Look inside the OCR GCSE Business guide (J204)

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Look inside the OCR GCSE Business guide

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OCR · GCSE · J204
Business
Active Recall Guide
582 questions
BusinessContents
Contents
6 topics, 37 subtopics
  1. Business Activity95
  2. Marketing110
  3. People110
  4. Operations109
  5. Finance97
  6. Influences on Business61
ii
MarketingQuestions
Marketing
The purpose of marketing
  1. What is marketing?
  2. Why must a business identify who its customers are?
  3. Why is understanding customer needs important to a business?
  4. What is the difference between a customer need and a customer want?
  5. How does marketing inform customers?
  6. Why is informing customers especially important when a product is new?
  7. How does marketing help a business increase its sales?
  8. What is a target market?
  9. What is a unique selling point (USP)?
12
MarketingAnswers
Answers
The purpose of marketing
  1. Marketing is the process of identifying what customers want and making sure a business meets those wants profitably.
  2. A business needs to know who its customers are before it can design products they will buy. A clear picture of its customers allows the business to aim promotion at the right people.
  3. Customer needs change with fashion, technology and income. A business that understands these changes can adapt its products before rivals do.
  4. A need is something a customer must have, such as food or shelter. A want is something a customer would like but can live without.
  5. Marketing tells customers that a product exists, what it does and where to buy it. Clear information helps customers choose between products.
  6. Customers cannot buy a product they have never heard of. A launch campaign builds awareness so that early sales can begin.
  7. Marketing can attract new customers and persuade existing ones to buy more often. Higher sales can lead to higher revenue and profit.
  8. A target market is the particular group of customers a business aims its products and marketing at.
  9. A USP is a feature that makes a product different from its rivals and gives customers a reason to choose it.
13
PeopleQuestions
People
Organisational structures and ways of working
  1. What is an organisational structure?
  2. What is the difference between a tall and a flat organisational structure?
  3. What are the advantages of a flat structure?
  4. What are the disadvantages of a tall structure?
  5. What is meant by span of control?
  6. What is the chain of command?
  7. Define subordinate and authority.
  8. What is delegation, and why can it motivate employees?
  9. Why might a large supermarket chain have a taller structure than a small design agency?
34
PeopleAnswers
Answers
Organisational structures and ways of working
  1. An organisational structure shows how a business is arranged, who does which job and who reports to whom.
  2. A tall structure has many layers of management and narrow spans of control. A flat structure has few layers and wide spans of control.
  3. Communication is faster because messages pass through fewer layers. Wage costs are lower because there are fewer managers.
  4. Messages pass through many layers, so communication is slow and can be distorted. Decisions take longer and staff may feel remote from senior managers.
  5. Span of control is the number of subordinates a manager is directly responsible for.
  6. The chain of command is the line of authority through which instructions pass from the top of a business to the bottom.
  7. A subordinate is an employee who reports to a manager above them. Authority is the power to make decisions and give instructions.
  8. Delegation is when a manager passes authority to a subordinate to carry out a task or make a decision. Delegation shows trust and makes work more interesting.
  9. A supermarket chain employs thousands of staff in many roles and locations, so it needs more layers of managers. A small design agency can communicate informally with a flat structure.
35
FinanceQuestions
Finance
The role of the finance function
  1. What is the finance function of a business?
  2. What are the main purposes of the finance function?
  3. What kinds of financial information does the finance function provide?
  4. How does the finance function support business planning?
  5. How does the finance function help managers make decisions?
  6. How does the finance function influence the marketing department?
  7. How does the finance function influence recruitment and pay decisions?
  8. How does the finance function influence operations?
  9. Why do lenders, investors and HMRC need information from the finance function?
56
FinanceAnswers
Answers
The role of the finance function
  1. The finance function manages a business's money. The finance function records income and spending, prepares accounts and controls budgets.
  2. The finance function provides financial information to managers and owners. Financial information from the finance function supports planning and decision making.
  3. The finance function reports revenue, costs, profit, cash balances and forecasts. Managers use these figures to judge how the business is performing.
  4. The finance function forecasts future revenue, costs and cash so managers can set realistic targets. A plan can then show how much finance a new project will need.
  5. The finance function works out whether a decision, such as launching a product, is likely to be profitable. Managers can compare options using break-even and average rate of return.
  6. The finance function sets the marketing budget and checks whether campaigns are affordable. A campaign may be cut back if it does not pay for itself.
  7. The finance function checks whether the business can afford new staff, pay rises or training. Recruitment may be delayed if cash is short.
  8. The finance function decides whether the business can afford new machinery or larger premises. The finance function also monitors production costs to keep them under control.
  9. Banks and investors use financial information to decide whether to lend or invest. HMRC uses a business's accounts to assess the tax it owes.
57
Keep going
582
questions
37 subtopics

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582 questions
Across 37 subtopics, every one of them from specification J204.
One PDF
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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