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CM0603 Common Errors

1 AGT/CD 6/3/2012

CM0603 Common ErrorsActivity 1Question 1.1

Just providing excerpts from company accounts that dont identify the income or costchannels/categories (e.g. only one entry for operational costs).

Too much discussion on share capital or taxes rather than operational income and

expenditure

Question 1.2

Measures are only for product. i.e. only considering measures that a consumer would

use rather than measuring the business as a whole

Question 1.3

Value chain doesnt identify the activities (but instead talks about the products or raw

materials)

Generic answer that is not tailored to the company

Question 1.4Generic diagram that doesnt reflect (or show understanding of) the shape of the actual

supply chain

Including their suppliers, our suppliers without demonstrating understanding of who

these are

Question 1.5

Using only marketing slogans or consumer view of product

Excessive use of quoted material

Activity 2Question 2.1

Interpreting environmental as green

Generic PEST rather than identifying relevant factorsNot addressing the question what is causing it to change (or otherwise identifying

trends)

No mention of inflection points (not even saying there arent any)

CM0603 Common Errors

2 AGT/CD 6/3/2012

Question 2.2

Not saying if each force is strong or weak

Not being clear who is customer/supplier.

(or not matching the value system from earlier)

Assuming alternative products is the same as competitors/rivalry

Question 2.3

Not applying criteria from 1.2

Not making conclusion from discussion

Basing decision on only one factor/measure

Using share price as a comparative measure

Taking someone elses word for it

Excessive use of quoted material

Activity 3

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Question 3.1 & 3.2

Superficial or unclear answers

Drawing conclusions from SWOT analysis (this should be in Activity 4)

Confusing bullet points

Excessive use of quoted material

Activity 4Question 4.1Generic strategy discussion (e.g. differentiation/niche market) rather than focussing on

cost competitiveness and answering the question.

Confusing Cost with Price

Question 4.2

Reproducing activity 3

(i.e. not understanding difference between SWOT analysisand SWOT matrix)

Not clear which SWOT analysis entries relate to each strategy generated

Not addressing each quadrant of the SWOT matrix

Excessive use of quoted material

CM0603 Common Errors3 AGT/CD 6/3/2012

PresentationNot clear what the company or industry sector is

Not clear what question is being answered

(e.g. not using section headings)

Paraphrasing question for heading and then not answering the right/full question

No page numbers

Too long (or too short) see page limits

General visual presentation (e.g. break big blocks of text into paragraphs)

Poor phrasing, grammar, spelling that can (at worst) obscure or confuse the meaning

Inappropriate or unclear use of bullet pointsThe expectation is for a first class, professional, report

ReferencingReferences and citations must be separate

(including: dont embed url in the text)

It must be clear what has come from where

Too many facts and opinions stated without supporting references or arguments

We must be able to look up the reference

o So dont just reference top level domain (e.g. www.ford.com)

or entire company report

Only referencing core text

Only referencing company resources (bias)References provided but No Citations

Citations do not match references

References should be in alphabetic order at the end of the report, not provided

separately for each activity.