McDonalds ends 40 years of Olympic sponsorship
McDonald's are focusing their efforts on its core business, with a mix of lower costs and investment in in improving food quality, restaurant service and online ordering. One part of this is...
Amazon and the Threats of New Entrants and Substitutes
Amazon is extending its presence in the grocery market by buying US grocery retailer Whole Foods Market. Although it only has a handful of branches in the UK, Whole Foods is a major player in the...
Trouble at the top of Uber
The decision of Travis Kalanick, founder and Chief Executive of Uber, to take leave from the business has brought many articles about leadership and corporate culture. Broadly, the theme is that...
A Level Business Workshop Dates for 2017/18
The provisional timetable for our popular A Level Business student workshops in 2017/18 is now available.
New Unit Assessment for Edexcel A Level Business
We're pleased to announce the immediate availability (via digital download) of the latest Unit Assessment for Edexcel A Level Business.
Road Haulage Association seeks compensation from truck makers after cartel is exposed
A virtual hat tip to one of my own students, Ben Wilkinson, for spotting this story on the BBC Business website today. It's gone straight in to my Edexcel Business A Level Theme 2 Scheme of Work...
Update on external influences - UK consumer spending falls
Credit and debit card firm Visa have the data to give us a very comprehensive view of how much we are spending, and what we are buying. Their latest data, produced yesterday, shows that although...
The first sitting of Paper 1 is just around the corner. In addition to the practice 25 mark questions we provided in the AQA Grade Booster revision workshops for 2017 here are 8 more essay...
Support for Belbin team building
Here is a reportfrom Dylan Minor, a professor of managerial economics at Kellogg university in the US and Michael Housman of HiQ Labs, which emphasises the value of building work teams from people...
AQA PeCAn PiE AJIM Answer Planner
Here's a single sheet answer planner that can be used to plan responses to AQA A Level Business questions.
Downloads from the great Jukebox in the sky
PwC have recently released a report analysing the trends emerging in the Entertainment and Media industry with a particular focus on shifts in advertising and consumer spending. TheSegment Findings...
Iconic Ikea
Not many businesses become so well known that they can become the basis for another business's a spoof ad.For a break from the nitty gritty of revision, have a look at this video - and contemplate...
McJobs and zero-hours contracts
The term 'McJobs' is not a new one - the Washington Post first used it in 1986 and the Oxford English Dictionary has a formal definition for it, as "unstimulating, low-paid jobs with few prospects,...
Why do people work?
This series of one-minute interviews with the holders of some of the world's most unusual jobs could serve quite nicely as an introduction to the study of motivation.
Honey trap
Any Dragons Den devotee will know that one of the first issues for a new product with a great USP is "Can you protect the idea?". This is THE big question for bee-keepers in New Zealand, producing...
Industry Analysis - How to succeed in Hollywood
When it comes to films, I consider myself a cinephile (my wife prefers “geek”), and so when I found some articles about the financial successes and failures of various films, and how Amazon and...
'Responsabilisation' at Michelin tyres
Is this the french translation of 'Empowerment'? Michelin are following a gradual process of shifting more responsibility on to their shop floor staff. They say that this translates to a mixture of...
Globalisation vs. Localisation
Is consumer support for localisation a rejection of the forces of globalisation? The Monday Briefing, written by Ian Stewart, Chief Economist of Deloitte in the UK, is always worth reading, and I...
This is the third in a series of blogs that provides teachers with some ready to use activities that can be used in lessons as students prepare to take their first set of linear exams This activity...
Classroom Posters: Questions of Business Strategy
Available now - a set of six giant classroom posters designed to stimulate discussion about business strategy.