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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
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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?- Topics: 0
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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!!
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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.
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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 – improveIts 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!!!
Here is my layout to Section A of todays exam. Really put a lot of effort into it, would appreciate replies.
Section A
Introduction
Boston Box Analysis
Financial Analysis
For the future strategy, I used Harmon.
Case study stated they were going to use the machinery at the rail company at the airport.
COnculsion, divest or outsource rail company, and proceed with caution with airline purchase, however talk to shareholders, try to improve ROCE and receivables days.I used Harmon because i thought it was a good one to use. backed it up as well.
sorry, alsopart b for hybrid i used strategic clock, and used apple and ryanair as examples. 🙂
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Thought q1 was extremley long. I spent ages on the first part which resulted in very weak answers from me in q2 & 4 and not answering q1b at all. Did anyone suggest selling the 4m sq mtrs of warehousing and use the money elsewhere. I found the swim lane very confusing with too much going on. Made a mess of the value chain and couldnt do calculation on regression. So overall it isnt looking good.
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I suggested that all functions are brought back inhouse as even though they are not core competences they are all related to its core competence which was selling electrical goods. So if the customer wasnt happy about after sales service, which all of these were, then there is a chance that they may lose their customers. So in the long run it is more beneficial to keep inhouse even if costs are higher.
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Ryanair is a no frills strategy not a hybrid strategy. But i didnt get time to even answer the question so i cant really comment. Lol
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Bcg is specifically for portfolio of sbu’s but can be used for products.
It was lengthy, Q1 exhausted me! The case study reminded me of Stobarts. Q1 I used swot and BCG. Then Sfa in the second part of A. I didn’t write much for part B as had to move on. For Q2 I used rummler and brache process redesign. I basically said that the calls could be automated more. In part B I said it should not be outsourced because the country had employment problems plus it was an electronics business so they should have the technical resources to problem solve plus develop a website so the customer can do most of the stuff online. I did Q4 which was pretty simple until regression analysis boooooo! Fingers crossed for Feb everyone!
I think you could apply the popit model to Question 2b I used Harmons then thought about this when it was too late!. I wasnt sure if it will run 24 hours a day as the place abroad could be in a different time zone but I guess your probably right with your calculation.
I agree with all on that Q1 was way too long! in the previous years, type of question Q1 b) was a separate question !
and I really dnt understand why we have been put under even more pressure when asked about performance, then few years given and all: change in market share, % of growth/fall in profits, over they years etc…need to be calculated manually, I dnt see anyone preparing such calculations at work manually as Excel does it for you!
Q 2 and 3 were ok but who knows what will be scoring marks there, many different approaches were possible i think
anyway, we all will know how we did on 8 Feb if i am right so nothing we can do now
good luck to all who still have exams to goand enjoy no studies and lots of free time for all those who are done!
@icedawn said:
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</blockquoteWhat happens if you forgot to times the answer by 3 and therefore got $500 to produce in house and said it was cheaper than the $600 . Do you get nil marks as conclusion is wrong . I did say tht outsourcing is usually cheaper though ?
I suggested in that instance to double the cost per call. covered the cost of moving back.
With a country low unemployment, moving back = good media interest, corporate image.No it was not star it was cash cow probably providing finance for all acquisitions as its market growth was very low so how can it be star. And part b so thats why asked to apply hybrid strategy to capture more n more slice from fully matured and static market.
And acquisition of govida should be gone through as its cost to pay was 7m and it was just providing land for 9m so can be acquired as portfolio manager for asset stripping.
Rail was ballast business so need to provide autonomy as even much resources were provided but performance was constantly declining after acquisition.
Warehousing was related diversification and so synergies.The question was mix of bcg strategic rationale and to somehow fit.
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