ALEVL BUSINESS FULL

Question 1

• Explain why a business exists?
• What is the relationship between mission and objectives?
• Why objects are set?
• Why is profit important ?
• Explain these key words * revenue (also turnover and sales), fixed costs, variable costs, total costs.?

Question 2

• What are the Reasons for choosing different forms of business and for changing business form?
• What is the role of shareholders and why they invest?
• What Influences on share price and the significance of share price changes?
• What are the effects of ownership on mission, objectives, decisions and performance?
• Explain the what they are and the advantage s and disadvantage of
  1. Sole traders
  2. Private limited companies and public limited
  3. companies
  4. Private sector and public sector organizations
  5. Non-profit organizations such as charities and
  mutual.

Question 3

• Explain how these external environment can affect costs and demand?
  1. Competition
  2. Market conditions
  3. Incomes
  4. Interest rates
  5. Demographic factors
  6. Environmental issues and fair trade

Question 4

• Explain the role of a manger?
• What are the different types of management and leadership styles and influences it has on employees and stakeholders?
• Explain these two theories?
  Theories of management and leadership styles
  should include:
  1. The Tannenbaum Schmidt continuum
  2. The Blake Mouton grid.

Answer 4

• setting objectives
• analysing
• leading
• making decisions
• reviewing.

Question 5

• Explain the advantages and disadvantages decision making based on data (scientific) eg decision trees and on intuition ?
• Explain the following-
  1. Risks
  2. Rewards
  3. Uncertainty
  4. Opportunity cost.
  for both decision making ways?
• What are some advantages and disadvantages of decision trees?
• Explian how the following:
  1. Mission
  2. Objectives
  3. Ethics
  4. The external environment including competition
  5. Resource constraints.
  affect decision making?

Question 6

• Why is it important to take stakeholders needs into consideration (adv/dis)?
• Explain stakeholder mapping ?
• Why might stakeholder needs have conflict ?
• How to manage relationship with different stakeholders?

Question 7

• Why is it important to set marketing objectives such as sales Volume and sales value (adv/dis)?
  1. Market size
  2. Market and sales growth
  3. Market share
  4. Brand loyalty
• What are some external and internal influences on marketing objectives and decisions?

Question 8

• What are the advantage and disadvantages of primary and secondary marketing research?
• Explain qualitative and quantitative data?
• What is market mapping?
• How do you calculate market and sales
  growth, market share and size?
• What are positive and negative correlation and
  an understanding of the strength of the
  relationship
  1. Understanding the concept of confidence
  intervals
  2. Understanding extrapolation when interpretation of marketing data ?
• Why is technology valuable in gathering and analyzing data for marketing decision making
• What is price and income elasticity of demand?, how do you interpreted it ?
• What is the value of the concepts of price and income
  elasticity of demand to marketing decision makers ?

Question 9

• What is the process and value of segmentation, targeting and positioning?
• Explain why each of these segments are important
  1. Demographic
  2. Geographic
  3. Income
  4. Behavioral segmentation.
• What Influences on choosing a target market and positioning eg why would a business choose mass or niche market?

Question 10

• What are the 7ps why might a business focus on any of the ps ?
• What is the value of product portfolio analysis and the Boston Matrix?
• What is the value of the product life cycle model?, including extension strategies
• What are the influences on and the value of new product
  development ?
• what is and why is price skimming and and price penetration important?
• why is branding important when a business is promoting?
• what is muti-channel distribution and why is it important ?
• how
  1. The position in the product life cycle
  2. The Boston Matrix
  3. The type of product
  4. Marketing objectives
  5. The target market
  6. Competition
  7. Positioning
• What is the importance of and influences on an
  integrated marketing mix?

Question 11

• What it is important and how it is useful to put operational objectives such as
  1. Costs
  2. Quality
  3. Speed of response and flexibility
  4. Dependability
  5. Environmental objectives
  6. Added value.
• What are some External and internal influences on operational objectives and decisions?

