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LEARNING CENTRE

STUDENT BOOK REVIEW MIND MAPS FOR BUSINESS

ACCA QUALIFICATION TRAINEE AND COSTING ANALYST AT SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY ANDREW HOWARD IS STUDENT ACCOUNTANTS FIRST STUDENT REVIEWER

MIND MAPS FOR BUSINESS TONY BUZAN WITH CHRIS GRIFFITH BBC ACTIVE, ISBN 978-1406642902
Mind mapping is a technique of representing information in a visual way that was first developed by Tony Buzan in the 1960s; this book is essentially a list of examples of how mind mapping has been used successfully by different organisations to tap creativity and improve the recording, presentation and comprehension of ideas, plans and projects. There is plenty of business advice here, in particular the chapters on negotiation and using strategic models (such as SWOT analysis, Porters value chain and the Balanced Scorecard) are excellent in demonstrating the value and practice of planning and how mind maps can change a companys fundamental approach to its business processes. In addition the examples used are very interesting (particularly those showing mind mapping being used in a different language), an example of this is a touching story of how the management succession of a family-owned Japanese shoemaking business was made much easier (and a father-son relationship was much improved) thanks to good listening skills being supplemented by a mind map to make sense of a complex business environment. A particularly arresting example relates to the rebuilding of downtown Manhattan after the 11 September attacks. On a more day-to-day level there are chapters on improving team task planning, note taking for meetings, change management and organising priorities all of which are presented in an inspiring, confident and well-organised style. This is not a book for mind mapping novices and does require a high level of prior knowledge in order to get the best out of it; a beginner would be best to first read The Mind Map Book (one of Tony Buzans earlier works) to learn the basics of mind mapping and its application. In addition, the overall slick corporate tone, buzzwords (like radiant thinking) and repetitive references to Tony Buzan and his companies and products (particularly mind mapping software) could give the impression of this being a collection of customer testimonials rather than examples of good practice that a reader could emulate themselves. Overall Mind Maps For Business has much to offer to the strategic-level experienced mind mapper hoping to gain a competitive advantage, however, a more general reader could gain most from a less specialised book in the extensive Buzan range.

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Email us at studentaccountant@ accaglobal.com with 100 words on your best non-study activity and include your name and student details. Were looking for students to review recent career and study books as well as websites

STUDENT ACCOUNTANT ISSUE 08/2010

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STUDENT REVIEWER FACTFILE ANDREW HOWARD

WHAT POSTS DID OUR FIRST STUDENT REVIEWER HOLD, WHY DID HE CHOOSE ACCOUNTING AS A CAREER, AND WHAT DOES HE ENJOY MOST ABOUT BEING AN ACCOUNTANT? ANDREW HOWARD TELLS US ALL ABOUT HIS CAREER TO DATE
STAGE OF STUDIES ACCA Professional level, Ill be taking my last exam (Paper P3, Business Analysis) in June 2010. JOB ROLE I am the costing analyst at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) so am heavily involved in the preparation and testing of cost allocation models (for example on course costing and pricing), collecting data on academic staff activity and reporting to the UK government higher education funding bodies on the costs of teaching students in different subjects and reporting the surplus or deficit the university generates on teaching and research. I have been in this role for eight months having previously been the management accountant for a research centre in one of the university faculties; before joining SHU I worked in industry as a management accountant and financial accountant. My current role is extremely varied and brings me into contact with some very intelligent and interesting people on the academic staff. On the downside when Im in the university library preparing for exams and I look around at all the undergraduates it makes me feel rather old. BEST THING ABOUT BEING AN ACCOUNTANT Before retraining to be an accountant I led a research and development team in a company that made heatproof insulation materials for metals production. As part of the testing trials for a new product I had to observe the outside of the base of a blast furnace (which was in an open shed in Redcar by the North Sea) for 24 hours while wearing a special suit to protect me from molten metal splashes. Unfortunately, the suit was three sizes too small, the front of my body was very hot from being near a blast furnace and my back was very cold from the wind coming off the sea. I realised that being office based would suit me better and I had begun to find that I preferred the data analysis and commercial costing elements of my job so I decided to start the ACCA Qualification in evening classes and then eventually found an accountant role. So for me, the best thing about being an accountant is the opportunity to use my skills, work at the centre of an organisation and feel I am making a worthwhile contribution.

