Analysing the Business Data - Marriage in Decline
The chart below shows how the number of marriages in the UK has changed since the Second World War. The red line shows a 10-year moving average (i.e the average number of marriages per year measured over the previous 10 years). Answer the data response questions below.
read more...»Businesses argue the case for greater investment in public infrastructure
This excellent video by Stephanie Flanders raises some important issues as we enter a period of significant and sustained cuts in government spending. A new report by PwC estimates that 1 million jobs will be lost as a direct and indirect result of the spending cuts. The government is assuming that the private sector will grow to create a similar number of new jobs. But, as is pointed out in the video, one issue is that the UK’s business infrastructure (e.g. broadband internet, rail network, airport systems) may not be able to handle a significant increase in economic activity in the private sector.
read more...»From public sector to private sector - will outsourcing take-off?
As the public sector prepares for the savage cuts in government spending, many firms in the private sector are looking forward to exploiting the opportunities provided by greater outsourcing by the public sector. This excellent short video by the BBC’s Robert Peston is packed full of useful insights for economics & business students alike. Are we likely to see a privatised fire service, or greater private sector provision of policing and health services?
Start-up businesses all the rage
An interesting short BBC article that reports that the number of new businesses set up in the UK during the first six months of 2010 was the highest amount in more than a decade. This was a 51% rise on the first six months of 2008, when the UK first went into recession.
read more...»Which business sectors are pulling the economy out of recession?
The recovery may be a bit feeble (estimates have growth have recently been revised downwards) but it is now a year old. There’s the VAT increase (which rises to 20% in January), cuts to government spending and low wage growth still causing some alarm (fuelling fears of a ‘double dip’ recession). But where has current growth come from?
read more...»The Price of a Pint
Nice quick question here: why does the price of a pint vary across the country?
read more...»External influences - local authority spending
As A2 students start to broaden their thinking about the influences on a business’s decisions, they have to learn about local and national government revenue raising and spending. I often find that they don’t know the different roles of local and national government, but an interactive device which the Local Government Authority is about the roll-out to all councils websites might help with that. The idea is to ask the public to play the role of council leaders in deciding where to make cuts in spending, changes in employees pay and in the fees charged for various services, in order to achieve the required cuts and keep any rise in council tax to less than 5%. It has been trialled by Redbridge local council in London, and you can see it in operation on their website.
Location and retail rents
Where’s the best place to open a retail outlet? Unfortunately, the ‘best’ sites are likely to be the most expensive. We all like a league table, and one has just been published that identifies the 10 shopping streets with the highest rents. What do these values tell us?
read more...»Who ate all the pies?
We did! Mintel have reported that sales of ‘pastry- based savouries’ are rising by 5% a year, with the beef pie outselling all the rest.
They think this may be down to the rise of the gastropub, featuring pies on the menu and repositioning them as a viable meal rather than a snack. The manufacturers suggest that this is due to an increased demand for regional foods, with consumers “returning to traditional British foods such as pork pies and looking for authentic regional products with a long heritage.”
On the other hand, this is quite strongly at odds with a move towards healthier food, and might be more a case of people turning to traditional comfort foods during the stresses of the recession, turning the ;pastry-based savoury snack’ into the ideal ‘credit crunch’!. As this report suggests, pie manufacturers might need to come up with a strategy based on the ‘healthy version’ if they are going to maintain this growth in the market.
Businesses prepare for the double-dip
Lots of media coverage today on the latest survey by accountants BDO which suggests that UK businesses are fully expecting, and preparing for, a double-dip recession.
read more...»Recession pricing: the rise of the budget hotel
Do you like freebies or do you value ‘value’? A couple of years ago Travelodge stopped putting ‘free’ shampoo in their rooms. The logic is that customers would prefer a lower room rate than freebies.
What do you think? My wife loves those little bottles and sachets, as part of the excitement of staying in a hotel. However, after a few conversations I’m revising my theory. Freebies are an important part of staying in a ‘posh’ hotel, but perhaps Travelodge customers do value ‘value’. Especially since they may be paying their own room rate, rather than claiming it on expenses from their employer.
Now a new hotel chain, Tune, have opened up a super budget hotel that takes the concept even further….....
read more...»A beginners guide to GDP
Every business student needs to have an understanding of GDP - the value of economic activity over a period of time. So here is a neat video from Declan Curry and the BBC to explain what is meant by GDP. Very useful for an introductory lesson on the economic environment.
read more...»Fiscal Policy - Where Does the Government Raise Finance?
This new video from Declan Curry on the BBC explains in straightforward terms how the UK government raises taxation from various sources and how it attempts to finance the gap between government spending and taxation.
read more...»External growth strategy - takeovers back in fashion for large UK firms post recession
A neat summary from the BBC of a trend developing during 2010 - the increase in the number and value of business takeovers as UK firms emerge from the economic downturn. This would make a useful lesson stimulus piece for students wanting to build their understanding of the rationale behind acquisitions as a means of business growth, and also to identify some real examples to supplement their exam research.
read more...»How inflation affects consumers
Another great, short video from the BBC here which is an ideal stimulus piece for a lesson on inflation. It looks at the effect of inflation on three different consumers, and also refers to the potential impact of public spending cuts.
read more...»Inflation and profit margins - lessons from the market
Here’s a great video from the BBC which is a neat way of introducing the concepts of price inflation and profit margins - all in one!
read more...»How much do you earn? How much should you earn?
I think it’s likely that after the recession, the subject of pay will stay in the news. Here are a couple of links: one to an Economist debate about whether the government should try to regulate the pay of top executives and another about pay rates in general.
read more...»Poundland expanding: reflections on quality and the recession
I’m looking round for pieces of evidence that students could use to judge the state of the economy and where it’s heading (hopefully trying to avoid a ‘double dip’ recession), so I was interested to see that Poundland are growing their business. Whilst watching an accompanying video clip, I also noticed the firm’s boss making observations about the concept of quality: something that crops up as a frequent Business Studies discussion point.
read more...»Lost in translation - demand from public sector to dry up?
