AHS IB Business and Management Dave Conarroe Instructor

Essential Understanding Business best operates in the ‘capitalist’ economic system. Primary objective within this system is to generate a profit – In the capitalist system, all reward accrues to the holder of the resource Resources: Land, Labor, Capital, Entrepreneurship Business operates in the ‘micro economy’ – Supply and demand – Total costs, total revenue, and cost curves. – The macro economy affects the business – the decisions and actions of business affect the macro economy – But most business people make their decisions with little regard to their effect on the macro economy

Essential Questions How do we best handle this friction between the profit motive and social responsibility? Is this pursuit of profit-- the idea of consumption as a way to grow GDP and the need to shift the demand curve out through marketing— sustainable? Is the practice of developing ethical objectives solely as a marketing strategy, in fact, ethical? Can today’s CEOs (chief executive officers) in business learn from great military leaders of the past? What sort of knowledge is communicated through a set of business accounts? Is there room for both logic and emotion in business? Are globalization and the maintenance of cultures mutually exclusive? Does marketing respond to, or change, the perceptions of individuals and societies? How do we know that business information is reliable? What is the role of intuition and tacit knowledge in business decisions? Is business an art or a science? What is the role of creativity in business, and how is it manifested?

The aims of the IB Business and Management course promote the importance of exploring business issues from different cultural perspectives encourage a holistic view of the world of business enable the student to develop the capacity to think critically about individual and organizational behavior enhance the student’s ability to make informed decisions through tools and techniques utilized in the business environment enable the student to appreciate the nature and significance of change in a local, regional and global context promote awareness of social, cultural and ethical factors in the actions of organizations and individuals in those organizations appreciate the social and ethical responsibilities associated with businesses operating in international markets.

IB BM Expectations Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of business terminology, concepts, principles and theories Make business decisions by identifying the issue(s), selecting and interpreting data, applying appropriate tools and techniques, and recommending suitable solutions Analyse and evaluate business decisions using a variety of sources Evaluate business strategies and/or practices showing evidence of critical thinking Apply skills and knowledge learned in the subject to hypothetical and real business situations Communicate business ideas and information effectively and accurately using appropriate formats and tools

Information and Expectations b.aspen.high.schoolfusion.us/modules/groups /integrated_home.phtml?gid= &msg= Assignment+created.&sessionid=bf6fc6b2eb c5a9f9ccee830a9 b.aspen.high.schoolfusion.us/modules/groups /integrated_home.phtml?gid= &msg= Assignment+created.&sessionid=bf6fc6b2eb c5a9f9ccee830a9

Topic 1: Business organization and environment 1.1 Nature of business activity 1.2 Types of organization 1.3 Organizational objectives 1.4 Stakeholders 1.5 External environment 1.6 Organizational planning tools 1.7 Growth and evolution 1.8 HL only change and the management of change 1.9 Globalization

Topic 2: Human resources 2.1 Human resource planning 2.2 Organizational structure 2.3 Communication 2.4 Leadership and management 2.5 Motivation

Topic 3: Accounts and finance 3.1 Sources of finance 3.2 Investment appraisal 3.3 Working capital 3.4 HL only Budgeting 3.5 Final accounts 3.6 Ratio analysis

Topic 4: Marketing 4.1 The role of marketing 4.2 Marketing planning 4.3 Product 4.4 Price 4.5 Promotion 4.6 Place (distribution) 4.7 International marketing 4.8 E-commerce

Topic 5: Operations management 5.1 Production methods 5.2 Costs and revenues 5.3 Break-even analysis 5.4 Quality assurance 5.5 Location 5.7 Production planning

Internal Assessment 25% of your IB grade AND your class grade 1200 to 1500 words

IA: Introduction The SL internal assessment is a written commentary. – demonstrate the application of business and management tools, techniques and theories to a real business issue or problem. Select a real issue or problem, not a fictional one, and produce a commentary with a title presented as a question. – commentary must refer directly to a single business organization, but may consider industry-wide issues that impact on that organization. – You choose the company and issue by reading/finding a ‘catalyst’ news article Utilize primary and/or secondary data, selected for its suitability, depth and breadth.

IA: Commentary About a real company and a real problem. – The commentary requires the application of business tools, techniques and theory to a contemporary business issue or problem. You choose the company and the problem. – The issue or problem selected for the commentary is based on a current news article which identifies a specific business problem for a specific business. The story and issue/problem must relate to the SL syllabus and refer directly to a single business organization. First come, first served. – You MAY NOT write about the same topic/problem and company as another AHS IB BM student. – If two or more students are writing about the same company, the problem and catalyst article MUST be different. The title of the commentary must be phrased in the form of a question. The commentary must be at least 1200 words and not exceed 1,500 words. A word count must be included as part of the commentary. The commentary requires analysis and evaluation of the business issue or problem and possible solution. Must attach to the commentary three to five supporting documents from which the majority of the information for the commentary has been obtained. Any additional sources, such as textbooks, class notes and DVDs/videos, must be referenced, but will not be accepted as supporting documents. Students must highlight the parts of each supporting document that relate directly All supporting documents and additional sources must be fully referenced and included in a bibliography.

Selection of the 3 to 5 required supporting documents The catalyst article is one of the supporting documents. You will be allowed up to two additional news articles, including your catalyst article. – Do not include a blog or analysis provided by someone else doing an analysis of the problem It is YOUR job to do the analysis and evaluation You will be required to include applicable parts of the company’s annual report, if it is a publicly traded corporation – If this is not available, you will need to find an additional supporting document You can do your own primary research or find research done by the company or someone else related to this problem. The supporting documents must be written no earlier than March 20, Students must select their own supporting documents, which must not be provided to the student by the teacher. Students must work independently – You may not use the same supporting documents as other students within the school.

Examples of secondary sources might include market research surveys articles from the local, national or international press financial reports business accounts business plans mission statements web-based surveys extracts from company web sites government and other statistics academic publications.

Time allocation Approximately 15 hours should be allocated to the written commentary. – time for the teacher to explain to students the requirements of the task, including codes of ethical behavior and confidentiality (2 hrs) – additional time spent outside normal class time for students to work on their own (12 hrs) – time to review and monitor progress, and to check authenticity

Submit to Turn it in Your final commentary will be submitted to turnitin.com on or before March 22, 2012 – I will give you appropriate information in March You will also submit by March 22 a ‘hard copy’ to me which I will mark/grade over spring break. – You simply cannot miss this deadline. To do so will result in failure for the IB score and a zero for 25% of your second semester grade, with NO opportunity for ‘make up’ or ‘extra credit’ – You will not have a chance to do any revisions or changes to this final copy. – Your preliminary assignments will provide the only feedback you will get. IB then selects a representative sample of our work (about 12 commentaries) which are sent in on or about April 10.

Assessment: 25 pts Criterion A Supporting documents (4 pts) Criterion B Choice and application of business tools, techniques and theory (6 pts) Criterion C Use, analysis and synthesis of data (6 pts) Criterion D Conclusions (3 pts) Criterion E Evaluation and critical thinking (3 pts) Criterion F Presentation (3 pts)