HSC Business Studies Question Thread

[Asereta]

Can anyone explain debentures to me? Looking at different sources, they seem to have different definitions and I can't get my head around it.

[Mada438]

Can anyone explain debentures to me? Looking at different sources, they seem to have different definitions and I can't get my head around it.

Hey, so debentures are issued by companies for FIXED interest rates and time periods and they deal with security
Business profits have no effect on the interest rate (its FIXED) and is commonly used for buildings (shopping centers, warehouses, etc).
Hope this helps!

Mod Edit: Links removed. Reminder that linking to other forums is not allowed!

[abhuiyan01]

Hi everyone,
I have an assignment which requires me to find three articles and relate it to three operations influences, each paired up with a business strategy. I've decided to work on globalisation, technology and cost-based leadership but I'm not too sure on what strategy to pair up with each influence. Can anyone suggest strategies I can work on and articles that I can relate to?

[Opengangs]

Hi everyone,
I have an assignment which requires me to find three articles and relate it to three operations influences, each paired up with a business strategy. I've decided to work on globalisation, technology and cost-based leadership but I'm not too sure on what strategy to pair up with each influence. Can anyone suggest strategies I can work on and articles that I can relate to?

Hey, abhuiyan01!
Welcome to the forums, and I hope this community serves you well with your HSC

Globalisation is a big deal when it comes to the influence on the management of operations; it may adversely hinder the business' management as raw products may become more expensive as the economic scale becomes more integrated. At the same time, it may be beneficial to the business because they can import and export goods and services to a wider market (leading to an improved marketing range). It's very difficult for a business to automatically go global because there are so many factors that come into play when we're discussing a global market.

We'll discuss a few influences globalisation has on the operations management, and then some strategies to overcome these hurdles.

Hurdle 1: Management
When a business goes global, they will need to maintain a high level of management - it's a lot different to just staying nationally as there are a lot more pressures with a global market (but it also provides an increased market). As a result, the whole management may need to be redesigned to suit the new environment of the global market. This is where businesses introduce a strategy, economies of scale. This strategy improves the production of means as it reduces costs as the total output increases. Businesses may choose to buy in "bulk", which is considerably cheaper than buying per unit as the total cost in bulk is spread across the total number of outputs.

To understand economies of scale, think of ordering items in bulk as opposed to single units. You may see that in a supermarket, there is a discounted price for fruits that are packed in packs of 3 that costs $4, while a regular fruit may cost $1.50. In the same way, the operations management may choose to use economies of scale to reduce the total costs by buying in bulk. In this way, there is an improvement in the operations management by reducing costs.

Hurdle 2: Keeping up
When a business starts out as a global business, they'll run into trouble with keeping up with enterprises and companies that have already established themselves in the global market. In this way, it's often very difficult for them to keep up with the global market and they may begin to lose money quicker than they earn. Businesses have since employed two specific strategies: scanning and learning and research and development.

Scanning and learning revolves around observation; being able to observe the management of well established companies is a big way for businesses to correct and facilitate their management so that they are able to keep up with the global market. It often involves bench marking their own production for a few years and then setting up goals. It allows the business to thrive within the global market.

On the other hand, research and development refers to the research of a business' market and then developing products based around consumer needs. Being able to know what sort of products they need to deliver at a global level allows them to be ahead of the other businesses in tailoring their production based around their own consumer market. In turn, it improves efficiency and management as it reduces cost and waste.

You can find some case studies on globalisation for: Coca-Cola, Apple (jump down to "The ideology of Apple" for more relevance with operations) and Qantas (although, this is a little outdated since it's 7 years old).

If you're confused about where to start with the other two, I suggest you start by thinking about how this influences the business as a whole. When you get a good idea of its effect on the business as a whole, you can begin to think a bit more specifically about how it directly affects the production of goods and services.

If you're still confused about anything, let me know and I'll be glad to answer it! Good luck

[abhuiyan01]

Hey, abhuiyan01!
Welcome to the forums, and I hope this community serves you well with your HSC

Globalisation is a big deal when it comes to the influence on the management of operations; it may adversely hinder the business' management as raw products may become more expensive as the economic scale becomes more integrated. At the same time, it may be beneficial to the business because they can import and export goods and services to a wider market (leading to an improved marketing range). It's very difficult for a business to automatically go global because there are so many factors that come into play when we're discussing a global market.

We'll discuss a few influences globalisation has on the operations management, and then some strategies to overcome these hurdles.

Hurdle 1: Management
When a business goes global, they will need to maintain a high level of management - it's a lot different to just staying nationally as there are a lot more pressures with a global market (but it also provides an increased market). As a result, the whole management may need to be redesigned to suit the new environment of the global market. This is where businesses introduce a strategy, economies of scale. This strategy improves the production of means as it reduces costs as the total output increases. Businesses may choose to buy in "bulk", which is considerably cheaper than buying per unit as the total cost in bulk is spread across the total number of outputs.

To understand economies of scale, think of ordering items in bulk as opposed to single units. You may see that in a supermarket, there is a discounted price for fruits that are packed in packs of 3 that costs $4, while a regular fruit may cost $1.50. In the same way, the operations management may choose to use economies of scale to reduce the total costs by buying in bulk. In this way, there is an improvement in the operations management by reducing costs.

Hurdle 2: Keeping up
When a business starts out as a global business, they'll run into trouble with keeping up with enterprises and companies that have already established themselves in the global market. In this way, it's often very difficult for them to keep up with the global market and they may begin to lose money quicker than they earn. Businesses have since employed two specific strategies: scanning and learning and research and development.

