IGCSE & A LEVELS GUIDE

Let's now start looking at how governments' policies can influence a country's economy. We will mostly focus on two types of policies: Monetary Policies, that have to do with Interest Rates; Fiscal Policies, related to Tax Rates and Government Spending. Note: Both of these policies are used by governments with the intention of achieving their economic objectives. Monetary Policies is basically 'playing with interest rates' to achieve economic objectives by reducing the money

Chapter 21 - Marketing Analysis Learning Objective: To understand the different factors impacting elasticity of demand I hope you remember the concept of price elasticity of demand... It is the measure of responsiveness of demand for a product following a change in its price. In other words it measures how price influences demand. The demand for different products react differently following a change in price: Having such information is of key importance for marketing decisio

Chapter 16 - Human Resources Management Strategy Learning Objective: Strategies for improving workforce performance; the use of technology in HRM Now that you fully understand the different methods of measuring employee performance (productivity, absenteeism, wastage rates, rejection rates, consumer complaints, performance vs. targets), let's go on further in the issue and discuss strategies for improving employee performance. The main reason for poor employee performance has

Motivation is the desire of workers to see a job done quickly and well: By meeting their individual objectives, motivated workers drive companies to reach their own goals (MBO). Motivation is a management issue: effective managers are able to align workers' individual objectives to the business goal while maintaining motivation levels high. Highly motivated workers have positive impacts on a business productivity and efficiency. They are also more likely to be loyal (reduce t

Chapter 10 - Human Resources Management Learning Objective: To understand employee appraisal, career plans, and trade unions Human Resources Managers are responsible for a very complicated issue: Appraisal is about evaluating an employee's performance against pre-set objectives; Development, on the other hand, can take the form of new challenges and opportunities, trainings, promotions, etc. - motivation; Development and Appraisal are important parts of employee satisfaction

Chapter 16 - Human Resources Management Strategy Learning Objective: To understand additional methods of flexible working; to understand the different measures of employee performance. As we learned, there are many ways employers are now trying to attract skilled workforce by offering different types of flexible contracts. Part-Time and Contractors is just the beginning. There are many more: Flextime Arrangements: allows an employee to alter the starting and/or end time of he

Chapter 5 - Stakeholders in Business Lesson Objective: To understand what are stakeholders and what are their interests towards the business Stakeholders are any individual or group who are impacted or can impact a business activities/decisions. Stakeholders can be internal or external: Each stakeholders group have their own interests regarding the business and its activities. Let's look over some of these stakeholders and what are they interested in the most: Customers are l

Chapter 26, Economic Issues Learning Objective: To understand the business cycle and its effects on businesses A country's economy goes through a cycle of prosperity and hardships overtime. Business acitivity is the main lead in this so called Business Cycle: But what really do these stages mean? And what are the impacts on businesses? As you can see, there are changes to many economic indicators during the ups and downs of the Business Cycle: Inflation; Employment; Economic

Chapter 10 - Human Resources Management Learning Objective: To further explore HRM responsibilities To continue with the many responsibilities of HRM, let's now discuss Employee Morale and Welfare - an important concern amongst Human Resources Departments: Services such as advice and counseling to employees in need of support (e.g. family or financial related issues; It boosts employees’ morale and their sense of loyalty towards the company; It can improve productivity and lo

Chapter 25 - Analysis of Accounts Lesson Objective: To understand how to calculate and interpret liquidity ratios Liquidity: Liquidity is a business access to cash - ability to pay its short-term debts. It is an important measure as it relates to business survival and therefore liquidity ratios should be monitored constantly: Current Ratio Acid-Test Ratio To understand Liquidity Ratios we will be making use of the following information: The Current Ratio shows the ratio betwe

Chapter 16 - Human Resources Management Strategy Learning Objective: To understand the differences between hard and soft HRM Human Resource Management (HRM) is the strategic approach to the effective management of an organization's workers so that they help the business gain a competitive advantage and meet its objectives. Having a Human Resource Management Strategy, therefore, is of immense importance: a long-term plan for the management of an organization's Human Resources.

Chapter 5 - Business Objectives and Stakeholder Objectives Learning Objectives: To understand the various business objectives Business Objectives! Objectives are important since they give businesses a target to achieve. When businesses run their operations to achieve their objectives, their activities will affect many different groups of people: stakeholders. Different businesses have different objectives - here are some of the most common ones: Survival: The biggest first ch

Chapter 10 - Human Resource Management Learning Objective: Understand various responsibilities of the HRM There are different reasons why a business might recruit new workers, for example: Business is expanding and need workforce to support the growth; When workers leave and need to be replaced. That's when the process of Recruitment & Selection comes in - a process made out of various stages that can either be handled by the business itself or outsourced to specialist recrui

Chapter 25 - Analysis of Accounts Lesson Objective: To understand the various profitability ratios available You should know by know the meaning of the term shareholders' equity (a.k.a. owners' equity). I am sure you are also familiar with the concepts of revenue and profit. With that in mind, which of the companies below would you rather have your money on? Company Y has much higher revenue (60% more) and profit (30% more) numbers. However, their total equity is 6x higher th

Chapter 10 - Human Resource Management To-Do-List: Activity 10.3 Learning Objective: To understand the purpose of Human Resources Management What do you think are the responsibilities of a Human Resources Manager? Human Resources is the business function responsible for activities such as: Recruitment of capable, flexible, and committed staff; Management and rewarding the performance of workers; Development of staff skills given the organization's objectives; The purpose of H

Chapter 5 - Stakeholders in Business Learning Objective: To understand how businesses approach conflicting stakeholders' interests. As you understand now stakeholders have various and conflicting objectives. How should a business go about solving those? Think of the following situations: A factory deemed to close may do so slowly rather than abruptly (business costs keeping this factory will go stretch overtime but this will allow workers to have enough time to find new jobs)

Chapter 22 - Statement of Financial Position Learning Objective: To understand the uses and how to analyze Balance Sheets After Cash Flow Forecast and Income Statement it's finally time to dive in to the Balance Sheet, also known as the Statement of Financial Position. Assets: any resources owned by the company and can be divided in two parts: - Current Assets: cash or any resource expected to be converted into cash within the next 12 months (e.g. inventories/stock, trade r

Chapter 4 - Types of Business Organization Lesson Objective: To understand franchises and joint-ventures Franchises which are nothing but a legal agreements between two firms, the Franchisor and the Franchisee (e.g. Tavan Bogd and KFC). This contract establishes that the franchisee has the rights to using the name, logo, and trading systems of an existing successful franchiser brand: Franchise is not a type of business organization such as sole trader, partnership, or limited

Chapter 5 - Stakeholders in Business Learning Objective: To understand the several stakeholders and their various interests New Airport Near World Heritage Site (p.62) Who are stakeholders? These are the people or groups of people who are impacted or can impact an organization - one way or another. Therefore, stakeholder groups are interested in the business actions - these interests may differ from stakeholder to stakeholder: Consider the following: Businesses, therefore, s

Chapter 4 - Types of Business Organization Lesson Objective: To understand the different types of organizations businesses can have. There are several different possibilities of structure a company in the private sector can have. Choosing the right one will depend on the nature and purpose of the business activity and it is of vital importance for the business itself. A sole trader is the most common and the simplest structure a business can have: Sole Traders are single busi