OCR - F297: Strategic Management (June 2011)

Woah. That's annoying. Surely that gives students an unfair advantage over students which don't have the money (or their schools/colleges) to purchase these reports?
What pointers is the report giving? If it means I don't have to go over 20 chapters of the textbook I'll take anything right now.

And why on monday?

Reply 42

Original post by AndSparkles

Woah. That's annoying. Surely that gives students an unfair advantage over students which don't have the money (or their schools/colleges) to purchase these reports?
What pointers is the report giving? If it means I don't have to go over 20 chapters of the textbook I'll take anything right now.

And why on monday?

Mines on monday too...are you sure yours is on wednesday?!

Reply 43

Oh ****. Yeah its on monday. I got it confused with my human biology exam. You can tell I'm stressed. :s

Also, I found a free report type thing.. for anyone that hasn't got an apt analysis, it might help a bit.
http://www.obolynx.com/educator/info/ocr-f297-belvoir-park-ltd-bpl-2011-case-study-exposition

Reply 44

sloth1

Any guesses on what might be on?

Reply 45

Niamhx

Does anybody have any ways of structuring essays regarding strategy?

Reply 46

firebus154

My guesses:
1 a) calculation on decision tree, OCR will give the missing figures for us to work out
1 b) based on deciison tree and other factors, should BPL purchase the land?

the remaining 3 questions could be on:

Reversing the decline in net profit margin
Does exchange rate OR GDP affect BPL's ability to acheive its objectives?
How does strategic managment help BPL acheive its objectives? (that's tools available like product portfolio, SWOT analysis, PEST, Ansoff's and boston matrix)
Is Bpl's balance sheet healthy?
The current method of allocation of overheads to profit centres (done solely on employee numbers) - is it fair? suggest a new one (absorbtion)
Why has the room occupancy decreased?
Suggest methods to increase room occupancy
Was the managment of the change of renumeration strategy effectively managed? if not whose fault was it etc.
Evaluate Wilhelm's leadership style

Hope this is helpful to some?

I know strategy questions are anwered by discussing a few possible solutions to the problem and then suggesting the best one, or best blend of the metioned options, but I have no idea how to answer this question:
"discuss strategies BPL could use to reduce reliance of the peripheral income streams on the hotel"
any ideas?

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 47

sloth1

I was trying to write an answer for that
'discuss strategies BPL could use to reduce reliance of the peripheral income streams on the hotel'

and i literally dont know what to do. I know you have to link afew things in together that would work but I dont even know what the peripheral income streams are?
And another major thing im stuck on is 'How does strategic managment help BPL acheive its objectives?' We didnt do about SWOT analysis cos my teacher got ill at the end of the course so i am CLUELESS on how to answer it :/

Reply 48

I realllly don't know what to write in the strategy questions, especially 'how does strategic managment help BPL acheive its objectives' and 'discuss strategies BPL could use to reduce reliance of the peripheral income streams on the hotel'

I really hope all the questions are straight forward, but i'm not sure what they are going to give us for the 23 mark question at the end, because i would have thought something to do with which option to take, but it would make sense for that question to be 1b) if 1a) is the decision tree!

Reply 49

sloth1

I thought the 23 marker would be on decide what option to take becuase I can think of loads to write for it, but i imagine it will be part b to the first question after they give us more parts of the decision tree.

Strategic management is the whole unit isnt it so what the hell do you write in the answer! Does it mean like the objective of increasing room occupancy can link in with reversing the decline of revenue becuase more people in the hotel means a higher room occupancy and more profit?

Reply 50

Original post by sloth1

I thought the 23 marker would be on decide what option to take becuase I can think of loads to write for it, but i imagine it will be part b to the first question after they give us more parts of the decision tree.

Strategic management is the whole unit isnt it so what the hell do you write in the answer! Does it mean like the objective of increasing room occupancy can link in with reversing the decline of revenue becuase more people in the hotel means a higher room occupancy and more profit?

In our mock the 23 marker was the decide which option to take (which i would really like to be the 23 marker this time too!) Guess we'll see!

Reply 51

mimilini09

i think the main thing with strategy is writing about how it will affect bpl in the long term

im dreading this exam

Reply 52

mimilini09

does anyone have the mark scheme for the jan 2011 paper?

Reply 53

I'm really hoping forecasting doesn't come up. I'm just revising it and I feel clueless :s

Reply 54

Original post by AndSparkles

I'm really hoping forecasting doesn't come up. I'm just revising it and I feel clueless :s

If it were to come up, what exactly would they do a question about for BPL? I'm not sure it will come up tbh (hopefully it won't anyway!)

Reply 55

I'd say something like a graph? Where you have to plot some of the values, give line of best fit and forecast the values for the first two quarters of the year.

That or a table to complete with cyclical variations and average cyclical variations etc.

Reply 56

JEWEL13

Original post by AndSparkles

Oh ****. Yeah its on monday. I got it confused with my human biology exam. You can tell I'm stressed. :s

Also, I found a free report type thing.. for anyone that hasn't got an apt analysis, it might help a bit.
http://www.obolynx.com/educator/info/ocr-f297-belvoir-park-ltd-bpl-2011-case-study-exposition

Hey,
I found this too a couple of days ago as i was desperately looking for some help! I am struggling so much with the revision for this exam, my teacher has not taught me a single thing if i'm honest, so it's so hard to know where to start!
one of the questions that i really don't understand is:
"recommend a strategy for BPL to continue reducing the golf club waiting list?"
Why would they want to reduce the waiting list? Surely it gives them leeway if existing customers were to revert their membership?
I am so lost & was wondering whether you are anymore in the light than i am?

Reply 57

Original post by AndSparkles

I'd say something like a graph? Where you have to plot some of the values, give line of best fit and forecast the values for the first two quarters of the year.

That or a table to complete with cyclical variations and average cyclical variations etc.

Hmm yeah maybe, but we came to the conclusion on our lessons that considering the maths question is 13 marks, that could be challenging to some in the amount of time?

Reply 58