Revision Quiz - Franchising
This updated revision quiz provides questions on franchises and franchising. Each time you take the quiz, 10 questions are drawn at random from the database of revision questions about franchising.
Launch revision quiz on franchising
Competitiveness and organisational structure - a great example of delayering
Students familiar with the concept of delayering will know that the benefits of successfully reducing the number of layers in the management hierarchy are not just limited to lower costs. Of course, there can be significant cost savings from delayering, particularly if the roles concerned are highly-paid. However, the strategic rationale for delayering is also usually linked with the need to improve the effectiveness of decision-making and making the business more responsive to customer needs.
There is a great example of delayering which was in the news yesterday (19 April 2012) concerning a decision by insurance firm Aviva to remove an entire layer from their organisational structure.
read more...»The Co-operative model - a retail format that should thrive in a recession?
An excellent video here - part of Al Jazeera’s recent series on co-operatives, Sonia Gallego reports on a grassroots movement in the north of England, that provides an alternative to the dominant grocery supermarket and convenience store chains. Its goal: to provide fairness for both buyer and supplier, since it opened 15 years ago, this co-operative store has turned out profits and fair business practices as well.
read more...»Can we learn lessons in business organisation from the mittelstand model
A business studies lesson gem from an unusual source here - the politics team at the BBC! Germans use the word “mittelstand” for the millions of middle-sized companies that form the backbone of their booming economy, and some in Britain reckon the model could teach UK industries a few lessons…
read more...»Vestas – has the wind gone out of their sales.
Last Wednesday, Vestas the leading supplier of wind turbines posted a substantial operating loss of €166m on its operations. This has led to the resignation of the Chief Financial Officer Henrik Norremark, and the Chairman Bent Carlsen and two other main board directors. Norremark was about to be promoted to Chief Operating Officer, in control of the firm’s manufacturing operations.
read more...»Still more praise for the “John Lewis model”
You’re probably aware that the John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarket chain are doing very well at the moment, with sales figures rising strongly whilst retailers elsewhere are struggling. Several commentators have been keen to go beyond the marketing factors behind their success, instead paying closer attention to the firm’s unusual model of ownership and control.
read more...»Business size and the innovation debate
Innovation is a business topic in its own right, and it also crops up a lot when there are discussions about the benefits and drawbacks of size – or economies and diseconomies of scale, in syllabus terms. This is a rich thread for evaluation, although it’s probably fair to say that poor rates of innovation and change are often quoted as a classic ‘diseconomy of scale’. In other words, big business is supposed to be bad at it.
But more and more big firms are setting out to challenge this view and prove themselves as innovators. The Economist have also recently added to this side of the argument.
read more...»Keeping the ageing workforce healthy
If we are all to work until our late 60’s, or beyond, how much will the workplace need to be adapted to ensure that older workers can continue to contribute fully to the bottom line of their employers profits? The World at One today carried a 4-minute report from a BMW factory in Germany where works councils, unions and employers are collaborating to ensure that the factory is a healthy place that allows employees of all ages to work at the optimum rate, without holding up the production line and with as little physical and psychological stress as possible.
Sadly I cannot find this as a stand-alone report on i-player. However, the full programme is available here for the next 7 days - this report starts 37 minutes into the programme.
Managing an ageing workforce
2011 has certainly raised a number of Business issues right to the top of the political and social agenda. One is the gradual realisation that our society is definitely ageing. It’s a cause for great celebration, but one obvious consequence is that we can’t really afford to fund generous pensions for a huge group who may be drawing that pension for thirty years. This means that it’s likely that we will have longer working lives than our parents.
As firms recognise this fact, they too are having to adjust their human resource plans.
read more...»Stakeholders argue over executive pay
It seems that this debate isn’t going to go away, which will surprise few of you. At a time when the economy is struggling, unemployment is rising and living standards are stagnant, why is one group in society getting so much wealthier? One pressure group, calling itself the ‘High Pay Commission’ (they are obviously trying to draw parallels with the government’s own Low Pay Commission) is in the news for publishing a report describing high executive pay as ‘corrosive’.
read more...»Tottenham Hotspur to switch from public to private limited company
If you’re interested in different types of legal structure for business organisations – or football – you might be intrigued by the decision by football club Tottenham Hotspur to “de-list” its shares from the stock market and “go private”.
read more...»How we made our millions: Michelle Mone and Richard Reed under the spotlight
I enjoyed watching this programme last night in which Peter Jones investigated Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo, and Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent in order to find out ‘How we made our millions’. The programme looked at their very different characters as Peter discussed with them their childhoods, studied their business models, asked staff what they are like to work for, and considered what it was that drove them to be entrepreneurs.
read more...»How flat should the organisational structure be?
An autumnal hat tip to Jill McAloon for recommending this superb edition of The Bottom Line (first broadcast on 3 Nov 2011) which spends the last 10 minutes considering the value of businesses having flat organisational structures.
read more...»Do the UK’s forgotten mid-sized firms lack ambition and a competitive edge
This is a good article for students looking at the growth of firms, particularly those firms that have been established for some time but which appear to have got stuck in a phase of mature revenue growth, or worse, declining revenues.
A level business exam case studies often feature family-owned and managed businesses. In the typical scenario, the founder has stayed with the business after an initial period of success and rapid growth, employing other members of the family along the way. Eventually the business finds itself stuck in a rut, lacking ambition, financial resources and clear competitive advantages.
