AQA A2 Business (BUSS3) - Influences on Functional Objectives

A key theme in BUSS3 is the influences (external and internal) that affect the setting and achievement of functional objectives.  For the AQA A2 BUSS3 tutor2u INSET days, we’ve developed a new resource that encourages students to analyse and evaluate the potential implications of a variety of influences on some case study businesses.

The Influence Card Game can be used in a variety of ways.  During the INSET sessions, we’ll take some time to discuss classroom use with colleagues teaching AQA BUSS3 and follow-up with their suggestions via this blog entry.

The Influence Cards are a series of brief scenarios - a mixture of internal and external changes which potential impact on the functional objectives of a case study business.

For example:

- The government announces a reduction in corporation tax and further incentives for investment in capital expenditure
- The finance director sets new targets for required rates of return on new projects
- An increase in customer complaints prompts concerns about quality
- A competitor achieves an advantage through the improved productivity that comes from an innovative use of technology
- Unions agree a reduction in basic wages and salaries terms in return for more flexible working practices and performance-related pay

Students are given a choice of case study business cards, each of which is based on a real business.  The case study cards provide some summary information on the business activities and data (allowing students to compare and contrast) as well as an overview of some key functional objectives for the four main areas (marketing, finance, operations and human resources).

This resource provides lots of flexibility in terms of delivery.

For example, one approach is to pick four Influence Cards at random from the pack of 50, together with one Case Study card, and then:

(1) Analyse potential impact (positive / negative) on the functional objectives of the Case Study
(2) Rank the Influence Cards in terms of their importance
(3) Describe how the business might respond to the scenario described on the Influence Card.

Another approach might be to build a trading game around the Influence Cards.  The idea is to negotiate with other groups to identify a series of 4-5 cards which are positive for the Case Study; another group might be given the task of finding a set of cards which are undoubtedly bad news. And so on.

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