Your journey to excellence in
By Revision Genie
Meeting customer needs
Unit 1
Mass markets vs niche markets
Characteristics of mass markets
Characteristics of niche markets
Market size vs market share
What a brand is and why it matters
Dynamic markets and why they change
Online retailing and its impact on markets
Innovation as a driver of market growth
How businesses adapt to changing markets
How competition affects markets
Risk vs uncertainty in business decisions
Product orientation vs market orientation
Primary research: methods and uses
Secondary research: sources and uses
Quantitative vs qualitative market research data
Using research to identify customer needs and wants
Using research to estimate demand
Using research to understand consumer behaviour
Sampling, sample size, and why bias happens
Limitations of market research in real decisions
Using ICT for market research: websites and analytics
Using ICT for market research: social media insights
Using ICT for market research: databases and big data
Market segmentation: what it is and why firms do it
Market mapping: building and reading a perceptual map
Competitive advantage in a product or service
Product differentiation: purpose and methods
Adding value: how firms justify higher prices
Unit 2
Market
What demand means for businesses
How substitutes affect demand
How complementary goods affect demand
How income changes affect demand
How tastes, fashion and preferences affect demand
How advertising and branding affect demand
Demographics and shifting patterns of demand
External shocks and sudden demand changes
Seasonality and predictable demand swings
What supply means for businesses
How production costs affect supply
New technology and changes in supply
Indirect taxes and supply decisions
Subsidies and their impact on supply
External shocks and supply disruption
How supply and demand interact to set price
Drawing supply and demand diagrams accurately
Interpreting price changes using diagrams
Calculating price elasticity of demand (PED)
Interpreting PED values (elastic vs inelastic)
Factors that influence PED
Why PED matters for pricing decisions
PED and total revenue: calculating the relationship
Calculating income elasticity of demand (YED)
Interpreting YED values (normal vs inferior)
Factors that influence YED
Why YED matters for market planning
Unit 3
Marketing mix and strategy
The design mix: function
The design mix: aesthetics
The design mix: cost constraints
Designing for waste minimisation, re-use and recycling
Ethical sourcing and product design decisions
Types of promotion: above-the-line vs below-the-line
Types of branding: product vs corporate
How strong branding adds value
Branding and charging premium prices
Branding and reducing price elasticity
Building a brand using USPs and differentiation
Advertising as a brand-building tool
Sponsorship and brand association
Social media for brand building
Viral marketing and why it works
Emotional branding and customer attachment
Cost plus pricing and calculating mark-up
Price skimming: when it fits and why
Penetration pricing: when it fits and why
Predatory pricing: aims and risks
Competitive pricing: markets where it fits
Psychological pricing and consumer behaviour
Choosing a pricing strategy: role of differentiation
Choosing a pricing strategy: role of PED
Choosing a pricing strategy: role of competition
Choosing a pricing strategy: role of brand strength
Choosing a pricing strategy: role of product life cycle
Choosing a pricing strategy: role of costs and profit need
Online sales and how pricing changes
Price comparison sites and pressure on pricing
Distribution channels: direct vs indirect
Online distribution and route-to-market change
Switching from product to service: distribution implications
The product life cycle: stages and sales/profit patterns
Extension strategies: product changes
Extension strategies: promotional changes
Boston Matrix: stars, cash cows, question marks, dogs
Managing a product portfolio using the Boston Matrix
Marketing strategies for mass markets
Marketing strategies for niche markets
B2B vs B2C marketing: key differences
Consumer behaviour and building customer loyalty
Unit 4
Managing people
Seeing staff as an asset
Seeing staff as a cost
Why firms build a flexible workforce
Multi-skilling: benefits and drawbacks
Part-time and temporary work: benefits and drawbacks
Flexible hours and home working: impacts on performance
Outsourcing: why firms do it and the risks
Dismissal vs redundancy: key distinctions
Employer–employee relationships: individual approach
Employer–employee relationships: collective bargaining
The recruitment and selection process: stages
Internal vs external recruitment: pros and cons
Costs of recruitment and selection
Costs of training and development
Induction training: purpose and examples
On-the-job training: purpose and examples
Off-the-job training: purpose and examples
Organisational structure: hierarchy and levels
Chain of command and accountability
Span of control and management effectiveness
Centralisation vs decentralisation
Tall structures: advantages and disadvantages
Flat structures: advantages and disadvantages
Matrix structures: advantages and disadvantages
How structure affects efficiency
How structure affects motivation
Unit 5
Motivation and leadership
Why motivation matters for business performance
Taylor and scientific management
Mayo and human relations theory
Maslow and hierarchy of needs
Herzberg and two-factor theory
