AQA BUSS 4 - Corporate Culture Discussion

I did Q 2&3 so did most of my classmates. I did loads of application but not enough analysis... :P
For question 3 I talked about contingency planning (horse meat scandal), tax avoidance starbucks and the boycotting after people found out, technology- Morrison were last supermarket to jump on the home food delivery bandwagon (i didn't use these words per se :P) and about HMV not moving with the times going into administration. Then a thing about Ikea looking to the future saying that by 2020 they plan to supply 100% of store power with renewable energy then concluded that you cant forsee all changes and even if you plan it will not guarantee success.

How many marks is it normally for like 55-60 UMS? (I need that for a B overall)

Reply 1561

beckym186

I did question 1 and 4.

For Section A I used Google, Apple, RBS and Zappos and I think that essay went pretty well.

But Section B kind of threw me off but I used RBS (and other major banks), Tesco, Primark and BP for my question about government monitoring in the future.

I think I got the wrong end of the stick because I wrote about the impact all these issues have, what would happen in the short term if they were and weren't monitored and then in the long run. Applying it to my examples. But I also stated that they could fail miseravly.

A bit like my evaluation in section B :frown:

I ran out of time so my final conclusion was quite short but I evaluated throughout so hopefully I will get a minimum of limited evaluation :frown:

Reply 1562

nadster

12

Original post by iggyDash

ik thanks, what do you think you got in therms of marks? i think i got 26 for first one and maybe 23 for second one. in a way it kinda unpredictable

I'm thinking 23 for both sections if I'm lucky.

Reply 1563

LukeKnights

Did question 1:

Spoke about similarities in culture between John Lewis and Google (both profitable)
Spoke then about how Barclays was profitable but had a completely different (negative) culture under Bob Diamond.
Then spoke about how Royal Mail has had significant profit increases recently but still facing industrial action.
Evidently culture is different (eval)

Then did question 3:

Spoke about Nokia losing out on the smartphone market but moving to emerging markets in hope to combat loss of market share.
Spoke about how Game and HMV went into admin due to online competition.
Then IKEA and how they've moved into emerging markets as they've prepared well.
In my evaluation I did an example PEST analysis to talk about how to prepare and said that it is harder in the technology market.

ANYONE DO ANYTHING SIMILAR? lol

Reply 1564

beckym186

Original post by tonie95

i done question1 and 2 and talked about Apple,Google,Nokia,Barclays,Starbucks, NOTW and Royal Mail

You can't do question 1 and 2 because that is both the section A essays :/

I hope you mean Section A question 1 and the second question from Secion B!

Reply 1565

emgeesify

For anyone who did the government question...

I wrote about Primark and the thing with them using child labour, the Enron scandal for reasons why the government should regulate businesses more often

And then I used Cadburys their policy of CSR for why the government shouldn't

Made points about how if the government did regulate the activity of businesses then it may help build customer confidence cause they can trust business more because there's less chance of them using child labour

And points against were that for company's like Cadburys it would be a waste of time because they already have a CSR policy

And just generally it would be time consuming and expensive...is this right!!! Help??

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 1566

beckym186

Original post by LukeKnights

Did question 1:

Spoke about similarities in culture between John Lewis and Google (both profitable)
Spoke then about how Barclays was profitable but had a completely different (negative) culture under Bob Diamond.
Then spoke about how Royal Mail has had significant profit increases recently but still facing industrial action.
Evidently culture is different (eval)

Then did question 3:

Spoke about Nokia losing out on the smartphone market but moving to emerging markets in hope to combat loss of market share.
Spoke about how Game and HMV went into admin due to online competition.
Then IKEA and how they've moved into emerging markets as they've prepared well.
In my evaluation I did an example PEST analysis to talk about how to prepare and said that it is harder in the technology market.

ANYONE DO ANYTHING SIMILAR? lol

I did the same sort of thing for question 1 but I used Google and Apple saying they were similar and then used RBS and Zappos to show that you didn't have to be all innnovative and tasky to be "highly profitable".

I'm so relieved someone else wrote from the same angle!!

Reply 1567

iggyDash

2

Original post by nadster

I'm thinking 23 for both sections if I'm lucky.

i think its unpredictable maybe higher, we never know.

what uni you off to and what subject?

Reply 1568

tonie95

Original post by beckym186

You can't do question 1 and 2 because that is both the section A essays :/

I hope you mean Section A question 1 and the second question from Secion B!

yeah thats what i meant LOL :smile:

Reply 1569

username818763

3

I can't believe I've finished A levels. Doesn't feel like it at all. I just hope I meet my uni offer :s-smilie:

Reply 1570

nadster

12

Original post by iggyDash

i think its unpredictable maybe higher, we never know.

what uni you off to and what subject?

I hope we have done better than we think :smile:

Manchester for economics hopefully, you?

Reply 1571

Sir_Psycho

That went better than I thought it would as I didn't think I studied enough for Section B

Q1

I argued how there can be varied cultures through highly profitable businesses as shown by the success of Google, zappos and Apple and how their innovative + risk taking cultures allowed them to take advantage of Nokia and RIMs complacent, static culture(and I also contrasted with Barclays who had a different culture and failed). My argument revolved around how Nike and Amazon were huge successes though, showing cultures can be varied yet businesses can be highly profitable

Q3
How easy is it to prepare for changes to external environment?

I argued it was mostly easy, however the recession showed that there are changes that can't be predicted. I used Nokia and RIM to show how it was foolish to ignore the rise of new competitors in the market and how they should have prepared for this. My third para was also showing how changes to the external environment were also easy to prepare for by comparing Royal Mail currently adapting to technology to Kodak who failed to do this. I also emphasised how Kodak were established and one of the market leaders so they had the resources and strength to be able to adapt to technology but instead their complacency led to their decline

So 2 for 2 against in Q1
1 for 2 against in Q3.

I was aiming for an A after doing well in the other 3 units. Not sure if I'll get that but in should have done enough to get a B

Reply 1572

iggyDash

2

Original post by nadster

I hope we have done better than we think :smile:

Manchester for economics hopefully, you?

Hopefully we will
Surrey or univerversity of southampton for information tech& management hopefully

Reply 1573

nadster

12

Original post by iggyDash

Hopefully we will
Surrey or univerversity of southampton for information tech& management hopefully

Nice!! What grades do you need?

Reply 1574

Khilen

What bulletpoint was Q2 in section A referring to?

Reply 1575

Khilen

Original post by nadster

Nice!! What grades do you need?

Im going to manchester for econ too hopefullyy!

Reply 1576

Sir_Psycho

Original post by Khilen

What bulletpoint was Q2 in section A referring to?

How cultures change over time. Didn't do it myself, couldn't think of many examples and it seemed easier to highlight how varied cultures still produce good results for different businesses

Reply 1577

iggyDash

2

Original post by nadster

Nice!! What grades do you need?

AAB need a B for business and an A for economics. or other way round. but i think i got an A for econ hopefully and B for this

Already got an A in it i think / hope

you?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 1578

Infamous12

1

Guys, what happens if you only referred to google once in section A?