ACCA
Paper P3
Business analysis
Essential text
British library cataloguinginpublication data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Published by:
Kaplan Publishing UK
Unit 2 The Business Centre
Molly Millars Lane
Wokingham
Berkshire
RG41 2QZ
ISBN 9781847105509
© Kaplan Financial Limited, 2008
Printed and bound in Great Britain.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Chartered Institute of
Management Accountants for permisssion to reproduce past examination questions. The answers
have been prepared by Kaplan Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of Kaplan Publishing.
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Contents
Page
Chapter 1
The nature of strategic business analysis
1
Chapter 2
The environment and competitive forces
21
Chapter 3
Marketing and the value of goods and services
43
Chapter 4
Internal resources, capabilities and
competences
65
Chapter 5
Stakeholders, ethics and culture
85
Chapter 6
Strategic choice I
111
Chapter 7
Strategic choice II
131
Chapter 8
Organisational structure
159
Chapter 9
Business process change
177
Chapter 10
The role of information technology
201
Chapter 11
Quality
231
Chapter 12
Project management
257
Chapter 13
The role of finance in formulating and
implementing business strategy
287
Chapter 14
Strategy and people
319
Chapter 15
Strategic development and managing strategic 353
change
Chapter 16
Questions & Answers
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chapter
ACCA
Introduction
v
ACCA Introduction
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ACCA Introduction
Core areas of the syllabus
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The examination
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chapter
1
The nature of strategic
business analysis
Chapter learning objectives
Upon completion of this chapter you will be able to:
•
describe the common vocabulary of strategic management and
why strategic management is important
•
describe the different levels of strategic planning for a profit
seeking and a notforprofit organisation
•
describe the JSW model for both profitseeking and notfor
profitseeking organisations
•
•
describe the JS lenses (strategy as design, experience, ideas)
explore the scope of business analysis and its relationship to
strategic management.
1
The nature of strategic business analysis
1 Introduction
This chapter introduces some of the main terms used in discussions about
strategy. It also looks at the meanings of the word ‘strategy’ and asks to
what extent strategic planning is useful.
Firstly, however, two brief company histories will be presented to illustrate
how companies can be affected by circumstances and decisions.
Expandable text IBM
Expandable text Kodak
Test your understanding 1
Think about what planning issues might currently be facing the
newspaper industry.
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2 The common language of strategic planning
Strategic planning
‘Strategic planning’ can also be known as ‘longterm planning’ or ‘corporate
planning’. Those alternative names give some insight into the nature of
strategic planning. It:
•
considers the longer term (think of a timehorizon of aboutfive years or
beyond)
•
considers the whole organisation.
Other characteristics of strategic planning are that:
•
•
•
•
it gives direction to the whole organisation, and integrates its activities
it considers all stakeholders
it looks at how to gain a sustainable competitive advantage
it relates the organisation, its resources and competences to its
environment.
There is no universally accepted definition of strategy, and the word is used
in different contexts to mean different things. The following definition is as
useful as any.
‘Strategy is a pattern of activities that seeks to achieve the objectives of the
organisation and adapt its scope, resources and operations to
environmental changes in the long term.’
Expandable text
Why bother?
Studies show that companies that plan are more successful than those that
do not.
Strategic planning can have the following potential advantages:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
forces organisations to look ahead. ‘Forewarned is forearmed’
improves the organisation’s fit with its environment
makes best use of scarce resources
influences the future (advertising, lobbying)
provides direction for the business
monitors progress (control)
ensures consistent goal and objectives.
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The nature of strategic business analysis
But, there are potential disadvantages:
•
•
•
cost = time and money – ‘Paralysis by analysis’
•
less relevance in a crisis.
bureaucracy develops
plan = straightjacket and opportunities are ignored because they are
not in the plan
Strategic planning is particularly important when:
•
•
•
•
there are long lead times
the business needs to be turned around
there is high capital expenditure
many stakeholders are affected.
Expandable text
Test your understanding 2
How important is strategic planning likely to be to the following
organisations?
(a) A health service.
(b) A small building contractor.
The rational ‘top down’ approach to strategic planning
This is the approach that will be of most relevance in the exam. It breaks
down the process into three distinct steps:
•
•
•
strategic analysis (examination of the current strategic position)
strategic choice
strategic implementation (or strategy into action).
This can be represented in the diagram on the following page. Broadly,
information about the organisation and its environment is collected and
rational decisions are made about future courses of action.
