2020年浙江ACCA考试准考证打印时间考前两周

正确答案：

 

正确答案：

(c) Within the strategy clock, ONA might consider both differentiation and focus. A differentiation strategy seeks to provide
products or services that offer different benefits from those offered by competitors. These benefits are valued by customers
and so can lead to increased market share and, in the context of ONA, higher seat utilisation. Differentiation is particularly
attractive when it provides the opportunity of providing a price premium. In other words, margins are enhanced through
differentiation. Air travellers may be willing to pay more to travel with an airline that offers seat allocation and free in-flight
food and drinks.
However, such a broad-based differentiation strategy may be inappropriate for ONA because of the need to service both
business and leisure travellers. Consequently, the potential strategy also has to be considered in the context of the two sectors
that the company perceives that it services. In the regional sector a focused differentiation strategy looks particularly attractive.
Here, the strategy focuses on a selected niche or market segment. The most obvious focus is on business travel and building
the company’s strengths in this sector. This focus on the business traveller might be achieved through:
– Ensuring that flight times are appropriate for the business working day. This is already a perceived strength of the
company. This needs to be built on.
– Providing more space in the aircraft by changing the seating configuration – and the balance between business and
standard class. ONA currently has a low seat occupancy rate and a reduction in seat capacity could be borne.
– Fewer passengers in the aircraft may also lead to improved throughput times. Loading and unloading aircraft is quicker,
minimising the delays encountered by the traveller.
– Providing supporting business services – lounges with fax and internet facilities.
– Speeding the process of booking and embarkation (through electronic check-in), so making the process of booking and
embarkation easier and faster.
– Providing loyalty schemes that are aimed at the business traveller.
Although this focused differentiation is aimed at the business customer it is also likely that particular aspects of it will be
valued by certain leisure travellers. Given the strong regional brand (people from Oceania are likely to travel ONA) and the
nature of the leisure travel in this sector (families visiting relatives) it seems unlikely that there will be a significant fall off in
leisure travel in the regional sector.
In the international sector, the strategic customer is less clear. This sector is serving both the leisure and business market and
is also competing with strong ‘no frills’ competitors. The nature of customer and competition is different. A strategy of
differentiation could still be pursued, although perhaps general differentiation (without a price premium) may be more effective
with the aim of increasing seat occupancy rate. This sector would also benefit from most of the suggested improvements of
the regional sector – providing more space in aircraft, faster passenger throughput, electronic check-in etc. However, these
small changes will not address the relatively low flight frequency in this sector. This could be addressed through seeking
alliances with established airlines in the continental countries that it services. Simple code share agreements could double
ONA’s frequencies overnight. Obviously, ONA would be seeking a good cultural fit – the ‘no frills’ low-cost budget airlineswould not be candidates for code shares.

ONA’s perception of market segmentation, reflected in splitting regional from international travel and distinguishing leisure
from business appears to be a sensible understanding of the marketplace. However, it might also be useful for them to
consider on-line customers and commission customers (travel agents) as different segments. Perceiving travel agents as the
strategic customer would lead to a different strategic focus, one in which the amount and structure of commission played an
important part.
Finally, whichever strategy ONA adopts, it must continue to review its operational efficiency. An important strategic capability
in any organisation is to ensure that attention is paid to cost-efficiency. It can be argued that a continual reduction in costs
is necessary for any organisation in a competitive market. Management of costs is a threshold competence for survival. ONA
needs to address some of the weaknesses identified earlier in the question. Specific points, not covered elsewhere, include:
– Improved employee productivity to address the downward decline in efficiency ratios.
– Progressive standardisation of the fleet to produce economies of scale in maintenance and training. This should reduce
the cost base.
– Careful monitoring of expenditure, particularly on wages and salaries, to ensure that these do not exceed revenue
increases.
Candidates may address this question in a number of ways. In the model answer given above, the strategy clock is used –
as it uses the term ‘no frills’ in its definition and so it seems appropriate to look at other options within this structure. However,
answers that use other frameworks (such as Ansoff’s product/market matrix) are perfectly acceptable. Furthermore, answerswhich focus on the suitability, acceptability and feasibility of certain options are also acceptable.

正确答案：
(b) A cost driver is the factor that determines the level of resource required for an activity. This may be illustrated by considering
costs for each of the four levels in Order Number 377.
Unit based costs:
Direct material costs are driven by the quantity, range, quality and price of materials required per product unit according to
the specification for the order.
Direct labour costs are driven by the number of hours required per product unit and the rate per hour that has been agreed
for each labour grade.
Batch related costs:
The number of machine set-ups per batch is the cost driver for machines used.
The number of design hours per batch is the cost driver for design work.
Product sustaining costs:
The number of marketing visits to a client per order is the cost driver for marketing cost chargeable to the order.
The number of hours of production line maintenance per order is the cost driver for production line cost.
Business sustaining costs:
These costs are absorbed at a rate of 30% of total cost excluding business sustaining costs. This is an arbitrary rate which
indicates the difficulty in identifying a suitable cost driver/drivers for the range of residual costs in this category. Wherever
possible efforts should be made to identify aspects of this residual cost that can be added to the unit, batch or product related
analysis.
The cost drivers are useful in that they provide a basis for an accurate allocation of the cost of resources consumed by an
order. In addition, investigation of the cause(s) of a cost driver occurring at its present level allows action to be considered
that will lead to a reduction in the cost per unit of cost driver.
Examples of causes that might be identified are:
Material price may be higher than necessary due to inefficient sourcing of materials. This may be overcome through efforts
to review sourcing policy and possibly provide additional training to staff responsible for the sourcing of materials.
The number of machine set-ups per batch may be due to lack of planning of batch sizes. It may be possible for batch sizes
in this order to be increased to 1,250 units which would reduce the number of batches required to fulfil the order from five
to four. This should reduce overall costs.
The amount of production line maintenance (and hence cost) required per order may be reduced by examining causes such
as level of skill of maintenance carried out – by GMB’s own staff or out-sourced provision. Action would involve re-training of
own staff or recruitment of new staff or changing of out-source providers.
(alternative relevant examples and discussion would be acceptable for all aspects of part (b))