A Level Business

• Understanding the nature and purpose of business
• Understanding different business forms
• Understanding that businesses operate within an external environment

• Management, leadership and decision making
• Management decision making
• The role and importance of stakeholders

• Setting marketing objectives
• Understanding markets and customers
• Making marketing decisions: segmentation, targeting, positioning
• Making marketing decisions: using the marketing mix.

• Setting operational objectives
• Analysing operational performance
• Making operational decisions to improve performance: increasing efficiency and productivity
• Making operational decisions to improve performance: improving quality
• Making operational decisions to improve performance: managing inventory and supply chains.

• Setting financial objectives
• Analysing financial performance
• Making financial decisions: sources of finance
• Making financial decisions: improving cash flow and profits

• Setting human resource objectives
• Analysing human resource performance
• Making human resource decisions: improving organisational design and managing the human resource flow.
• Making human resource decisions: improving motivation and engagement
• Making human resource decisions: improving emploer-employee relations

For this topic, learners will explore business objectives including profit, growth and cash flow. You will also learn about the relationship between a business’s mission and its objectives. Learners will explore different business forms such as sole trader, partnership and limited companies along with the advantages and disadvantages to setting one of these up. Finally, you will understand how businesses operate within an external environment and how competition, market conditions, interest rates and environmental factors can affect them. For this topic, you will cover:

• Understanding the nature and purpose of business
• Understanding different business forms
• Understanding that businesses operate within an external environment

This topic explores the role of managers and leaders in decision making. A range of leadership styles will be covered including autocratic, paternalistic, democratic, and laissez-faire. You will also cover the importance of stakeholders and why managers must consider stakeholder needs and manage their relationship through effective communication. For this topic, you will cover:

• Understanding management, leadership and decision making
• Understanding management decision making
• Understanding the role and importance of stakeholders

For this topic, learners will need to consider how technological developments are influencing marketing. This could include digital marketing, social media, dynamic pricing and e-commerce. You will develop an understanding of marketing objectives along with market research. Finally, learners will cover the marketing mix (7Ps) and how to make effective decisions about products, pricing, promotion and distribution etc. For this topic, you will cover:

• Setting marketing objectives
• Understanding markets and customers
• Making marketing decisions: segmentation, targeting, positioning
• Making marketing decisions: using the marketing mix

All businesses must run effectively and operational management focuses on how a business works. Ways to improve operational management is generally focused on production and service processes. A business will set operational objectives related to cost, quality, speed, flexibility and environmental impact. Another area in operational performance is improving quality through quality assurance and control. For this topic, you will cover:

• Setting operational objectives
• Analysing operational performance
• Making operational decisions to improve performance: increasing efficiency and productivity
• Making operational decisions to improve performance: improving quality
• Making operational decisions to improve performance: managing inventory and supply chains

Accounting concepts are included in the A Level Business course and therefore learners will cover financial objectives along with the distinction between cash flow and profit. Budgets will also be covered in this section where you will learn about break-even. You will also gain an understanding of finance and making decisions to improve cash flow and profits. For this topic, you will cover:

• Setting financial objectives
• Analysing financial performance
• Making financial decisions: sources of finance
• Making financial decisions: improving cash flow and profits

Most corporate companies will have a human resources department and in this section you will gain an understanding of what is actually involved in this division. You will look at human resource objectives along with analysing human resource performance. Finally, you will look at how to improve organisational structure and how to motivate and engage employees. For this topic, you will cover:

• Setting human resource objectives
• Analysing human resource performance
• Making human resource decisions: improving organisational design and managing the human resource flow
• Making human resource decisions: improving motivation and engagement
• Making human resource decisions: improving employer-employee relations

Analysing the position of a business can involve tools such as SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). It also requires businesses to evaluate the external environment, economic conditions and social/technological change. Porter’s Five Forces are used to help functional decision making. For this topic, you will cover:

• Mission, corporate objectives and strategy
• Analysing the existing internal position of a business to assess strengths and weaknesses: financial ratio analysis
• Analysing the existing internal position of a business to assess strengths and weaknesses: overall performance
• Analysing the external environment to assess opportunities and threats: political and legal change
• Analysing the external environment to assess opportunities and threats: economic change
• Analysing the external environment to assess opportunities and threats: social and technological
• Analysing the external environment to assess opportunities and threats: the competitive environment
• Analysing strategic options: investment appraisal

When a business starts-up, it will decide what market it wants to trade in and what products or services it wants to offer. This will be reviewed regularly to ensure market conditions are still right and resources are still available. The Ansoff Matrix will be used to assess risks and benefits. For this topic, you will cover:

• Strategic direction: choosing which markets to compete in and what products to offer
• Strategic positioning: choosing how to compete

This section focuses on how a business can pursue strategies but also make decisions about changing scale through growth. Growth can be achieved through mergers, takeovers and franchising. Businesses must also assess the use of digital technology, e-commerce and automation due to pressures to improve efficiency and remain competitive. For this topic, you will cover:

• Assessing a change in scale
• Assessing innovation
• Assessing internationalisation
• Assessing greater use of digital technology

A business must understand internal and external causes for change. This can include using Lewin’s Force Field Analysis, delayering and altering organisational structure. Businesses must also be aware why certain attempts fail and the importance of evaluating performance. For this topic, you will cover:

• Managing change
• Managing organisational culture
• Managing strategic implementation
• Problems with strategy and why strategies fail

