiently - could have done more given more time but hey ho!

The P3 examination was very lengthy especially the Question One which make other questions more tougher as time running out and proper concentration not possible with the limited available time.........

although the exam was lengthy it was fair. hoping for a pass mark

not difficult, but it took a lot of time to complete some of questions