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Mission – the purpose of the organisation (e.g. maximise shareholder
wealth through operating a supermarket or treating patients in a
hospital).
•
•
Objectives – quantified, timelimited targets.
Stakeholder – any person or thing affected by the organisation:
shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, local community, etc.
This approach will be examined in more detail in section 4.
Emergent strategies
The research of Mintzberg (1987) suggests that few of the strategies
followed by organisations in the real world are as consciously planned as
the approaches above suggest.
He believes this to be an unrealistic view of strategic planning, believing
instead that strategies evolve over time (emerge) rather than result from an
indepth analysis of every aspect of the environment and an impartial
evaluation of every possible alternative.
Expandable text
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The nature of strategic business analysis
Incrementalism
Lindblom did not believe in the rational model to decision making as he
suggested that in the real world it was not used, citing the following reasons.
•
Strategic Managers do not evaluate all the possible options open to
them but choose between relatively few alternatives.
•
It does not normally involve an autonomous strategic planning team that
impartially sifts alternative options before choosing the best solution.
•
Strategy making tends to involve smallscale extensions of past policy –
‘incrementals’ rather than radical shifts following a comprehensive
search.
Lindblom believed that strategy making involving small scale extensions of
past practices would be more successful as it was likely to be more
acceptable as consultation, compromise and accommodation were built
into the process. He believed that comprehensive rational planning was
impossible and likely to result in disaster if actively pursued.
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Freewheeling opportunism
•
Freewheeling opportunists do not like planning. They prefer to see and
grab opportunities as they arise.
•
Intellectually, this is justified by saying that planning takes too much time
and is too constraining. Probably, the approach is adopted more for
psychological reasons: some people simply do not like planning.
•
Often such people are entrepreneurs who enjoy taking risks and the
excitement of setting up new ventures. However, once the ventures are
up and running, the owners lose interest in the daytoday repetitive
administration needed to run a business.
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3 Levels of strategic planning
Corporate, business functional levels
•
Corporate Strategy
What business is the firm in? What businesses should it be in?
These activities need to be matched to the firm’s environment, its
resource capabilities and the values and expectations of stakeholders.
How integrated should these businesses be?
•
Business Strategy
Looks at how each strategic business unit (SBU) attempts to achieve
its mission within its chosen area of activity.
Which products should be developed?
What approach should be taken to gain a competitive advantage?
Which markets to enter?
•
Functional or Operational Strategy
Looks at how the different functions of the business support the
corporate and business strategies.
Note that it is not always clear and rarely important whether a decision is
classified as corporate, business or functional.
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The nature of strategic business analysis
Consistency
The strategies at the different levels should be consistent. There’s no point
having a corporate strategy that says that the organisation should move up
market, if the business strategy is to stay in cheap markets and operations
provide lowquality products and services.
Expandable text
Test your understanding 3
A fullservice airline is making the following decisions.
(a) Should a ‘nofrills’, lowfare subsidiary be set up?
(b) If it is set up, how should cabin staff be recruited?
Are these likely to be strategic, business or operational decisions?
4 The Johnson, Scholes and Whittington model of strategic
management
An overview
The Johnson, Scholes and Whittington (JSW) model of strategic planning is
a rational planning model (see section 'The rational 'top down' approach to
strategic planning'). It consists of the three elements already discussed
(analysis, choice, implementation) but instead of presenting these linearly, it
recognises interdependencies. For example, it might only be at the strategy
into action (implementation) stage that an organisation discovers something
that sheds light on its strategic position.
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The strategic position/analysis
Assessing the strategic position consists of analysing:
•
the environment (competitors, markets, regulations, discoveries etc.
Opportunities and threats)
•
the strategic capability of the organisation (resources, competences.
Strengths and weaknesses)
•
•
the culture, beliefs and assumptions of the organisation
the expectation and power of stakeholders (what do the shareholders
want? Will employees cooperate?).
Note the last point – strategic planning and management cannot be
achieved without regard to stakeholders.
•
In a profitmaking organisation, management might have a choice of
adopting a high risk/high return strategy or a low risk/low return strategy.
It’s important to know which the shareholders want.
•
In a notforprofit organisation, such as a hospital, managers need to
know what the government and potential patients want. How much
resource should go into heart operations, how much into hip
replacement, etc.
Expandable text
Strategic choice
Strategic choice follows strategic analysis and is based upon the following
three elements.
•
Generation of strategic options, e.g. growth, acquisition, diversification
or concentration.
•
•
Evaluation of the options to assess their relative merits and feasibility.
