The requirement here was to compare and contrast the financial objectives of a stock exchange listed company and a not-for-profit (NFP) organisation. In general, the answers to this part of question 4 were often quite weak.

One reason for this is that many answers spent a lot of time discussing non-financial objectives, even though the question asked clearly for a discussion of financial objectives. A second reason for this is that many answered showed a general lack of awareness of financial objectives as such: some answers were not able to offer much more than shareholder wealth maximisation and increasing profit as financial objectives.

A third reason is that some answers picked up on “compare and contrast” while ignoring financial objectives, and therefore offered a general comparison of the key features or decision areas of the two organisations. For example, the functional areas of the organisations might be compared and contrasted, or their stakeholders, or their personnel. This is not what the question was looking for.