Business Studies

Business Studies is a subject of variety. The content is broad ranging, considering issues as diverse as accountancy and people management. Its students need to be both expressive and numerate. In some respects, the subject’s name does not reflect the true nature of the course. Although businesses are the focus for applied thinking, the course introduces students to issues that they may face in everyday life: for example, how a negative cash flow is best dealt with. Since circumstance is, however, so crucial to the appropriate response to any problem, it is the business world that is used to provide such context. As a result, this is a subject that is heavily dependent on case study resources, both invented and real-life. The use of the latter is why students who regularly engage with appropriate media coverage are well placed to draw the most from the course.

There is a strong vocational feeling to this subject but there is no coursework and, despite some misinformed negative headlines in the press, the skills that have to be mastered are the same as those found in any arts subjects: application; analysis; evaluation. At the same time, with balance sheet review and forecasting among the many numerical elements of the course, students must be comfortable with figures.

Ultimately, this is a subject for those who enjoy practical thinking; problem-solving; and, importantly, debate because in Business Studies there are no ‘right’ answers, only well-justified opinion.

Business Studies at Tonbridge is studied in the Sixth Form only and follows the OCR course for A level. The take-up is usually between 15 and 20 students per year group and these are taught across two sets.

In the Lower Sixth, students study two modules. The first, ‘An Introduction to Business’, provides students with an understanding of both what a business is, what influences it and what it requires. It therefore considers the importance of added value; stakeholders; objectives and strategy; available resources; and the external environment. The second module,’ Business Functions’, takes a focused look at the business areas that need to be appropriately managed if success is to be achieved: marketing; operations; finance; and people.In the Upper Sixth, there are two more modules for students to master. One of these, ‘Business Production’, takes the study of operations to a more advanced level, with greater emphasis on the fit with overall corporate strategy. The other, ‘Strategic Management’, is the synoptic module that pulls all aspects of the two-year course together and challenges the students to appreciate how to decide on appropriate forward movement given internal constraints and external influences and, if change is required, how best to manage it; in short, it tasks the students with being the MD of a business.

Context is key: each of the four exams is case-study based. Two of the case studies are pre-issued before the exam and allow the final weeks of classroom preparation to be focused on a specific context, which brings the theory of the subject alive. The other two are unseen and pose a significant challenge to students who have to absorb the context in the exam room and respond to it. Without the skill of application, students will not achieve in this subject. Any student then considering Business Studies must have the ability to empathise. To help them do this, students are taken into the business world on trips like the one that visits the kitchens of Cook, the high street food retailer.