Unit 3: June 2010 Mark Scheme

Unit 3 Jun 2010 Mark Scheme

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Unit 3: Jan 2010 Question Paper

Unit 3 Jan 2010

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Unit 3: Globalisation and Indian and Coffee Houses

India is one of the emerging markets which is being targeted by the multinational coffee chains. But the likes of Starbucks will face intense competition from state-subsidised coffee houses, as this excellent video below demonstrates. Some cracking business studies concepts in there.


From the BBC intro:

The Indian Coffee House in Kolkata has been an institution for more than 50 years. It has been a place where politicians, activists and intellectuals have come to converse over a cup of coffee. But as the number of modern western cafes increases, it is feeling the squeeze of competition.

Unit 3: The best countries to set up a business!

This link in the Wall Street Journal provides a “fascinating snapshot of entrepreneurship around the globe” and will be a great resource when studying the supply-side of an economy and looking at ways a government can improve the environment businesses operate in.

The report, compiled by the Small Business Administration, compares all sorts of data from red tape costs (in Surinam it takes on average 694 days to clear government red tape and get a company off the ground) to what countries have the biggest percentage of female entrepreneurs (Peru with 26.1% of women who own a small early-stage business).

Unit 3: Starbucks expands in China

A big week of announcements for Starbucks as it continues to emerge from the global economic downturn. It has announced plans to accelerate its store opening programme, with 400 new stores outside the USA alone. And it has also decided, for the first time, to start growing its own coffee beans, as a way of supporting its ambitious growth plans in China.
The video below describes the Chinese expansion strategy well. Here is the link to an article in the Independent which explains the background to the move back to international expansion.

Also click on you tube link to see short piece on how starbucks are not just selling coffee in China, but are now growing it as well. An excellent example of Vertical integration and 'Glocalisation'!
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYSiGomkGdg
 

Unit 3: Past Paper Homework

Better late than never, you need to complete ALL the questions (we have done some of them already, so don't panic!!) during this first week back.

Therefore, the work is in for Thursday close of play. Do not leave it until last minute as there are many questions to complete!

Unit 3 Jun 2010

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Unit 3: China Vs USA Currency Rap!

A slightly different take on the China Vs USA currency war. There is lots of theory in the rap, so keep with it!

Unit 3: Business Strategy, M & S in the UK, India & China

You can go straight to the story and video clip by clicking here, but here’s a summary:
Up to £900m is to be invested over the next three years in new and existing stores to try to boost profits. Some clothing brands are to dropped or brought back under the main M&S label.

In food, the aim is to become a “specialist high-quality retailer”. Key changes will include cutting the range of non-M&S branded foodstuffs - only recently introduced to the stores - from 400 lines to 100. These would mainly consist of products which the company itself could not replicate - such as Marmite. They will also be adding another 100 “distinctive international brands” which will be exclusive to M&S.

Longer term, the company plans to add to its 337 stores overseas in order to reduce its dependency on the UK economic cycle. The hope is that if the UK economy is in difficulties, profits could be supported from growth elsewhere.

The new boss told the BBC: “For the mid-term we believe we should be more international. We want to put more stores down in places like India, where we already are, but could be stronger.” He also said the company was thinking of opening more stores in China.

The company has a growing 11.2% market share of the UK clothing market and it reported half-year pre-tax profits of £348.8m, up from £306.7m last year.

Unit 3: Definitions Revision

You should aim to understand the following key terms by the end of the Eid break. Please fill in ALL the boxes.

Unit 3: Definitions Revision

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Unit 3: Widening wealth gap in China

Great podcast on inequalities of wealth being generated in China.

China’s booming economy delivered 49 new billionaires last year alone as the country became the world’s second largest economy - where the gap between rich and poor is bigger than any other sizeable country in the world.

The report opens on the floor of the stock exchange, which is not what you would expect – the trading room is open to anyone who wants to play the game of gambling on the stock market, with nurses dropping in for an hour in their lunch break, and pensioners taking their knitting with them as they sit watching the screens showing movements in the prices.