Selection of the strategy or option that the organisation will pursue.
There could be more than one strategy chosen but there is a chance of
an inherent danger or disadvantage to any choice made. Although there
are techniques for evaluating specific options, the selection is often
subjective and likely to be influenced by the values of managers and
other groups with an interest in the organisation.
Strategic choices need to be made at every level, though obviously choices
made at any particular level can influence choices at other levels.
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The nature of strategic business analysis
•
Corporate – the scope and direction of the organisation. Which
businesses should it be in? Should the organisation change from being
a manufacturer to a service provider? Which markets should it be in?
•
•
Business – how to compete at the business level.
Operational level – for example, whether an organisation should
outsource components or make them itself.
In addition to deciding the scope and direction of an organisation, choices
also need to be made about how to achieve the goal. Broadly, there are two
ways in which a strategy can be pursued:
•
•
internal development (organic growth)
external development – merger/acquisition, joint venture, licensing.
Expandable text
Strategy into action/implementation
Implementing a strategy has three elements.
•
Organising/structuring. For example, should the organisation be split
into European, US and Asian divisions? How autonomous should
divisions be?
•
Enabling an organisation’s resources should support the chosen
strategy. For example, appropriate human resources and fixed assets
need to be acquired.
•
Managing change. Most strategic planning and implementation will
involve change, so managing change, in particular employees’ fears
and resistance, is crucial.
Expandable text
Illustration 1 – The JSW model of strategic planning
Illustration – Johnson, Scholes and Whittington model of
strategic planning
A fullprice airline is considering setting up a ‘no frills’, lowfare
subsidiary. The strategic planning process would include the following
elements.
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Strategic position: competitor action, oil price forecasts, passenger
volume forecasts, availability of cheap landing rights, public concern for
environmental damage, effect on the main brand.
Strategic choices: which routes to launch? Set up a service from
scratch or buy an existing cheap airline? Which planes to use, what on
board services to offer?
Strategic implementation: how autonomous should the new airline be?
How to recruit and train staff? Implementation of the internet booking
system. Acquisition of aircraft. Obtaining landing slots.
Test your understanding 4
A health provider has only large, edge of town, hospitals. It is
considering setting up additional small city centre clinics capable of
treating lessserious day cases.
Give examples of what the provider should consider under the headings
of strategic position, strategic choices and strategic implementation.
Expandable text
5 The strategy lenses
Johnson and Scholes talk about ‘strategic lenses’, which are three ways of
viewing what can be meant by the term ‘strategy’. These are as follows.
•
Strategy as design. This is the view that strategy formulation is a
rational, logical process where information is carefully considered and
predictions made. Strategic choices are made and implementation
takes place. Essentially this is the same as the rational planning model
discussed earlier.
•
Strategy as experience. This is the view that future strategies are
based on experiences gained from past strategies. There is strong
influence from the received wisdom and culture within an organisation
about how things should be done. This reflects the emergent approach
described above.
•
Strategy as ideas. This is the view that innovation and new ideas are
frequently not thought up by senior managers at the corporate planning
level. Rather, new ideas will often be created throughout a diverse
organisation as people try to carry out their everyday jobs and to cope
with changing circumstances.
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The nature of strategic business analysis
•
Johnson and Scholes suggest that viewing strategy through only one of
these lenses can mean that problems that the other lenses might show
up are missed. For example, too much reliance on incremental changes
(strategy as experience) might overlook radical new developments that
could be essential for the organisation’s success (strategy as ideas).
•
It is worth considering the very strong influence the design and
experience lenses have in large organisations and government
departments. Often, the larger the organisation, the less able it is to
adopt early essential but radical changes.
•
Ideally, managers should try to look at strategy through all three lenses
in turn.
Illustration 2 – The strategy lenses
Choosing a family holiday
A family is considering a holiday. The family has for many years gone to
the same resort, ‘Golden Sands’ which has been perfectly suitable.
Applying the strategic lenses to this modest planning exercise could
result in the following approaches:
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•
Strategy as design. The family gets lots of holiday brochures and
makes extensive queries on the internet. Checklists of family
members’ requirements are drawn up and the holidays are scored
against these. Careful budgeting exercises are carried out. The
result of this rational, logical process is that another resort, ‘Emerald
Coast’ seems to be a better fit to what the family needs.
•
Strategy as experience. Despite the analysis carried out, the head
of the family would like to return to Golden Sands. There is strong
emotional attachment to that resort, the facilities and activities
available are wellknown and holidays there have always been
enjoyed.