BEFORE JOINING SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY, I WORKED IN INDUSTRY AS A MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTANT AND FINANCIAL ACCOUNTANT. THE BEST FOR ME ABOUT BEING AN ACCOUNTANT IS THE OPPORTUNITY TO USE MY SKILLS AND FEEL I AM MAKING A WORTHWHILE CONTRIBUTION.

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learning centre

seven top tips self-study

trying out some simple techniques will help improve your exampreparation

how to pass Download the free report at www.pass1sttime.com/accareport click the play button on the screen to watch the video cant see the video? read the script on page 2
1 Make use of support Make use of any distance learning support you have. Some of you will be distance-learning candidates so will have access to remote support from tutors use it. 2 Use the latest materials Sometimes students studying at home will use second-hand study materials, which may be out of date. The syllabus for some exams changes so you must make sure you have the latest materials or at least know and have access to whatever material has changed. 3 Find a peer group One of the most effective ways to learn is to have a peer group of people who are all trying to achieve the same goals. Find friends or people you may know and regularly meet up or communicate to support each other through your exams. 4 Be disciplined Be disciplined in your studies. Its very easy to want to take extra breaks, or not really push yourself hard when studying at home. You must focus on the reasons why you are taking the exams and use those and strict time management to keep yourself disciplined.

5 Immerse yourself in a topic When you study at a college you will concentrate on one topic or paper for days at a time. The reason is that the human brain learns best when immersed in learning. Use this principle and focus on one topic or one paper for hours at a time. It may get boring, but it works. 6 Do practice questions It can be very easy to become lazy about doing practice questions at home. You can fool yourself into thinking that just because you have read something you know it and dont have to test yourself. You must do practice questions as you study. 7 Recreate exam conditions In order to perform well in the actual exam you must get your body and mind trained to be able to cope with the physical and mental pressure. So make sure you do mock exams under exam conditions including sticking to time limits, using a small desk, sitting continuously for just over three hours, writing neatly, etc. The better you can recreate exam conditions the better you will do in the real exam. Visit www.pass1sttime.com/accareport to download a special free report on passing your ACCA exams first time.

VIDEO SCRIPT GETTING MOTIVATED Ive successfully completed finance qualifications through self study, so I hope some of my advice can help you to do the same. The main challenge most students have is around motivation to put the hours of studying in. When theres no tutor to watch over you like there is in class it can be very easy not to study and not push yourself. Key techniques you can use here to get yourself to study, sometimes at the end of a full day of work, include: Focusing on the reasons why you are taking the exams think of the bigger picture for you, your family, loved ones, now and in the future. Considering the pain of failing and the impact this could have on you emotionally and financially. This should help you start studying. But once you have started, focus on the benefits of passing, this should keep you going. Overcoming challenges. The chances are that various problems will come up that will make it difficult for you to study at home. It may not be quiet where you are, or you may have unsupportive people around you, or may have other responsibilities. The key thing to remember is that anyone that ever achieved anything worthwhile had to go through their own challenges. The key is not to give up and push through them. For more on studying and exam technique come to the pass1sttime.com website and download the free report.

student accountant issue 08/2010

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Zenith

ACCA @
Zenith University College
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QUALIFIED & RELIABLE LECTURERS FREE STUDY MANUALS

FREE ACCESS TO INTERNET

WELL STOCKED LIBRARY

EXCELLENT LEARNING & TEACHING ENVIRONMENT

www.zenithcollegeghana.org

Contact: ACCA Advisors or Registrar Mr. Commey (027.4306 810), Mr. Pius (024.4374 788) E-MAIL: commey@zenithcollegeghana.org
You may also obtain information on ACCA from info@gh.accaglobal.com OR www.accaglobal.com/contact/connect

