ResearchBuster: Acquisitions
Our ResearchBuster blog posts are designed to help students identify and integrate examples of business strategy for their synoptic essays and exams. This ResearchBuster look at some of the most significant examples of takeovers / acquisitions in recent years…
(updated 11 Feb 2012 with 10 new entries)
read more...»BUSS4 Research Theme - Merger and Takeover Egg Heads
I often find that one of the key challenges with the research theme is finding ways to engage the students with the material in lessons and keeping them motivated and interested in the theme until the Summer.
With this in mind, I will be blogging about some strategies that I have successfully used in the past to engage the students and applying them to the new theme, Mergers and Takeovers.
read more...»Glenstrata - Glencore proposes merger with Xstrata
Yesterday morning’s business news has been dominated by the proposed merger of Glencore and Xstrata. Glencore’s 34% holding of Xstrata shares had made a third party approach for Xstrata very difficult if not impossible.
read more...»PEST - IAG and BMI acquisition
International Airlines Group or BA and Iberia are trying to acquire BMI from Lufthansa.
A move which would allow IAG would gain c. 56 additional take-off and landing slots at Heathrow. Lufthansa had bought up most of BMI’s shares in 2008 but has failed to prevent the group losing money.
Mastering the art of merger integration
As the BUSS4 research topic reaches the students it is useful to be able to steer them towards something to get the process started. Finding something they can do alongside other work should help to motivate them as they feel their way into the topic.
read more...»Integration, integration, integration
HP is an example of a firm which is struggling to integrate acquisitions, and the perils of diversification.
BUSS4 research - some initial ideas
The brief for the BUSS4 research task makes the point that “You are strongly recommended to compare and contrast a number of different takeovers and mergers.” There is a huge amount of news reporting on this topic; in addition to the Guardian hub reported by Miss C Wilkin’s blog below, both FT.com and Reuters have link pages which will take you to myriad of reports about Mergers and Acquisitions - more information that your students could ever need, and which they will need some help to negotiate.
It is early days at the moment to get the students too far into the bullet points, but if they want to get going on some of the issues that might be involved, here is my initial list of some key news stories that could give a start point:
read more...»Schultz on Leadership, Love and the Competitive Advantage of Culture
We know that the BUSS4 is a big fan of the Apple and Steve Jobs - and with good reason. As our BUSS4 Topic Tracker indicates, a previous essay question (Jan 2010) used the example of Steve Jobs to ask students to evaluate how easy it is for a Chief Executive to change a struggling business into a more successful one.
Steve Jobs shares much in common with another well-known entrepreneur and CEO - Howard Schultz (Starbucks). Both men founded, left and then returned to lead a turnaround of their respective businesses. Both have taken on the challenge of taking a business idea through rapid growth and then also manage a global brand in a much more uncertain external environment.
Might Howard Schultz feature in a future AQA BUSS4 essay choice? Its certainly possible and this article from Ernst & Young ought to be essential reading for any A2 business student who wants to build their understanding of Schultz and his leadership style and business strategy for Starbucks.
read more...»External influences: the threat that is China
Most A2 Business students have their sights firmly set on BUSS3 this week, which is very much as it should be. However, next week their attention will turn to the wider world of BUSS4. In planning for that, it looks as if the three-part series of reports about China that Newsnight will be running this week would be very useful, and worth recording or at least picking up on i-player.
read more...»Tesco’s Big Price Drop - on the Stock Market, or, Porter and Ansoff in action
Such is the importance of Tesco’s and their dominance of the retail market that the effect of a 2.3% drop in their like-for-like sales knocked almost 16% off their share price yesterday. Perhaps not so much a reflection of the figures themselves - although they compare poorly with Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s both of whom managed to increase their sales over the same period - as the admission by the new CEO Philip Clarke that Tesco’s got their strategy wrong, both in the short and the long term.
read more...»Investment in People - Google and Human Capital
Here is a link to a recent article on Google’s approach to investment in people. Written from a Google perspective inevitably there are none of the criticisms that others have made of human resource management in the Googleplexes around the world.
However, the article is useful in explaining the huge emphasis that Google places on being transparent with their workforce and in giving employees freedom, autonomy and purposes in their jobs. I am sure A2 students will be able to draw some useful insights from reading through it.
read more...»AQA BUSS4 CPD Briefing Days in 2012
The dates and locations for our popular AQA BUSS4 CPD briefings in 2012 are now confirmed and we are experiencing a high level of advanced bookings. The dates and venues are listed below and, as in 2011, we’re running an overflow day in London. We only have space for one date in the other venues, so please book your places as soon as possible.
