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Business Studies From a Pupils Perspective

Business studies poster

This trophy is given out to the best pupil of the week

These are the jobs that we are inspired to do.

Some headlines from the newspapers that give us infomation on the business world.

WHAT KEEPS THE TEACHER AWAKE DURING THE DAY!!!

How the face of sport changed in the 'noughties'.

Just been reading an interesting article about how the last 10 years have made sport almost unrecognisable to what it was at the turn of the century in where it is played and how it is watched. Recently, Brazil have played a friendly against England in Doha, Australia and New Zealand contested the rugby Bledisloe Cup in Hong Kong and NFL have started recent regular-season games at Wembley. And people who once could only watch on TV if they couldn't attend games can now watch via High Definition, the Internet or on their phone. A survey by Motorola in America two years ago found 45% of people would rather watch an NFL game on HD than actually bother going to the game!

Here are some interesting figures from the article:

25 - times more income from the World Cup TV rights in 2010 ($2.3bn) than 1990 (£92m) - coinciding with growth of pay-TV.

58% - the increase in sports sponsorship in Asia over the last four years - roughly double the growth rate in Europe and the United States

6 - of the top 10 sponsorship deals worldwide in 2008 were by Nike or Adidas.

62% - of football fans in the UK use all the following media to keep in touch: TV, newspapers, magazines, internet, radio and mobile phone

The rate of technological change seems to be having a huge impact on the rate of sporting change.

How British Airways staff reacted to strike action

The video below which has been posted on Youtube shows the joy which met British Airways staff decision to to go on strike. 92% voted in favour of strike action. One worker asked the question if they could be sacked and a lawyer responded by saying the staff had protection for 12 weeks - if they were sacked during this time, they would have an immediate "unfair dismissal" claim which would be very expensive for British Airways.

Following on from my post about referees yesterday and their influence over an organisation, this is British Airways employees using the withdrawl of their labour as a way of influencing the business.

The issue for the employees is how the public react. Passengers affected by a 12-day strike over Christmas are not likely to be overly sympathetic to their decision.

Referees threaten 24 hour strike

Recently, I have been covering stakeholders of an organisation and their aims and influences. A stakeholder is someone with an interest in the success or failure of an organisation and can be internal (e.g. employee, owner etc.) or external (e.g. bank, customer, government etc.).

I was interested today to read that one of Scottish footballs main stakeholders are ready to wield their influence by threatening to go one a 24-strike. Their aim is to stop recent attacks on their professionalism and integrity and their influence is that they can withdraw their labour as referees therefore meaning games can't be played.

A nice example of stakeholder aims and influences.......

Gillette "distance" themselves from Woods

Following Tiger Woods announcement that he was taking an indefinite break from golf, Gilette have become the first major sponsor to distance themselves from him. They claim the move was out of respect for his privacy and will involve phasing him out of their television and print advertising as well as public appearances. The saga rumbles on....

Follow up to Tiger Woods story......

PepsiCo, owners of Gatorade, have decided to drop a Tiger Woods-endorsed product. However, they have said that the decision was taken a few months ago and has nothing to do with the allegations surrounding the golfer. Reports of the drink being dropped were first reported two days before Woods crashed his car in an industry magazine but the timing is bound to raise suspicion.

In other news, the last prime-time advert featuring Tiger Woods was a 30-second Gillette advert on 29 November, 10 days ago.

Do you think bankers deserve big bonuses?

Despite the US economy experiencing its worst year in 30 years, Goldman Sachs are likely to announce pay and bonuses for its bankers of $19 billion (£11.4 billion). In Britain, 5000 bankers are in line to collect more than £1m each despite millions of people being out of work as a result of the recession.

Goldman Sachs have enjoyed a fantastic year and their three leading executives will receive multi-million dollar payouts after not taking bonuses last year due to the business making a loss between October and December of that year.

The bonus culture has been attacked in both the USA and UK as a reason for the near collapse of the financial system as bankers took reckless risks. Bonuses are particularly sensitive for banks who took government money to bail them out during the worst of the crisis, Goldman Sachs being one of them.

An arguement continues in London as to whether staff in the invest part of RBS should receive bonuses worth £1.5 billion, when the RBS is 70% owned by the state after a taxpayer bailout.

Do Tesco name badges develop brand loyalty?

I have recently been working with my Higher Business Management class on Marketing and one of the areas we have been looking at is brand loyalty. A few months ago, I noticed that the staff in Tescos have started to wear badges which not only included their name, but also a phrase "I like...." followed by something like socialising, football, dancing etc. as well as a picture and when they joined the team.

On the way home tonight, I stopped at Tescos and on the way through the checkout, I couldn't help ask the assistant what the purpose of the badge was. She seemed somewhat shocked that I asked which was ironic considering the purpose is to give the customer some information with which to engage the assistant in conversation. She told me that during her induction training, she was asked to name something she liked doing and a picture which represented her. She went for "I like socialising" and a picture of a musical note as she likes music.

Does it make me more loyal to the Tesco brand? Probably not but it was nice to have some sort of human interaction during the shopping experience rather than the faceless nature of using the self-service machines which seem to be cropping up in all supermarkets.

Would knowing a person's name and interests encourage you to use the same supermarket?

How will sponsors react to Tarnished Tiger?

Tiger Woods is the wealthiest sportsman in the world, not simply because of his golfing talent but because of the big businesses that pay him to advertise their products. With sponsors such as Nike (they signed their first contract with him in 1996), Gatorade and Gillette, Woods has made more money off the green than on it. Last year he earned $23 million from golf tournaments - he made $100 million sponsorship deals.

However, allegations surrounding his private life since he crashed his car last week have tarnished his previously perfect image and his future earnings will depend on how the sponsors react. Nike and Gatorade seem to have offered Woods their full support but Gillette have not committed themselves to what they may do in future. Other major sponsors such as Tag Heuer, although continuing to use Woods in advertising campaigns, have been "unavailable for comment" when asked to discuss the situation.

Woods has become the first athlete in history to earn $1 billion in a sporting career and his success (and attraction to sponsors) in being a black player in a black player in a traditionally white sport has raised the profile of golf greatly.