A new survey, reported here in the Telegraph, might help students understand some of the reasons for this problem.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/festival-of-business/8844514/CBI-urges-forgotten-army-of-private-companies-to-become-more-ambitious.html
How PepsiCo are trying to control diseconomies of scale
Big firms often face huge organisational difficulties that can slow them down and cause costs and problems to spiral. So I was drawn to a BBC article the big businesses learning how to think small which appeared soon after Steve Jobs’ death. His insistence on “no committees” and talking to everyone at least once a week was, he said, enough to keep Apple focused, efficient and successful.
I don’t know if that’s true, but for big corporations, with their vast resources and bewildering bureaucracy, operating with the attitude of a technology start-up is a distant dream (but with exciting possibilities). Poor communication, low levels of motivation and a shortage of innovative ideas are classic diseconomies of scale that are typical of larger organisations.
read more...»Revision Quiz - Legal Structure Basics
This new revision quiz contains 30 questions about the basics of a business’ legal structure. It covers topics like sole traders, partnerships, limited companies, unlimited and limited liability. Each time the quiz is taken, 10 questions are loaded at random, making it ideal to use for repeated revision practice on a core business studies topic.
Launch revision quiz on the basics of business legal structure
Revision Quiz - Sole Traders and Partnerships
This new revision quiz provides 10 questions on the sole trader and partnership options for the choice of legal structure for a business.
Launch revision quiz on sole traders and partnerships
Revision Quiz - Limited Companies
Here is a new revision quiz for students who want to test their understanding of the core topic of limited companies (as a choice of legal structure). The quiz should be different each time you load or refresh it - 10 questions set each time.
Launch revision quiz on limited companies
Management By Committee? Not At Apple
Since Steve Jobs died last week much has been written and said about his autocratic leadership style and how he built (and rebuilt) the company he co-founded, Apple, into the global brand it is today. Richard Branson wrote an excellent piece on Jobs’ leadership style and enterpreneurial spirit in which he stated that his approach to leadership differed markedly from that of Jobs. The YouTube clip below is of an interview with Jobs in which he stated that there were no committees at all within Apple.
A stroke of genius, motivating and empowering senior staff? Or because Jobs needed to maintain control over the company and oversee everything in the weekly meeting where all aspects of the company’s operations were discussed?
Lesson Video - An Introduction to Stakeholders
A useful four minute video here from the Bitesize website which provides an accessible introduction to business stakeholders…
read more...»Steve Jobs 1955-2011
Steve Jobs the co-founder of Apple Inc died today.
The short video sums up some of his leadership characteristics, charismatic, driven, dictatorial and visionary.
De-layering: do firms need middle managers?
Middle managers have had a tough couple of decades. Many large firms sought to cut costs by removing levels of hierarchy from their organisational structure. Often it was the middle management ranks that felt the squeeze the hardest. Academics praised ‘flatter’ organisations and people like David Brent (from comedy TV series The Office) became the butt of jokes.
read more...»Lesson activity - the Dyson Debate
Here is a resource that I use with my AS Business groups when we are covering stakeholders. A debate format is used with students considering the issues raised by Dyson’s decision to relocate production from Malmesbury to Malaysia.
Download Dyson Debate:
Dyson_Case_Study_-_Debate_Material.docx
Stakeholders gripped by the bad news coming from BAE Systems
Bad news this week from Britain’s second biggest manufacturing employer (the biggest is here), BAE Systems (formerly British Aerospace). The company is threatening to cut 3,000 jobs, many of them in highly skilled and technical roles making aircraft.
The reasons for this are interesting enough, but I was drawn to an article because I’d been thinking about business stakeholders. Bad business news – on this scale – reveals just how many people have a stake in the business.
Jaguar Land Rover Essay
Yesterday with my A2 class I made use of the following article and accompanying clips from the BBC website highlighting Jaguar Land Rover’s decision to build a new production plant in Wolverhampton.
read more...»Revision Presentation - What is a Business?
This revision presentation asks a simple, but fundamental question - what is a business?
read more...»Olaf takes the knife to management hierarchy
A great example of delayering a top-heavy organisational structure. Olaf Swantee is a name with which I guess very few of us are familiar. But he might find himself being referred to in several A* business essays in the next few exam sittings if students use the case study of Everything Everywhere…
read more...»Who is hiring – and who is firing?
Sometimes averages can conceal the bigger picture. We all know that the business environment is tough, and the firms experiencing the most difficult trading conditions are likely to be those that have to cut back on the numbers that they employ. Here’s some international data to show which firms have cut their payrolls, and which are still expanding employment.
Of course, other factors may be at work, beyond the current levels of demand firms enjoy. Changing employment patterns often reflect other forces at work, especially technological and organisational change.
read more...»Women’s effect on corporate decision making
There’s a big debate to be had over society’s ambitions to see more women in the boardroom. The Guardian adds to this discussion by quoting from a report that has tried to analyse the effect of Norway’s quota system, in which the state says at least 40% of the board members of listed companies should be women. Female membership on British corporate boards now “edges up” to 13.3%.
read more...»Shareholder revolt over executive pay at Burberry
One of the most important discussions in business is over the question of who matters most in decision making - shareholders, or a broader group of ‘stakeholders’.
Examples help illustrate the debate. Here’s one where the shareholders – the people who own the firm – clash with the managers of the business. The issue is the hot topic of the rewards claimed by top executives.
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