P5 Article on – common pitfalls

Ken,

I hope you’re well, I have just been working through the article on common pitfalls on the ACCA global website and I have to say, another great article so thank you..

I do however have a couple of questions that I am struggling with:-

in relation to the question for 5 marks from June 2015 on customer and financial aspects of the scorecard, I am struggling with the following:

1. I cannot see where the 5 marks would come from in the suggested answer, this is something I and a number of students that I have spoken with struggle with frequently at this level and this is also a reason why many students run out of time. Could you therefore provide tips or outline where the 5 marks come from?

2. The question states “discuss the impact of success in the customer perspective has on the financial perspective” and I do like your answer however I also believe that to achieve success in the customer perspective that additional costs may need to be incurred hence this may reduce margins as a result assuming these are not compensated within overall contribution, and this was not mentioned. Additionally, in the ever demanding world we live in, there is no guarantee that success in the customer measures would lead to an increased customer basis / demand, this could easily go the other way and lead to a fall in demand, could it not?

Apologies for the glass half empty approach on this one.

Thanks in advance.
Simon