ICAEW BTF LATEST STUDY EXAMS GUIDE
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔What are the 4 Cs of HRM? What are hard and soft approaches? - ✔✔Commitment,
competence, congruence, cost-effectiveness (short term)
Hard approach emphasises the resources element of HRM (Taylorism). Soft approach
emphasises the 4 Cs.
✔✔Difference between IT support and delivery? - ✔✔Support is things like anti-virus
and password controls, delivery is things like payroll and circulation reports.
✔✔What are the sales orientation, product orientation, and production orientation? -
✔✔Sales - just push the product they are available
Production - maximise output, not that bothered about the customer
Product - Product comes before necessarily considering customer need
✔✔What are the 4 Ps? What do they relate to? - ✔✔Product, Price, Promotion, Place
These are the key components of the marketing mix
,✔✔What are push and pull marketing techniques? - ✔✔Push - e.g. trade journal
(encourage intermediary to stock product)
Pull - e.g. advertising (persuade the ultimate customer to buy)
✔✔What are the additional 3 Ps of the services marketing mix? - ✔✔People,
Processes, Physical evidence
✔✔What are 3 types of research? - ✔✔Pure research
Applied research
Development
✔✔What are Mintzberg's 6 building blocks of organisational development? With
examples - ✔✔Strategic apex - generally the board
Middle line - middle management
Operating core - workers
Technostructure - standardise processes and document (e.g. HR)
Support staff - cleaning, catering, etc.
✔✔How can we relate Mintzberg's building blocks to types of business structure and the
external environment? - ✔✔Strategic apex - simple/entrepreneurial - strategic apex
Technostructure - simple static - machine bureaucracy (government)
Operating core - complex static - professional bureaucracy (big 4)
Middle line - simple/static/diverse - divisionalised
Operating core - complex dynamic - Adhocracy/innovative
✔✔What is the matrix business structure? - ✔✔Suitable for complex/high-tech
industries. Flexible structure that is easy to rearrange. Different leads for different
projects - lattice structure. Can lead to conflicting demands on staff time/allocation.
✔✔What is the span of control? What are tall and flat businesses?
What are three characteristics a wide and flat organisation are likely to exhibit? -
✔✔The number of people reporting to one person. Businesses that are tall generally
have a narrow span of control, those that are flat generally have wide spans of control.
Tall businesses include hospitals, flat businesses might be an editorial team at a
newspaper.
Greater need to delegate, better communication between strategic apex and operating
core, large spans of control.
, ✔✔What are mechanistic and organic structures? - ✔✔Mechanistic structures are like
bureaucracies, large technostructure and standardisation.
Organic organisations like a combination between adhocracy and professional
bureaucracy. Good example is google, committed and competent staff with shared
values and culture.
✔✔What are Mintzberg's 5 Ps of strategy? What are 3 levels of strategy? - ✔✔Plan -
e.g. a budget
Ploy - tactics
Pattern - consistency of behaviour
Position - how business relates to its environment
Perspective - attitude/way of looking at the world
Corporate (executive level), Business (Tactical level), Functional (operational)
✔✔What is an alternative to strategic planning? - ✔✔Emergent approach - basically the
opposite of rational planning. Examples might include viagra/adult friend finder.
✔✔How might we approach strategic options generation? What about strategic options
evaluation? - ✔✔Porters generic strategies, Ansoff's product/market strategies
Stakeholder analysis, risk analysis
✔✔How might we evaluate static environments? What about dynamic ones? What
about aspects of the environment more generally? - ✔✔4 Ss - static, single, simple,
safe
4 Ds - dynamic, diverse, difficult, dangerous
PESTEL analysis: political, economic, social, technological, ecological, legal
✔✔What are Kotler's four kinds of competitor and response profiles? - ✔✔Brand
competitors (coke/pepsi) - basically the same
Industry competitors (tesco/spa) - similar industry profile
Generic competitors (Ipad/Thomas cook - compete for same income)
Form competitors (match/lighter) - satisfy the same need
Response profiles:
- laid back (no response)
- tiger (aggressive response)
- selective (reacts to some but not all)
- stochastic (unpredictable)
✔✔What are the 9 Ms of a typical resource audit? - ✔✔Machinery
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔What are the 4 Cs of HRM? What are hard and soft approaches? - ✔✔Commitment,
competence, congruence, cost-effectiveness (short term)
Hard approach emphasises the resources element of HRM (Taylorism). Soft approach
emphasises the 4 Cs.