AQA BUSS4 Section A Briefing 2012
LONDON (A) - Monday 27 February 2012
BIRMINGHAM - Tuesday 28 February 2012
LEEDS - Wednesday 29 February 2012
MANCHESTER - Thursday 1 March 2012
NEWCASTLE - Tuesday 6 March 2012
LONDON (B) - Wednesday 7 March 2012
Provisional bookings can be made using this online form, or by downloading this printable booking form
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...»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...»Waitrose Strategy Essay
This afternoon I made use of Jim and Tom’s recent blogs relating to Waitrose to have a fascinating strategy discussion with my A2 students.
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...»Skype CEO on Aims, Growth, Risks and Motivation
A very useful interview here with Tony Bates, the UK-born CEO of Skype which is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft. Technology firms and brands continue to be a superb source of business lesson case studies and examples. There is much in the interview which students ought to add to their notes - particularly A2 students wanting some research-based evidence for their exam essays.
read more...»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...»Tesco adapts to the South Korean market
We all know about the success and dominance of Tesco in the UK where it has a market share of around 30%. Globally it is one of the biggest retailers in the world and it now has stores in 14 countries. This clip is a great example of how Tesco have adapted to the South Korean market where it is the market’s number two, with fewer stores than the number one company.
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.
ResearchBuster: Retrenchment
[Updated June 2011 to include Thorntons & Lloyds Bank]
Most businesses aim to grow - but not all succeed - and many are forced to reduce the scale and scope of their business activities as a deliberate act of strategy. This is known as “retrenchment” and A2 students should have an understanding of some examples of retrenchment in action. Which firms / brands were involved? What happened? And why? Here are some suggestions that students could add to their notes:
read more...»CSR & Strategy - Why the Cooperative Group changed to survive
A brilliant article here from the excellent UK team at Ernst & Young which features an interview with Peter Marks, the CEO of The Co-operative Group. Perfect for last minute revision for AQA BUSS4 students…
read more...»AQA A2 Business (BUSS4) - Exam Topic Tracker
There have been three sittings of the BUSS4 exam now, based on the first two research briefings (Emerging Markets & UK Recession). Here is our AQA BUSS4 Exam Paper Topic Tracker which allows colleagues to see how the BUSS4 topics have been examined so far. As expected, the Section B essay titles encourage students to consider issues covered by several parts of the spec (e.g. the role of leadership in overcoming resistance to change, or the impact of technological change on the competitive structure of industries) - so we have tried to reflect that in our topic tracker section allocations.
Download AQA GCE Business BUSS4 Topic Tracker
A2 Business: Six key global trends that are shaping business strategy
Students who can point to some overriding trends which help shape strategic direction and choices are much more likely to write interesting, persuasive and evaluative essays. This new report by consultants Ernst & Young is a pinch of gold dust for such students, as it examines in a reasonably accessible way six broad, long-term developments which shape business around the globe.
read more...»The rise of Asia - some comparative data to play with
Preparation for BUSS4 includes some study of emerging markets, and students could take a break from textbooks to play with this graphic from the BBC. It allows you to compare countries in terms of wealth, health, life expectancy, education and energy consumption, between 1970 and 2006.There is an explanation of each of the sets of data and where it came from, and you can select two factors and up to 10 countries to compare.
For example you can examine questions like “As Asia’s wealth increases, how much longer are people living?” or “Is increasing wealth leading to better education?” in order to get a picture of how development and markets in the Asian countries compare with the UK and USA. Worth a look to get a feel for the potential for UK businesses to invest in expansion into these developing markets, and some of the limitations for them there.
ResearchBuster: Technology and Change
A2 business students need to understand the role that technological change plays in disrupting industry and competitive structures. The concept of a “disruptive technology” is a good one for students to use when describing how innovative based on technological advances/adoption can have profound implications for business strategy (and therefore act as a cause of business change).
read more...»Organic growth strategy - the benefits if firms “believe in better”
The growth of BSkyB in the UK is a classic example of how to build a business using internal (or organic) growth methods rather than relying on acquisitions. It makes for excellent research-based evidence for students who need to provide examiners with relevant examples of growth strategy.
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...»CSR - Can better social responsibility boost the UK economy by £17bn?
I’m not entirely convinced by the calculation (or rather, estimate) used to come up with the headline statistic in this otherwise useful article on CSR.
read more...»AQA BUSS4 CSR Briefing - Review Copies Available
We’re having a clear out here at tutor2u Towers and we’ve got around 100 copies left of the 12 page BUSS4 CSR Briefing that we provided to all students and teachers attending the BUSS4 revision workshops back in March 2011 (a pdf copy is also included in the BUSS4 CSR Toolkit). We’ve added the CSR Briefing to our online store - teaching colleagues can order a free copy (1 copy only please) now.
