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I got cash cow for the road company. High market share, low market growth.
I did the other two the other way round though. Dog for warehouse and question mark for trains.
I thought warehouse was a dog because it had low market growth and low market share and thought the trains were a question market because they had high market growth but not very good market share.
I said they could either try to improve performance and to get more market share and aim for cash cow or divest. Said it was unlikely it would improve as it has been declining steadily (even though a bit better after the acquisition).
I only used BCG in part a of Q1 and I didn’t discuss the strategy clock in the hybrid bit. I did explain the two strategies though and also said porter warned against being stuck in the muddled.
I’m not sure how much it matters. In all the past exam paper solutions it always says you’ll get credit if justified response.
Try and stay positive. I have P2 tomorrow and not holding out much hope so I actually NEED this to not be a fail.
road can’ t be a star since the market is not growing but being rather stable (or very slow growing…) plus bih mkt share and profitability makes it a cash cow
trail is small in share but market is growing the fastes…this makes it question mark. either push share to become star or be a dog and exit- Topics: 0
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i didnt think to split the processes i said best to outsource them as in house expensive, i also mentioned that it was offshoring which is slightly different to outsourcing guess nothing i can do now except try and pass p1. joys of exams!!
well as per my calculation it was a star as the growth rate was more than the industry, with ROCE and Profitability also being more than the industry plus high market share
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i said cash cow coz there was no need to invest it was already performing well and had a strong market presense. all answers are ok if you can justify them i suppose….
I did questions 1, 2 and 4. Too little time to do too much.
Used mainly the Ashridge model for 1. For the airport my gearing was high, and ROCE was lower than avg., current ratio was par and acid test was low. The effective cost of land was almost 25% cheaper per hectare than that for warehousing so I looked at possibly purchasing for land acquisition and using in the successful storage co.
Q2 ended up jumbled for me. I accidentally gave suggestions for the call center as if it was internal… oops. 🙁 . Otherwise I used Hammond and suggested automation, online customer self services and training of staff.
Q3 only part a. Major issue was transport in and out. Strength in marketing and strategy in after sales services with brand promo. Ran out of time for part b. 🙁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.
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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. 🙂
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fingers crossed for everyone xx
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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
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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!
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.
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