Sarah Hilton has been a business examiner for over 20 years and a business teacher for longer. She is now a teacher trainer, business teacher and qualification developer. She runs the website revisionstation which provides smashing business teaching resources at budget prices.
Sarah Hilton has been a business examiner for over 20 years and a business teacher for longer. She is now a teacher trainer, business teacher and qualification developer. She runs the website revisionstation which provides smashing business teaching resources at budget prices.
a) The effect on businesses of changes in:
o inflation (the rate of inflation, the Consumer Prices
Index)
o exchange rates (appreciation, depreciation)
o interest rates
o taxation and government spending
o the business cycle
b) The effect of economic uncertainty on the business
environment
EDEXCEL GCSE BUSINESS 1.5.4 THE ECONOMY AND BUSINESS (COMPLETE LESSON) 154
This lesson includes a PowerPoint and a worksheet and covers:
The impact of the economic climate on businesses:
unemployment
changing levels of consumer income
inflation
changes in interest rates
government taxation
changes in exchange rates
Written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
This lesson includes a PowerPoint and a worksheet and covers:
a) The effects on businesses of:
o consumer protection
o employee protection
o environmental protection
o competition policy
o health and safety
Written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
This lesson includes a PowerPoint and a worksheet and covers:
a) Methods of production:
o job
o batch
o flow
o cell
b) Productivity:
o output per unit of input per time period:
factors influencing productivity
link between productivity and competitiveness
c) Efficiency:
o production at minimum average cost:
factors influencing efficiency
distinction between labour and capital intensive production
Written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
235 External influences
3 THE COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT
This complete lesson includes:
a) The effects on businesses of competition in terms of competitor:
• numbers
• size
• behaviour
b) Ways for a small business to compete in a competitive market
This lesson is written by Sarah Hilton at Revisionstation
This lesson includes a PowerPoint and a worksheet and covers:
a) Calculation of:
o gross profit
o operating profit
o profit for the year (net profit)
b) Statement of comprehensive income (profit and loss
account):
o measuring profitability:
calculation of gross profit margin, operating profit
margin, and profit for the year (net profit) margin
o ways to improve profitability
c) Distinction between profit and cash
Written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
This lesson includes a PowerPoint and a worksheet and covers:
a) Statement of financial position (balance sheet):
o measuring liquidity:
calculating current ratio and acid test ratio
o ways to improve liquidity
b) Working capital and its management: the importance of
cash
Written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
a) Product and market orientation
b) Primary and secondary market research data
(quantitative and qualitative) used to:
identify and anticipate customer needs and wants
quantify likely demand
gain insight into consumer behaviour
c) Limitations of market research, sample size and bias
d) Use of ICT to support market research:
websites
social networking
databases
e) Market segmentation
This lesson includes a PowerPoint and a worksheet and covers:
a) Strong and weak cultures
b) Classification of company cultures:
o power
o role
o task
o person
c) How corporate culture is formed
d) Difficulties in changing an established culture
Written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
This lesson includes a PowerPoint and a worksheet and covers:
a) Quality:
o control
o assurance
o circles
o Total Quality Management (TQM)
b) Continuous improvement (Kaizen)
c) Competitive advantage from quality management
Written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
1.4.1
Approaches to
staffing
a) Staff as an asset; staff as a cost
b) Flexible workforce:
o multi-skilling
o part-time and temporary
o flexible hours and home working
o outsourcing
c) Distinction between dismissal and redundancy
d) Employer/employee relationships
o individual approach
o collective bargaining
1.4.2
Recruitment,
selection and
training
a) Recruitment and selection process:
o internal versus external recruitment
b) Costs of recruitment, selection and training
c) Types of training:
o induction
o on-the-job
o off-the-job
1.4.3
Organisational
design
a) Structure:
o hierarchy
o chain of command
o span of control
o centralised and decentralised
b) Types of structure:
o tall
o flat
o matrix
c) Impact of different organisational structures on business
efficiency and motivation
1.4.4
Motivation in theory
and practice
a) The importance of employee motivation to a business
b) Motivation theories:
o Taylor (scientific management)
o Mayo (human relations theory)
o Maslow (hierarchy of needs)
o Herzberg (two factor theory)
c) Financial incentives to improve employee performance:
o piecework
o commission
o bonus
o profit share
o performance-related pay
d) Non-financial techniques to improve employee
performance:
o delegation
o consultation
o empowerment
o team working
o flexible working
o job enrichment
o job rotation
o job enlargement
1.4.5
Leadership
a) Leadership:
o the distinction between management and leadership
b) Types of leadership style:
o autocratic
o paternalistic
o democratic
o laissez-faire
This lesson includes a PowerPoint and a worksheet and covers:
a) Purpose of budgets
b) Types of budget:
o historical figures
o zero based
c) Variance analysis
d) Difficulties of budgeting
Written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
AS(7131) A-level (7132) Specifications For teaching from September 2023 onwards For as exams in May/June 2024 onwards For a-level exams in May/June 2025 onwards Version 2.0
This lesson covers:
Models of organisational structure
Functional
Product based
Regional
Matrix
Influences on organisational design
authority
span
hierarchy
delegation
centralisation and decentralisation
The value of changing organisational design
How managing the human resource flow helps meet human resource objectives:
human resource plan
recruitment
training
redeployment
redundancy
This lesson is written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
AS(7131) A-level (7132) Specifications For teaching from September 2023 onwards For as exams in May/June 2024 onwards For a-level exams in May/June 2025 onwards Version 2.0
This lesson covers:
How to assess the financial performance of a business using balance sheets, income statements
financial ratios
profitability (return on capital employed)
liquidity (current ratio)
gearing
Efficiency ratios:
payables days
receivables days
inventory turnover
The value of financial ratios when assessing performance
Data may be analysed over time or in comparison with other businesses.
This lesson was written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
This lesson covers:
the interdependent nature of business operations, finance, marketing and human resources within a business context
how these interdependencies underpin business decision-making
the impact of risk and reward on business activity
the use of financial information in measuring and understanding business performance and decision-making
This lesson was written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
This lesson includes a PowerPoint and a worksheet and covers:
a) Factors leading to a change in demand:
changes in the prices of substitutes and complementary goods
changes in consumer incomes
fashions, tastes and preferences
advertising and branding
demographics
external shocks
seasonality
Written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
This lesson includes a PowerPoint and a worksheet and covers:
a) Opportunity cost
b) Choices and potential trade-offs
Written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
EDEXCEL GCSE BUSINESS 1.5.5 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES (COMPLETE LESSON) 155
This lesson includes a PowerPoint and a worksheet and covers:
The importance of external influences on business:
possible responses by the business to changes in:
technology
legislation
the economic climate
Written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
This is a simple revision supply and demand worksheet in PDF to use with students so they have two handy sheets to revise from.
Students fill in the sheets with all the supply and demand diagrams
Written by Sarah Hilton for Revisionstation
This is an essay planning sheet for Edexcel A level business but it’s in Word so it could be adapted to any board.
I use these at revision time with U6 students together with past papers and the model marked answers. They use these to plan answers to the longer questions and it helps to cement the techniques for exams of using the case study as evidence to support their points.
