Patent Theft threatens enterprising inventors
An item covered by BBC news on TV and radio yesterday morning may be useful when covering protections of ideas and inventions for start-up businesses and entrepreneurs. Trevor Baylis, who invented the wind-up radio among other things and often features as a classic entrepreneur-inventor in business text books, is calling for Government action to help British inventors defend their ideas from rivals who try to steal them.
Third Age Entrepreneurs drive start-up successes
A research report from Nesta has highlighted the importance of older people in enterprise activity in the UK. Entrepreneurs aged 50-65 years created 27 per cent of successful start up companies in the UK between 2001 and 2005, according to the research which has just been released (somewhat late?).
read more...»Edexcel GCSE Business Unit 1 - (Introduction to Small Business ) Teacher Presentations
Our suite of teacher presentations for Edexcel GCSE Business Unit 1 (Introduction to Small Business) is now available. The presentation suite covers all the core topics in the Unit 1 specification and maps precisely the structure of the course.
read more...»AQA AS - Unit 1 - Starting a business - The BMX Box
His Lordship has just returned from his Summer recess and on his return discovered a most excellent resource.
This article appeared in my local newspaper that covers large chunks of the new specification.
Former welder, Lee Southern has turned his back on a twenty year welding career to setup the ‘BMX Box’. Lee said that “My previous job took me all over Europe, but after 20 years I had just had enough. I decided it was time to focus my attention on something I enjoy, and for me enjoyment means biking.”
3 months in and sales have exceeded all expectations so well done to Lee.
Yes, there are thousands of articles around covering this topic, but what I like about this one is that BMX’s are actually something that Year 12 students can relate to. It also covers key topics such as motives for setting up a business, sales forecasting and budgets, gaps in the maket, government support as well as market research (his idea was backed up by the number of BMX’s on his drive from his children’s friends’). All in all, an excellent summary article.
Enjoy!
(You could also show the students the opening scenes from 80’s classic, BMX Bandits starring a very young, Nicole Kidman.)
AQA AS Business (BUSS1) - Recommended Websites (2009/10)
The AQA AS Business Unit 1 (BUSS1) specification places strong emphasis on the business start-up process. The start-up area is tremendously interesting and there is no shortage of excellent online resources that students and teachers can access to support their studies for free!. Here is our recommended list - please add your suggestions using the comments box at the foot of the blog page.
read more...»More trouble in the skies
The ongoing turmoil in the airline industry continues, with the Irish national airline Aer Lingus announcing worse losses in this BBC news article
read more...»Edexcel A2 Business Unit 4a - Brompton Bicycles
Our teacher and student revision toolkit for the Edexcel Unit 4a Pre-Release Case Study on Brompton Bicycles is now available.
Mark Tottman has provided a comprehensive analysis of the Brompton case, following the highly successful format of his previous tutor2u toolkits for the Edexcel A2 Business exams.
Some sample pages from the resource can be downloaded here:
The toolkit may not be ordered online for immediate delivery here:
Using Celebrities In Adverts
Kerry Katona’s sacking from the Iceland adverts (read the full story here) raises an interesting question - is it a good idea to use celebrities in advertisements?
They’re Here! Our new Business Influence Card Game
They are here - tutor2u’s new Business Influence Cards!
This is a new teaching resource which can be used again and again in the business classroom.
read more...»Playing The Ethical Business Game
The better business game from BT is a useful resource for helping students to think about some of the ethical issues involved in running a business, and balancing the responsibilities of a business with the need to make money.
Mapping The TV Market
The new Edexcel specifications introduce Market Mapping as a GCSE topic, and it is a great way of getting students to put forward their own views and then justifying them. It’s also a useful way of helping students to recognise that there are no concrete answers in business, and that their market map may not be the same as other students.
Of course students need to be familiar with the market being mapped. That usually means food (e.g. the crisp market, chocolate market), mobile phones, or TV. So this example from the Channel 4 website, which maps the channels that are considered competitors of E4, may prove to be useful.
Business angels take flight - just when small businesses need them
An interesting article from Andrew Stone this morning in the Sunday Times highlights the growing funding problems faced by small business who are looking for external investment by business angels…
read more...»PuzzlePacks for the new GCSE Business Specifications
We’re hard at work putting the finishing touches to a new collection of PuzzlePacks for the new GCSE Business specifications…
read more...»Instore Takes a Pounding
Knowing what your customers want is key to the success of any business. This is particularly true for so called “pound” shops; their customers are focused on value and price.
The importance of this is perhaps reinforced by the tale of two retailers who operate within the value market. Poundland has gone from strength to strength, as shown in earlier blog articles, and is set to open at least 30 new stores over the next 12 months.
