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Prioritisation
One key difference between the T4 case study and other CIMA exams is the requirement to prioritise issues. You must deal with the most important issues first, and in the most depth. (See figure 1).
One trap people commonly fall into is that they make broad, general assessments of priorities, based on gut instinct rather than proper analysis. This is fraught with the possibility of making major errors and can be fatal to their chances of passing, as the order of your prioritisation is vitally important to the overall mark. Indeed the examiner has noted on past papers that if you did not deal with, what were considered to be the key issues, as one of your top priorities that you would be unlikely to pass the paper.
The second trap is that of taking too long to prioritise. Perhaps because of its importance, people worry and fret. In fact, prioritisation is actually quite easy as long as you have got a system to help you do it.
In one of the past post exam guides the examiner outlined the following:
“The basis used to prioritise issues might be:
1. Timescale (short to long-term)
2. Scale of impact (most significant to least)
3. Degree of risk (highest to lowest)”
These can be used to create a system of prioritisation.
Step 1 - Set up a prioritisation page
The first step is to set out, on a blank page, the proforma in figure 2.
 Step 2 - Read the first issue in the unseen
Read the first issue presented to you in the unseen, and note the issue down in the left hand column.
Step 3 - Grade impact
Next grade the impact it will have on a scale of High, Medium or Low. Here, you are looking at the impact on profits, cashflow, survival of the business, employees and other stakeholders. A big impact might include a large increase in profits, saving the business from failure, a takeover, moving factories or offices causing the lay off of many staff or requiring shareholders to sell shares.
Step 4 - Grade the likelihood of the event happening
The examiner said we can prioritise based on the level of risk. However, you may remember from Paper 3, that risk can be categorised on a graph using 2 criteria, impact and likelihood. Since we have already dealt with impact in step 3, the only element of risk remaining is the likelihood of the event happening. From a prioritisation perspective, even if the impact would be high (so for example, a takeover bid would have a big impact on most stakeholders), if there is a low chance that this will occur (the takeover has been rumoured but seems unlikely) then it should be prioritised lower than if the event definitely will occur (the bid is already on the table).
Step 4 - Timing
Issues which must be dealt with immediately must be prioritised above those which can be delayed. A short-term (ST) issue is something that will be dealt with in the next 1-3 months, medium-term (MT), the next year, and long-term (LT), 1 year and beyond. A new strategic approach will have a big impact on the business, but if implementation could be delayed for 1 or 2 years it should not be prioritised as highly as say a strike of all staff that has just been announced.
Step 5 - Prioritisation score
In the next column, give each issue a score out of 10. Issues which are H/H/ST will be 9 or 10s, while L/L/LT, will score below 2.
Step 6 - Prioritisation order
Complete steps 2 to 5 for each issue. Then, in the final column, prioritise your top 5 issues (the maximum you need to deal with per the examiner) according to the scores you have given each. Use your judgement here too. That first issue which seemed like a 7 out of 10 at the time you read it, may not seem quite so important now you've read later issues!
An that's it! Just let the system do the work for you and you will find prioritisation easy. As with anything though, you do need to practise this many times. The more practise you do the better you'll get at grading and the better your prioritisation will become.
Its also worth noting that in the exam you MUST justify the order you have used, in a separate prioritisation section. With the help of this system, this section should be easy, as you simply comment on the impact, likelihood, and timescale to justify each priority.
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