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

Hey Guys,

I tried to stick to time first off otherwise you ruin your chances as question 4 was a doddle

Q1 a. Ratios and growth rates between the years, maybe should have looked at expected values
b) Generic strategies and Ansoff cant use pestel as its not the environment it mentioned strategic option
Q3 a) Project initiation doc had learnt this so it was simply to apply to case
b: Quantifiable, Measurable and observable benefits.
Q4 Value chain pretty straightforward

@orla333 said:
Hi georetav
No definetly not serios left this open at my desk and when i came back my brother had written this. Apologies. I thought paper was fair for question one i did ansoff, i said they should do the investment even though looking at others now it appears this might be wrong i thought 1c was ok. Then in the options i did question three and four i thought 4 was grand 3a was ok didnt have a clue what to write for 3b and waffeled. what was supposed to be the answer for 3b does anyone know. Dissapointed bigger topics didnt come up but all in all thought it was ok.

Funny guy your brother 🙂

On question 3b I basically challenged the 4 cost savings:
– Rental savings – how do they know they will find somebody to rent waffled on this one questioning wether the renting contract they have for the old place has any clause with regards ending it any time. Could they swithch rent off straight away? Or did they have to continue pay for long time due to contract (say contract would be agreed for 10 years)
– Energy savings – the targets are not specified. The actual consumption is not specified. The actual ways in which they are going to save energy is not specified
– Improved staff morale – that is an observable benefit, you can’t measure it accurately. Indeed, it can improve efficiency if people are feeling happier but this should be measured differently: number of tasks per hour/day performed compared to previously, time it takes now to perform a certain task as opposite to how much it took before, improved customer satisfaction through better service (number of complaints, number of customers returned, etc.)
– increased revenue – again, no basis for the Profit amount assumed. The country is going through recession, people won’t have more money to spend on entertainment just because the city centre looks prettier. The buying power for people will stay the same. And during recession people care more about what they eat at home and feel like going out less.

A question above on E-commerce-is this strategy – maybe, I don’t know for sure. I didn’t put it as a separate heading, but discussed it quite a lot

I think we should now focus on the next exam or if you are lucky enough to not have any more, just enjoy your ‘holiday’ now!. And maybe come back in August and put the mark you got against your comments

God help us all (there’s nothing else we can do now!)

Hey Ashen

I’m in the same boat as you with respect to using the SAF basis for the strategy moving production to the foreign country.

I’d need to read the question again, but from my recollection it mentioned strategy choices.

Thinking about it now, being given a SWOT analysis in the question this should automatically bring you onto to doing a TOWS analysis for the various strategies available.

However I don’t think imo that you’d be penalised for developing a strategy as long as you can back it up. After all the question did ask for strategic choices (I think, or did it just ask for strategies)

Remember though that I maybe wrong and it is just my opinion.

But from the small sample on this board alone, it looks like a variety of ideas backed up with various models that have been generated. And as I said before, I just hope Steve and the other markers when it comes to drafting the marking scheme have the TOWS & ANSOFF matrix as the primary models used, but give credit for other models used, just as long as there are to do with a pacific strategic choice and can be backed up.

Good luck.

Think I may have misinterpreted 1(b), thought the question was asking to evaluate the alternative strategy proposed by the managers so I used SAF. Hoping for some marks here otherwise I’ve failed.

on the investment bit q1 a i just mentioned the pros and cons according to the case, Q1b i believe any framework is fine as long as its according to the case.

I thought it was an ok paper. Alot of the technical articles he had written were in there. I put for Q1 a) Profit ratios, gearing and the effects of the family drawing dividends adding to the mix and then I did decision trees with both scenarios not paying back (???) Q1 b) I did Ansoffs and did a SAF on the proposal, as I wasn’t sure which way the question was asking it. Q1 c) I did the strategic purpose of the company and how the mission tied into that. Q3 a) I mentioned the PID, the contents and tied in the elements into quality, time, risk and cost (sharp increase in Year 3 and measuring staff morale. Q3b) I mentioned measurable, quanitfiable, financial and observable benefits. Also, Q4 was a nice question, however you can never tell with these exams. Good luck everyone:)

I used TOWS in Q1, applying strengths to take opportunities, counteract weaknesses. Could have done SAF too.