A business is an organisation that sells goods or services with the hope of making a profit. All businesses operate within an environment where there are internal and external factors affecting it. In this topic, you will cover:

• Enterprise
• Business structure
• Size of business
• Business objectives
• Stakeholders in a business

Employees are one of the most important resources for a business to function effectively. Human resource management involves recruiting, training and motivating people. In this topic, you will cover:

• Human resource management
• Motivation
• Management

To be successful at marketing, a business must understand what a customer wants. They must then be able to design suitable products, set the right price and promote them well. In this topic, you will cover:

• The nature of marketing?
• Market research
• The marketing mix

This part of the business is responsible for producing goods – turning inputs (materials, labour and machinery) into outputs (finished products or services). A business will try to produce a good quality product or service at the lowest possible cost to meet the customer’s needs. In this topic, you will cover:

• The nature of operations
• Inventory management
• Capacity utilisation and outsourcing

This section is about managing the business’s money. You will gain an understanding of finance and how this is raised along with accounting records and analysing financial information. In this topic, you will cover:

• Business finance
• Sources of finance
• Forecasting and managing cash flows
• Costs
• Budgets

• External influences on business activity
• Business strategy

• Organisational structure
• Business communication
• Leadership
• Human resource management strategy

• Marketing analysis
• Marketing strategy

• Location and scale
• Quality management
• Operations strategy

• Financial statements
• Analysis of published accounts
• Investment appraisal
• Finance and accounting strategy

This topic will look into how a business plans, finances and runs efficiently in order to survive and expand. You will look at how businesses form and raise money whether this is internally or externally. You will also gain an understanding of how businesses manage money through financial planning and break-even analysis.

• Meeting customer needs
  • 1 The market
  • 2 Market research
  • 3 Market positioning

• The market
  • 1 Demand
  • 2 Supply
  • 3 Markets
  • 4 Price elasticity of demand (PED)
  • 5 Income elasticity of demand (YED)

• Marketing mix and strategy
  • 1 Marketing objectives and strategy
  • 2 Product/service design
  • 3 Promotion and branding
  • 4 Pricing strategies
  • 5 Distribution

• Managing people
  • 1 Approaches to staffing
  • 2 Recruitment, selection and training
  • 3 Organisational design
  • 4 Motivation in theory and practice
  • 5 Leadership

• Entrepreneurs and leaders
  • 1 Role of an entrepreneur
  • 2 Entrepreneurial motives and characteristics
  • 3 Business objectives
  • 4 Business choices

This topic will look into how a business plans, finances and runs efficiently in order to survive and expand. You will look at how businesses form and raise money whether this is internally or externally. You will also gain an understanding of how businesses manage money through financial planning and break-even analysis.

• Planning a business and raising finance
  • 1 Planning
  • 2 Internal finance
  • 3 External finance
  • 4 Forms of business
  • 5 Liability

• Financial planning
  • 1 Sales, revenue and costs
  • 2 Sales forecasting
  • 3 Break-even
  • 4 Cash flow
  • 5 Budgets

• Managing finance
  • 1 Profit
  • 2 Liquidity
  • 3 Business failure

• Resource management
  • 1 Production, productivity and efficiency
  • 2 Capacity utilisation
  • 3 Inventory control
  • 4 Quality management

• External influences
  • 1 Economic influences
  • 2 Legislation
  • 3 The competitive environment

This topic explores how businesses grow and the challenges they face when trying to expand. It will also cover decision making such as forecasting, investment appraisal and decision trees to reduce risks. Finally, you will look at factors that influence decisions, for example, corporate culture, stakeholders and ethics.

• Business objectives and strategy
  • 1 Corporate objectives
  • 2 Theories of corporate strategy
  • 3 SWOT analysis
  • 4 Impact of external influences

• Business growth
  • 1 Growth
  • 2 Organic growth
  • 3 Inorganic growth
  • 4 Problems arising from growth

• Decision-making techniques
  • 1 Quantitative sales forecasting
  • 2 Investment appraisal
  • 3 Decision trees
  • 4 Critical path analysis
  • 5 Contribution

• Influences on business decisions
  • 1 Corporate culture
  • 2 Stakeholder model versus shareholder model
  • 3 Business ethics

• Assessing competitiveness
  • 1 Interpretation of financial statements
  • 2 Ratio analysis
  • 3 Human resources

• Managing change
  • 1 Key factors in change
  • 2 Contingency planning

This topic will look at how businesses operate and expand across countries. You will consider how growing economies and international trade create opportunities for business growth and the factors driving globalisation. The topic will also consider barriers like protectionism and the role of trading blocs. Finally, you will consider multinational corporations (MNCs) and their impact on economies and societies. Also, the ethical issues and regulations involved in operating globally.

• Globalisation
  • 1 Growing economies
  • 2 International trade and business growth
  • 3 Factors contributing to increased globalisation
  • 4 Protectionism
  • 5 Trading blocs

• Global markets and business expansion
  • 1 Conditions that prompt trade
  • 2 Assessment of a country as a market
  • 3 Assessment of a country as a production location
  • 4 Reasons for global mergers, takeovers or joint ventures
  • 5 Global expansion and uncertainty

• Global marketing
  • 1 Marketing
  • 2 Niche markets
  • 3 Cultural/social factors

• Global industries and companies (multinational corporations)
  • 1 The impact of MNCs
  • 2 International business ethics
  • 3 Controlling MNCs