Business Foundations
Define the term 'business objectives'.
The goals a business aims to achieve over a set period of time.
Define human resource management.
Establishing and maintaining the relationship between employees and the business.
Define corporate social responsibility.
The ethical conduct of a business beyond legal obligations to improve the social, economic, and environmental outcomes of stakeholders.
Identify any 2 business changes implemented by Aldi in the past four years
Renewable energy, self-serve checkouts, baskets, online shopping, COVID restrictions
Name of leadership skill required for implementing change successfully.
Planning, Communication, Interpersonal skills, decision-making
Provide two advantages of a sole trader.
•Simple and inexpensive to set up
•Owner has complete control
•Minimal government regulations
•Owner keeps all profits
Distinguish between on-the-job and off-the-job training.
On-the-job occurs at the workplace, while off-the-job occurs elsewhere (e.g. a seminar).
Define the key elements of the operations system and provide one Yakult example of each.
Input: The resources used by a business to produce goods and services, e.g. milk powder.
Process: The actions performed by a business to transform inputs into outputs, e.g. mixing.
Output: The final goods or services produced as a result of a business’s operations system which are delivered or provided to customers, e.g. Yakult drink.
Name 3 driving forces
managers, employees, competitors, legislation, pursuit of profit, reduction of costs, globalisation, technology, innovation and societal attitudes
State one way that Aldi implements cost cutting in its operations.
Deposit to use trolley, No big brand names, No deli, Display of products, Self-packing of groceries, shorter operating hours
Identify one area of management and explain how it can assist with the achievement of business objectives.
HR: motivate staff to increase productivity and therefore increase sales.
Operations: introduce materials, technology, quality, or waste management strategies to improve efficiency and therefore increase sales whilst decreasing expenses.
Provide two advantages of career advancement as a motivation strategy.
•Helps a business retain high performing employees
•Employees may feel valued by the business
•Promoting existing employees can be cheaper than employing new ones
Provide one difference and one similarity between manufacturing and service businesses.
Manufacturing: Capital intensive, Production and consumption of the goods occur at separate times, Outputs produced can be stored, Outputs can be standardised (through quality control)
Service: Labour intensive, Production and consumption of the goods occur at the same time, Outputs produced cannot be stored, Usually not standardised but rather tailored to customer needs
Similarity: they still use the same elements
Name 3 restraining forces
managers, employees, time, organisational inertia, legislation and financial considerations
•Allows customers to have a variety of choice
•Allows a business to hold a larger amount of shelf space (and therefore market share)
Case: a business has just been informed of a lockdown and therefore needs to close down all stores and redeploy all resources to support online shopping.
Which management style would be most effective and why?
Autocratic management style as the manager provides one-way communication to customers in order to ensure a quick response.
State any three performance management strategies.
management by objectives, appraisals, self-evaluation and employee observation
Choose one of the following and name all of the strategies for it:
- technology
- materials
- quality
Technology: automated production lines, computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing techniques and website development
Materials: forecasting, master production schedule, materials requirement planning and Just In Time
Quality: quality control, quality assurance and Total Quality Management
Outline the four steps to Lewin's force field analysis.
Step 1: Identify the need for change
Step 2: Determine the driving forces
Step 3: Determine the restraining forces
Step 4: Assign scores
State one advantage of using low risk strategies over high risk strategies
Low risk strategies allow for positive relationships to be formed between management and employees.
Distinguish between real and official corporate culture, and provide one way to establish a positive corporate culture.
Difference: official corporate culture is written in documentation while real is the actual values and beliefs of the people within the business.
How: through effective motivation, incentives/rewards, career advancement, etc.
State the principles of any two motivation theories.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Physiological needs, safety and security needs, social needs, self-esteem needs, and self-actualisation.
Lawrence and Nohria's four drive theory: drive to acquire, drive to bond, drive to learn, and drive to defend.
Locke and Latham's goal setting theory: Clarity, commitment, challenge, task complexity, and feedback.
With reference to lean management, what does TIMWOOD stand for?
Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Over-processing, Defects
Name all 9 KPIs
percentage of market share, net profit figures, rate of productivity growth, number of sales, rates of staff absenteeism, level of staff turnover, level of wastage, number of customer complaints and number of workplace accidents
State the five principles of Senge's Learning Organisation.
System's Thinking, Mental Models, Shared Vision, Personal Mastery, and Team Learning.