Question 12

• How do you calculate
  1. Labor productivity
  2. Unit costs (average costs)
  3. Capacity
  4. Capacity utilization.
• How to use of data in operational decision making
  and planning ?

Question 13

• Why is capacity important ?
• Why is efficiency and labor productivity important ?
• How do you increase efficiency and labor productivity?
• What are the benefits and difficulties of lean production?
• What is just in time ?
• What is Difficulties of increasing efficiency and labor productivity?
• How to find what type of labor to use eg labor and capital intensive processes.?
• How to utilize capacity efficiently?
• How to use technology to improve operational efficiency?

Question 14

• Why is quality important?
• How do you improve quality eg quality assurance?
• What are the benefits and difficulties of improving quality?
• What are the consequences of poor quality?

Question 15

• What are the different ways and importance of improving flexibility, speed of response and dependability eg mass customizing?
• What are ways and value of improving flexibility, speed of
  response and dependability? eg
  1. Outsourcing
  2. Use of temporary and part time employees
  3. Producing to order
• What Influences on the amount of inventory held?
  eg
  1. Interpreting inventory control charts
  2. Lead time
  3. Re-order levels
  4. Buffer level of inventory
  5. Re-order quantities.
• What Influences on the choice of suppliers?
• How to manage the supply chain effectively and advantages and disadvantages of efficiently ?
• What the value of outsourcing?

Question 16

• What is the value of setting financial objectives?
• What is the concept of a return on investment?
• Explain the proportion of long-term funding that is debt?
• What is the distinction between cash flow and profit?
• What is the distinction between gross profit, operating profit and profit for the year?
• What are Revenue, costs and profit objectives?
• What are Cash flow objectives?
• What are Objectives for investment (capital expenditure) levels?
• What are Capital structure objectives?
• What are some External and internal influences on financial objectives and decisions?

Question 17

• How to construct and analyze budgets and cash flow forecasts eg variance analysis and adverse and favorable variances?
• What is the The value of budgeting?
• How to construct and interpret break-even charts and include what theses are:
  1. Break-even output
  2. Margin of safety
  3. Contribution per unit
  4. Total contribution.
• How to calculate and illustrate on a break-even
  chart the effects of changes in price, output and
  cost?
• What is the value of break-even analysis?
• How to calculate :
  1. Gross profit
  2. Profit from operations
  3. Profit for the year.
• What are and how to calculate payables and receivables?
• Why is data for financial decision making and planning?

Question 18

• What are some Internal and external sources of finance eg explain adv/dis ?
  1. debt factoringis
  2. overdrafts
  3. retained profits
  4. share capital
  5. loans
  6. venture capital.
• What are the Advantages and disadvantages of different sources of finance for short- and long-term uses?

Question 19

• What the methods to improving cash flow?
• What are the Methods of improving profits and profitability ?
• What are the difficulties improving cash flow and profit?

Question 20

• How developments in technology are affecting decision making and activities in relation to human resources?
• What are the ethical and environmental influences on human resources decisions?
• How does market conditions and competition affects HR?
• How human resource decisions help improve the competitiveness of a business?
• What is the interrelationship between human resource decisions and other functions ?
• Why is it important to of setting human resource objectives? eg
  1. Employee engagement and involvement
  2. Talent development
  3. Training
  4. Diversity
  5. Alignment of values
  6. Number, skills and location of employees.
• What are some Internal and external influences on human resource objectives and decisions eg explain soft and hard HR?

Question 21

• How do you calculate:
  1. labor turnover and retention rates
  2. labor productivity
  3. employee costs as percentage of turnover
  4. labor cost per unit.
• How to use of data for human resource decision
  making and planning?

