SBLPaper P3 Dec 2010 exam was

spot on change came out wohoo.....thankx forumers for prediciting change management....totally reasonable paper if u prepared well and used logic....
cheers everybody....exam are over.....

Just want to ask i'm using the contextual factor from the Balogun n Hope Hailey theory... (Power, preservation,etc) is it ok?

Bloody disaster...didnt revise strategic change, 25 marks down the shitthole...

DId 2 and 4 from the options, think I nailed them, so hopefully pass...

GOOD LUCK!!!!

for me it was HARD, didn't understand contextual factors and elements of stratgic change...

The paper was fair but time pressured!!!!

for me it's hard.

Found that hard to get going but alright in the end I hope.

What model did people use for 1b, when it asked you to use a model to analyse the context? I used the Ms model after much consideration / panic. Not sure if it was correct but had to use something and couldn't afford to waste any more time pondering.

I liked Q3, got quite into that one, cultural web in the first part and then Mintzberg in the second part.

Section A, analsyising business performance - were we suppose to use the BCG matrix? or other models? I didnt use any models just talked about the financial performance

Not really sure how I did in the paper. In the case study, I couldn't figure out what model to use so I just wrote down the contribution and performance of the three companies. I did revise change management but not in much detail. I did write down the contextual factors like Capability, Capacity, Readiness, Power, Time, but couldn't find proper sentences to explain it. In Section B, I attempted Q.2 and Q.3. Q.3 part a went really good, but I was a bit confused in part b. Mintzberg's organizational form? Was it that diagram about strategic apex, middle line and operating core? In Q.2, even though I understood the scenario I still couldn't write down well. Good points were not coming in my mind. I know e-business and I know marketing mix, but I just wasn't able to combine both of them. I did write down a few things but had problems with it. For instance, how do you exploit "physical evidence" by doing business online. How is it possible to give customers physical evidence of books when you are selling them online? Similarly, how can e-business help in price. Just got a bit confused there. Wrote a lot of crap. I hope I pass this paper. This went very similar to P1. I am really not sure whether the answers I have written are the same as the examiner is looking for. Fingers crossed I pass both of them.

@andrew339 said:
Section A, analsyising business performance - were we suppose to use the BCG matrix? or other models? I didnt use any models just talked about the financial performance

I don't think it was BCG matrix because that model deals with portfolio of products. What we had in the paper was portfolio of companies. I think Ashridge Portfolio was the correct model but I didn't use it because I was finding it tough to apply it to the scenario. And there was time pressure too. And it was only 15 marks. I couldnt spend an age on that. Just explained the contribution and performance of the three companies. Hopefully I've done enough to get good marks.

@cporteus said:
Found that hard to get going but alright in the end I hope.

What model did people use for 1b, when it asked you to use a model to analyse the context? I used the Ms model after much consideration / panic. Not sure if it was correct but had to use something and couldn't afford to waste any more time pondering.

I liked Q3, got quite into that one, cultural web in the first part and then Mintzberg in the second part.

In Q.1 Part B, I think the correct model was Balogun and Hope Hailey's model.

Complete disastor.Started with Qs2 and 3-Did not attempt stategic change was tricky coz dd not even attempt to read the topic.

@gagsingh said:
Bloody disaster...didnt revise strategic change, 25 marks down the shitthole...
DId 2 and 4 from the options, think I nailed them, so hopefully pass...

same for me!knew nothing abt strategic change...n did 2 and 4..hoping for 50....though 25 marks already down...

@gimvie said:
I don't think it was BCG matrix because that model deals with portfolio of products. What we had in the paper was portfolio of companies.

BCG doesnt apply only to products...u can also apply it to a portfolio of companies..its well mentionned somewhere in my notes...(either bpp or Opentui notes,dont remember) from the information given, BCG is the model that could have applied..dont have enuf info for other models...

@Zara_N said:
BCG doesnt apply only to products...u can also apply it to a portfolio of companies..its well mentionned somewhere in my notes...(either bpp or Opentui notes,dont remember) from the information given, BCG is the model that could have applied..dont have enuf info for other models...

Thanks for your comments - do you think it is necessary to make references to these models?

