A-Level Business — Operating in a Business Environment

The nature of business

• Businesses transform inputs into outputs that add value and meet needs/wants. Sectors (primary/secondary/tertiary); enterprise and the entrepreneur (risk, innovation, organising resources); factors of production.

Objectives and mission

• Mission informs SMART corporate objectives (survival, profit, growth, market share, social/ethical aims), which cascade into functional objectives. Objectives change with size, ownership and the economic climate.

Ownership

• Sole trader, partnership, private (Ltd) and public (plc) company; limited vs unlimited liability; the divorce of ownership from control; the not-for-profit and public sectors.

Stakeholders

• Owners, employees, customers, suppliers, government and the community have different, sometimes conflicting interests; stakeholder vs shareholder approaches; managing and prioritising stakeholder needs.

Evaluation

• Decisions should align with the mission and objectives and balance stakeholder interests; the "right" objective depends on the firm's situation.

Tie decisions to the firm's objectives and use stakeholder analysis to evaluate - a recurring OCR framework across the course.

Diagram