Should you buy Facebook shares?
Most of you will be familiar with the crucial concept of appraising business investments. This means taking a cold, hard look at a business proposal (in this case buying Facebook shares) and seeing what kind of return you are likely to get on that investment.
With Facebook shares only days away from public sale, analysts are busy trying to piece together the information that’s necessary to advise people one way or another. This seems like a great opportunity to get you thinking. What do you need to know before deciding whether to invest? Here are a few links to get you started…
Takeovers and Mergers: Facebook & Instagram in News Clips
The Facebook takeover of Instagram for $1bn has generated a huge amount of media interest. The takeover is a great topical example for A2 business students looking at takeovers, and these video clips provide all they could possibly need in terms of looking at the motives for the deal and also the potential revenue synergies for Facebook.
read more...»Practice your skills as a retailer: entrepreneurs experiment with ‘pop up’ shops
The problems on the high street, and our changing shopping habits have been much discussed recently. But “bricks and mortar” retailing isn’t dead yet. Combine landlords with vacant shop sites (often in desirable locations), entrepreneurs (perhaps active online, but not used to face-to-face contact with customers) and an appetite for experimentation - and you get the phenomenon of the ‘pop up shop’.
read more...»Lesson video : Franchising for beginners
A wonderful topical video clip here from the BBC which introduces pupils to the pros and cons of setting up a Franchise. Four minutes long, the video is perfect as a lesson starter for just about every business course that requires students to develop their understanding of business startups.
read more...»Success for the Daily Mail’s online strategy
Last year I started my A2 students on the topic of business strategy by looking at the UK newspaper market. Analysis of their position paints a pretty bleak picture, but the industry has a successful record of innovation, so it was interesting to compare their strategies for survival. A year later, and the success of one paper’s strategy is becoming apparent.
read more...»Characteristics of an entrepreneur - Fil Adams-Mercer
Born into poverty; can’t spell for toffee; no qualifications. So why is this serial entrepreneur a multi-millionaire?
read more...»A peak inside Santa’s Grotto…sorry, the Amazon.co.uk Warehouse
A recent report suggested that about 25% of Christmas presents will be ordered online in 2011 and many of them will be picked, packed and despatched from this modern-day version of Santa’s grotto - the amazing Amazon.co.uk warehouse. This photo-stream provides some snapshots of activity at Amazon UK’s distribution hub in Swansea, which opened back in 2008 and must now be one of the busiest workplaces in the UK!
Of course, we all know that the real Santa continues to use his highly-trained and efficient Elves for the present selection and distribution functions for children. But students may appreciate seeing what goes on behind the scenes for the grown-up’s presents. I’m told that Amazon is the official outsourcing partner for Santa for this important customer segment…
read more...»The Rise and Fall and Rise of Gerald Ratner
I had a fun evening with Gerald Ratner last week, he was speaking at the Entrepreneurship Society at our school.. Business teachers of a certain vintage and distinction will know the Gerald Ratner story well, at the time it was just about the most remarkable tale of business success and then rapid collapse that one could think about!
From being one of Britain’s most successful retailers - indeed the owner of the world’s largest chain of jewellry stores - a mis-placed joke in a lunchtime speech at the annual conference of the Institute of Directors at the Royal Albert Hall set off a chain of events that sent the Ratners brand into free fall.
read more...»Cut price cup cake deal goes wrong…...
This is classic business studies news article, packed full with learning for students!
‘Need a Cake’ is a small business in Reading owned by Rachel Brown, who has been in the baking business for 25 years and simply loves making and decorating cakes. Her website says “I can never remember a time, even as a child, when I did not enjoy creating innovative cakes.” The business employs eight people, and normal production is around 100 cakes a month. Mrs Brown thought she would like to try expanding a little, and decided to offer online vouchers for a discount deal in order to drum up some new customers - with disastrous results.
read more...»Meet the CEO of Dropbox - the man who said no to Steve Jobs!
Meet the entrepreneur behind a fast-growing online service that in 2009 rejected advances from Apple’s Steve Jobs. Drew Houston, a brilliant software programmer, founded Dropbox.com....
read more...»The Bottom Line on Startups and Mistakes
This is 30 minutes of business studies gold dust. Evan Davis brings together three superb speakers for this edition of The Bottom Line to discuss the nature of startups in the UK and also the related topic of innovation and adaptability. Some terrific insights here for all A* students and I would highly recommend that you download the podcast for your own enjoyment too.
read more...»Virtual shopping - Tesco in South Korea
Tesco may have admitted defeat and pulled out of Japan after 8 years but they have found an innovative way to build their market share in South Korea. A fantastic example of listening to customers, ensuring they can buy what they want at a time and place convenient to them. In this case, by scanning virtual items using smartphones while using the subway.
