IGCSE & A LEVELS GUIDE

Chapter 15 - Production of Goods and Services Lesson Objective: Costs of inventory; lean production methods Businesses hold different types of inventory: Raw Materials and Components - inventories of the needed inputs for the production process; Work-in-Progress - partially finished goods that have not yet gone through the entire production process; Finished Goods - goods that are ready to be sold and send out to customers. Imagine having to hold all these different types o

Chapter 16 - Costs, Scale of Production, and Break-Even Analysis Lesson Objective: To understand how to construct and interpret the break-even analysis The break-even point is the point in which the cost and revenue are equal and there is neither profit nor loss being made by the business: In other words, the break even point happens when all revenues earned by the firm with sales is equals to the firm's costs of production. When you are at break even and want to make profit

Chapter 12 - Marketing Mix, Product and Price Lesson Objective: To understand the ins and outs of pricing your products/services Pricing is an important decision for marketing: it directly impacts customers' purchase decision. It is also important because price dictates a business' revenues and profits . On the topic of Price we will learn: Pricing Methods : the strategies companies use to price their products differently; How to pick the best Pricing Method based on the s

Chapter 13 - Marketing Mix, Place and Promotion Lesson Objective: To understand the benefits and limitations of the various promotional methods You know that Promotion is focused on informing and convincing customers to ultimately improve sales . But how exactly does it do it? There are various methods of promotion companies can make use of : 1. Advertising : The simple use of medias (e.g. TV, social media, direct email, leaflets, billboards) to communicate with customers.

Chapter 14 - Marketing Strategy Lesson Objective: To understand the different methods for entering international markets As a part of Marketing Strategy businesses sometimes pursue International Markets . On this regard we need to understand: Opportunities and problems of entering foreign markets; Trade barriers; The different ways to overcome the challenges of entering a foreign market. Business' efforts to enter international markets are various: ecommerce, exporting, setti

Chapter 7 - Organization and Management Learning Objectives: To understand the role of managers and the different leadership styles To start off, think about it: What do you think the managers in a company do? There are five different functions of management : Planning : analyzing the current situation, the objectives, and plan how to achieve them ; Organizing: businesses need resources to meet their objectives (land, labor, capital) and managers are responsible for coordina

Chapter 17 - The Nature of Marketing Learning Objective: To understand some of the most common marketing concepts What is a market? A market is a group of consumers interested in a product, with resources to purchase it legally . - It is the group of customers interested in a product and with the resources to purchase it; - The potential market for a product is the total population interested in the product; - Target market is the segment of the total available market th

Chapter 17 - The Nature of Marketing Lesson Objective: To understand Price Elasticity of Demand One of the many roles of the Marketing Department is determining prices - which is part of meeting demand profitably. Note: The demand for a product is how much of that product customers are willing to buy at a certain price point. Let's start by understanding how the demand for a product changes following changes in price : Price, therefore, does influence demand . However, th

Chapter 17 - The Nature of Marketing Lesson Objective: To understand the basic concepts in Marketing In your opinion, what is Marketing? Marketing is a business function that involves various activities: Market Research; Product Design; Pricing; Advertising; Distribution; Customer Service; Packaging. In a nutshell, marketing is about: Identifying and understanding customer needs of a target-market through Market Research and then trying to satisfy those needs better than the

It is important for businesses to keep financial (accounting) records . It helps answers some basic questions about the business operations: Did the business make a profit/loss? - It's a measure of performance and an important information for governments, shareholders, managers... How much do we owe our suppliers? - If not paid on time suppliers may decline serving the business; How much are owed by customers? - Carefully tracking trade receivables to avoid cash-flow proble

Chapter 6 - Motivating Workers Lesson Objective: To understand the different financial and non-financial motivators After understanding the three different motivational theories is time for us to finally dive in to the different ways companies can use financial and non-financial motivators to boost workers' motivation. Let's start by looking at the different financial motivators! Hourly Wage Rate : When workers paid by the hour ; The longer they work more they earn; Main adva

Chapter 28 - Operations Strategy Learning Objective: Operations Planning and Critical Path Major strategic Operations decisions involve major projects : Relocation; Factory expansion ; Change in production/operations methods; Setting up a new IT system ; Installing new machinery. One of the most costly elements of a major project like these has to do with unused or under-used resources (e.g. stocks, idling machinery or labor). Such wastes happen due to different tasks bein

We all understand that there are mainly four leadership styles: Democratic; Autocratic; Laissez-Faire; Paternalistic. We also understand that different managers have different approaches towards their workforce: some have a more soft approach and others a more hard one. But what are the factors that determine what management style a manager will use ? According to Douglas McGregor the attitude of managers towards their workers will have the largest impact on how they will man

Chapter 28 - Operations Strategy Learning Objective: To understand Lean Production techniques Lean Production is all about producing goods and services with the minimum of wasted resources while maintaining high quality: There are 8 main sources of waste in most industries: Excessive transportation of components, products, and raw materials; Excessive inventory ; Excessive workforce movement reaching for supplies and components; Waiting times caused by delays; Overproducti

Chapter 6 - Motivating Workers Lesson Objective: To be introduced to three main motivational theories Through this chapter we will learn several different theories related to motivation : Maslow Hierarchy of Needs; F.W. Taylor and The Scientific Management Theory; Frederik Herzberg Two-Factor Theory. Starting from the most famous one - Maslow Hierarchy of Needs : The idea behind Maslow's theory is that humans fulfill their needs level-by-level . And once one level is achieved

Chapter 12 - Management Learning Objectives: To learn the different leadership styles and the functions/roles of management. Being a manager is no easy job! There are two main theories regarding managers' functions and roles: Fayol Functions of Management Mintzberg Management Roles According to Fayol , the 5 following functions of management are to facilitate the management process - they focus on the relationship employees vs. managers: Planning objectives and tactics, orga

Chapter 28 - Operations Strategy Class Objective: To understand the many changes and possible strategic decisions regarding Operations Management Operations Strategic Decisions are also multi-departmental: they require the analysis and will impact various facets of the business. Think of the following Operations Strategic decisions : Expanding or reducing capacity; Locating or relocating a business; Offshoring or reshoring; Outsourcing; Changing operations (production) met

Chapter 6 - Motivating Workers Lesson Objective: To understand the importance of having a motivated workforce Motivation are the factors that influence the behavior of workers towards achieving objectives! What do you think motivate people to work? Money is indeed a motivator ! There are, however, other motivators out there that are not necessarily money : Job security; How interesting the work is (task variety); Promotion opportunities; Training; Responsibility (decision-m

Chapter 26 - Business and the International Economy Learning Objectives: To understand the impact of exchange rate fluctuations in businesses Do you know what is the exchange rate? Simply put, the exchange rate is how much one country's currency is worth it of another country's currency. Let's try to understand with an example (February 11, 2022): ₮ 1 is the equivalent of USD 0.0003. - In other words, ₮ 1 is worth it a lot less than USD 1 USD 1 is the equivalent of ₮ 2,765.34

Chapter 26, Business and The International Economy Learning Objective: To understand the problems of hosting MNCs in your country It's not hard to think of the many benefits MNCs can bring to a host country : It is important for us to consider, however, that MNCs can also bring a variety of drawbacks to their host countries . Let's look into how this comes to happen: - Increased Competition: While competition can be beneficial for lower prices and higher quality, MNCs can le