Piecework pay: when it motivates
Commission: when it motivates
Bonuses and performance targets
Profit share and aligning staff goals
Performance-related pay: benefits and drawbacks
Delegation as a motivational tool
Consultation and employee voice
Empowerment and ownership of work
Team working and motivation
Flexible working and work–life balance
Job enrichment and responsibility
Job rotation and skill development
Job enlargement and task variety
Management vs leadership: key differences
Autocratic leadership: when it works
Paternalistic leadership: when it works
Democratic leadership: when it works
Laissez-faire leadership: when it works
Unit 6
Entrepreneurs and leaders
What entrepreneurs do when creating a business
Setting up a business: key start-up decisions
Running a business: day-to-day priorities
Expanding a business: growth decisions
Intrapreneurship and innovation within firms
Barriers to entrepreneurship
How entrepreneurs anticipate risk and uncertainty
Entrepreneurial skills and personal characteristics
Financial motives: profit maximisation
Financial motives: profit satisficing
Non-financial motives: ethical stance
Non-financial motives: social entrepreneurship
Non-financial motives: independence and home working
Business objectives: survival
Business objectives: profit maximisation
Business objectives: sales maximisation
Business objectives: market share
Business objectives: cost efficiency
Business objectives: employee welfare
Business objectives: customer satisfaction
Business objectives: social objectives
Sole trader: features and suitability
Partnership: features and suitability
Private limited company: features and suitability
Franchising: how it works
Social enterprise: aims and structure
Lifestyle businesses: aims and trade-offs
Online businesses: opportunities and risks
Growth to PLC and stock market flotation
Opportunity cost in business choices
Trade-offs in real business decisions
Moving from entrepreneur to leader: why it’s difficult
Unit 7
Raising finance
Internal finance: owner’s capital and personal savings
Internal finance: retained profit
Internal finance: selling assets
External finance: family and friends
External finance: bank finance
Peer-to-peer funding: how it works
Business angels: role and expectations
Crowdfunding: types and suitability
Finance from other businesses: partnerships and investment
Loans: features and implications
Share capital: how it raises funds
Venture capital: what investors want
Overdrafts: flexibility and risk
Leasing: benefits and drawbacks
Trade credit: managing supplier finance
Grants: conditions and limitations
Limited vs unlimited liability: what it means
How liability affects finance choices
What a business plan needs to show for finance
Cash-flow forecasts: reading inflows and outflows
Cash-flow forecasts: changing variables and recalculating
Cash-flow forecasts: uses and limitations
Unit 8
Financial planning
Why businesses produce sales forecasts
Consumer trends and forecast accuracy
Economic variables and forecast accuracy
Competitors’ actions and forecast accuracy
Why sales forecasting is difficult
Calculating sales volume
Calculating sales revenue
Fixed costs vs variable costs
Calculating total costs from fixed and variable costs
Contribution: calculating contribution per unit
Break-even: what it means for risk
Calculating break-even point using contribution
Margin of safety: calculation and meaning
Break-even charts: drawing and interpreting
Limitations of break-even analysis in real firms
Why businesses set budgets
Historical budgets: strengths and weaknesses
Zero-based budgets: strengths and weaknesses
Variance analysis: favourable vs adverse variances
Why budgeting is difficult in dynamic markets
Unit 9
Managing finance
Gross profit: calculation and meaning
Operating profit: calculation and meaning
Profit for the year (net profit): calculation and meaning
Income statement: what it shows stakeholders
Gross profit margin: calculation and interpretation
Operating profit margin: calculation and interpretation
Net profit margin: calculation and interpretation
Ways to improve profitability (revenue and cost actions)
Profit vs cash: why profitable firms can fail
Statement of financial position: what it shows
Current ratio: calculation and interpretation
Acid test ratio: calculation and interpretation
Ways to improve liquidity
Working capital: what it is and why it matters
Managing working capital: stock, debtors and creditors
Internal causes of business failure (financial)
External causes of business failure (financial)
Internal causes of business failure (non-financial)
External causes of business failure (non-financial)
Unit 10
Resource management
Job production: features and suitable products
Batch production: features and suitable products
Flow production: features and suitable products
Cell production: features and suitable products
Productivity: calculating output per input over time
Factors influencing productivity
Productivity and competitiveness link
Efficiency and minimum average cost
Factors influencing efficiency
Labour-intensive vs capital-intensive production
Capacity utilisation: calculation and interpretation
Under-utilisation: implications and costs
Over-utilisation: implications and risks
Ways to improve capacity utilisation
Stock control diagrams: interpreting the graph
Buffer stocks: purpose and cost
Problems caused by poor stock control
Just-in-time stock management: benefits and risks
Waste minimisation and cost competitiveness
