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 May 2011.
Download AQA AS Business (BUSS2) Exam Topic Tracker
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:
Download AQA AS Business Unit 2 Calculation / Formula Sheet
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) - Specification Resource Map
Perfect for supporting a programme of revision, the Business Studies blog now contains over 2,500 resources suitable for the AQA BUSS2 unit (Managing a Business). To make things a little easier to find, we’ve produced “specification resource map” which maps the BUSS2 spec against relevant tagged content on the blog. This is provided in the form of a hyper-linked pdf file which is automatically updated every time we add a new resource. All you need to keep is the pdf resource map and click on a relevant link.
Download the AQA BUSS2 Specification Resource Map here:
Developing Exam Skills - BUSS2
This is a technique which I use with all my students and one which I discussed with the delegates at the recent Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds revision conference.
I used to find that my students struggled with structuring the longer mark (15-17) questions. They often went off track which meant that they lost sight of the original question. With this in mind, I devised this very simple strucure which works extremely well.
Take the following question which was from the June 2009 BUSS2 paper:
Do you think that going ahead with the expansion plans would increase Two Seasons Ltd ’s profits? Justify your view.
A really good way in which students can write a focused answer is to use the key words in the question at the beginning of each paragraph. For example:
One reason why going ahead with the expansion plans would increase Two Seasons profits is ......................
Another reason why going ahead with the expansion plans would increase Two Seasons profits is ..........................
However, a reason why going ahead with the expansion plans may not increase Two Seasons profits is ..............
Another reason why going ahead with the expansion plans may not increase Two Seasons profits is .........
Overall, going ahead with the expansion plans will/ will not increase Two Seasons profits because ................
This is a really simple structure to follow and one which keeps the students fully focused on the question they have been asked. Obviously the quality of the response depends on the students ability to come up with logical arguments, analyse and evaluate them, however, following this structure at least ensures students answer the question they have been asked. Which can’t be bad.
Happy Easter…..................
Triumph - A Classic Case of Niche Export Success
Many thanks to Allan Todd for spotting this superb article from the Independent which makes perfect reading for all our AQA BUSS2 & BUSS4 students in particular as they prepare for exams this summer. The article is about the boom in British motorbikes such as the Triumph and Royal Enfield Bullet who’s sales have defied the recession and growth in an ever decreasing market. BUSS2 students will latch on to the niche marketing and product range aspects with BUSS4 pupils being able to analyse the emerging market angle and the globalisation focus that is indicated in the article. A sample essay that Allan will practice with his pupils will be:
To what extent can successful marketing practices that Triumph, and any company that you have studied, defy a global recession or are other factors to be considered?
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/features/triumph-drives-brit-bike-boom-2269173.html
Technology in business - RFID takes on the counterfeiters
Another gem of a video from the BBC Business team. This is a great example of how technology can be harnessed to improve profitability by protecting the intellectual property or brand reputation. RFID tags (radio frequency) have been around quite a while but their unt cost made them uneconomical for use in protecting high volume manufacture - until now. The rapid growth of counterfeit products, particularly from emerging markets like China, creates problems for firms that have invested heavily in product innovation or branding.
Cash flow and trade credit - putting the squeeze on suppliers
An interesting article here in the Telegraph which highlights the problem of late-payment of supplier invoices as firms look to find ways of improving their cash flows. Businesses of all types use trade credit as a key source of short-term finance - it is perfectly acceptable and a normal part of doing business. What is less acceptable (from an ethical point of view) is deliberately stretching the time taken to settle amounts owed to suppliers, often well beyond the agreed date.
The article explains that, based on the three months to December 2010:
“Large companies turned the screws on suppliers, paying their bills 36.7 days later than agreed terms, up from 35.9 days in the final quarter last year. But small companies recorded the largest increase in their late payments, taking on average more than 22 days to settle invoices – three days longer than the same period last year.”
Why are firms taking longer to pay? A good question for students, who ought to be able to identify some advantages and disadvantages of extending trade credit beyond agreed contractual terms. Is the increase a sing of worsening cash flow problems? Are suppliers not chasing hard enough for payment? Was it the disruption caused by the snow? Many firms may have tried it on by explaining that they had “sent the cheque” but that it was “stuck in the post & snow”.
Tough lessons in running a business from the entrepreneurial coalface
Students rarely get the inside track on the hurdles and challenges faced by entrepreneurs day-to-day. They can be forgiven for thinking that setting up and managing a business is, in the textbook world, pretty straightforward. Get the marketing mix right, raise the finance, motivate the staff & the jobs a good’un. Yeh, right. Sure
So this excellent article in the Telegraph might help provide a reality check. It is certainly packed full of useful discussion points. Just look at some of the problems encountered by a nice mix of businesses and entrepreneurs:
- A stonemason for whom demand literally freezes when the weather turns wintery
- Declining net profit margins as competitors fight for market share in an industry with much spare capacity
- A major customer going into liquidation leaving a firm with a substantial bad debt
- Rapid growth in revenue highlighting deficiencies in stock management and customer service
- Tricky decisions about whether to delay investment in research & development as a result of weakening demand from the public sector
- A franchisor that is struggling to open new locations
Recession-proof production at Fiat
Fiat’s Polish plant bucks the trend to post record production levels in the recession. Can they perform another miracle and resurrect Lancia?
read more...»Cash flow Clue-doh! The Mystery is Revealed…
Over 10,000 colleagues have now downloaded our cash-flow murder mystery activity - Cash Flow Clue-doh! And we’re getting an increasing number of enquiries asking what the solution is!
read more...»Working with Suppliers - How Not to Do It: The Serco Way
I hate bullies. I’m sure you do too. So a proverbial “finger in the air” to outsourcing giant Serco for their proposed treatment of many small businesses in the UK after they found out that their public sector contracts were to become less profitable as a result of the coalition spending cuts. The Guardian reports on the fallout from a Serco communication with their suppliers.
Serco have moved quickly to retract the implied threat to their suppliers with a statement which includes the following:
“As a company that values our relationships with all our supply chain partners, large and small, we deeply regret this action and apologise unreservedly to them for the concern that this has caused. We are now communicating this to our supply chain partners and retracting the letters.”
But their action has come a little late to prevent a sharp fall in the Serco share price…
Starter Activity - Perfect Recall
A really, really simple idea based on Terry Wogan’s perfect recall gameshow.
Simply 12 key words on the board arranged in a grid formation. For example, recently I used words like working capital, acid test, current ratio (having just done ratios’ with Year 11) as well as general business terms like objectives, primary research, secondary research etc.
I then read out the definition’s 1 - 12 and the kids needed to match the definition with the key word. Brilliant for differentiation as the answers are on the board allowing all students to access the material.
Enjoy….............