Disposing of e-Waste
This is a great BBC News Clip on what happens to our electronic waste when we no longer need it. WASTE MANAGEMENT appears in many syllabuses nowadays and waste disposal is becoming a more regulated and expensive aspect of a business’s operations. This video clip shows what happens when the costs rise and businesses try to find cheaper ways to dispose of that waste. Here is another BBC clip from Panorama
read more...»Strategies for success on the beleaguered high street
This is a gem! A terrific article that is packed full of materials which students can use to develop their understanding of the strategic options open to high street retailers who are struggling with a significant downturn (once again) in consumer spending.
read more...»Strategic change for the Guardian - from print to digital
A great example here of a major change in strategic direction. Guardian News & Media has announced a “major transformation programme” to reduce the business’ reliance on print-based publishing and aim to make it a “digital-first” publisher. This is an excellent example to use for students wanting to explain the impact of technological change creating the need for significant shifts in strategy.
read more...»Corporate longevity: the lessons from IBM’s 100th birthday
There’s lots of press coverage of this corporate milestone, with commentators wondering what conclusions can be drawn from the exceptionally long life of this business giant. In particular, it’s interesting to think which of today’s technology champions will be around in 100 years.
read more...»Strategy explained - Insights into Amazon
A quite brilliant deck of analytical slides here from Fabernovel which explain the business strategy of Amazon.com. Lots of detail, of course, but within this presentation is a gold mine of strategic insights into all aspects of Amazon. It would be interesting to simply give the link to your Year 13 students and ask them to highlight five key points or pieces of evidence that they can use to illustrate how a firm can be so successful online.
read more...»Tesco’s overseas strategy: next steps
You may have already taken an interest in Tesco’s strategy in the US and an article has come up in The Guardian in which it describes Tesco looking to overseas markets in order to make a ‘change of gear’.
read more...»HMV Strategy - Death of a Billion Downloads
Has the Internet killed the music store? HMV has £130m of bank loans and its profits are falling. Some analysts believe that HMV may even become loss-making in the near future - so how would it pay its interest and loan repaymements. No wonder the business is in crisis.
A superb new FT video examines how technology has fundamentally changed the business model of the traditional music and book store - and what the implications of this are for HMV’s business strategy. Can HMV develop a profitable niche in their existing market in order to survive?
Lots of scope for Boston Matrix and Ansoff Matrix analysis using this video - which describes how HMV has diversified into other consumer markets. But has it all happened too late? A cracking case study - and ideal research material for AQA BUSS4 students looking to add some topical and relevant research evidence for their section B essays this summer
AQA unit 4 - some really good evidence here
Wake up to Money, which is broadcast every morning at 5.30 on Radio 5, is often a good source of stories and anecdotes. It was particularly good today - and the excellent news is that you don’t have to set the alarm for that unearthly hour to hear it as you can download the Podcast. It will be well worthwhile for all AQA unit 4 students spending 20 minutes taking notes from today’s programme - they will start with a useful preview of the release of the updated GDP figure for quarter 4 of 2010, giving some good background data.
The interview that follows, with the CEO of Pret a Manger is gold dust - he talks about the figures that Pret have just released which show a big rise in sales and profits, despite rising commodity prices and a tough climate on the high street. His description of the relations with suppliers and marketing mix strategies that Pret have followed to allow them to achieve this through the recession should be noted and quoted as evidence in BUSS4 essays.
Finally, figures out this morning from the Internet Advertising Bureau show online advertising grew nearly 13% last year and now accounts for 25% of all advertising spending in the UK, and some more background is given for that data. Here is another little nugget that could be useful to prove to the examiner that candidates really know what they are talking about when it comes to strategic management - so please do use the links below!
Wake up to Money 29th March on i-player - available for 6 days from now
Wake up to Money podcast
Brief TV interview with Clive Schlee of Pret a Manger (...but the radio interview covers more ground)
Report about the study by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB)
MySpace and the product life cycle
I can see the scene in a few years: Business teacher tries to look cool in the classroom by referring to a social networking medium, now long dead. I’m referring to MySpace, once a giant of the field and now entirely eclipsed by Facebook.
What’s also interesting are the attempts at a product extension strategy, now the management have come to accept that they are definitely in the decline stage of the product life cycle.
read more...»tutor2u - the last 2000 days
Its exactly 2,000 days since we started tracking the detailed second-by-second interaction of every visitor to the www.tutor2u.net web domain. So I thought I download some data on visitor volume to see if I could spot any trends or features…
read more...»The Strategy Battle of 2011 - David’s kid brother versus Goliath
A terrific article about Will King and his business King of Shaves in the Telegraph which I highly recommend to all business teachers.