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•
Strategy as ideas. An old school friend of the head of the family now
lives abroad and has just emailed with the suggestion that the two
families do a houseswap for a couple of weeks. Both families live
in interesting and attractive areas of their countries and the house
swap would be cheap, comfortable and interesting.
Of course, there is no right answer as to where the family should go on
holiday, and assessment of the success of the holiday can only be
carried out retrospectively. But one thing is clear, all three of the lenses
have a part to play in trying to make a good decision.
Expandable text
Test your understanding 5
What are the three strategic lenses? Apply them to the process of
moving house.
6 Understanding the P3 syllabus
Given the above discussion of business planning, how are we to understand
the P3 syllabus? The examiner has emphasised the following aspects.
External and internal perspectives
The P3 syllabus has two main perspectives:
•
•
The external forces that shape the environment of an organisation:
–
the behaviour of customers
–
the initiatives of competitors
–
the emergence of new laws and regulations.
The internal ambitions and concerns that exist within an organisation:
– the desire for growth
–
the design of processes
–
the quality of products and services
–
the competences of employees
–
the financial resources.
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The nature of strategic business analysis
Three levels
The P3 syllabus can be understood as functioning on three levels, as shown
in the following relational diagram of main capabilities:
•
Top layer – strategic analysis, choice and action
The ‘top layer’ of the relational model reflects a largely external and
strategic perspective of business analysis.It is more concerned with the
long term direction and scope of an organisation:
•
•
–
scanning the changing business environment
–
looking to use the resources and competences of the organisation
to achieve competitive advantage
–
fulfilling the expectations of stakeholders.
Middle layer – implementation
The ‘middle layer’ is an expansion of the implementation of strategy.
Understanding the strategic position of an organisation and considering
the strategic choices open to it are of little value unless the preferred
strategies can be turned into organisational action. The middle layer
should be perceived as both the implementation of strategy handed
down from above, and the source of emergent strategies as employees
go about their daily tasks
Key aspects
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–
Process redesign and automation.
–
Information technology and ebusiness.
–
Quality assurance, control and initiatives.
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These three elements are interconnected. For example, many process
redesign initiatives use information technology to achieve
improvements in product or service quality. Process and quality
initiatives have been significant in organisations for a very long time.
Information technology has less of a pedigree but its impact on e
business may yet make this the most influential element in the syllabus.
Other aspects
•
•
–
Project management – All three elements in the ‘middle layer’
require effective project management
–
Financial aspects – Finally, strategic position, choices and
implementation are all subject to financial benchmarks. Financial
analysis explicitly recognises the importance of focussing on the
key ratios and measures that may be used to assess the position
of an organisation, the viability of a selected strategy and the
monitoring and measuring of its success. This is very important;
one suspects that many managers can come up with suitable,
acceptable strategies that are not financially feasible!
Bottom layer – HR implications
Successful strategies require effective recruitment, training, motivation
and organisation of people.
Business analysis is presented in the syllabus in three interrelated
layers. It is important that candidates for the examination appreciate the
links and connections between the parts. The syllabus encourages, as
far as it can, a ‘systems’ perspective of an organisation. It encourages
the notion that it may only be possible to understand any complex
system, such as an organisation, by considering the whole of it, rather
than focusing on any one individual part.
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The nature of strategic business analysis
7 Chapter summary
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Test your understanding answers
Test your understanding 1
The main challenge will come from the internet services both as ways of
distributing news and as carriers of advertising. The challenges will grow
when news material can be downloaded into convenient portable
devices. Most large newspapers already have websites that carry each
day’s articles, or a summary thereof.
Newspapers will still have a role in collecting and reporting news but
their method of distribution is likely to be different. In fact, distribution will
be cheaper, and profits will still be available provided readers can be
encouraged to pay for the service. However, there could be a large
challenge to even the reporting of news, and therefore newspaper profits
if news reporting were done on a ‘Wikipedia’ basis. Wikipedia is a free
internetbased encyclopaedia in which generally authoritative articles
are written and edited by a large number of volunteers. News reporting
could be done on the same basis – nonprofessionals writing about
matters that are of interest or that affect them. A biased or untrue story
could, of course be written (and that can happen in newspapers too), but
other writers could immediately produce a story with opposing or correct
views. It is certainly not clear that truth would be an automatic casualty if
news sites displayed such a potential diversity of material.
Newspapers have already found a slump in advertising, particularly in
classified, job ads and personal ads as advertisers move to specialist
sites that can be searched for the most relevant items.
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