*** P3 December 2015 Exam was.. Instant Poll and comments ***

I mean it was afterall the best strategy to divest that Property business, it was loss making, it was a dog through BCG matrix, it was taking up unnecessary costs with having to retain those useless managing staff to run it …. there wasnt much to say to counter the “divest” strategy… it was just plain liability for the portfolio of bank brothers…so i couldnt really mention any real points there in favor of the shareholders remarks.. ??!?!? :S

any model relevant to Q1 part A ?

Luckily I had smashed out a load of CSR revision for P1, but it didn’t appear there at all. So when I saw it here I was semi happy.

I said what CSR was and the question was VERY leading into the donation to the charity being a strategic CSR strategy.

Donating to a finance charity which helps people who have suffered financial difficulties in the past would mean that by investing in them and teaching them then in the long term it would be dividends as they are less likely to get into financial difficultly again and thus would reduce potential bad debts.

This was a long term strategic plan

The institutional shareholders were concerned as the bank wasn’t being strategic and was basically robbing the shareholders of their own money – this is a pristine capitalist viewpoint. All of the money should be given to the shareholders and the bank is stealing from them.

However, the shareholders needed to realise the CSR strategy was strategic, which would in the long run benefit them and bring them more profit and rewards.

That is what i wrote as well, i think i did well on that question.

@kayheige said:
What was question 4b please, can’t remember?

CSR

This was my 3rd attempt in P3 and went even worse than the last 2. I found it very hard to properly apply the info in Q1 to the requirements. I am so demotivated and depressed now :'(

Question 4 on the institutional shareholder and the bank of which i wrote that the institutional shareholder was of pristines view that shareholders wealth is for them only and to put it to other uses as suggested by Sarah if i can remember the name was stealing. The suggestion by the bank to assist those who had financial difficulties was a good corporate strategy as the banks which had been receiving negative publicity might be able to improve its reputation. Once reputation is improved the bank will in the long run benefit from customers who would in my opinion wants to be associated with a bank that would help them in the future when things are hard. As a result in the long run the bank will benefit .

Q1a. Benefits and Advantages to QTS and QTSBA
– This should be in a briefing paper format so I made sure I have the report format; Title, subject, author, date, introduction and conclusion.
– Advantages and benefits to QTS
. QTS may be able to exploit its core competencies and unique resources to achieve even greater profitability
. QTS will consolidate and become even a strong market leader
. QTS has good experience in managing acquisitions and making them profitable post acquisition and as such will be able to do the same for A2K

– Advantages to QTSBA
. Synergies
. Access to experienced A2K trainers
. QTSBA will be able to service the 2 government contract with A2K trainers
. QTSBA will be able to rekindle its e-learning products which was unsuccessful at their first trial
. The e-learning product is a new product development
. Access to the guru

Q1b. Contextual factors:
– Time : There is no time, as QTSBA need the trainers to service the govt contract ASAP
– Readiness : Its ready. Its has the resources in place to execute the change
– Capability : QTSBA has no experience and skill set. However, the parent QTS has the experience and skill set. They’ve manage previous acquisitions successfully
– Diversity – diversity of experience and opinion.
– Preservation : aspect of A2K operations/ business model that would be preserved

Q1c. Organizational culture = ways of doing things within the orgn; this can be seen within the facets of the cultural web such as Stories, Routines and rituals, Power structure, organizational structure, control system etc. Didn’t do much as this was my last question and I was running out of time

Q4a. Weakness and Threats:
– Weakness:
. Declining revenue
. Declining operating margin
. Unstable Board
. High Staff turnover of property agency
. Difficulty of banks employees adopting to the culture of the property agency
. The later resulted in further staff turnover of the banks staff

– Threats:
. Volatility of property prices
. Threats of government legislation
. Potential Increasing interest rates
. Declining property sales within the market
.

Q4b. Social corporate responsibility. I didn’t do much
. CSR will enhance reputation
. Investors are now paying attentions to CSR in their investment decisions.
. Donations are not in the best interest of shareholders
. Institutional shareholders and Sara are in conflict.
. Institutional shareholders have high power and high interest and can replace Sara (the CEO) with someone who will serve their best interest and maximize shareholders wealth

Q2a. Evaluation of cost benefit analysis:
– Payback period. I gave the disadvantages
– Comments on almost all the cost and benefits except the last benefit (I don’t remember)
. Hardware cost
. Software cost
. Time spent in obtaining quotes were subjective

Q2b. Purpose contents and importance of project plan
– purpose; to determine who, how, when, what, to be done
– Contents ; I screwed this one up but managed to get some right. objective, resources, deliverables, project participants, constraints, scope, etc.
Importance: I screwed this one too but related it to the case so hopefully I should get some marks.

Overall, fair paper but too time pressured

Does anyone write about scalability, easy to upgrade, usability, easy access to maintenance and capability to render the inventory system effectively as part of appraising the cost / benefit analysis in question 2.

For question one I did the benefit/fit matrix and identified it as a value trap. Despite obvious issues the md was saying it had benefit enough. The fit was obviously high as they were doing the same with same r and c and ten backed up my high benefit selection with a list of advantages:

1)having contracts to fulfil with few staff and a2k had freelances advice that could help, well as the team it had already built.

2)acquiring the e learning was motivational for ash tag and his team who felt unappreciated and for qtbsa as they wanted to go into this market.

)3)they were acquiring a competitor and they market share shares would now be 60%+ (based on revenues given).

4) a2k had fallen below the market f average of 10%NoP and qtbsa had ability to acquire and improve and it has done in the past to help a2k (it said benefits to both).

5) that as there r n c was acquiring and was there previous strategy its was acceptable and feasible.

That’s lol I got for 19 or 16 marks hoping for more than one one through application of model and use of financial.

Was a long paper!

Question 1 was too much information to swallow. I did the options first to try gain marks. But question 1 had none of the usual models was a surprise. Crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

I left 15 marks behind because of time, obviously bad time management, therefore it’s a fail. 🙁