Scanning and learning revolves around observation; being able to observe the management of well established companies is a big way for businesses to correct and facilitate their management so that they are able to keep up with the global market. It often involves bench marking their own production for a few years and then setting up goals. It allows the business to thrive within the global market.

On the other hand, research and development refers to the research of a business' market and then developing products based around consumer needs. Being able to know what sort of products they need to deliver at a global level allows them to be ahead of the other businesses in tailoring their production based around their own consumer market. In turn, it improves efficiency and management as it reduces cost and waste.

You can find some case studies on globalisation for: Coca-Cola, Apple (jump down to "The ideology of Apple" for more relevance with operations) and Qantas (although, this is a little outdated since it's 7 years old).

If you're confused about where to start with the other two, I suggest you start by thinking about how this influences the business as a whole. When you get a good idea of its effect on the business as a whole, you can begin to think a bit more specifically about how it directly affects the production of goods and services.

If you're still confused about anything, let me know and I'll be glad to answer it! Good luck

Hey. Just read what you sent and it was really helpful. I really appreciate it as I now feel more confident about my assignment. I also wanted to ask what strategies I can discuss for technology and cost-based competition.

Mod edit: Fixed layout

[Nadim]

Hello! Could someone please tell me the most efficient way to study for the topic of finance and maybe any tips regarding the topic itself? Thanks 

[fantasticbeasts3]

Hello! Could someone please tell me the most efficient way to study for the topic of finance and maybe any tips regarding the topic itself? Thanks 

hey Nadim!

i found the best way to study for finance was past papers. a lot of them. doing as many questions as possible really helped with my understanding of the content. :-) as with the other topics, i used acronyms to try and memorise the syllabus, which helped so much, and cut out a lot of cramming, which allowed more time to actually do questions. :-)

but pretty much, past papers are the way to go - get them marked, discuss questions with your peers.

hope this helps!

[isaacdelatorre]

Hello! Could someone please tell me the most efficient way to study for the topic of finance and maybe any tips regarding the topic itself? Thanks 

Hi Nadim,

I'm a big advocate for everyone finding their own way of studying that they find most efficient and comfortable.
For me, that was reading the material (or a summary) and highlighting the key words/strategies (once i knew what the word was - I could remember/infer what the strategy/influence was) Then its just a matter of applying content.
I am horrible memoriser so I try to understand the content not so that I can regurgitate the syllabus in order; but I can see the problem and choose the most suitable strategy. The way I studied is to find causal links between concepts --> how an influence affects the business then how that makes businesses use strategies to combat external change.

This is just my way of studying; I 100% agree with fantastic beasts on this too - cramming out as many past papers and questions is an amazing way to study too since you get practice on how to answer questions as well as constantly having to recall and apply the material.

All in all find what works for you

[The Special One]

Is change management still a thing? I remember my exam was almost entirely change management which was so annoying.

I think the study guide changed o hopefully there's less emphasis on it this time around.

[emilyygeorgexx]

Is change management still a thing? I remember my exam was almost entirely change management which was so annoying.

I think the study guide changed o hopefully there's less emphasis on it this time around.

Yep! More of a focus in the Year 11 syllabus though.

[The Special One]

Yep! More of a focus in the Year 11 syllabus though.

Hmmm well I'm glad to see the focus is  lessening

Remembering those twelve steps to effective change management was a huge drag

[RuiAce]

Is change management still a thing? I remember my exam was almost entirely change management which was so annoying.

I think the study guide changed o hopefully there's less emphasis on it this time around.

For starters, there is no such thing as a study guide in NSW. What's called the study DESIGN in the VCE is considered a SYLLABUS in the HSC. Please do not provide misleading content in the future to any of the HSC students without fully understanding the situation.

However you feel about change management is however you want to feel about it, and be it good or bad you're entitled to your own opinion.
 That is definitely not sufficient to simply talk about the NSW syllabus, as though you're an expert on it, when you don't know its proper name.

[The Special One]

For starters, there is no such thing as a study guide in NSW. What's called the study DESIGN in the VCE is considered a SYLLABUS in the HSC. Please do not provide misleading content in the future to any of the HSC students without fully understanding the situation.

However you feel about change management is however you want to feel about it, and be it good or bad you're entitled to your own opinion.
 That is definitely not sufficient to simply talk about the NSW syllabus, as though you're an expert on it, when you don't know its proper name.

Huh I have no idea this was the HSC forum lol.

I thought it was VCE business management 3/4 don't know why I'm getting HSC forums on my feed.

You guys have it easy but I think you could have saved yourself some to d by looking at the uni I'm attending and just said I posted in the wrong forums and to disregard the above hahaha

Didn't know things were so serious on the HSC forum

[Potatohater]

Huh I have no idea this was the HSC forum lol.

I thought it was VCE business management 3/4 don't know why I'm getting HSC forums on my feed.

You guys have it easy but I think you could have saved yourself some to d by looking at the uni I'm attending and just said I posted in the wrong forums and to disregard the above hahaha

Didn't know things were so serious on the HSC forum

Hey there, just a handy tip - make sure to look at the board the topic is in to avoid this confusion in the future. All of them are marked either HSC or VCE. Another thing you can do is click "show unread VCE posts since last visit" which will cut out all the HSC things for you.

[The Special One]

Hey there, just a handy tip - make sure to look at the board the topic is in to avoid this confusion in the future. All of them are marked either HSC or VCE. Another thing you can do is click "show unread VCE posts since last visit" which will cut out all the HSC things for you.

Cheers for the heads up.