Measuring the competitiveness of a business
We’ve seen that competitiveness is about advantages that enable a business to outperform its competitors. But, can competitiveness be measured and, if so, how?
read more...»What do we mean by “competitiveness”?
Some questions for you…
• Why are Apple and Samsung performing so much better in the market place for smartphones and tablet computers than Nokia and Sony?
• Why do retailers like John Lewis Partnership and Dominos UK continue to grow and prosper when other retailers like Comet, Game Group and Clinton Cards struggle to survive?
• Why are so many people now buying from online brands such as Amazon rather than shopping on their local high streets?
• Thinking about the restaurants, cafes and other eateries near you, why so some seem to thrive whereas others are always empty and often close down?
The answer lies in the concept of competitiveness. So what does this term mean?
read more...»AQA AS Business (BUSS2) - Revision Quizzes
Here are the links to the collection of revision quizzes for students taking AQA AS BUSS2 (“Managing a Business”)...
read more...»AQA AS Business (BUSS2) - Exam Topic Tracker
As each sitting of BUSS2 is completed, it is possible to build up a useful picture of the way in which the BUSS2 specification is examined. Which topics have been examined more than once? Are there key topics which have not yet been addressed in the BUSS2 exam? Where are the calculation marks earned?
Our AQA AS Business (BUSS2) Exam Topic Tracker is a free download which can help you keep track of the exams. The link is below. We’ll update the file (the link stays the same) after each exam sitting. The latest version includes all BUSS2 sittings up to and including January 2012.
Download AQA AS Business (BUSS2) Exam Topic Tracker
There are many other support resources available for BUSS2 from tutor2u - you’ll find some great links further below. Don’t forget we also have our new BUSS2 quick-fire revision guide available which is perfect for the last phase of revision for this tough exam.
AQA BUSS2 & BUSS4 Revision Workshops in Spring 2013
The dates and locations for our popular programme of intensive one-day revision workshops for AQA BUSS2 and BUSS4 have now been confirmed. Details below. Provisional bookings can now be made using the online form linked below.
Make a provisional booking for AQA BUSS2 & BUSS4 revision workshops in March & April 2013
read more...»AQA AS Business (BUSS2) - Key Term A to Z Glossary
Here is an interactive glossary that provides the 290 key terms covered in the AQA AS Business Studies Unit 2 (Managing a Business) specification.
Launch interactive glossary for AQA AS Business Studies Unit 2
Developing Exam Skills: BUSS2: Lessons Learnt from January
As BUSS2 approaches fast, what can we learn from Januarys exam?
read more...»AQA AS Business BUSS2 Online Revision Clinic - Wednesday May 16 2012
Students sitting AQA AS Business Studies unit BUSS2 may find this helpful. We’re running an online revision clinic for an hour on Wednesday 16 May from 9.00 p.m for an hour. Michelle Stephenson, Graham Prior and I will be there, together with some other members of the tutor2u BUSS2 team to provide some personalised support for students as they prepare for the BUSS2 exam on 21 May.
The online revision clinic is free and will appear here - on this blog entry. You will need to login using your Facebook, Twitter or OpenID account in order to participate (e.g. ask questions and/or comment)
read more...»BUSS2 Key Term Revision Quiz
Here is a 12 question BUSS2 key term revision quiz - in this one type in the answer, you will see the number of letters in the correct answer after each question. Good luck!
read more...»BUSS2 and BUSS4 Comes to the Olympics!
We’re now entering the third week of our AQA BUSS2 and BUSS4 revision workshops and we’ve been delighted to meet many thousands of students and teachers who are preparing for these two exams in May & June 2012. After a short break for Easter, we then reprise the BUSS2 and BUSS4 workshops at a new venue for tutor2u - the stunning Vue Cinema at Westfield Stratford - right next door to the London Olympic Park! This is the most advanced cinema in Europe and situated right in the heart of a stunning new shopping and leisure centre. It should be amazing.
read more...»When we went on tour - Football and Competitiveness
Ive just returned from a busy week delivering the Tutor2u BUSS2 revision conferences (along with many others) and I am looking forward to next week when we visit Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds. However, I thought I would quickly blog about an amazing discussion I had with the students at the Bristol conference.
read more...»Lesson Video on Patent Protection - the Battle for Smartphone Advantage
Don’t try this at home - but watch this expert open up his smartphone to illustrate the use of patents and patent protection…
read more...»Online marketing at children
The British Heart Foundation have been campaigning recently about the actions of junk food companies marketing at children online.
read more...»AQA BUSS2 & BUSS4 Revision Workshops Spring 2012
The dates for our AQA BUSS2 and BUSS4 revision workshops in Spring 2012 are listed below. please note that we are now offering a post-Easter date at London Stratford City (Vue Cinema in the new Olympic Westfield Centre) on 23 April 2012. On that day we are also offering catchup BUSS1 and BUSS3 workshops.
read more...»Revision Quiz - Marketing: Products & Brands
New questions added in Nov 2011; this revision quiz gives you 10 random questions from our database of revision materials on products and branding. Ideal for GCSE and AS Business studies students in particular.
Launch interactive quiz on products and branding
Revision Quiz - Marketing: Place
Updated in Nov 2011, this revision quiz gives you 10 random questions from our database of revision materials on place (distribution).