@andrew339 said:
Thanks for your comments - do you think it is necessary to make references to these models?

did it ask for a model to be used??cant remember..if it did then yes u would have to make ref to the model,otherwise if u can just explain...
but in my opinion,it would be better to use a model,it will be like a step into the explanation..means u can explain better using the model as reference...for e.g. how would u explain abt market share v/s market growth - star,dog etc without making ref to the model??

In contextual factor i applied the model that talks about the scope of change (realignment or transformation) and nature of change (incremental or big bang)...it is mentioned in bpp under the heading of type of change...but I thought it is safe to assume that scope and nature tells you the context of change...was I right?

In change element I explained about .....Culture , people , facilitators and blockers, senior management commitment, communication.

I feel the paper quite fair, not too difficult. But I did not complete it and hope to get 50, hic.
In Q1a, I use B.C.G model to identify the position based on their market share and market growth. ShoalFish is a "dog", ShoalPro is a "cash cow", ShoalFarm is a "question mark". In Q1b, I use Balogun. But not have much idea to analyse, :(. In Q1c, huhu, I cannot remember any.
I chose Q2 and Q4. I know e-business, marketing mix, but my mind seem go out, not much idea for this question.
I feel Q4 is the easiest. I seem use ACCA to write this case study. Q4a does not require any model or theory to analyse the benefit and costs of adopting e-assessment in AII. I did it last so only have 30' for this question, so stupid,huhu. So, nothing for Q4b. :((
Waiting to 22 Feb 2011...

hurrah...............ftc tutors are the best..............easy peesy lemon squeezy

yes, question 1 a use BCG , The financial info provided it tells the market share , and profitability, i think BCG is most suitable model. donot understand strategic change. i didnot expect i will appear in section 1--trick paper( hate this paper )

Q2 did ok but q3 run out of time and did not do well , q3 (b) did not revise that model . i think i may fail again.................poor me

Didn't have enough time, though I did answer all the questions. The questions were long as usual but I find Question 1 case study very confusing to start with as I'll trying to work out the relationships between the different comapnies with similar names. I used the BCG model to answer the question - not sure if this was the most appropriate one. even if its not, i think i get marks for justifying it.

Question 2 was straightfoward and question 4 was more of a common sense question.

Fingers crossed I did enough to pass.

Q. What's more boring then an accountancy exam?
A. Accountants talking about that exam.

Can somebody remind me the wording of question 4(b) - something about business case????

explain why bus case,managing benefits n (dont remember) are essential requirements bla bla bla...someone continue this..??

Strategic change management - was not expecting that for 25 marks! Really struggled and couldn't think of the model but I did throw in some ideas like scope for change, staff attitudes to change so hopefully examiner will take pity and give me a few marks. Didn't do amazingly well on the other questions either so think i might be a few marks short of a pass. I used the BCG matrix for Q1 a because it can also be used for business units as well as products and it was fairly straight forward to apply. Hoping Santa brings me 50% in P3 for xmas!

@Zara_N said:
explain why bus case,managing benefits n (dont remember) are essential requirements bla bla bla...someone continue this..??

I didn't attempt Question 4 because of this part. I really couldn't understand what it actually meant to say.

can someone tell me what the model to be used for question 1(b)(ii)?
i totally dont get what the model should be (hence leaving it blank)

@nightgaunt said:
can someone tell me what the model to be used for question 1(b)(ii)?
i totally dont get what the model should be (hence leaving it blank)

Look at part 4b on the June 08 paper to see the model that I think we should have used:
https://www.accaglobal.com/pubs/students/acca/exams/p3/past_papers/p3_2008_jun_a.pdf

I didn't BTW but hopefully should get some marks for having a go at least.

@Zara_N said:
explain why bus case,managing benefits n (dont remember) are essential requirements bla bla bla...someone continue this..??

explain why business case , managing benefits , realising benefits are essential even when (dont remember) self evident justified.....

for me i didnt know if i used the right models for part 1

a) BCG & parts of Pestel to back up financial info

bi) SWOT only naming strengths and weaknesses and refering them to the oppertunites set out and threats that may occur

bii) i used generic stratagy as the business was obviously a differentation and had to be set as a differentiation focus and use there current core compenteces from strengths to tackle their weaknesses by doing so other aspect if it looked at moving to a cost leader

C) had no fkin clue just spun rubbish

anyone do the same ??? or have any comments