I wasnt happy with the benchmarking/balance scorecard question. Dont know how could do 12 calcs. Did Q2 (competive adv) and Q5 (good q on mendelows)

Louise, I done exactly the same q's. I too didnt get the BSc./Benchmarking Q. Was it asking for just financial benchmarking? Cos like you say there wasn't enough info to get 28 marks! I tried to come up with Customer/Innovation etc benchmarks but was just writing nonsense. Relying on optionals now..

Yeh thought the knowledge management bit wasn't too bad a start. Dissecting Mr Amit's statement was difficult for 6 marks but said it over emphasised the use of IT in KM. Balance Scorecard/Benchmarking I just did the four perspectives with about 3 or 4 points for each, comparing AAA and XXX.

Calculations wise I did Profit Margins for 2004 and 2008, Sales growth between 04 and 08, Turnover/Staff member for 2008, Support staff per Consultant, Return on Net Assets for 2004 and 2008, think thats 16 indiviual calculations. 5 Forces was kind of rushed because of spending so long on the above.

Did Q2 and Q5 for optionals.

Didn't really know what Q2 was asking when it said to evaluate 3 strategies, I didn't know if it just wanted us to say "Cost Leadership, Differentiation and Product Development," but I went for Developing the website and e-commerce, Selling the Distribution Arm and Differentiation/Product Development as all of the competitors did the same thing. Q5 was tricky I thought but probably because I was running out of time.

I bantered about porters generic strategies for q2 (cost leader,differentiation, focus/niche) didnt get into specifics about website or anything... was rushing a bit

I also did Q2 and Q5 - did anyone not??

Yeh I'm thinking you've probably gone along the right lines but I was looking for it to say Generic Strategy instead of just strategy :-/ Kind of wish I'd just used Porter now

Yeh, it didn't say explain or produce it said use as a 'framework.' I think all of the questions were pretty vague as to what they were looking for, oh well we'll find out on Jan 14th... Better start revising for P9 tomorrow :-(

Q2 mark split: 7 to explain the benefit of conducting a competitor analysis 12 to comment on 3 possible strategies 3 to recommend a short-term strategy 3 to recommend a long-term strategy

If you look back over the past exams the question 1 today was very similar to one a few years ago where they asked for a balanced scorecard of the company and then do a benchmarking comparison between 2 companies and finally it asked about knowledge management.

What did everybody think of Question 3 part 1? About the principles of BPR? What did evrybody write?

Principles of BPR - Lean processes, add more value to each section of the value chain, increase effeciency...etc etc What did people write for q2 part A? The benefits of competitor analysis? I mentioed Grants 3 principles? Awareness of comp strategies Predict responses to initiatives Influence behaviour anyone else??/

I did 2 & 5 also! Tried to do 4 but my mind went blank so went for 2 with about 40 minutes left. Dreading tomorrows p9 hence the fact I'm wasting time on here...

i did the same as most people q 2 & 5. Question 1 for so time consumming and had to rush porters 5 forces, Question 2 & 5 I went blank when it came to mentioning strategies i didnt mention porter but indirectly answered it using porters and ansoff. By mentioned need to reduce cost and outsource production of manuals, use Web to sell manuals direct and expand share & Reduce the manuals to smaller sizeable chunks as opposed to a large book and it could come in a box set . And did a SFA for each i dont know if that was the right approach though question 5 was just rushed i hope my hand wiriting dont let me down and i was rushing to write all the points before time ran out.

For the BPR question was it asking for the benefits of implementing BPR to the company e.g. through the computer system speeding transcations up or the general benefits of BPR? also

well for the BPR question where it said how is it best implemented, i wrote the 4 key stages of BPR Identify processes Rationalise processes Redesign processes implement new processes ........ Then for the benefits i put how it benefited the company, as in better efficiency, less customer complaints, salesman can spend time selling on phone rather than driving between homes etc. For question 1 calculations i did profit margin %, asset turnover, revenue / employee and consultant, and profit / employee...? anyone else?