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18

LEARNING CENTRE

OBU RAP REVIEW FOR PERIOD 18

THE PROJECT AIMS TO ENHANCE AND EXTEND THE KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS GAINED BY ACCA STUDENTS IN THEIR PROFESSIONAL STUDIES AND SO TO IMPROVE STUDENTS EFFECTIVENESS AS PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANCY STUDENTS AND/OR PRACTITIONERS
The project is graded A, B, C or fail with this mark counting towards the class of degree awarded for post-2007 ACCA students. For period 18, 1,462 projects were submitted, and of these 762 projects passed, a pass rate of 52%, which was the same as for period 17. Six RAPs were deferred for further investigation relating to academic conduct issues. Once projects have been marked, all fails, marginal projects and a sample of other projects are moderated. The research project: why students fail The new RAP guidelines and marking criteria continue to affect the pass rate with students still submitting projects under the old guidelines. Weak referencing continues to be a cause for failure. Students need to ensure they reference their work using the Harvard referencing system thereby acknowledging the source of their information. Visit www.brookes. ac.uk/services/library/resources/ harvard.doc for details of how to reference correctly. To fail to do so is deemed to be plagiarism, a serious academic offence. From period 19 all students are required to keep an electronic copy of their submitted RAP and a sample of these will be passed through the web-based tool Turnitin which allows Due cognisance should be accorded to environmental factors and sustainability in arriving at conclusions and recommendations. Students who went outside of the 20 published project topics often produced poor results. Therefore, it is recommended that students seek to remain within the published topics. The Skills and Learning Statement: why students fail The purpose of the Skills and Learning Statement is for students to show that they have developed the key graduate skills of self-reflection and communication. Students who failed often did not link their presentation clearly to their RAP findings. Additionally, students will have developed research questions to show what they are trying to research and analyse from their RAP . They need to reflect on whether they have answered these questions. Students fail in this area generally because they write about the answers they gave to their mentor rather than their own research questions and they have not reflected on their research questions. Students are required to include a copy of their presentation and where this was not included students failed their RAP . Please note, students who submit the old Key Skills Statement will fail. Jane Towers-Clark, OBU BSc (Hons) in Applied Accounting programme director

FURTHER INFORMATION All students who fail are provided with marker and moderator comments. Students should pay particular attention to these comments and seek to address them. All students who fail from period 19 onwards will be provided with a re-submission guide to provide additional support. Visit www.accaglobal.com/ students/bsc/ for more information about the Oxford Brookes University BSc (Hons) in Applied Accounting degree.

academic staff to check for improper use of sources or potential plagiarism. Go to www.brookes.ac.uk/library/skill/ plagiarism.html for more information. The business and financial performance of an organisation over a three-year period (Topic 8) continues to be the most popular RAP topic. A significant number of students fail because they do not recognise the need for the business context and the implicit requirement from this that they need to include a comparator. The comparator can be that of a competitor business or industry averages. The external examiner suggested the following: Students should put the analysis in the context of the industry or industries concerned, the relative risk of the industry, trends in the industry where appropriate and the impacts of changes in the economic, political and regulatory environment.

STUDENT ACCOUNTANT ISSUE 08/2010

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TALKING TECHNOLOGY MICROBLOGGING

ANYONE CAN MICROBLOG, AND MANY PEOPLE DO. UNDERSTANDING THE PROS AND CONS BEFORE YOU START WILL HELP YOU AVOID ANY POTENTIAL EMBARRASSMENT
Ameba.jp. Emote.in. Identi-ca. Jaiku. Plurk. Qaiku. SMSGupShup. Twitter. If none of these names mean anything to you, where have you been for the past few years? As social networking sites such as Chinaren, Facebook and Odnoklassniki have become mainstream, the personal blog has been joined by the microblog, spawning a host of microblogging websites. In the same way as blogs enable authors to post diary-like entries that potentially millions of people can regularly read and respond to, their offspring the microblog also provides its authors with the opportunity to share, and become (to quote Twitter), part of a global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? even if you may sometimes wonder why they asked. Thanks to service providers from Ameba.jp to Twitter, anyone with internet access can leap into the blogosphere. Once you have opened an account (usually free) you can post short text messages (typically between 140 and 200 characters maximum) and/or multimedia messages (such as images, audio and video), to the website, from where you can share them with private subscribers or make them publicly available. Those broadcasting, receiving and forwarding messages can now access microblogs using numerous devices and interfaces, ranging from Instant Messages sent from or delivered to your desktop, to SMS text messages sent or delivered via mobile phone or PDA.

WWW.

