CIMA E1 cheat sheet

Organisational structure types: entrepreneurial (flat, founder-led), functional (grouped by specialism, efficient but siloed), divisional (grouped by product/geography, own P&L, risk of duplicated overhead), matrix (dual reporting, balances functional depth with project focus, risks conflict and slow decisions).

Span of control widens with standardised, routine work and narrows with complex, non-routine work; tall structures add management layers and communication distortion, flat structures widen spans and delegate more authority.

Centralisation suits uniform control, economies of scale and scarce expertise; decentralisation improves local responsiveness, motivation and speed of decisions but risks inconsistency and loss of control.

Mintzberg's five configurations: simple structure, machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy, divisionalised form, adhocracy - each aligns coordination mechanism (direct supervision, standardisation of work, skills, outputs, mutual adjustment) to environment.

Handy's culture types: power (control radiates from a centre), role (bureaucratic, rules and job descriptions), task (project teams, expertise-led), person (individual-focused, e.g. professional partnerships).

Finance function roles: stewardship (record-keeping, control), scorekeeping (reporting performance), attention-directing (highlighting issues to management), problem-solving (decision support); modern finance shifts effort from transaction processing toward business partnering and analytics.

Shared service centres and outsourcing move transactional work (purchase ledger, payroll, reconciliations) into a single service unit to cut cost and standardise process; centres of excellence retain judgement-intensive work such as treasury and tax.

Corporate governance: the board sets strategy and holds management to account; executive directors run the business, non-executive directors provide independent challenge; audit committee monitors financial reporting and internal control; separation of chair and CEO avoids concentration of power.

Stakeholder mapping (Mendelow): plot power against interest - high power/high interest is a key player to engage closely, high power/low interest keep satisfied, low power/high interest keep informed, low power/low interest minimal effort.

Porter's five forces: rivalry among existing competitors, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers - used to judge industry attractiveness and where to position.

Porter's generic strategies: cost leadership (lowest cost base, broad market), differentiation (unique valued features, premium price), focus (narrow segment via cost or differentiation); being 'stuck in the middle' destroys returns.

Ansoff matrix: market penetration (existing products/markets), product development (new products, existing markets), market development (existing products, new markets), diversification (both new) - risk rises along that sequence.

Value chain (Porter): primary activities are inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, service; support activities are firm infrastructure, HR, technology development and procurement; competitive advantage arises from how activities are configured and linked.

PESTEL scans the macro environment: political, economic, social, technological, environmental, legal - used to identify opportunities and threats beyond the organisation's control.

Information systems hierarchy: transaction processing systems capture routine transactions; management information systems summarise them; executive information systems give senior managers aggregated internal and external views; ERP integrates core processes on one database.

Data protection principles (e.g. GDPR-style regimes): lawful and transparent processing, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality, accountability; breaches must be reported to the regulator within set deadlines.

Recruitment and selection: job analysis produces a job description (duties) and person specification (criteria); selection methods should be valid (predict job performance) and reliable (consistent results); structured interviews and work samples outperform unstructured interviews.

Change models: Lewin's unfreeze–change–refreeze; Kotter's eight steps starting with urgency and coalition and ending with embedding in culture; resistance is managed through communication, participation, support and, where necessary, negotiation or coercion.