Also suggested e-commerce as strategy, together with differentiation.

No clue how to answer Q3b so did Q4 first then settled for Q2. Tough paper but nothing totally unexpected.

Good luck everyone!

@haseebwasti said:
qno 1 was really surprising …….examiner has writteen he will not test difficult calculation from previous sylabuss but qno 1 b evaluation of investment decsion is really tough

I dont think its a tough requirement to add up 6 numbers and then subtract the sum from another number and multiply it by a third number 😀

Q1b. I used Ansoffs Matrix as you could aaply all the information from SWOT analysis for example Existing Market and existing product was not reaaly acceptable due to decreased profitability, it couldn’t increase the price due to the cheap imports and could reduce costs which were mainly labour as there was legislation to protect wage rates and redunancy payments etc. Could enter new markets via upgrading website for online sales and new shops in shopping villages. Could diversify into designer brands as fashion concious and high disposable income, could produce ‘green’ shoes as groing awareness of ethical issues and charge a premium. could introoduce a childrens brand of well fitting sturdy shoes (ie clarks) as parents are willing to spend on their children etc etc . So all in all i used all data supplied and fitted into Ansoffs Matrix and explained why they could follow that strategy.

My 2 main issues- TOO TIME PRESSURED its so devastating having prepared so well for the exam and knowing the answers to all the questions and yet not being able to answer well due to the extremely limited time! Had to end up writing one-sentence points for the Section B questions otherwise wouldnt have been able to finish the paper on time.. Dont know if that will be good enough to pass.. Also question 1b wasnt too clear.. I answered using Porters 5 forces, SAF and a bit of PESTEL.. Thought I was right but after reading these comments not so sure anymore.. If Im wrong then hello re-sit in December! 🙁

Wow, everyone has different interpretations of Question 1(b). I am unsure on how to tackle this question myself. After reading the question a few times, I went with SAF to deal with it.

They said examine alternative strategic options, so I guess what I really did was evaluate the strategic options. Damn it, seems like completely strayed from the required answer.

this is what i DID lol..

1a… sales growth, profitablitty ratios, gearing, increased finance cost, increase in PA days, decrese in RA – company is in bad financial position..
1b.. i completely messd this part up.. i used aquisition, organic growth, franchising, strategic growth, society welfare, use of IT in production
1c.. was easier.. comunicating strategy because shareholders, stakeholders, directors, employees want to get informed..

3a.. PID.. Cost and time, Qulity..
3b.. generally i explained about the basis used for All four benifits, specialy what was the basis for engery, income increase, and staff morale, resisting the change, inflation factor in rental saving..

4a. alot weaknessess were there and i explained them..
4b. E-procurement.. E- payment.. upstrem.. E-marketing, integration, did not have time so explained it in general words, like orders should be sent directly to suppliers to avoid delay in delivery and All..

Any chancess of passing ?

any comments about my answer of 1b?

Hi guys.

Q1a was pretty obvious and i believe many of us did what it should be done 🙂

Q1b… this was pretty tricky. Generally I used SAF. For Suitability I used a Pestel analysis and 5 forces… but I got really into it and this took me like 6 pages (really really bad I know). For Acceptability I analyzed the stakeholders from Mendelow`s point of view. Feasability – I already spoke of the resources that the company had in Q1a. After that I came out with 10 different strategies that the company should implement, all of them linked with the SAF analysis… DO YOU THINK THIS IS OK?

Q2a. I believe this should have been analyzed with the framework of Balogun Hope Hailey regarding change. I got through all the 7 features in the framework and explained why it did not work (Time, Scope, Diversity, Capacity, Capability, and the other 2 that I always forget:)) Also, i categorized the process with respect to Harmons matrix and explained why i should have not been automated in the first place.

Q2b i made up a formal procedure for procurement and explained why each step in the procedure would have brought advantages to the company (opposed to the current anarchic procurement process).

Q4… I only got to do part a, but only a bit on it.

My bastard mind started developping very much on each subject, so I found the exam to be really time pressured.

Is there anyone who used Balogun Hope Hailey in Q2a?

Also, my approach to Q1b was ok?