1. Technology in Business

2. Technology plays an important part in business. The ‘theory’ is pretty straightforward. You should really be looking for examples of the positive and negative impacts of technology and how business has/can respond to it. Examples you may wish to study: Social media – the opportunities it offers for viral marketing/PR and straightforward advertising vs the challenges it presents in terms of managing messages and the ability of customers to make comments on firms’ actions Information technology – Integrated communication systems in business are seen as being very important in adding value and therefore profitability. Ad hoc development of ICT systems is seen as detracting from value added. How are western developed economies/companies doing compared to emerging markets? ‘Manufacturing’ technology – This builds on BUSS3. How has manufacturing technology changed businesses? There are masses of examples both positive (such as ‘fishfinder radar’ on trawlers) as well as examples where patented technology has ‘locked out competitors. It could easily be argued that this actually promotes innovation as rivals are forced to develop competing technologies. In all cases you should consider the impact on profits, jobs and working practises

3. Your task is to read the relevant theory in your textbook and then find some good examples. There is some great stuff on You Tube – just type in ‘Business and the technological environment’ and watch a few! Tutor2u also has some information which you may find useful. This is a topic you can easily read up on yourselves – it would be good to share some examples after the Easter break. Also on Moodle, you can read up on Business and the legal and competitive environments. Once again pretty descriptive and we can consolidate our understanding after Easter. After Easter I’d like to look at managing change. During Easter it would be useful to have a go at the following question from June 2011. You can e-mail me your answers Some analysts claim that the achievements of chief executives, such as Terry Leahy at Tesco and Philip Green at Arcadia, show the difference a leader can make to the performance of a business. To what extent do you think that a leader can make a significant difference to the long-term success of an organisation? Justify your answer with reference to Tesco, Arcadia and/or other businesses or leaders that you know.(40 marks) I apologise that we can’t do the quiz although it is there if you want to have a go at it. Sadly the answers are too so it doesn’t count this week……..