✔✔Difference between IT support and delivery? - ✔✔Support is things like anti-virus
and password controls, delivery is things like payroll and circulation reports.
✔✔What are the sales orientation, product orientation, and production orientation? -
✔✔Sales - just push the product they are available
Production - maximise output, not that bothered about the customer
Product - Product comes before necessarily considering customer need
✔✔What are the 4 Ps? What do they relate to? - ✔✔Product, Price, Promotion, Place
These are the key components of the marketing mix
,✔✔What are push and pull marketing techniques? - ✔✔Push - e.g. trade journal
(encourage intermediary to stock product)
Pull - e.g. advertising (persuade the ultimate customer to buy)
✔✔What are the additional 3 Ps of the services marketing mix? - ✔✔People,
Processes, Physical evidence
✔✔What are 3 types of research? - ✔✔Pure research
Applied research
Development
✔✔What are Mintzberg's 6 building blocks of organisational development? With
examples - ✔✔Strategic apex - generally the board
Middle line - middle management
Operating core - workers
Technostructure - standardise processes and document (e.g. HR)
Support staff - cleaning, catering, etc.
✔✔How can we relate Mintzberg's building blocks to types of business structure and the
external environment? - ✔✔Strategic apex - simple/entrepreneurial - strategic apex
Technostructure - simple static - machine bureaucracy (government)
Operating core - complex static - professional bureaucracy (big 4)
Middle line - simple/static/diverse - divisionalised
Operating core - complex dynamic - Adhocracy/innovative
✔✔What is the matrix business structure? - ✔✔Suitable for complex/high-tech
industries. Flexible structure that is easy to rearrange. Different leads for different
projects - lattice structure. Can lead to conflicting demands on staff time/allocation.
✔✔What is the span of control? What are tall and flat businesses?
What are three characteristics a wide and flat organisation are likely to exhibit? -
✔✔The number of people reporting to one person. Businesses that are tall generally
have a narrow span of control, those that are flat generally have wide spans of control.
Tall businesses include hospitals, flat businesses might be an editorial team at a
newspaper.
Greater need to delegate, better communication between strategic apex and operating
core, large spans of control.
, ✔✔What are mechanistic and organic structures? - ✔✔Mechanistic structures are like
bureaucracies, large technostructure and standardisation.
Organic organisations like a combination between adhocracy and professional
bureaucracy. Good example is google, committed and competent staff with shared
values and culture.
✔✔What are Mintzberg's 5 Ps of strategy? What are 3 levels of strategy? - ✔✔Plan -
e.g. a budget
Ploy - tactics
Pattern - consistency of behaviour
Position - how business relates to its environment
Perspective - attitude/way of looking at the world
Corporate (executive level), Business (Tactical level), Functional (operational)
✔✔What is an alternative to strategic planning? - ✔✔Emergent approach - basically the
opposite of rational planning. Examples might include viagra/adult friend finder.
✔✔How might we approach strategic options generation? What about strategic options
evaluation? - ✔✔Porters generic strategies, Ansoff's product/market strategies
Stakeholder analysis, risk analysis
✔✔How might we evaluate static environments? What about dynamic ones? What
about aspects of the environment more generally? - ✔✔4 Ss - static, single, simple,
safe
4 Ds - dynamic, diverse, difficult, dangerous
PESTEL analysis: political, economic, social, technological, ecological, legal
✔✔What are Kotler's four kinds of competitor and response profiles? - ✔✔Brand
competitors (coke/pepsi) - basically the same
Industry competitors (tesco/spa) - similar industry profile
Generic competitors (Ipad/Thomas cook - compete for same income)
Form competitors (match/lighter) - satisfy the same need
Response profiles:
- laid back (no response)
- tiger (aggressive response)
- selective (reacts to some but not all)
- stochastic (unpredictable)
✔✔What are the 9 Ms of a typical resource audit? - ✔✔Machinery