But this widespread accessibility has advantages and disadvantages, and you need to be aware of them, inside and outside the workplace. On the plus side, microblogs are all about sharing. So, they can enable individuals to exert great influence collectively, level the playing field between small and large organisations, and, when exploited in a corporate environment (with tools such as Present.ly and Yammer), they can augment or replace email for communications within project teams,

interdepartmental communities, supply chains, and more. On the downside, microblogs are all about sharing, and not everything that can be shared should be. Most personal messages are harmless and of passing interest, but there is a danger that the superficial informality and immediacy of microblogging can create a false sense of security. A message may be posted with no more than a fleeting thought, but once it is in the public domain it can develop a life of its own. As with other Web 2.0 and social networking developments (see Student Accountant, October 2009), microblogging turns everybody into a potential influencer, and the results can be both fortunate and unfortunate for those affected as individuals, businesses and even governments have found to their cost. Incautious messages have resulted in people losing their jobs, being sued, and led to corporate embarrassment. This will not, and should not, prevent colleges, tutors, recruiters, ACCA, its members, students and their family, friends, and colleagues from using Jaiku or Plurk, or Twitter (and various other microblogs) to enhance communication (or indulge in a little self-promotion). But it should make you pause for thought before you share your message with the world.

MICROBLOGS ARE ALL ABOUT SHARING. SO, THEY CAN ENABLE INDIVIDUALS TO EXERT GREAT INFLUENCE COLLECTIVELY AND LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD BETWEEN SMALL AND LARGE ORGANISATIONS.

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LEARNING CENTRE

HOW TO GET HEADHUNTED

EMPLOYERS OFTEN ASK RECRUITERS TO IDENTIFY AND APPROACH SUITABLE POTENTIAL RECRUITS. AND INTERNET-SAVVY FINANCE MANAGERS ARE INCREASINGLY USING WEB NETWORKING TO GO HEADHUNTING THEMSELVES. SO HOW DO YOU POSITION YOURSELF TO GET THAT CALL?
Why not acquire a reputation for being an expert in your field? Like many aspiring finance professionals, you may have registered on professional networking websites, linked up with colleagues and fellow students and then what? The fact is, unless youre active in discussion forums, your profile and, therefore, you will remain largely invisible to recruiters and potential employers. But by asking intelligent questions or joining in debates about whats going on in your local market or the accountancy profession, youll attract more attention, but for all the right reasons. Make sure to join groups

THE FACT IS, UNLESS YOURE ACTIVE IN DISCUSSION FORUMS, YOUR PROFILE AND, THEREFORE, YOU WILL REMAIN LARGELY INVISIBLE TO RECRUITERS AND POTENTIAL EMPLOYERS.
that are relevant to the industries or locations in which you want to work, even if you dont already work there. Remember you dont have to proactively market yourself as a jobseeker; if youre getting your voice heard, youll be noticed soon enough. Also consider attending events run by recruitment consultants. In an age when networking skills are a near-essential tool for career advancement, turning up at a topical talk neednt signal that youre on the market (provided youre not brandishing a pile of bang up to date CVs). Make the effort to talk to fellow students and passed finalists, not just the recruiters if one of them hears of a vacancy thats more likely to suit you than them, you want them to recommend you to the person in charge of invites to interview. They wont do that if youve shunned them in favour of potentially more immediately useful attendees. BE BOLD BUT NOT TOO BOLD Master the art of the subtle hint. Its handy to let the right people know that you would welcome a direct approach for the right role. However, be careful not to make overly negative remarks about your current role (and certainly not about your colleagues), and confine any such comments to conversations, not emails. Once your character assassination of your boss is out there on the web, theres no knowing when it might come back to haunt you. Far better to talk about it perhaps being time for a fresh challenge or new horizons people will know exactly where youre coming from. This applies equally to internal networking if you work in a large organisation with lots of different finance teams. If youre in practice, while its inadvisable to put it about that youre open to offers, re-double your efforts to enhance your reputation with client contacts, who may themselves be links to opportunities youd like to explore (theyll often be asked by recruiters for names of good people seeking roles in industry or commerce). Finally, be prepared for the moment when your efforts pay off. Theyll be wasted if you crumble with nerves when the headhunter finally calls

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