By Amit Kumar Jugia

 The Strategic case study exam is set in a simulated business context.
 The aim of the exam is to put you in a ‘real life’ business situation and to get you to perform tasks which a management accountant could be expected to complete in the workplace.
 Report writing is often a key part of a management accountant’s role.
 You may be asked to write a report during your case study exam so you should be prepared to do so.
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 Be professional
 Think about your audience.
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Is the report for the Board of Directors, employees at a similar level to you or an external party?
Can you assume that the audience are all accounting/finance staff or will some readers of the report have little or no accounting background.
If this is the case you will need to think about the technical detail you use and explain it clearly and concisely.
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 What is the purpose of the report?
 Have you been asked to present some information and/or data, do you need to give a recommendation on how to resolve an issue?
 Make sure that your report covers exactly what you have been asked to do in the requirement.
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 Your title should be clear and simple so your audience can immediately see what you will be discussing and who the report is for.
 For example ‘A report to the Finance Director on change management issues’ or ‘A report to the Board of Directors on how to write a report in an exam’.
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 This is where you state the purpose of the report and let the audience know what you will be covering.
 For example you may have four different areas that you want to cover so you could write:
 This report will cover the following;
 Background information on…
 Our current position on…
 Our options for the future…
 My recommendations for the future…
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Take each of the points that you made in your introduction and give it a sub-heading.
Breaking your report into sections with clear sub-headings will make it easier to read (and write!).
Think about the information that you have been given in the exam which parts of it are relevant for the purpose of the report?
For example, do you have any financial data that would be useful to show in the report or any background information that you should refer to?
Think about how you can format this data and information so it is easy for your reader to understand.
While you are writing your report keep reminding yourself about the purpose of the report and the audience – don’t get bogged down in detail which is not relevant.
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If you have been asked to give a recommendation then you should do so at the end of your report.
Make it clear that you are making a recommendation and state what your recommendation is. For example ‘Having considered all of the issues in this report I recommend that this company...’.
Your recommendation should be supported by information and facts that you have included in the main body of your report.
You may not be required to give a recommendation in which case you can conclude the report with a sentence such as ‘This report has identified a number of key issues on moving to activity based costing – if you have any questions please contact me.’
You may want to summarise what you think are the key points in your conclusion.
It can be useful to put your name and position in the company (if known) at the bottom of the report.
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 Read through your completed report – now is the time to edit or add anything.
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 In your case study exam you may be asked to produce an answer using a format other than a report such as by email, briefing notes, a memo or a discussion paper (this list is not exhaustive).
 An email:
 Briefing notes
 Briefing notes are usually short papers that quickly and effectively inform the reader (often a decision-maker) about an issue.
 Briefing notes give someone a short, clear and concise version of the key points and considerations about an issue.
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The purpose of the briefing notes – outline the issue or topic that you will be addressing.
Summary of the facts/information – break this section down into a number of topics and use subheadings (which are relevant to the exam requirement) such as a summary of the history of the topic, relevant background information, reasons why is there now an issue, key considerations, what can you do to resolve the issue and so on.
Conclusion and/or recommendations – make sure your conclusion covers the most important points that you want to get across to the reader. If you need to make a recommendation make sure it is clear and direct and you can back it up with the information presented in your main summary.
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 Memos are used to remind people about something – they are used internally within a company. They should be brief and concise and state:
 Who the memo is to;
 Who the memo is from;
 The date;
 Subject; and
 The content of the message.
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 A discussion paper should give its reader(s) a thorough understanding of a topic; it needs to cover all issues, from all angles and perspectives so that an informed decision can be made.
 The format of your discussion paper will be similar to that of a report with an introduction, the body of your discussion paper (you could divide this into arguments for and arguments against), a conclusion and recommendation(s).
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Before we look at what’s new and how to prepare for it, let’s consider why the institute is obliging people to take these exams so much earlier in their studies.
CIMA has designed a framework that splits the management accountant’s role into four generic skills or “competencies”: technical, business, people and leadership.
At Strategic level, the assumption is that you are a senior manager reporting directly to the board of directors, who will also need your guidance in dealing with problems and evaluating opportunities.
At Strategic level, the expectation is that you will be able to adapt what you have learnt during your studies to address the issues arising in the scenario.
These will of course depend largely on the nature of the organisation concerned and its business.
Your position as a manager means that you’ll often have to give senior executives very specific advice, because they won’t necessarily have the time to analyse a problem in depth themselves.
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The Case Study Exam will enable you to show your ability in analysing various scenarios (demonstrating technical skills) and determining how these affect the organisation concerned (business skills).
You may need to explain the key issues to non-accountants who are senior managers (people skills) and indicate areas that require improvement (leadership skills).
Remember that these exams are less of a test of what you know; they’re far more about what you can do.
At Strategic level, each skill is given equal weighting, which means in effect that displaying technical skills alone would score you 25 per cent at most.
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At Strategic level, you may be presented with a serious threat to the business and be asked to come up with a strategic response.
The technical skill is to identify a suitable response.