Question 22

• What Influences on job design and explain e Hackman and Oldham’s model.
• What influences organizational design eg explain
  1. Authority
  2. Span
  3. Hierarchy
  4. Delegation
  5. Centralization and decentralization.
• What Influences on delegation, centralization and
  decentralization
• Why is it important to change job and organizational design
• How managing the human resource flow helps meet human resource objectives eg
  1. Human resource plan
  2. Recruitment
  3. Training
  4. Redeployment
  5. Redundancy

Question 23

• What are the benefits of motivated and engaged
  employees and explain Taylor, Maslow and Herzberg?
• How can you improve employee engagement and motivation?
• What is the importance of theories of motivation?
• How to use financial methods of motivation eg
  1. Piece rate
  2. Commission
  3. Salary schemes
  4. Performance-related pay
• What are the the use of non-financial methods of motivating employees?
• What influences on the choice and assessment of the effectiveness of financial and non-financial reward systems?

Question 24

• What Influences on the extent and methods of employee involvement in decision making?
• How to manage and improve employer-employee communications and relations?
• What is the importance of f good employer-employee relations?
• What are trade unions and works councils?

Question 25

• What are some of the Influences on the mission of a business?
• Write and explain some Internal and external influences on corporate objectives and decisions eg pressures for short termism, business ownership, the external and internal environment.?
• What is the distinction between strategy and tactics?
• What is the links between mission, corporate objectives and strategy?
• What is the impact of strategic decision making on functional decision making?
• What are the advantage s and disadvantages of SWOT analysis?

Question 26

• How to use balance sheets, income statements and financial ratios to assess the financial performance of a business?
• Write and explain how to find profitability (return on capital employed), liquidity (current ratio), gearing, efficiency ratios: payables days, receivables days, inventory turnover?
• What is the adv and dis of financial ratios when assessing performance?

Question 27

• How to analyze data other than financial statements to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a business eg operations, human resource and marketing data?
• What is the importance of core competences?
• How to assessing short- and long-term performance can be beneficial?
• How different methods can be used to analyze business performance ? eg
  1. Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard model
  2. Elkington’s Triple Bottom Line (Profit, People, Planet).

Question 28

• What are the impact of changes in the political and legal environment on strategic and functional decision making eg the effects of UK and EU law related to competition, the labor market and environmental legislation?
• The impact of UK and EU Government policy related to enterprise, the role of regulators, infrastructure, the environment and international trade?

Question 29

• What are the impact of changes in the UK and the global economic environment on strategic and functional decision making? eg
  1. GDP
  2. taxation
  3. exchange rates
  4. inflation
  5. fiscal and monetary policy
  6. more open trade v protectionism.
• What is the reasons for greater globalization of business?
• Why is globalization importance for a business?
• Why is emerging economies important for a business?

Question 30

• What is the impact of the social and technological environment on strategic and functional decision making eg Urbanization and migration, changes in consumer lifestyle and buying behavior, the growth of online businesses?
• Why is there pressures for socially responsible behavior?
• What is the Carroll’s Corporate Social Responsibility pyramid?
• What are some of the reasons for and against (CSR)?
• What is the difference between the stakeholder v shareholder concept?

Question 31

• What are Porter’s five forces, how and why these might change, and the implications of these forces for strategic and functional decision making and profits? eg
  1. entry threat (barriers to entry)
  2. buyer power
  3. supplier power
  3. rivalry
  4. substitute threat.
• How the five forces shape competitive strategy?

Question 32

• What are the three Financial methods of assessing an investment eg payback, average rate of return and net present value?
• What are factors that influence investment decisions eg investment criteria, non-financial factors, risk and uncertainty?
• What is the advantages and disadvantages of sensitivity analysis?

Question 33

• What are some factors that influencing which markets to compete in and which products to offer?
• What is the Ansoff matrix and explain :
  1. market penetration
  2. market development
  3. new product development
  4. diversification.
• The reasons for choosing and value of different options for strategic direction?

