Unit 1: Using information, communication and technology ICT in the study of Business

• Types of ICT skills
• Research techniques
• Portfolio skills
• Self-reflection
• Tools and strategies
• 4 Principles of self-assessment
• Reflective writing

Unit 2: Financial planning in business

• Output and input
• Assessing and monitoring cost and profit
• Fixed, variable and semi-variable cost and profit
• Case study examples
• Processes for increasing revenue
• 2 Break even analysis
• Margins of safety
• 3 Cash flow forecasting
• SMART Objectives

Unit 3: Structure, risk and enterprise

• Competitor behaviour
• Nature of demands in business
• Cash flow and unforeseen expenditure relevant to enterprise activities
• Control and monitoring
• Customer reliance and its impacts
• 2 Variance analyses
• Hierarchy and chain of command
• Overtrading
• Definition and application with examples

Unit 4: Job analysis and operational management

• Job structures and process
• Job descriptions and expectations
• Relationship of job to operational process
• Person specifications
• Example case studies
• 2 Operational targets
• Capacity utilisation
• Formulae and equations
• Unit costing and examples
• Competitiveness
• 3 Quality measurements

Unit 5: Marketing and the competitive environment

• Aims and objectives
• Business to business marketing
• The Marketing Mix (4 ‘P’s)
• Mass marketing
• Niche marketing
• Product development and the product lifecycle
• Extension strategies and development
• Product portfolio analysis and the Boston Matrix

Unit 6: The economy and business

• GDP and GNP
• The business cycle
• Economic variables
• Unemployment influences and impacts
• Inflation: demand pull and cost push

Unit 7: Understanding the layers in business administration

• Origins of leadership
• Direction and alignment
• Relationships and qualities
• Empowerment and vision
• Mastery
• Empathy and values
• Future roles and responsibilities

Unit 8: Leadership: developing visionary concepts

• Characteristics of innovators
• Repetition, representation and assistance as visionary concepts
• Effective decision making
• Group techniques
• Steps in open-ended problem resolution
• Self-directed techniques

Unit 9: Business consultancy

• Aims and objectives
• Selection, qualifications and experience related to practice
• Small business advisory services and their role
• Client customer relations
• Conducting consultancy assignments
• Key attributes for consultants
• Client expectations

Unit 10: The project management perspective

• Goal and objective setting
• Deliverables and agreed timings
• Stakeholder planning and procurement processes
• Reporting, communication and feedback
• Transparency and openness in approach
• Responsibility and accountability
• Client presentations

Unit 11: Resource management

• Overview and aims and objectives
• Roles within resource management
• Applications and uses related to company/business objectives
• People, equipment and labour
• Materials and products
• Using matrices and other resource management tools
• Timeline planning
• Relevance of resource management

Unit 12: Research and writing for business

• Aims and objectives
• Relationship
• Methods
• Empiricism in business research
• Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methodology
• Research
• Action research

Unit 13: Human resource applications

• Aims and objectives
• Historical development and emergence of practices
• Public sector development
• Patterns of employment and the labour markers
• Globalisation

Unit 14: Employment contracts

• Elements of the contract Definition of contract terms
• Position of minors in contracts
• Intention within contracts
• Influence of European law
• Identification of the Contract of Employment
• Case study review
• Precedent and legislative directives
• Employee status

Unit 15: Managing conflicts and motivation in business applications

• Pre-legislative history
• Post-legislative history
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• UK legislative sources
• European legislative sources
• Articles of Treaties
• Directives

Unit 16: Recruitment and selection processes

• Who recruits and why within large and small businesses
• Rational, aims and objectives
• Direct and indirect recruitment
• Processes and procedures
• Phases of recruitment
• Formal and informal recruitment
• Source of recruitment