Year 11 Period 4

Complete ALL the tasks below:

1. Watch this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWD1bjfPAYk

2. Read chapter 50 and summarise on to an A3 page in your book (pages 278-283)

3. Answer these exam style questions:

1. What is the difference between quality control and quality assurance (4 marks)
2. Explain why good quality products are important to a company like Spinneys (3 marks)
3. How can a reputation for poor quality service effect a company such as Toyota (6 marks)
4. Explain why a highly motivated staff are more likely to deliver high quality service (3 marks)
5. Which system of quality control would be better for Toyota or Mars (quality control or quality assurance?) (4 marks)
6. Discuss how quality can cause stakeholder conflict in a company such as Toyota or Spinneys (8 marks)

ASOS and the Product Lifecycle

Y12 - a great casestudy on how we can relate the product lifecycle to markets as well as products!

Read through this casestudy on ASOS

http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/asos-com/the-product-life-cycle-and-online-fashion/the-product-life-cycle.html#axzz2Nm3WCUEe

Google Reader a DOG product?

http://www.euronews.com/2013/03/14/web-google-puts-its-reader-to-sleep-outrage-ensues/

Google have decided to kill off one of their products in what they have termed "A second spring of cleaning..." Is this a valid example of a Dog product?

"While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months."

A declining user base along with a market that does not appear to be growing? Plus a strategy to move users to a new question mark product in Google Takeout.

Diversification: Samsung the dried fish selling company?!?!

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-samsung-came-from-nowhere-2013-3

Great article on how Samsung have made it big in 2012/13 & relates strongly to a question I recently asked in a test... 5 HP to the first student who points this out to me! But a strange fact I had no idea about was its starting point as selling dried fish?

Nokia also went from a tyre manufacturer or a similar such field back in the day but dried fish?

Heres another article looking as Samsungs rise from such humble beginnings.

More on Capacity Utilisation

#buss2 #buss4 Revenue per employee Yahoo!: $426,000. Microsoft: $775,900.Google: $931,600. Facebook: $1,102,000.Apple: $2,262,000.
— Thea Demitriou (@BusinessAlevel) March 14, 2013

Plus follow this guys on Twitter if you use it I don't so its useless for me. https://twitter.com/dizzleeducation

UMS Calculator

Mr Oates what do I need to get an A now with my current grade?

Well never fear you don't have to deal with my inability to remember such things just use THIS helpful link and enter in your current score!

Excellent Article for budding female entrepreneurs

http://ideas.time.com/2013/03/07/why-i-want-women-to-lean-in/

Mrs Oates found this and it is a stunning read. Some of the stats and facts within are astounding and her views on women in the workplace are inspirational. The idea that you can't have a family and a career as a woman are totally thrown into perspective!

I have quite often told Mrs Oates I am happy to become a house husband, such is my passion for female equality but she doesn't like the idea for some reason?

Anyhows great bit of side information for psychology and sociology students with the Harvard Business School Experiment spoken about using a different names candidate who was a success and people viewing the female candidate in a negative light compared to the male one.

If you are wondering who Sheryl Sandberg is btw check out THIS brief profile.

Leadership Styles, Teleworking, Capacity Utilisation & Culture all rolled into one

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21572767-forcing-workers-come-office-symptom-yahoos-problems-not-solution

Get on with some Unit 1 & 2 revision by considering this article. Consider the pro's and con's of teleworking to an organisation and Evaluate whether the CEO is doing the right thing. Could this demotivate staff? Or increase productivity?

Look at the facts about how much each of Googles employees earns for the business compared to Yahoo!

Are Teleworkers less likely to gain promotion?

Loads of great stuff to think on!

Business Culture: Facebook

http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/business-studies/comments/clue-about-facebooks-culture



Something a bit abstract the more mathematical students find annoying is about business culture. Have a look above to see some good examples from Facebook!

Below is a playlist of different clips of people talking about the culture at their organisation.

Get Revising!

http://www.tutor2u.net/assets/specmaps/Edexcel-GCEBus2a.pdf

Some of you were dissapointed with your Unit 1 results whilst others were exceptionally pleased! This is normal for the first unit at AS as you adjust to the workload required for a full A-Level.

The trick is whatever your result to move on and progress. Those of us recieving A's should be trying to progress to A* next time around and those on C's to B's and so on.

There is nothing stopping you jumping 4 or so grade points. I myself went from a mid C in an english lit exam to 100% the next time around. A similar story with my Business & Economics A-Level with high C-B turned into A's by the time A2 came around.

Above is the Tutor2U resource PDF for all the information needed for the Edexcel unit 2 exam. As one of my favourite Boston Legal characters often said "Think on it, Sleep on it, Pray on it..."

The work starts now not in a months time and you need to be reading ahead on the topics not covered and going back over past information using the stuff we have put on fronter and online using appropriate websites.

Myself and Mrs Oates are here to answer any questions you may have but the only person who can make a real difference to your grades is you!

2010 June Mark Scheme

http://www.edexcel.com/migrationdocuments/QP%20GCE%20Curriculum%202000/june2010-ms/6BS02_01_msc_20100716.pdf