*** P3 June 2012 Exam was … Comments and Instant Poll ***

I THOUGHT IT WAS SO EASY IM GOING TO GET 100% NANANANA

heyy all guys regarding question 1b.i think its the points u justify regarding any framework used its not the frame that fetches marks its the justification of points u described.i used pestel because i found it appropriate as there were points to fetch envoirnmental.social culture technological.legal so i used pestel

@notforu said:
gearing of the company was reducing without doing anything. but if u will use sale and lease back scheme it will increase (!) gearing, coz u will recognise liability in the BS.
my strategy is about to focus on green customers, which can pai premium margin and to avoid direct competition with cheap products from some country (dont remember the name)

gearing was increasing as far as I know.
and they should lease it back with operating lease… then you have only the monthly payments under current liabilities.

baral,

my views exactly, as long as you made reasonable suggestions, it doesn’t matter about the model you have used. We can only work with information we are given and there was lot of logical points to be made.

This was my first sitting at a P level paper and I really struggled to stick to the time limit, I felt I didn’t answer the B questions that well as I was so rushed for time!!

For Q1(a) – the first part of the qu asked you to analyse the fin position of the company and evaluate the investment proposal. Quite a big requirement for 14 marks. I did ratios for all 3 years and then discussed them in relation to Hammond. Next to Evaluate the investment decision I used SAF – Suitability – does investment fit with strat objectives, Acceptability – Risk, return and acceptability to stakeholders and Feasibility – the resources – 9 m’s!

Q1 (b) Strategic choices – I used Porters Generic strategy’s, Ansoff and I used the Swot analysis and details given in the question. I didn’t use PESTEL as I thought that was for use in strategic analysis, but it may have been fine here too!!

Q1 (c) Was about Mission, value and objectives – I defined these and related them to paragraph 1/2 in the question eg they provided housing, education, better working conditions etc. For objectives I also mentioned the SMART criteria.

Q2 (a) Evaluate the software package – I used Harmon’s process strategy matrix and stated they were treating the process as low strat importance and low complexity, but this was wrong as the production process was the CSF of the company and evaluated the software package pro’s and con’s. I recommended a bespoke package with training in-house was more suited to company needs.

Q2 (b) The process for package procurement, evaluation and implementation – I just mentioned how they go about deciding what package to buy, evaluate it by testing etc and implement it – possibly alongside old system etc, I was running out of time so I bullet pointed on this and tried to put a few examples in from question.

Q3 (a) Wanted to know the contents of a PID – Project Initiation Document basically and how it would of helped the company had there been one in place. Again because of time I rushed this,I tried to see in the question what went wrong and tried to answer the question using this.

Q3 (b) I ran out of time so I put quick bullet points. Basically it asked you to critically evaluate the project benefits such as rent savings, staff morale etc. I just quickly put that such savings would not be the same year on year due to external factors eg inflation and how could a figure be put on staff morale as this wasnt quantifiable, but qualitative. Basically I didn’t answer this part too well, but I don’t think it was the best question.

I haven’t a clue how I’ve done, I thought I answered Q1 reasonably but I’m worried that my Part B question’s may have let me down due to time constraints!!

Thought it was an OK paper, scenarios were boring and uningaging compared to some past papers I’ve done, lack of models that could have been used, only one really was the Value Chain, no Diamond, 5 Forces, Pestel etc. Didn’t like question 1 at all, thought it was one of the worst I’ve done out out of all practice ones.

Answered it all as best as I could….heres hoping for a pass!!

part(b) of question one has asked about strategy development using TOWS model, Porters Generic model and Ansoff matrix. Instead of doing that i have evaluated the second option of the managers using Suitability, Feasibility and Acceptability. I have used the points analysts has come up with. will i not get any marks for that part of the question? am i going to loose 24 marks? please share your views

I have a question about question one, I did Ansoff and Porter’s generic strategies which I think is correct. I also mentioned E-commerce. Is e-commerce a stratgic option? It’s just that they said no shoes were sold online

Q3 part b was strange in how to classify the benfeits while q4 wasn’t too bad at all

Fingers crossed though

I commented on how the AP days were going up. Don’t think I realised AR was in there as well. My head was all over the place at that stage. E-commerce as a startegy for 1b anyone??

what you guys think? Q1(b) has asked about generation of strategies models can be used here are TOWS, Ansoff and Porters generic model. (Strategic Options) Suitability, Feasibility, Acceptability comes under Strategic Choices. Question was based on Strategic option to generate strategy.

What i have done was i have evaluated directors alternative strategy using S A F but question has asked to generate alternative strategies. i have made a mistake there and i thought question was to analyse the alternative strategy by the managers.

What is my position there? plz comment guys.

It was my first sitting and for sure the paper was nothing like the past papers. The paper was tough question 1(b) threw me off but i was able to talk about some Ansoff. It was bruttal and was a total of 24 points. 1(c) was ok as it looked at the mission, objectives and values.
I had fun in section b cause i have good knowledge on Software applications and the whole procurement cycle.

I just cross my fingers and pray that i get a 50. I really dont want much.

I’m repeating from last June and I can honestly say I think I did worse today then last year. Such dull and boring scenarios.

It seems the same topics, Business Process Change & Project Management are coming up each sitting since the syllabus changed in 2011?

What about the other topics in the course. Strategy & People? Change Management? (I obviously mention these as I prefer these than the above mentioned topics)

Maybe 3rd time lucky!