This is a fascinating 10-minute report which covers everything from the risk of high inflation to unequal access to cutting edge medical facilities. It includes the dilemma for the government as they trade off the desire of workers to earn more and be able to afford the type of goods that they are making for export to richer economies against the growth of the economy, with low wages as the basis of their competitiveness, and the risk of currency and trade wars as the west seeks to protect its industries from cheap Chinese imports.

Business Exam: Command Words

Command words


With the January exams approaching you need to thinking about getting used to some of the command words you will encounter in the exams and the assessment criteria being assessed.

In general,


* for knowledge expect: describe, identify, what, name, state


* for application expect: how would X, how might X, describe how X (where X relates to the context)


* for analysis expect: explain, comment on, why might X (analysis is essentially about consequences or causes of business behaviour)
* for evaluation expect: assess, evaluate, examine, 'to what extent' and 'recommend'

Unit 3: A great interactive piece on the BRIC's.

This would look great on the IWB as a stimulus piece for interaction and discussion.

Click on Link for a terrific interactive guide to the economic profiles of the BRICs here (Brazil, Russia, India & China).. Compare the progress of the Bric states’ gross domestic product over time alongside the major global economies and the “next 11” developing nations in the graphic provided.

Unit 3: Outsourcing to India

An interesting and topical example of outsourcing here, which should get teachers and students into a lively discussion during lessons on operations…


Click here for full article.

Outsourcing as a strategy has been around for a long time, but it is not associated with the UK education system as closely as it is with, say, financial services and other customer-service operations.

This primary school is outsourcing the teaching / tutoring of maths support to a team of tutors in India. Sounds like the service costs around £3-4k for the support provided, which is a good deal less costly than having a specialist maths tutor physically in the classroom.

Is it a good idea?
Might we see more of this as schools find their budgets tightening further?
How does the school ensure that students are getting the right quality of tutoring?

Students often get confused with the difference between outsourcing and offshoring. The use of India-based tutors above is an example of both.

Outsourcing involves the use of a third party (supplier) to provide services rather than have people employed within the business/organisation to do them. So outsourcing can occur both in the UK (domestically) and overseas.

Offshoring involves the provision of services from a differerent country. That might be by a firm’s own employees, or by a supplier/contractor.

Unit 3: Global branding in emerging markets - Ikea tolerates window shoppers

Click on this link to show how the Swedish retailer is relaxed about the store visitors tendency to only window shop and even cheap imitation.

What are the reasons for this relaxed attitude?

Will it pay off in long run?

Unit 3: The Marketing Mix Challenge in reaching the Muslim Market

Click on this fantastic 3 minute video  which examines how businesses adapt their marketing mix to targeting the emerging global market for Muslim consumers. An ideal lesson starter video.

Companies wanting to sell to a mass market have traditionally looked at the potential of the huge populations of India and China.


But now businesses are turning their attention to a new audience: the global Islamic community.

With nearly a quarter of the world's population being Muslim, it is a big draw.

Why is marketing to Muslims any different to selling to other communities, and what is the key to success in cracking the market?

Unit 3: Is China that important???

Here is another graphic from The Economist which shows the value of exports of individual economies to China.

% of exports to China – 2009

Australia – 21.8%

Japan – 18.9%

Brazil – 12.5%

South Africa – 10.3%

Thus exports to China are only 3.4% of GDP in Australia, 2.2% in Japan, 2% in South Africa and 1.2% in Brazil (see below). Export earnings can, of course, have a ripple effect throughout an economy but the multiplier effect is rarely higher than 1.5 or 2 – this means that they hardly ever double the contribution to GDP.

Recently, the Bank Credit Analyst, an independent research firm, asked what would happen if China suffered a “hard landing”. Its answer to this “apocalyptic” question was quite “benign”. As it pointed out, Japan at the start of the 1990s accounted for a bigger share of GDP than China does today. Its growth slowed from about 5% to 1% in the first half of the 1990s without any discernible effect on global trends.