Ukraine 1 England 0 - A match to remember?
Whilst it might not have been the result we wanted, England’s match against the Ukraine on Saturday may become memorable for business reasons.
Whatever your view on whether England football matches should only be available to watch live on the internet, there is little doubt that there is plenty of scope for the topic to be used constructively in the business studies classroom.
Topics could include…
read more...»Napster - Trying to compete, or getting desperate?
It was the music download site that first caused major headaches for record company bosses when it was first launched as an illegal download site. Ten years on, Napster is now a legitimate music site (and has been since 2002), but is facing a battle of it’s own.
Edexcel GCSE Business Unit 1 - Spotting a Business Opportunity Revision Quiz
Here is an interactive revision quiz for students who want some practise preparing for the Spotting a Business Opportunity topic in Edexcel GCSE Business Unit 1. Each time you run the quiz you get ten random questions from the quiz database.
The quiz is based on a resource which can be bought from our online store. Our Practice MCQs Resource provides the quiz not only in interactive format, but also in VLE-compliant SCORM format and a printable worksheet version.
Are Cool Brands Really Cool?
The results are in, and according to CoolBrands this year’s coolest brands are….
These results throw up a number of interesting questions, not least about the use of the word “cool”.
It would be interesting to ask students to name their 20 “coolest” brands and see how many appear on both lists!
read more...»Setting Budgets - The Wedding Planner
Re-visiting my old AS Unit 1 Lesson plans I found this good activity to get the students thinking about the limitations of setting budgets.
read more...»A Microsoft Marketing Mishap
There are many examples of disasters when it comes to international marketing. Most are related to differences in language, or in some cases customs. The latest example, from Microsoft, was perhaps more avoidable.
In a bid to promote their business products, Microsoft used the following image in a series of adverts in the US:
Providing What Customers Want?
Asda yesterday launched a new range of clothing under it’s well-established George label.
What’s unusual about that, you might ask.
Well the 13-piece range is “the UK’s first mainstream range of traditional Asian clothing” - not just for supermarket clothing, but for the big high street names.
read more...»Icing on the cake for entrepreneurs
This niche market is growing at 50% per year and is attracting dozens of business start-ups in the UK…
read more...»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...»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...»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.
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.
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...»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...»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...»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...»Edexcel GCSE Business Unit 1 - Introduction to Small Business: Digital Course Companion
We’re hard at work on a new suite of resources to support the new Edexcel GCSE Business units (for first teaching in September 2009). Out first will be our digital Course Companion - the cost-effective and VLE-friendly replacement for those costly and environmentally-unfriendly textbooks…
read more...»