Lean production as a competitive advantage
Quality control: inspection and consistency
Quality assurance: systems and prevention
Quality circles: staff involvement in improvement
Total Quality Management (TQM): whole-business focus
Kaizen and continuous improvement
Quality management as a source of competitive advantage
Unit 11
External influences
Inflation and business costs/pricing decisions
Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and measuring inflation
Exchange rates: appreciation and depreciation
Exchange rates and import/export competitiveness
Interest rates and consumer/business borrowing
Taxation and government spending: demand effects
The business cycle and sales/profit impacts
Economic uncertainty and business decision-making
Consumer protection laws and business operations
Employee protection laws and staffing costs
Environmental protection laws and compliance
Competition policy and market behaviour
Health and safety regulation and operating costs
Competition and market size in the competitive environment
Unit 12
Business objectives and strategy
Corporate aims vs corporate objectives
Building objectives from a mission statement
Critically appraising mission statements
Ansoff’s Matrix: market penetration
Ansoff’s Matrix: market development
Ansoff’s Matrix: product development
Ansoff’s Matrix: diversification
Porter’s Strategic Matrix: cost leadership
Porter’s Strategic Matrix: differentiation
Porter’s Strategic Matrix: focus strategies
Portfolio analysis: what it is trying to achieve
Distinctive capabilities and competitive advantage
Strategic vs tactical decisions: what changes
Strategy decisions and human resources needs
Strategy decisions and physical resources needs
Strategy decisions and financial resources needs
SWOT analysis: strengths and weaknesses
SWOT analysis: opportunities and threats
PESTLE analysis: what each factor means
A changing competitive environment and strategy
Porter’s Five Forces: threat of new entrants
Porter’s Five Forces: bargaining power of suppliers
Porter’s Five Forces: bargaining power of customers
Porter’s Five Forces: threat of substitutes
Porter’s Five Forces: competitive rivalry
Unit 13
Business growth
Why businesses pursue growth
Economies of scale: internal
Economies of scale: external
Growth and market power over suppliers and customers
Growth and market share/brand recognition
Growth and profitability
Diseconomies of scale and rising unit costs
Communication problems as firms grow
Overtrading and cash-flow pressure
Mergers vs takeovers: key differences
Reasons firms merge or takeover
Horizontal integration: aims and examples
Vertical integration: aims and examples
Financial risks and rewards of mergers/takeovers
Problems of rapid growth and integration
Organic vs inorganic growth: what’s the difference
Organic growth methods (new products, new outlets, etc.)
Advantages of organic growth
Disadvantages of organic growth
Why some businesses choose to stay small
Survival through differentiation and USPs
Flexibility and speed of response as an advantage
Customer service as a competitive strategy
E-commerce enabling small business survival
Unit 14
Decision-making techniques
Time series analysis: what it’s used for
Moving averages (three period/four quarter): calculation
Interpreting moving averages for forecasting
Scatter graphs: plotting data correctly
Line of best fit and extrapolation
Limitations of quantitative sales forecasting
Simple payback: calculation and interpretation
Average rate of return (ARR): calculation and interpretation
Discounted cash flow and Net Present Value (NPV)
Interpreting investment appraisal results for decisions
Limitations of investment appraisal methods
Decision trees: structure and key terms
Calculating expected values in decision trees
Interpreting decision tree outcomes
Limitations of decision trees
Critical Path Analysis (CPA): purpose and use
Building a simple network diagram
Identifying the critical path
Calculating earliest start times
Calculating latest finish times
Calculating total float
Limitations of Critical Path Analysis
Unit 15
Influences on business decisions
Short-termism vs long-termism in corporate planning
Evidence-based decision-making vs subjective judgement
Strong vs weak corporate cultures
Power culture: features and implications
Role culture: features and implications
Task culture: features and implications
Person culture: features and implications
How corporate culture is formed
Why changing culture is difficult
Internal stakeholders and their objectives
External stakeholders and their objectives
Stakeholder approach vs shareholder approach
Conflicts between profit objectives and wider objectives
Ethical trade-offs in strategic decisions
Pay and rewards: ethical debates and impacts
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): meaning and aims
Unit 16
Assessing competitiveness
Income statement: key information for stakeholders
Income statement: different stakeholder interests
Statement of financial position: key information
Statement of financial position: different stakeholder interests
Gearing ratio: calculation and meaning
ROCE: calculation and meaning
Using ratios to judge performance and risk
Limitations of ratio analysis
Labour productivity: calculation and interpretation
Labour turnover and retention: calculation and meaning
Absenteeism: calculation and meaning
Financial rewards to improve productivity and retention
Employee share ownership and motivation
Consultation strategies to improve engagement