The business skill is to ensure that this response is appropriate to the industry and company Z’s position in it.
The people skill is to explain your choice in a concise and understandable way to Z’s directors, who may not have an accounting background.
The leadership skill may be to manage the implementation of the strategy.
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Seven weeks before each exam you’ll be able to access the pre-seen material.
This concerns a fictional company but is based on a real business or industry.
The new material provided in the exam will be broken down into a series of “triggers” and “tasks”.
A trigger is an extra item of information about the company, usually describing a development or a problem that needs resolving.
This may come in the form of an email, a set of accounts or a newspaper report – just as it might when you are at work. You will then be asked to perform one or more tasks based on each trigger.
The CIMA Case Study Exams require you to demonstrate integrated knowledge across all three pillars of the syllabus, with a focus on application, analysis and evaluation.
The aim is to reflect the reality of cross-functional working and to get you performing the kinds of tasks that management accountants might be expected to do in the course of their work.
The emphasis is on skills – eg, research, analysis and presentation – rather than knowledge, as the technical content of the syllabus has already been covered in the objective tests.
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A number of factors combine to ensure that the Case Study
Exam is a suitably difficult hurdle to overcome before you can proceed to the next level of the qualification:
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The fact that a single exam will cover all three of the learning pillars.
The need to integrate your knowledge.
The need for good time management.
You won’t be expected to perform detailed calculations in any Case Study Exam, although you may need to prepare some brief illustrative numbers.
Do remember that you may have to interpret someone else’s calculations, so you will still need to understand all the numbers.
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You are provided with material before the exam so that you can absorb yourself in the affairs of the organisation concerned and be able to attempt the tasks required as though you were actually a member of its finance department.
You therefore need a full understanding of the scenario and an appreciation of the firm’s industry.
The pre-seen material has been designed to give you all of the necessary information, so there should be no need for separate detailed industry research.
An awareness of real issues and companies can make you feel more confident, but no marks are directly available for presenting the findings of research conducted in real world.
It’s possible to use pre-seen material to generate ideas about the tasks that might be required of you in the exam and thereby identify technical content that could prove relevant.
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 One vital activity when preparing for the exam is to practise writing full answers. It is tempting, when faced with practice exercises, to make a few notes and then look at the suggested solution and tell yourself that this is exactly what you would have written.
 Resist this temptation - you don’t want to make your first proper attempt at writing an answer in the exam.
 Proper practice here will also help with time management.
This is particularly important in the Case Study Exams because they impose a time limit for each task. Once this expires, you must move on to the next task.
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 When you have completed a practice exercise, you can review the model answer alongside your own response.
It’s possible to make a number of points that may not be in the suggested solution that would earn credit in the exam, so don’t feel disheartened if the answers don’t match exactly.
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Email is now a very common form of written communication in the business world – it is quick, cost effective and efficient. You may be asked to write an email during your case study exam so you should be prepared to do so.
Be professional
 Emails can be seen as being less formal than letters, but in a business context it is still important to be professional and not too casual.
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Pay as much attention to grammar, spelling and punctuation as you would in any other correspondence. Try to keep your sentences short and clear and be concise when making a point.
Don’t use all capitals (IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING!) and avoid any text speak so no LOLs plz (no laughing out loud please!).
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 Think about who you are sending the email to.
 If it is to a colleague in your company at a similar level to you it would be appropriate to use the first name only – for example, ‘Dear Mark’.
 If the recipient of the email is your Director, or a client, you should be more formal and write, for example,
‘Dear Mr Harris’.
 If you are contacting a company and you do not have an individual’s name you could use ‘To Whom It May
Concern’ or ‘Dear Sir/Madam’.
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Think about the purpose of the email and briefly state why you are writing the email.
Here are some examples:
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Thank you for your email of 25 February regarding the costing schedule, below are my responses to your requests for information.
I am emailing you in reference to our meeting on 4 January when we discussed the budget, below are my responses to the issues raised.
Once you have stated your reason for writing your email you can move onto the main text of the email and carry out the required task.
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If you have a lot of information to write in the email then it is a good idea to use sub-headings throughout the email to break it into easily readable chunks.
Do use bullet points if you have a list of information that you want to communicate – but remember to still make a valid point when using a bullet point.
Consider the person who will receive the email – if they do not have a finance or accounting background (perhaps, for example, a colleague who works in Human Resources or
Marketing) they may not understand all of the accounting terms that you are familiar with so you may need to explain these briefly and clearly.
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 Think of an appropriate way to end the email.
 If you have responded to an email and given the recipient some requested information you could write
‘If you have any questions please do contact me’ or
‘Please let me know if you need any further information’.
 If you have asked the recipient for some information you could put ‘I look forward to hearing from you’.
 There are a number of ways that you can sign off an email – using ‘Kind regards’, ‘Best regards’ or ‘Yours sincerely’ are all acceptable examples.
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 Put your name at the end of the email and if you wish to you could also include your position in the company and company name (remember this will be the fictitious company name in the exam – not your real company name!).
 Read through your completed email – now is the time to edit or add anything.
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