What business students can learn from how businesses have handled the recession

The actions taken by successful businesses during the UK recession provide a rich source of guidance for students wishing to improve their analysis and evaluation skills. 

Pricing strategies and tactics under investigation

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to undertake a detailed investigation into methods of advertising and pricing goods and services online.  This should prove to be a really interesting report when it is published in the summer of 2010, making it essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the variety of advertising pricing tactics and strategies being developed online.

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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…

Protecting a brand - global giants struggle to fight off the counterfeit fakers

A super video here from the BBC which examines the significant growth of counterfeit goods flooding markets in the European Union.” A huge issue for global luxury brands - but do consumers really care too much if they are able to buy good quality fakes at prices substantially below those of the original brands?

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

Demand and supply in action - tea prices surge

The new Edexcel GCSE Business Unit 1 specification encourages students to look at commodity markets to develop their understanding of how demand supply interact to determine market prices. 

Here is an excellent example of how two significant shifts in the demand and supply curves can affect the global price of a commodity. Failing crops and surging demand for tea is pushing prices higher.

As a leading exporter of tea, Keyna is benefitting from the surge in prices, after suffering from higher production costs in recent years.

Microsoft and Google compete head-to-head

A dramatic shake-up for the information-technology (IT) industry is coming.  Google is promising to release an operating system (like XP or Vista) for personal computers.  This represents a direct attack on Microsoft, the world’s biggest software firm. 

U2 on Tour - Investment appraisal and capacity utilisation rolled into one!

A fantastic example of investment appraisal and capacity utilisation in this article in the Guardian, which describes the risks and returns of the new U2 tour.

Stock control - de-stocking was over £5bn in Q1 of 2009

Fascinating evidence from the Office of National Statistics about what happened to firms inventories during the first three months of 2009.  Data form the ONS estimates that the value of stocks held fell by £5.4bn during the quarter - a significant reduction.  Students might consider why this happened.  There will be a variety of causes:

- Deiberate attempts to reduce finished goods stocks by converting them into cash (perhaps by offering lower prices or promotional discounts)
- Closure (temporary or permanent) of production capacity
- Delays in ordering new raw materials and components as a way of conserving cash

Q&A - Explain the causes of inflation

There are two main causes of inflation:
• Demand-pull (when there is excess demand), and
• Cost-push (when costs rise)