Look inside the OCR A-Level Business H431 guide (H431)

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Look inside the OCR A-Level Business H431 guide

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OCR · A-Level · H431
Business H431
Active Recall Guide
2,384 questions
Business H431Contents
Contents
7 topics, 161 subtopics
  1. Introduction to Business134
  2. Business Objectives and Strategy497
  3. External Influences394
  4. Accounting and Finance304
  5. Human Resources366
  6. Marketing377
  7. Operations Management312
ii
Business Objectives and StrategyQuestions
Business Objectives and Strategy
Aims, objectives and the hierarchy that links them
  1. What is an organisational aim?
  2. How does a corporate objective differ from an aim?
  3. Define the term strategic objective.
  4. What is a tactical objective?
  5. Give an example of an operational objective.
  6. What is meant by the hierarchy of objectives?
  7. Why must objectives at the lower levels of the hierarchy support those above them?
  8. Which level of management normally sets operational objectives?
  9. How do the aims of a public sector organisation typically differ from those of a private sector business?
12
Business Objectives and StrategyAnswers
Answers
Aims, objectives and the hierarchy that links them
  1. An aim is a broad, long-term statement of what a business is trying to achieve overall, such as becoming the leading supplier in its market.
  2. A corporate objective turns a broad aim into a specific, measurable target for the whole business, such as raising market share to 20% within three years.
  3. A strategic objective is a long-term, business-wide goal set by senior management that determines the overall direction the organisation takes.
  4. A tactical objective is a medium-term goal set at departmental or functional level that supports a strategic objective, such as a marketing department's target for the coming year.
  5. Producing 500 units a day on a particular production line is an operational objective, because it concerns the day-to-day running of one part of the business.
  6. It is the way objectives cascade down an organisation, with the mission at the top, then corporate objectives, then functional and finally individual targets, each one supporting the level above it.
  7. If they do not, departments pull in different directions and effort is spent on work that does not move the business towards its corporate goals.
  8. Junior managers and supervisors set operational objectives, because they run the day-to-day activities those objectives describe.
  9. Public sector organisations aim to deliver a service to a required standard within a fixed budget, while private sector businesses aim primarily at profit, growth and returns to their owners.
13
External InfluencesQuestions
External Influences
Market structures and a firm's decision-making power
  1. State the key features of a monopoly.
  2. Describe the main features of an oligopoly.
  3. Describe the main features of monopolistic competition.
  4. Why do firms in an oligopoly often avoid competing on price?
  5. What is a concentration ratio?
  6. The four largest firms in a market hold shares of 30%, 25%, 15% and 10%. Calculate the four-firm concentration ratio.
  7. What does a high concentration ratio tell a business about the market it is entering?
  8. Why can a firm in monopolistic competition raise its price slightly without losing all its customers?
  9. Why does the structure of a market determine how much control a business has over its own prices?
34
External InfluencesAnswers
Answers
Market structures and a firm's decision-making power
  1. A monopoly has one dominant seller, no close substitute for its product, very high barriers to entry, and the power to set its price rather than accept one.
  2. A few large firms supply most of the market, their decisions are interdependent, barriers to entry are high, and they compete mainly through branding and promotion rather than price.
  3. Many firms compete with differentiated products, barriers to entry are low, and each has a little power over its own price because its product is not identical to any other.
  4. A price cut is quickly matched by rivals, so nobody gains lasting share and every firm ends up with lower revenue from the same volume.
  5. A concentration ratio is the combined market share held by the largest few firms in a market, used to measure how dominated that market is.
  6. The four-firm concentration ratio is 80%, because 30 plus 25 plus 15 plus 10 equals 80.
  7. It shows the market is dominated by a handful of large firms, so a newcomer will face established scale economies and brands and will have little influence over price.
  8. Its product is differentiated by brand, design or service, so some buyers see no perfect substitute and stay with it despite the higher price.
  9. The more rivals and close substitutes there are, the more easily customers switch, so the firm must accept the going price; where rivals and substitutes are few, it can set a price and hold it.
35
MarketingQuestions
Marketing
Marketing objectives and why a business sets them
  1. What is a marketing objective?
  2. How does a marketing objective differ from a corporate objective?
  3. State four measurable goals a business might set for its marketing.
  4. Why are marketing objectives usually written in SMART form?
  5. How do clear marketing objectives help a department allocate its budget?
  6. Why might a business set an objective for customer retention rather than for winning new customers?
  7. How are marketing objectives used in managing marketing staff?
  8. What happens to a marketing department that works without agreed objectives?
  9. Why must marketing objectives be consistent with what the other functions can deliver?
56
MarketingAnswers
Answers
Marketing objectives and why a business sets them
  1. A marketing objective is a specific goal set for the marketing function, such as raising market share or brand awareness, to be achieved within a stated period.
  2. A corporate objective is a goal for the whole business, while a marketing objective is a functional goal set to help deliver it.
  3. It might set goals for market share, sales volume or value, brand awareness and customer retention.
  4. Making them specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound means performance can be judged objectively rather than argued about.
  5. They show which activities contribute to the stated goal, so spending can be directed towards those and away from ones that do not.
  6. Keeping an existing customer usually costs far less than winning a new one, and loyal customers buy more often and recommend the brand.
  7. They give staff a clear target to work towards and a measurable standard against which their performance can later be reviewed.
  8. Its activity becomes uncoordinated, spending cannot be justified, and there is no standard by which success or failure can be judged.
  9. A target the business cannot finance, staff or produce for will fail, so operations, finance and human resources must be able to support it.
57
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2,384
questions
161 subtopics

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2,384 questions
Across 161 subtopics, every one of them from specification H431.
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Print it, or work from a screen with a notebook beside you.
Answers after, not beside
Covering the answers is a matter of not turning the page, which is what makes the closed-book pass possible.

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

  1. Step 1 · Closed book

    Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.

  2. Step 2 · Open book

    Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.

  3. Step 3 · Closed book again

    Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.

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