Question 34

• Explain Porter’s low cost, differentiation and focus strategies and Bowman’s strategic clock when it comes to strategic positioning?
• What Influences on the choice of a positioning strategy?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of different strategic positioning strategies?
• What are the benefits of having a competitive advantage?
• Why is it difficult to maintain a competitive advantage?

Question 35

• What is the difference between organic and external growth
• Why does a businesses grow or retrench?
• Wow can you manage and overcome the problems of growth or retrenchment?
• Write and explain what these issues to growth are economies of scale (including technical, purchasing and managerial)?
  1. Economies of scope
  2. Diseconomies of scale
  3. The experience curve
  4. Synergy
  5. Overtrading.
  6. Explain Greiner’s model of growth.
• What are the impact of growth or retrenchment on the functional areas of the business?
• Explain and describe mergers, takeovers, ventures, franchising?
• What are vertical (backward and forward), horizontal and conglomerate integration?

Question 36

• What are some pressures to innovation ?
• What is product and process innovation?
• What is the advantages and disadvantages of innovation
• How can a business become innovative? eg
  1. Kaizen
  2. Research and development
  3. Intrapreneurship
  4. Benchmarking.
• How can you protect innovative ideas or products eg patents and copyrights?
• What are the impact of an innovation strategy on the functional areas of the business?

Question 36

• Why might a business chose to targeting, operating in and trading with international markets ?
• Write and explain
  1. Export
  2. Licensing
  3. Alliances
  4. Direct investment.
• What may be factors that influencing the attractiveness of international markets?
• Why might a business chose to producing more and sourcing more resources abroad eg off-shoring and re-shoring?
• What are the different ways of entering international markets and value of different methods eg becoming multinational?
• What may Influences on buying, selling and producing abroad?
• Why may it be important for a business to consider pressures for local responsiveness and pressures for cost reduction when managing n international business ?
• Describe and explain Bartlett and Ghoshal’s international, multi-domestic, transnational and global strategies?
• What may be the impact on internationalization for the functional areas of the business?

Question 37

• Why is there a pressures to adopt digital technology eg e-commerce, big data, data mining and enterprise resource planning (ERP)?
• What is the advantages and disadvantages of digital technology?
• What are the impact of digital technology on the functional areas of the business?

Question 38

• What are the Causes of and pressures for change?
• What are internal change, external change, incremental change, disruptive change?
• How to use lewins force field analysis to mange change?
• What is the advantages and disadvantages of change ?
• What is the advantage sand disadvantages of flexible organization?
• Explain and describe-
  1. Restructuring
  2. Delayering
  3. Flexible employment contracts
  4. Organic structures v mechanistic
  5. Knowledge and information management. adv/dis
• What are the barriers to change eg Kotter and Schlesinger’s four reasons for resistance to change?
• How do you over come barriers to change eg Kotter and Schlesinger’s six ways of overcoming resistance to change?

Question 39

• Why is organizational culture important?
• Explain and describe the following cultural models -
  1. Handy’s task culture, role culture, power culture and person culture
  2. Hofstede’s national cultures.
• What influences on organizational culture?
• What are the reasons for and problems of changing organizational culture?

Question 40

• How does a business implement strategy effectively?
• What is the value of leadership in strategic implementation?
• Why is communication important in strategic implementation ?
• Why is organizational structure important in strategic implementation eg functional, product based, regional and matrix structure.?
• Why is network analysis important in strategic implementation?
• How to do network analysis ?eg
  1. understanding and interpreting network diagrams
  2. amendment of network diagrams
  3. identifying the critical path and total float.

Question 41

• What are the Difficulties of strategic decision making and implementing strategy?
• What is the difference between Planned v emergent strategy?
• What is the reason for strategic drift?
• What are the possible effect of the divorce between ownership and control eg corporate governance?
• How can a business Evaluating strategic performance?
• What is the advantage sand disadvantage of strategic planning?
• Explain and describe the advantage sand disadvantage of strategic planning?