Intro to Business: Roundup.

Well, it’s a sunset of sorts: the end of our time together in L3.

So we need to look back and review where we came from and how we got here, plus where we are going.

So I guess I’d better remind you of what my learning outcomes were.

You can then be the judge as to whether we ‘hit the spot’ .. or not!

A & O

1. I wanted us to learn  by discovery rather than chapter by chapter in a lecture format – I tend to take the view that the more involved you are in discovering first hand, the more you are likely to understand and retain what you have learned.  To this end, I tended to set you realistic work environment tasks and to guide and support you in thgeir realisation.

2. I wanted you to be exposed to most aspects of the management and operation of a business – you will recall, looking back (I hope!!) that we covered:

• Research.  Through understanding the Blending the Business, STEEPL/PESTLE and SWOT you sought to research the challenges presented by cganges in the business environment which cause new business opportunities and threats to existing operators.  This is the life-blood and death rattle of business.
• Planning and Development.  You reviewed (analysed and evaluated) potential business opportunities according to a set of criteria to determine which of them were, feasibe, viable and timely.
• Development and Funding.  You took your business ideas and fleshed them out with a view to justifying your case for finance with funding sources (The Dragons’ Den).
• Branding, Marketing and Marketing Communications.  You took your business idea and looked in detail at the definition of your brand for a particular market segment and then considered how to communicate brand values, brand essence, brand personality etc to your principal market segment via the design and developmen of a website.
• Human Resource Management. Latterly you have analysed the recruitment, selection and retention systems of organisations and how these are changing such that you can become better and more successful applicants for posts in the future.  You have also actively rehearsed applications and interviews for positions of your choosing, receiving feedback on your perfoirmance so that you can go into the ‘real thing’ with considerable confidence.

My views on the matter:

• we were a bit ‘light’ on numbers …. 8 or 9 is good for teacher-time per person, but perhaps double this number would have provided extra energy and breadth of examples and creative contributions.  4 or 5 new products would have been great in development terms – two was rather too restricted.  Also occasional absences of two or three people meant that half a group or an entire group were missing which cost us ‘catch-up’ time the following week.
• leavers and joiners in S1 / S2.  On the upside, ‘new blood’ is good – it brings in a fresh look etc, but on the other, groups had already coalesced in S1 so one lost a bit of consistency and a bit of time in absorbing new arrivals.
• Overall. I believe you:
  • have encountered a wide range of business functions and are well aware of the key issues, the business vocabularly, organisational practices and challenges across most business functions.
  • are able to add a significant number of things to your CV/résumé (see bullet list 2. above) which might give you a distinct advantage over other English Langs and Civ graduates.

I believe that it worked and that the majority of my learning objectives were attained by the majority of participating students.

Please be aware that this is just one small unit – covering all aspects of the business world is clearly impossible: you’d need a three-year degree + 2-year Master’s perhaps with an MBA (Master’s of Business Administration) to achieve this.  This being the case, I’ve had to be very selective in what we have done whilst trying to give you a broad understanding and experience.

I’d like to know what you think.  If you can think of anything that could have gone better, something that we missed, then I’m all ears.  I may be an old(ISH) dog, but I’m sure I can develop some new tricks!

So: WHAT SAY YOU…….?