Will King is trying to compete in what is effectively an monopoly market. One global brand dominates the worldwide shaving habits of men and women - Gillette. How can King of Shaves possibly compete against the might of such a business. To put things in perspective, Gillette is launching a new razor in the UK in late January 2011 and is expected to spend almost £50m on launch promotion alone. King of Shaves also has a new razor launching on the same day - but the firm has had just £4m of external investment since it was formed. Gillette has over 80% of the UK market.
The article is rich in business studies material. Lots of good data on market share (note how the use of volume data is mainly used). The shareholding structure of King of Shaves is described, as is King’s growth strategy into the huge US market (perfect Ansoff Matrix material). The references to pricing strategy are also really useful - lots of scope here to ask students to conduct some basic market research on pricing by the main brands in the UK shaving market.
You can follow Will King on Twitter here - something I also recommend
Retail sales over Christmas - the whole picture
This analysis from the BBC website attempts to draw up an overall picture of the pattern of Christmas sales for different categories of retailers, and to seperate the effects of the weather from the effects of weak consumer confidence. Many of the points they make ring true - youngsters who received new bikes were disappointed because the icy conditions meant that they couldn’t use them for several days after Christmas, my nieces included - but did this really put people off buying them altogether? Surely if your child needs a new bike, and Christmas is the opportunity to buy one for them, you won’t change your mind just because it snows? Likewise I can attest to the problems caused by presents ordered online that delivery services then failed to deliver on time - but was this really a genuine result of the conditions making delivery impossible, or of the deliverers deciding that this was a good opportunity to avoid some of the overtime costs that would be incurred if they ensured that all deliveries were made on time?
read more...»What strategy should HMV employ next?
The most recent financial reports on HMV are pretty grim. As The Guardian reports, its like-for-like sales in the music stores fell 13% in the last five weeks of the year and snow explains only a few percentage points of the decline. The problem is basic: HMV has too many shops and too many fierce online competitors.
read more...»Business secrets and Wikileaks
It’s not just governments that fear the widespread sharing of secrets. Firms are beginning to realise that their confidential information is at risk too.
We’ve heard about the recent problems at Santander who have inadvertently distributed account details to the wider public. That was the result of a mishap. But what if companies begin to find that it becomes increasingly difficult to keep hold of sensitive information?
Inside Amazon’s Warehouse
Ever wondered what it is like in Amazon’s warehouse? Here is a brief 1 minute guide which illustrates how Amazon’s warehouse in Scotland is organised. In effect it is just like an automated library! An interesting point made about Toy Story 3 and other popular DVDs and books. Amazon’s solution is to spread stocks of those items around the warehouse - otherwise it would have dozens of pickers (including many temporary workers during the seasonal peak in demand) all fighting to get to the same warehouse location!
Advent business (2) - online marketing
Competition for online sales is strong, particularly in the electronics market. Last year figures from IMRG Capgemini showed that online retail sales hit £5.46bn in December, an increase of 17% compared with the same month the previous year and up 3.8% from November, and there are some suggestions this could be doubled this year. More research from GfK also showed that in cold weather, 22% of people switch to shopping online, where it is very easy to make price comparisons and shop around for the best deal. So the online retailers need to be as creative as they can to get us to their website, catch our attention and persuade us to make the decision to purchase.
Try this festive approach to that marketing process from Misco - an online game called Poke an Elf! See how many elves and reindeers you can hit with a candy cane, avoid hitting Father Christmas or you will lose points - and while the game is loading, you will find that a selection of Misco’s electronic products are brought to your screen! Looks like the basis of a Christmas marketing lesson to me.
Cash for Tweets
Range Rover has signed up more than 40 global “trendsetters” to tweet about their forthcoming city 4x4. The idea came from an ad agency who are anxious to point out that “no one has been paid to tweet”. However, the lucky trendsetters did get a free loan, and in some cases were given, a Range Rover.
read more...»Sectors of the Economy - Online is Worth £100bn
Britain is turning into a nation of online shopkeepers and shoppers - according to the first major analysis of the online economy in a survey commissioned by Google. This brief video by the excellent Rory Cellan-Jones highlights the growth of one online business - UK Tights - as a good example of the entrepreneurial spirit which is driving growth by so many UK firms. The Google study suggests that the UK’s online industries now contribute more to the economy than either the construction industry or transport. The researchers also found that the country’s internet economy employs a quarter of a million people.