This is a terrific case study from the Guardian with various relevant business studies angles…
read more...»Ocado - a rich source of business studies material
The recent flotation on online grocery business Ocado provides a wealth of teaching and learning resources for business studies.
read more...»Income inequality around the world
Students taking Edexcel GCSE Unit 3 need to briefly consider the implications of differing incomes and pay levels around the world (3.5 Economic issues affecting trade). The superb Gapminder World website is a terrific resource to enable students to conduct some interactive research into income inequality and pay levels. Highly recommended. Here is a link to a relevant example of the many fantastic data visualisations that students can produce on the website:
Income inequality: USA v China v Income Gapminder
Demand for Foreign Holidays Takes a Sharp Dip
Lots of coverage in the press today of some significant data released by the ONS. The data shows a record 15 per cent decline in the number of trips abroad by UK residents in 2009 compared with 2008. In total, Britons last year spent £5.1bn less abroad than they did in 2008.
In part the decline is attributable to fewer business trips overseas (a decline that must be closely linked to the impact of the recession on business travel). However, there has also been a sharp decline in the number of tourist trips to previously popular destinations like Spain and Mexico. The concept of “staycation” (UK holidaymakers prefering to take holidays in the UK rather than travel overseas) looks to be supported by the data.
The article linked above provides some useful business studies material - particularly on the factors that influence the demand for foreign holidays. Factors such as exchange rates, household disposable income, changes in fashionable destinations etc should all be identified and explained by students.
The tougher question to answer from the article is - why did British holidays to Iraq grow so much in 2009?
World Cup 2010 Business Winners and Losers
The Guardian has a useful article today summarising what it believes are the main business winners and losers (in the UK) from the World Cup 2010. It uses reported financial results and other marketing data as the basis for the analysis (which is an interesting discussion point for students). Well worth printing out and using as an example of external factors which affect demand in a market.
Inevitably the article focuses mainly on retailers - who tend to release more data, more quickly than other sectors.
The more confident students might question some of the analysis and evaluation in the article, perhaps questioning whether it was the World Cup which was the reason for a better/worse performance - or whether it was the underlying competitive strength of the business which was key.
The uncertain future for cash
Cash has lasted a surprisingly long time, and its demise has been predicted for at least twenty years as electronic payment methods have grown and developed. There was even a debate if euro notes and coins should be produced when the single currency came to life in 2002. But fanciful predictions have a way of becoming fact and as festival season approaches there’s a BBC article suggesting that cash is to be axed from UK festivals.
read more...»Dark days for the UK nightclub market
The nightclub market is in serious trouble, with the leading operators struggling to respond to significant threats in their external environment. This Guardian article is a terrific one to use with Level 3 business students, despite the more “adult” nature of the case study material.
The recession has clearly hit nightclubs hard - particularly due to the rising level of unemployment amongst younger people. However, there are several other significant factors which threaten the remaining operators, including greater competition from pubs, cheap supermarket alcohol and the rise of internet dating and gaming.
There is lot of great business studies in the article beyond the external enviroment. Breakeven is covered - “a half-full nightclub is no use at all” due to the high fixed operating costs. The different methods of sales promotion are also covered. A great stimulus article for a productive business lesson.
A significant rise in unemployment ahead for the UK
An excellent stimulus article in the Guardian for business students last Thursday highlights the potential impact of looming government spending cuts on UK unemployment.
read more...»Emerging from Recession - Manufacturing Leads the Way
A good economics piece in The Telegraph today which is of relevance for business students in their final revision.
The article explains that manufacturing output in the UK has grown in each of the last eight months. Britain’s factories are helping to lead the UK economy out of recession (whilst recent data suggests that the service sector has struggled to grow).
Successful exploitation of growth opportunities in emerging markets like China & India are part of the reason. Another reason is a reversal of the process of de-stocking (i.e. firms beginning to rebuild rather than reducing stock levels) which occured during the recession.
The third, and perhaps most important cause of strong demand for UK manufacturing is the low level of the Pound. Weaker sterling makes UK products relatively cheaper in international markets, although some will suffer from the flip-side - higher costs of imported raw materials and components.
BUSS4 UK Recession - Data Burn
Just under 3,000 BUSS4 students joined us last month for an intensive day preparing for the BUSS4 exam in June 2010. In the first session in the workshop we took a guided tour through the key macroeconomic changes in the UK economy during the recession, and the evidence of overall business response. The streamed presentation below was used during the session, alongside a series of quickfire revision activities. Obviously most of the key learning during the workshop was through the speaker commentary and student practice, but hopefully the presentation might be useful for other BUSS4 students ahead of the exam.
BUSS4 Revision Workshop - Session 1 UK Data Burn
Container shipping: the greatest business innovation of the 20th Century?
I was totally caught up in BBC4’s The Box That Changed Britain - an absolute must for business and economics students. This fantastic programme covered business costs, logistics, retail, business location, productive efficiency, human resource management, trade and globalisation. Nearly everyone is busy at the moment with revision, but if you want a pause for thought (or a resource for debate after the exams) this is it.
And I’m hard pressed to think of any other innovation that has had such a significant impact on business in the last 50 years. Ideas anyone?
Why Coffee Shops did so well during the UK Recession
Students researching how the recent recession provided opportunities as well as threats would do well to watch this brief video from the BBC on why coffee shops (particularly the branded chains) seemed to turn the recession to their advantage.
Some additional links further below provide some extra background research reading.