InStore, on the other hand decided that their customers should move upmarket - and replaced the familiar £-stretcher fascia with the less familiar InStore fascia.
Marketing Objectives in Action
A great article on Sainsbury’s strategy to accelerate its growth plans. I used this article as an example of what Internal and External constraints their can be on a businesses Marketing Objectives, but it could also be used for the impact on Operations, HR or Finance.
read more...»A Mars A Day The Original Recipe Way
Six thousand complaints within a week has forced Masterfoods to do a U-turn on its decision to use ingredients which contain traces of animal enzymes.
Is this a business responding to the wishes consumers?
read more...»Deliberate Creativity
Deliberate Creativity is one of the topics on Edexcel’s new GCSE Business Specifications (Unit 1 Section 2) that many of us won’t have taught before. However, I think it’s one of the most exciting topics because it can be used to engage the students in thinking, which is why I intend to start the course by delivering that section.
Professor Dennis Sherwood believes that people can be taught to be creative by using the technique of deliberate creativity. The idea is quite simple - look at what you know, and think about how it could be changed.
TV quizzes are an excellent example of how this has led to the development of new quiz shows. When ITV launched “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” how did the BBC respond to it’s success?
read more...»GCSE Business - New Specification Course Companions
We’re hard at work on a new series of resources to support the new GCSE Business units.
read more...»Can Paid Staff Be Entrepreneurs?
Students often think of entrepreneurs as people who have set up their own successful business. Perhaps that’s because many of us use well-known entrepreneurs, who happen to run their own business as examples. This may be understandable, since it helps students to relate to what entrepreneurship is about, but is it accurate?
The new specifications are quite clear about the sort of skills and qualities that are usually found in entrepreneurs, and they don’t mention “business owner” as one of them.
This begs the question “can employed staff be entrepreneurs?”.
read more...»Tracking the progress of three new start-ups
Rachel Bridge (Enterprise Editor of the Sunday Times) joined us at the Business Teacher conference on Friday and briefly described her new series which is tracking three new business start-ups…
read more...»Sickness And Sun
EU legislation can be a difficult topic to deliver to a GCSE Business class, but it remains an important element of the new Edexcel specifications.
I recently came across this useful BBC article which got a great discussion going about The Working Time Directive.
read more...»MySpace Makes Space to Change
This story is a must to use with A2 students looking for a relevant, topical strategy case…
read more...»Work For Free? Or Pie In The Sky?
How many students would go to work for free?
Well bosses of British Airways will be hoping that non-financial motivation exists, as they have asked staff to volunteer to work for free (or take unpaid leave) for up to a month, in an attempt to ensure that the firm can win the fight for survival.
This BBC article could be tied in with two topics on the new Edexcel Specifications:
read more...»Battle Of The Bunnies
There’s a battle going on in the chocolate rabbit world which could provide an interesting example of how businesses try to protect their products and ideas.
The products in question are shown in the picture below which is on the Guardian website.
Could consumers be confused?
read more...»A Razor Sharp Way To Add Value
Realistic data to illustrate how firms add value is not always easy to come across. After all many firms don’t want us to know how much mark-up they place on their products.
This data from the Daily Mail perhaps explains why manufacturers are so keen for us not to find out!
read more...»Thinking Outside The Smaller Box
It can be a challenge to think of examples for the topic of “Thinking in Opposites”, or “What if…?” once the obvious ones of Marmite, Muller and Yorkie have been used.
However, Kleenex’s decision to rebrand it’s “Kleenex For Men” to “Kleenex Mansize” was coupled with a decision to change the size of the box. What motivated this move?
Apprentice Stars Lack Entrepreneurial Spirit
Sir Alan Sugar may be about to choose his next apprentice - but he is unlikely to be impressed with the owners of the Bridge Cafe. It is the cafe used by the losing team to lick their wounds before doing battle in the board room, but according to…
read more...»Success with AQA Unit 3 - Market Analysis
Michelle and I are putting the final touches to some new teaching resources for the AQA A2 Business Unit 3 INSET days in London and Manchester next week. One of the areas of focus will be Marketing analysis where the BUSS3 specification poses some new teaching challenges…
read more...»The Life Of Big Brother
Whatever your views on Big Brother, whether you’re glued to it or can’t stand it, your students are likely to be talking about it.
That makes it a useful tool to get students talking about product life-cycles.
As Channel 4 release pictures of the inside of the house it’s clear that once again they are looking to prevent the show going into decline with a number of twists.
Do The Dragons Get It Right?
You don’t need me to tell you that Dragon’s Den is a great teaching resource for the new specifications. It covers risk, potential rewards, potential failure,aspects of finance, marketing and any number of other topics. Have you ever wondered where you can find out more about some of the products that have been featured?
read more...»
