Paper P3 Dec 2010 exam was

i ll kill these two girls….balogun and hope haily

@zevzev said:
I also used BCG. Also I tied it in with Life-cycle. I decided that ShoalPro is the “star” not “cash cow”. Now I am thinking that the “cow” is more appropriate 🙁

Hi I said it was a Star too!! Hopefully if we made enough of an arguement the examiner might give us a few marks 🙂

At the end of the day for Q1 b as long as you used a type of Stratigic Postion analysis model and for part C you used a stratigic choice model and be able to justify how to turn the company around with clear linkage with the case then there shouldnt be a problem, as part 1b&c never specified a model to use, and if you can justify how to turn the company around with out using a model you will have no problem, look at question c it was only woth 8 marks and it had proffesional marks so why would you go into too much depth all you needed was 8 valuble point to get good marks no matter what you use

paper was reasonable i thought.

question 1 a was a simple Corporate appraisal i.e SWOT analysis with an evaluation of financial performance. Seemed simple enough.

1(b) was more tricky. i used the matix which discussed the extent of change vs impact. It doesnt have a name but it is in the kaplan texts as the strategic change model…its the one that uses revolution / evolution / re-alignment etc etc. I couldnt remember all the terms in the model as there are loads. But hopefull ill at least get half marks

the rest of the question was very fringe…i just guessed at an answer. I guess with p3, everybody’s going to say something different so you’ll get marks for coming up with something logical.

i did question 2 and 3 after that…tricky ones especially how physical evidence can help e-business but if you just mentioned things like being able to read the first few pages online or using user friendly colours you should be okay. they seem like silly answers but you’d be suprised!!!

Good luck everybody 🙂

Instead of BCG matrix and all the other models mentioned, I used SWOT and PESTEL in Q1 a. Am I very wrong or they can be used too?

@terryann1 said:
Instead of BCG matrix and all the other models mentioned, I used SWOT and PESTEL in Q1 a. Am I very wrong or they can be used too?

This question is about position analysis, BCG and SWOT all fit the profile. BC is relevant because it appears that the Corporate Parent has more or less a portfolio management parenting style. SWOT is relevant as it helps to forecast the future performance and challenges of the SBUs. Afterall, strategy is future looking. I applied only BCG but ideally should have used both tools.

@saira2286 said:
hey i also used PESTEL in Q1 a , as i cudnt decide well, though at the end in conclusion i gave refrence to BCG as well, n at the end i had realised i shud av used BCG, but at that time time was too short to rewrite.
plz anyone tell me, will i get any marks in that 15 mark part????
or it was such a stupid blunder.
plz anyone there tell me

With PESTEL, I reckoned you would have identified the key opportunities and threats from the external environment which the SBUs are facing e.g One of the SBUs (think ShoalFish) had a Government quota limitation reducing future growth. I honestly think that should fetch some marks. All the best.

1(a) CONTRIBUTIONS , performance (FINANCIAL+non FINANCIAL ) , BCG by using ( MARKET SHARE to over all market growth which was given in data )
1(b) the “Balogun & Hope Hailey’s change kaleidoscope” ( only CONTEXTUAL FEATURES ie readiness , power , diversity etc )
1(c) the design choices ( change path change style etc )
1(d) the synergy , portfolio , n parental developer ( discussion about main features like FINANCIAL HELP , resources or overall strategic help

2(a) E business
2(b) E marketing

4(a) E- assessment benefits and disadvantages
4(b) u have to asses it generally using feasibility , acceptability ,suitability and other points similar !!!

exam was TOOOOOOO LONG !!! with many tricky stuff specially question 1 …

2(a) just gave some rational & logical points and arguments
2(b) Looked easy n straightforward but had to really suffer o gather points

Can anybody correctly remember the question requirement for Q3(b).?.Pls help..Was the question specifically ask for Mintzberg organisational form or can any other framework be applicable? Pls help

yes, it did specificly ask for a Mintsberg’s Model.

@drammeh652000 said:
Can anybody correctly remember the question requirement for Q3(b).?.Pls help..Was the question specifically ask for Mintzberg organisational form or did any other alternative framework ask? Pls help

yes, it did specificly ask for a Mintsberg’s Model.

Q3 b is : mintzberg organisation form diagrams that diagram as show probaly represents what is called machine bureaucracy or small company (only Strategic APX and operation core) that is matching with Q.
and other organisational structure is Virtual and Shamrock organisation as a core of executives and worker supported by outside contractor and part-time help . I think this is not matching with scenerio.

1 (a) performance: financial performance (profit, sales…) and non financial performance (sales, market share)….
contribution: most important is that they are in a value chain network. so we must assess them in this aspect.