Launch interactive quiz on place
Revision Quiz - Marketing: Promotion
Promotion is a key topic in marketing and this updated revision quiz contains 25 questions on the topic. Each time you play, the quiz gives you 10 questions drawn at random, making it different each attempt - ideal for revision.
Launch interactive revision quiz on promotion
Revision Quiz - Marketing: Pricing
This updated revision quiz gives you 10 random questions from our database of revision materials on pricing. There are 30 questions in the database, ensuring that you get a different, challenging quiz each time you play.
Launch interactive quiz on pricing
Lesson Worksheet - Stakeholders in a Business
This lesson worksheet addresses the key topic of stakeholders in a business. Who are the internal and external stakeholders? What is the difference between shareholders and stakeholders? To what extent might stakeholders have different and conflicting objectives?
Download lesson worksheet on stakeholders
Revision exercise - Chantelle’s Jigsaws
Here is a revision exercise that combines capacity utilisation calculations with some workings on breakeven and net profit.
Download Chantelle’s Jigsaws - Capacity Utilisation Worksheet (pdf)
Profits dive and put pressure on liquidity - the Distress Monitor
This is a fantastic resource for colleagues who want to encourage their AS/A2 students to get to grips with some real-life business data and issues.
The Baker Tilly SME Distress Monitor is the resource. I liken it to one of those life support machines you see bleeping away on Casualty or Holby City. Except that the monitor is wired up to hundreds of living, breathing medium-sized businesses in the UK.
The monitor covers the financial performance of businesses with annual turnover of between £5m-£25m.
So how is the financial health of this crucial sector? Print this one-page report out for students and ask them to analyse the data, picking out the key features.
You ought to be given some fairly substantial points from the students who read the page carefully. There will be plenty of scope for follow-up questions and discussion.
For example:
- A high proportion (25%) of businesses suffered a drop of more than a half in their profit before tax
- Significant reduction in firm profitability has implications for their finance (retained profit as the most important source of finance)
- One in every four UK SMEs has a current ratio below 1 which indicates insufficient resources to meet their immediate debt repayment
...but, the number of administrations has not risen significantly.
New to AQA AS/A2 Business Studies - the CPD Course for 2011/12
Thursday 22 September - Central London
New to AQA AS/A2 Business Studies is a resource-packed CPD course which will provide a huge boost for colleagues and departments wanting to deliver the UK’s most popular A Level Business Studies specification.
read more...»BUSS2 May 2011 - Ofqual assurance on exam results
Less than two weeks to go before we know the results of this summer’s AS and A level papers, and for AQA Business Studies teachers one key issue is going to be how their students have fared in THAT PAPER for BUSS2. As we now know, it was only one of 12 errors on various AS and A2 papers this summer, and Ofqual have issued a statement to reassure students and teachers that they feel that the measures in place are correct, in the circumstances. There is also a statement on behalf of all the exam boards from the JCQ - linked here.
read more...»Automation and the arrival of 290,000 robots
A classic example here of the potential (good and bad) for automation in a large-scale business. Foxconn, a manufacturer well-known to students and teachers who have researched Apple inc and CSR, is aiming to increase the number of robots used in its production processes from 10,000 currently to around 300,000. As a result, it wants to move “1,000,000 workers up the value chain” - i.e. provide them with work which is less suitable for automation.
Foxconn is a great example of economies of scale - the sheer size of their operations in China is stunning. Foxconn makes electronic products for many global brands, including the iPhone and the iPad. It is the largest exporter in Greater China and the second largest exporter in the Czech Republic. However, despite its scale, Foxconn is still under pressure to minimise unit costs in order to maintain profitability. Recently it has begun relocating factories to lower-cost locations in China.
You might think that Foxconn’s automation strategy might be implemented over the medium-term. Apparently not! The 300,000 production robots are expected to be in place by the end of 2012. A massive transformation in Foxconn’s operations.
The scandal of AQA BUSS2 - Update again, a response from AQA
As we now know, Business Studies is only one of several exams which have been hit by errors in the papers this year - and Ofqual have now asked exam bodies to carry out extra checks on GCSE and A-level papers being taken this term, which should at least be reassuring for the A2 papers still to come.
read more...»
BUSS2 in an hour!
Here’s a lesson I recently tried with my Y12 students about to take AQA GCE Business BUSS2. ...
read more...»Revision Quiz - Using Budgets
Updated (May 2011) to include extra questions: this revision quiz helps students test their understanding of the use and analysis of budgets. Each time you take the quiz you get 10 questions drawn at random from the database.
AQA AS Business (BUSS2) - Evaluation Questions
Students preparing for AQA AS BUSS2 (Managing a Business) show prepare for how the higher mark questions requiring evaluation might be tested. Below is a list of possible approaches relating to the main topic areas. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all the possible topics. We have recently updated this list to take account of questions asked to-date in real BUSS2 exam papers.
read more...»AQA AS Business (BUSS2) - Feedback from the Examiners
It is good practice for students to pick up on the feedback from the BUSS2 examiners as they prepare and practice for the BUSS2 exam this summer. Here is a brief summary of the key comments arising from the Jan 2009 - June 2010 exam sittings:
read more...»AQA AS Business (BUSS2) - Calculations / Formulas
There are a few calculations and formulas which students need to know for BUSS2. Here they are:
