Business Studies: should I choose it?

Nature of business

Business management

Business planning

Operations

Operations is the transformation of inputs into the goods and services a business sells, and the syllabus treats it as a strategic function rather than a back room. You start with the role of operations, including cost leadership and goods or services differentiation, then work through the influences on it: globalisation, technology, quality expectations, cost-based competition, government policies, legal regulation and environmental sustainability, along with corporate social responsibility. Operations processes are examined closely — inputs split into transformed and transforming resources, the transformation processes themselves with volume, variety, variation in demand and visibility, and outputs including customer service and warranties. Strategies form the heaviest section: performance objectives, product and service design, supply chain management and logistics, outsourcing, technology, inventory management, quality management, overcoming resistance to change, and global factors.

Marketing

Marketing covers how a business works out what customers want, then delivers and communicates it profitably. The role of marketing includes its interdependence with the other functions and the different market types, from resellers and industrial markets to mass and niche markets. Influences cover the factors driving customer choice, consumer laws on deceptive and misleading advertising, price discrimination, implied conditions and warranties, plus the ethical questions around marketing to children and promoting products such as tobacco, alcohol and gambling. The marketing process runs from situational analysis through market research, objectives, target market selection, strategy development, implementation, monitoring and control. Strategies then cover segmentation and positioning, the four Ps, the services extension of people, processes and physical evidence, e-marketing, and global decisions such as standardisation against customisation.

Finance

Finance is about where a business gets money, what it does with it, and how anyone can tell whether it is working. The role of financial management covers the objectives — profitability, growth, efficiency, liquidity and solvency — and their interdependence with the other functions. Influences include internal sources such as retained profits, external debt and equity, financial institutions from banks to superannuation funds and the securities exchange, government influence through regulation and company taxation, and global influences such as exchange rates and interest rates. Processes take you through planning and implementing, debt against equity financing, and monitoring using cash flow statements, income statements and balance sheets, then ratio analysis for liquidity, gearing, profitability and efficiency, comparative ratio analysis, the limitations of financial reports, and ethical issues in reporting.

Human resources

Human resources treats employees as a resource to be acquired, developed, maintained and eventually separated from the business. The role of the function covers the strategic value of human resources and the nature of employment contracts. Key influences are extensive: stakeholders from employees and unions through to shareholders and society, the legal framework covering the employment contract, awards and agreements, work health and safety, anti-discrimination and equal employment opportunity, plus economic, technological and social influences, ethics and corporate social responsibility. Processes follow the employment cycle of acquisition, development, maintenance and separation. Strategies include leadership style, job design, recruitment, training and development, performance management, rewards, global strategies and workplace dispute resolution. Effectiveness is then measured through indicators such as staff turnover, absenteeism and accident rates, corporate culture and benchmarking.