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

I need your opinion guys on this
Reading long and lengthy scenerio and picking points from there for pestel and porter is really testing skills for accountancy?

Anyone attempted Q4 and used financial ratios ( GPM and NPM) and BCG in part A???

Also Q3 last part mendelow: mayor = key player, Ofroad = key player anf the private motorist = keep informed???

I found this exam very long. I used Porters 5 forces but on re reading the scenario I felt there was a lot more material available for PESTEL so I tried to add that in at the end…ran completely out of time though. Also did not analyse the company’s strengths and weaknesses appropriately I totally missed this from the question.

For the investment option I used 2 expected values based on whether the bidding process was changed or not…I concluded that the company shouldn’t acquire and should bid separately…hopeful get some marks but items missing for sure here.

On the outsourcing option I referenced harmons matrix…got a saving for 2 of the products if outsourced but when the fixed overhead is taken into account I had a small saving of 2 or 3k per month. Advised not to outsource due to marketing , bad publicity etc.

@hbilal said:
Mayor key player; of road keep satisfied and private motorist keep informed

I said that Of road had high power being a regulatory body and high interest since it issued it’s own business management process. So key player.

I also said Ofroad had high power high interest as the regulator, put mayor as high power low interest as it made a point about the mayor being busy with other areas of the community.

Did anyone write about the 7 project benefits for q3 – functionality and support, operational, management, strategic, productivity gains, intangible, emergent. I think I have miss read the question which properly means a re-sit as it was for 14 marks!!!

My time management got so messed up..because the first question was broken down and the last question was 20 whole marks I was so tried by the time I got to it.just crammed for time.

I really doubt whether this Kaplan and bpp kits are reviewed by the examiner cuz then he will have noticed that there isn’t that sort of probability question there in both kits. I don’t think there’s even a probability there

I still don’t understand how all of u has been able to apply 5 forces.

I used porters diamond and it fit well to part a (ii).

because that is the main theory linked to assessing competite environment, though as you say I’m sure diamond was relevant. Key thing is to get main points in, the models are only guides to that.

There was lots to say about both as the scenario was dense. I did not adjust for probabilities in iii) though did comment on them. Decided that acquire was best option as risk too great for other option as also depended on them developing market share which would have been difficult!

yes the exit fee rule was already approved by the govt. so it should’ve been included in the calculation i guess.

Here’s what I did.
Q1 a- I Pestel, ii Five forces iii OT of swot
B- Didn’t had any idea what to do tried putting up conclusions and concluded that bidding directly is suitable but company should look around whether if it as at all worth to join mobile operator industry in TFS.
Q2- A- Put up calculations, calculated total cost of production now and total costs under outsourcing, outsourcing was beneficial by 16500 and mentioned that its a little margin, the only reason outsourcing is benefcial are cost savings and we can make up product b c d cheaper, loss of sales, quality issues, redundancy cost
Q2-b Explained all strategies with relevance to scenario and suggested cost leadership should be followed as labour costs are particularly low and did include that company could look into differentiation if enough cash reserves, focus were out of question.
Q3- a- redefined scope, constraints, objectives
B- sale of land, increase in parking revenue, less congestion, increase in number of commuters using bus, better services, less private cars. Costs including wages and buying buses and lost contribution due to the sale of land
C- Mendelow matrix- mayor power high interest high, Ofroad power high interest low, motorist power low interest unclear
All in all, it was my third attempt and very hopeful that gonna edge it this time around.

@avishhi5 said:
I still don’t understand how all of u has been able to apply 5 forces.

I used porters diamond and it fit well to part a (ii).

porters five forces was well suited.
there was nothing on the threat of substitute so that reduced it to 4 going for 2 marks each
there was so much on barrier to entry: “”the 100 m entrace compensation, the bidding 20 million,its so tough to get a liscene the minimum criteria to meet , cash needed””, rivalry, bargaining power of consumers and suppliers

There was quite a bit on substitute products, in that there is no real alternative to a mobile device.

Could also quote from the scenario that mobile devices are prized amongst the young as a status symbol.

I was very strict with my time management, literally only spending the time limit allocated for each question, i.e. 1hr30 for Q1, 45 mins each for 2&3, managed to have 30 mins at the end for Q1 b) and was still a struggle to put together a reasonable answer.

I would like someone to explain exactly how the probabilities should have been treated in the NPV calcs, only mentioned them in the narrative, didn’t do anything with them. In hindsight thought maybe should have divided the quote price by them to ‘gross’ up but this would mean the higher probability would have resulted in a higher price…

Multiplying by them also didn’t make sense as again you got a reduced licence fee for the higher probability.

Any ideas anyone? Hopefully was only worth a couple of marks and having NPVs for each scenario plus narrative then a conclusion will be enough to get 10 marks on it at least.