Empowerment strategies to reduce turnover/absenteeism
Unit 17
Managing change
Causes of change: growth in organisational size
Causes of change: poor business performance
Causes of change: new ownership
Causes of change: transformational leadership
Causes of change: market and external factors (PESTLE)
Effects of change on competitiveness
Effects of change on productivity
Effects of change on financial performance
Effects of change on stakeholders
Culture as a key factor in managing change
Organisation size and change complexity
Time and speed of change: risks and benefits
Managing resistance to change: why people resist
Risk assessment: identifying key risks
Natural disasters and business disruption
IT systems failure and business disruption
Loss of key staff and business disruption
Risk mitigation: business continuity planning
Risk mitigation: succession planning
Unit 18
Globalisation
Comparing UK growth to emerging economies
Rising economic power in Asia, Africa and beyond
Economic growth and trade opportunities for firms
Economic growth and changing employment patterns
GDP per capita as a growth indicator
Literacy as a development indicator
Health as a development indicator
Human Development Index (HDI) as a development indicator
Exports vs imports: meaning and examples
Specialisation and competitive advantage
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and business growth
Trade liberalisation and reduced barriers
Political change and openness to trade
Lower transport costs and global supply chains
Lower communication costs and global coordination
Growth of transnational companies and market power
Increased FDI flows and capital movement
Migration and labour market change
Growth of the global labour force and competition
Structural change in economies and industries
Protectionism: what it is and why it happens
Tariffs and how they affect businesses
Import quotas and their impact on competition
Other trade barriers: regulation and standards
Domestic subsidies and competitive effects
Trading blocs: why they form
EU single market: key business impacts
ASEAN: key business impacts
NAFTA: key business impacts
How trading blocs affect business decisions
Unit 19
Global markets and business expansion
Push factors for global trade: saturated home markets
Push factors for global trade: intense competition
Pull factors: economies of scale from bigger markets
Pull factors: spreading risk across markets
Offshoring vs outsourcing: meanings and differences
Extending the product life cycle through international sales
Assessing a country market: disposable income levels
Assessing a country market: disposable income growth
Ease of doing business as an entry factor
Infrastructure as a market entry factor
Political stability as a market entry factor
Exchange rate considerations for market entry
Assessing a production location: production cost factors
Labour skills and availability in production decisions
Infrastructure for efficient production and distribution
Location within a trade bloc and tariff advantages
Government incentives to attract production
Political stability and operating risk
Natural resources and supply security
Expected return on investment (ROI) in location choice
Reasons for global mergers and joint ventures
Spreading risk across countries/regions
Entering new markets and trade blocs quickly
Acquiring brand names and patents internationally
Securing resources and supplies through integration
Maintaining or increasing global competitiveness
Exchange rate movements and competitiveness
Competing on cost in global markets
Competing through differentiation in global markets
Skill shortages and global competitiveness
Unit 20
Global marketing
Global marketing strategy vs localisation
Glocalisation: balancing global scale with local needs
Ethnocentric (domestic) marketing approach
Geocentric (mixed) marketing approach
Polycentric (international) marketing approach
Adapting the marketing mix (4Ps) for global markets
Using Ansoff’s Matrix for global growth decisions
Cultural diversity and different consumer values
Features of global niche markets
Adapting the 4Ps for global niche markets
Cultural differences and marketing risk
Different tastes and product adaptation
Language issues and communication barriers
Unintended meanings in branding
Inaccurate translation and brand damage
Inappropriate branding and promotion and backlash
Unit 21
Global industries and companies (multinational corporations)
How MNCs affect local wages and working conditions
How MNCs affect local job creation
How MNCs affect local businesses and competition
How MNCs affect communities and the environment
FDI flows and the national economy
Balance of payments impacts of MNC activity
Technology and skills transfer from MNCs
Impacts on consumers: choice, price, standards
Impacts on business culture and management practice
Tax revenues and transfer pricing issues
Stakeholder conflicts in global operations
Pay and working conditions: ethical challenges
Environmental impacts: emissions and regulation
Environmental impacts: waste disposal and compliance
Supply chain ethics: exploitation of labour
Supply chain ethics: child labour risks
Marketing ethics: misleading labelling
Marketing ethics: inappropriate promotional activity
Political influence of MNCs and policy pressure
Legal controls over MNC behaviour
Pressure groups and reputational risk
Social media and public accountability for MNCs
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