Higher Business Management

The sectors business activity is classified into, and the different legal and organisational forms large organisations can take.

The different goals large organisations pursue beyond simple profit, and why these objectives can differ or change.

The different real routes an organisation can grow through, from organic growth to full diversification into unrelated markets.

PESTEC external factors beyond an organisation's control, and the internal factors within its own organisation that also shape what it can do.

How different stakeholders' interests can conflict, and how organisations and their stakeholders genuinely depend on one another.

The different ways an organisation can arrange its management hierarchy and group its staff, each with real benefits and drawbacks.

The different types of business decision, how their quality is judged, SWOT analysis, and a manager's core role in making them.

Market-led versus product-led approaches to customers, and the research methods and sampling techniques used to understand them.

How the elements of the marketing mix interact, and the product life cycle, extension strategies, and product portfolio.

A wider range of real pricing strategies than National 5, and the channels of distribution used to get a product to customers.

Promotion aimed into the pipeline at retailers, promotion aimed out of the pipeline at consumers, and the separate role of public relations.

The three extra elements the marketing mix gains when marketing a service rather than a physical product, plus technology's growing role.

The key levels an inventory management system tracks, just-in-time as an alternative approach, and the roles of storage and logistics.

The trade-off between capital-intensive (machine-heavy) and labour-intensive (people-heavy) production, and what drives the choice.

Building on National 5's quality control and assurance with quality standards, benchmarking, quality circles, and mystery shopping.

Fair trade, wider environmental problems and solutions, and other ethical issues an organisation's operations can raise.

How organisations plan their future staffing needs, and the costs and benefits of the recruitment and selection choices involved.

Building on National 5 with specific real training schemes and types of appraisal used by larger organisations.

Maslow's and Herzberg's theories of motivation, and the three real styles of leadership and their costs and benefits.

What employee relations means in practice, the institutions involved, and how organisations use employee participation.

The impact of key employment laws on how organisations must treat their staff.

The real sources of finance available to large organisations, and the factors that determine which is most suitable.

Interpreting a given cash budget to identify cash flow issues and suggest solutions, building on National 5 without needing to prepare one from scratch.

Interpreting a given Income Statement, Statement of Financial Position, and set of profitability, liquidity, and efficiency ratios.