1. Will students have to know the organisational configurations proposed by Mintzberg? Yes, these are explicitly in the Study Guide (section C1e). Questions may be set where there is a clear mismatch between organisational structures, processes and relationships and Mintzberg's stereotypical configurations might be a useful way of structuring an answer. Mintzberg has diagrams to represent each of his stereotypes. There is no need to learn these diagrams.
2. Franchising was part of the syllabus of the old paper 3.5 and several questions were asked about it. Is a knowledge of franchising still required in paper P3? Yes, it is a popular and legitimate method of pursuing a chosen strategic direction. To reinforce this point, the word franchising will be explicitly added to the Study Guide section B3b in the future.
3. I notice that a question on the pilot paper specifically asked for a particular model (PESTLE), whilst many questions in the past on paper 3.5 have not specifically asked for a model. They have just suggested that students should apply an appropriate (or models) of their choice. What is the policy for the future? In the future, questions may either ask for a specific model OR may ask students to apply an approprate model (or models) of their choice. Only models and frameworks defined in the Study Guide will be explicitly referenced in a question. However, in general, questions which ask students to apply an appropriate model of their choice will predominate, hence continuing the tradition of paper 3.5.