IB Business Management: An overview

How the course works:

● IB Learner Profile + Classroom policies
● Content + Assessment
● CUEGIS
Know Class structure / routine for the year
Do Key requirements of the course
Understand Set up BM folder in Google Drive
Who’s this guy?
Who are you?
1. Where were you born?
How long have you been here (@ IS Ruhr)?
What do you want to do with business after you’re finished IB?
Do you want to work in a business-related field?
Part 1: Breaking down the course
Answer: So what?
Every day:
1. Your device, open to your folder that you’ve set up + Google Classroom
2. Slides for the day
3. Learning Goals / Success Criteria grid
With a partner:

Why do businesses exist?

The IB Learner Profile

● Inquirers
Classroom policies group chart:
● Knowledgeable
● Thinkers
How is the IB Learner Profile applied in the classroom?
● Communicators
● Principled - Examples?
● Open-minded
● Caring
● Risk-takers
● Balanced
● Reflective
5 Units

What we’ll study How you’ll be checked for knowledge (assessed)

1. Business organizations Formative stuff:

2. Human Resources In-class exercises (individual/group)
3. Finance and Accounts Case studies
4. Marketing Assignments
5. Operations Management Entry/exit tickets
Homework/note checks

Summative stuff:
Chapter quizzes
Unit tests
Assessment Objectives
4 areas that get assessed:
1. Knowledge and understanding
2. Application and analysis
3. Synthesis and evaluation
4. Appropriate skills
What that actually means…
1. Things we learn in the course
a. Examples?
2. Taking what we’ve learned and using it for
new situations (case studies)
3. Talking about the results that come from
applying knowledge
4. Use specific skills you might learn in
business
a. Examples?
What are case studies?

▶ A story about a real business making decisions about the future

▶ E.g. Heinz Corporation Millennium Project

▶ Each case study contains information for you to think about

▶ You are expected to:
▶ Use content knowledge (“book learning”)
▶ CUEGIS concepts to organize your thinking
You’ll usually be asked stuff like...

Content questions:
- “Define the following terms…”
- “Explain [...]”
Application questions:
- Take this concept you’ve learned and apply it to this given case
- E.g. Based on the given information, construct an analysis of this
organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
 ▶ Change
CUEGIS ▶ cUlture
▶ Ethics
▶ Globalization
▶ Innovation
CUEGIS is an acronym for “big
picture” concepts that we use ▶ Strategy
in Business Management. ▶ 6 concepts that are the “big ideas” that we use
to study Business Management
▶ Everything relates to CUEGIS!
CUEGIS + Business Management
work together
How?

1. You learn information about real business situations by reading a case study or
watching a video, e.g. the Heinz Millennium Project
2. You choose (or are assigned) a CUEGIS concept and apply it a business case
▶ e.g. the Heinz case shows that companies change their organizational structure to deal
with competitors and to serve customers better (concepts of change and strategy)

The challenge: Always look for ways a business case study connects to:
- CUEGIS concepts
- Content we learn in class
Football

▶ In Football, there’s a set of rules to follow, along with

strategies that are consistently used. If we studied it, the
“big ideas” of football might look like this:
▶ Game play (Rules of the game)
▶ Kicking
▶ Passing
▶ Running
▶ Training and practice
▶ Strategy

We might watch a game in the future, study past games and

teams to improve our performance and enjoyment of the sport.
Dance
▶ If we were to study Dance, we might make it easier to study
with organizing principles:
▶ Rhythm
▶ Body movement
▶ Sound
▶ Choreography
▶ Costume
▶ Creativity
We might watch musicals or dance performances to understand
all about Dancing.

Quick task: Being a student
What “big ideas” could you talk
about as a student?
Create a CUEGIS-like
framework of big ideas you
might use to help someone
become an expert at the
subject of being a student.
How would your framework
help you study the activity?
Two things to remember...

▶ CUEGIS will be used in class → Focus on understanding the concepts instead of

memorizing them!

▶ Definitions come next – make sure to revisit them from time to time during the
course.
▶ Most, if not all, things that we learn about in this course will come with a definition sheet
that you can refer to as you review for quizzes, tests and exams
In other words…

▶ The whole IB Business Management course can be organized in two ways:

▶ CUEGIS concepts
▶ According to the syllabus

▶ At the end of the course, you will:

▶ See ways that businesses are affected by the 6 CUEGIS concepts
▶ Be able to analyze how CUEGIS concepts affect businesses
▶ Be aware of the role of Change, Culture, Ethics, Globalization, Innovation and Strategy
▶ Be able to ask and answer questions on how a concept relates to a given situation
Change

▶ Competition, new technologies and markets, and trends in consumer

behaviour that lead businesses to adapt their objectives, strategies and
operations.
▶ Success emerges from the ability to research and respond to signals in both
the internal and external environment.

In your notes: Rewrite Sentence 1 into something that you can remember.
Culture
▶ Values and backgrounds in an organization that influence how a business works and
what people involved in a business prioritize.
▶ Example: It’s okay to make mistakes

▶ Every organization is made up of people that decide what to prioritize (e.g.

customers, products, profit). These expectations of what to focus on affect planning,
decision-making and strategy implementation.

In your notes: Rewrite Sentence 1 into something that you can remember.
Classroom policies group chart: What should our classroom culture look like?
Ethics

▶ Moral implications that accompany business decisions.

▶ Consequences of ethics can be significant for people involved with the business, as well
as the natural environment.

In your notes: Rewrite Sentence 1 into something that you can remember.
Classroom policies group chart: How do we act ethically when we interact with each other?
Globalization

▶ A wide range of international forces (social, cultural, technological and economic)

that influence business organizations.
▶ Business organizations also shape these forces.
▶ Many business organizations operate across national boundaries. Even local
businesses and consumers are influenced by global forces.
Innovation

▶ Incremental or radical improvements to a business idea, or the generation

of new ideas in relation to a final product, service or process, are the result
of internal or external influences.
▶ For many business organizations, a key challenge is bringing in ”the new”
and managing the process of improvement in a sustainable way.
Strategy

▶ Long-term planning decisions that organizations make in order to meet the

needs and wants of their stakeholders.
▶ Strategy is about asking questions: what, why, when, how, where and who?
 Chart 1: Explain the concept of Change and give an
example.

Chart 2: How does Culture affect business

decisions.

Things to think Chart 3: What’s an example of an ethical decision

about
in the classroom?

Chart 4: How has Globalization impacted your

education?
Chart rotations
Chart 5: Identify two Innovations that you’ve seen
recently.

Chart 6: Explain what Strategy might look like for a

business.