*** P3 June 2011 Exam was … Post your comments here and vote in Instant Poll ***

@jeanp786 said:
In question 1a, I used the PESTEL for the macro-environment analysis and I used the Industry Life cycle for the market/industry analysis.

Is it right?

as examiner does not stated any specific models , use any that fits the scenario

alancong.. 3 weakness part was all general things.. number 1 deals with need to coordinate n communicate budgets n monitor them.. tentions arose for not doing do.. number 2 was abt lack of succession planning.. plus employee commitment n morale new graduates were hire a facilitative leadership would be approporiate or anyother you think fine… number 3 was very straight.. Ecocar was being victim of Red tapism.. they js used to discuss risk bt never taken any action.. so recommending TARA framework or 4Ts i think would have been a good answer

@rochelleobar19: Totally agreed

@richieoctober said:
all the examiners articles – people & strategy, pricing strategy (econimic & non economic factors), the strategic use of IT, forecasting (trend analysis), and project mangement. . . . . barely anything came up only the financial and non financial benefits of the project and benefits realisation. very annnoying to study these inside out and the minimal amount comes up in the exam. im very disappointed after putting in so much effort for nothing. q1 part a) i put in pestel and then did the 7m’s model as i taught this best fitted the “market/industry” requirement. the porters diamond is used when expanding abroad & the porters 5 forces is in relation to “competition”. the question didnt ask for competition of wasnt a foreign expansion so what do ye think???? was i wrong using the m’s model????? time pressure also was unreal. didnt get to finish question 4 and didnt really relate it back to the case study, just explained the i’s and gave a real life example. overall, disappointing

may be you sit for exam just wanna get 50% thats all, please dun spot question as the examiner always warn us. be prepared and you wont get panic,
you use M model instead of Porter 5 forces, you still can earn marks as the question state any relevent model(s), but you wanna get higher marks, you shud stick the the question that ask for 5 forces, ur can use M model to relate the company position in that industry.

Nobody on earth can read all the questions in 15 mins and make comprehensive approach to questions. Opentuition lecturer recommended approach helped. Questions were not strange but no time to seriously organise oneself.

I used pestel and swot for q1.. i wonder swot was the correct model to use…
q2. npv, irr, payback??? more of f9…..
q4: emarketing… omg.. lengthy paper how on earth do u absorb so much info in such a short time span…
q3. i found it too daunting so i opted out…..
a pass.. is all that is needed.. so God help us all!!!!!!!!

i wrote too much using pestel and 5 forces for q1 part a…over ran a lot then fluffed the make or buy decision totally…re part c the weaknesses were budgetary (PRIME) need to recruit and support either graduates or fast track internally or head-hunt from competitors third was basically the need to set up a risk committee or employee a risk manager to devolve this kind of thing to.. of the three options i thought q3 was the most time consuming and complicated (for me) so did the bobby blunt q which was – as others have said – bascially saying why he was completely wrong with his comments about the investment appraisal.. payback was the same – unless you took out the intangibles which should never have been included – NPV is to beat COC not inflation.. as seen in previous papers (Rick Hein Q i think) bobby autocratic and unfocused re control processes….matrix would never work as he’d scrap it before the benefits had a chance to show themselves….q4 seemed ok. i feel i’ve done enough to pass.. good luck to everyone

Paper was ok.
Got a few doubts though.
Q1. (c I think) on controls, Senior Partners and risk weakness.
I answered as
controls weakness – Used Cultural web to explain why controls are weak.
senior partners – Used Strategic leadership to address this risk
risk Weakness – used knowledge from P1, risk awareness, culture, etc.

Q2. About NPV – I said it was prepared wrong as It included moral benefits as a revenue

Can ANy1 tell me whether I answered the above mentioned correctly
Thanks a bunch

Well i thought the exam was pretty difficult but this is how i tackled the exam:

Q1) I used part PESTEL (Political, Environment, Socio-cultural), then i used porters 5 forces for the industry.

b)
I thought this was difficult to score with financial ratios etc. I ended up focusing on the non financial:

Adv – Better budgeting for cost, meets production demand, less conflict and legal issues

Disadv – Government grant could be removed, bad for company brand. Quality assurance problems. Transportation leads to high co2 emissions going against the companys going green car.

c)
3 weaknesses i used the following:

1) Bad internal controls, introduce computer system to ensure that products are ordered to order etc.

2) Mentioned about cultural web and also Halogens & Hope Bailey “reconstructive” phase etc.

3) Mentioned about risk awareness and embedding risk into company. Ensure cultural risk is started at top to bottom.

Did anyone consider CSR re employees, community under the non-financial argument on outsourcing? Thought paper was fair, but, as usual, time-pressured. I will pass this paper before I go to my grave!

Did anyone use Harmon’s Matrix for question 3 part b?

There were 4 options – testing, student invoicing, student adresses, and something else.
Did each fall into a different quadrant (outsource, automate, etc) or did I misinterpret the question?

@tom.mcdonald217 said:
Did anyone consider CSR re employees, community under the non-financial argument on outsourcing? Thought paper was fair, but, as usual, time-pressured. I will pass this paper before I go to my grave!

Yes I guess in outsourcing that could be used, considering the loyalty of consumers and the grants received from govt. these all add up to expectations being there from these stakeholders, who love their company and are happy about what they are doing. The factor to be seen could be that would this outsourcing send a wrong signal to these stakeholders and would they figure that maybe the company in the future might outsource its complete manufacturing division, which a) would piss the govt. off as they have given grants to this company in substantial amounts, and they need to increase employment and the national income of their country rather than of another one. and b) might affect the loyalty of the consumers, who might transfer to substitutes in the future(refer to the people developing hybrid vehicles). These amounts do add up and could affect the company