What's your job title?

For any of my classes who have studied the role of the Human Resources Department, they know the importance that the job title plays in the job description to attract possible new employees. People want and expect their job title to reflect their level of seniority or responsibility.

With the current economic doom and gloom having a negative effect on salaries, could the lure of a fancy job title be they way of keeping staff motivated? Examples from the Plain English Campaign, a campaigning group against jargon and misleading public information, include the following:

• Ambient Replenishment Controller = Shelf stacker
• Regional Head of Services, Infrastructure and Procurement = Caretaker
• Revenue Protection Officers = Ticket inspectors
• Waste Removal Engineer = Binman
• Education Centre Nourishment Production Assistant = Dinner lady
• Vision Clearance Engineer = Window cleaner

However, a director at thinktank Policy Exchange thinks the pressure on public finances could signal the end for bizarre job titles as people will be more focussed on what people do and their titles. Both the private and public sector will have to focus on their core business. However, it does seem that the days of the self-evident career - the butcher, baker etc. - are all but gone.

P.S. I am not a teacher anymore, I am a knowledge navigator!

Civil servants to strike over redundancy terms

Up to 270,000 civil servants, including Jobcente staff, tax workrs and coastguards, are planning a two day strike in early March in a dispute over cuts to public sector redundancy terms. The Public and Commercial services union who represent the workers balloted the staff earlier this month and 64% voted for stoppages and 81% backing an overtime ban. The 2 day walkout could be followed by a series of rolling strikes through March and April, just weeks before the expected date of the general election.

Best of luck to my Higher Business Management class

Yes, it is Friday night at 8.14pm and yes, I am writing on my blog. But please remember, the other option tonight is Eastenders Live!

Just wanted to say the best of luck to my Higher Business Management class for their prelim on Monday.

Thousands of prices cut - but your shopping still costs more?

Last November, Asda and Tesco started a price war in the lead up to Christmas by announcing they were cutting millions of pounds off prices. Tesco would cut prices by £250m and Asda by £150m. In order to meet their end-of-year profit targets, supermarkets need to entice customers who are likely to spend more in the lead up to the festive period to shop in their store.

However, data provided by third party analysts and published in Saturdays Guardian newspaper has shown that as well as the thousands of cut prices the supermarkets promoted, they also showed thousands of price rises, some of them doubling the price of key purchases. Between 9 and 22 December (the period when most people would do their big festive shop), Asda increased prices on more than 2,000 lines and Tesco on over 1,500.

Whether a shopper was affected positively or negatively is difficult to quantify - it would be dependent on what the shopper bought. The averages of price increases and cuts can also be affected by changes on high value items e.g. if a supermarket cuts the price of a crate of beer in half as a loss leader offering a saving of several pounds, and cuts thousands of other products by just 1p, the number of cuts and the average saving may look attractive but give virtually nothing to those not buying beer.

Both supermarkets denied the claim that they were deliberately forcing up prices in the run up to Christmas, claiming that in the majority of cases it was due to products that had been discounted coming off promotion or by suppliers increasing wholesale prices to the retailer. However, a professor at the Office of Fair Trading suggested that the number and size of the rises showed both Tesco and Asda were using the Christmas period to get as much profit as possible out of people who were too busy to shop elsewhere. He pointed out that rises were targeted at heavy store cupboard goods and holiday essentials - Pepsi (up 56% in Asda), Duracell batteries (up 102.7% in Asda), Nurofen tablets (up 33.3% in Tesco) and Beefeater Gin (up 37.6% in Tesco).

A 5 year study of prices at Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons conducted by Loughborough University has found the most common price cut among the top 4 supermarkets is just 1p. Although these low cuts might seem pointless and have little impact on the price of someone's shopping, it enables the supermarkets to claim they are cutting the cost of thousands of lines. In actual fact, over the 5 years, these cuts have helped mask large increases in a smaller number of lines which have had a much greater impact on shopping bills. Supermarket behaviour at Christmas in those 5 years has also shown that although they have heavily discounted headline, loss-leading products like alcohol and turkey, they have significantly raised the prices of other goods at the same time.

Rooney and his working class "brand"

It has emerged during a court case that Wayne Rooney was to be "branded" as the complete opposite of David Beckham - a street striker, a product of the terraces, earthy, real, not manufactured, what you see is what you get! His working class credentials were part of the "brand values" given to the then 17 year old Rooney as his agent negotiated multi-million pound contracts to endorse products and firms such as Coca-Cola, Asda and Nike.

The details have emerged as part of a court case where Rooney, his wife and agent are being sued by his formed sports management firm for £4.3million in lost commission payments.

Advertising - London style

I am always amazed when I am in London how many innovative ways there are to advertise and promote products - it always seems so much more creative than the usual billboard we tend to see up here.

This is an advert for Coke Zero at Old Street roundabout, a roundabout on the border of Hackney and Islington which links the City of London, West London, East London and North London - many potential customers pass by here every day. I just think it is so striking to incorporate the advert for the product it into a modern style sculpture.

An interesting fact - the roundabout is also known as the Silicon Roundabout due to the prominence of British web based companies.

Stung by computerised stock control!

I was down in London at the weekend seeing friends and was staying in a Holiday Inn. Passing the morning away on the Saturday before I went out, I had a look at the price list for the room's mini bar. Needless to say, I was absolutely shocked at the mark-up on the different drinks and snacks and thought it would be a good idea to take some pictures to show my various Business Management classes as we work our way through the Marketing units.

So I took out some Pringles, Coca-Cola, some white wine, red wine, a small bottle of Courvioisier Cognac and proceeded to take some shots. I didn't have a clue (though the heading at the top of the price list should have given it away) that the fridge used a computerised system whereby everytime you took a product out of the fridge, it would charge it to your room bill. Even if you put it back!!

When I went to settle my bill on Sunday, it was with some embarrassment that I had to explain that I had not in fact drunk or eaten anything from the bar, but had in fact been taking photographs to show my pupils about pricing methods back in Scotland. They didn't charge me!

Good luck to my S4!

The best of luck to my S4 Administration class who are sitting their prelim exam tomorrow (Friday 5 February) and my S4 Business Management class who are sitting theirs on Monday (8 February).

You have all worked hard and I am confident you will all do yourselves proud.

Business Dictionary

While trawling the internet to find new and innovative things to incorporate into the blog to help my classes learning, I came across a Business Dictionary which may prove useful. It is a glossary of business terms and definitions which includes the main terminology used in business, plus many more unusual, interesting and amusing words and expressions found in business and management, and the wider world of work and modern life.

I have posted the link on the menu bar opposite - hope it is of some use to you!

How a lack of quality checks can affect a business

Toyota have announced that a massive vehicle recall due to uncontrolled acceleration could cost them up to £1.25 billion in lost output and the check might need to spread from the US and Europe to the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. 1.8 million cars were recalled across Europe while another 2.3 million cars have been recalled in the US over the last four months. 5 millions vehicles in the US were also recalled for another similar problem. The effect of the recall on the world's largest car maker is likely to seriously affect its 2010 sales forecasts.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Toyota defends car recall delay

Pupil led Business Magazine up and running

One of my Higher Business Management pupils told me a couple of months ago that she liked the idea of possibly editing a newspaper in the future. It just so happened that at that point I was looking at ways to start some sort of pupil-led online Business Magazine to encourage participation from pupils outside of the classroom. Talking it through with the pupil, we identified several pupils in S2 Business Management who we thought could take on the role of reporters with the senior pupil being responsible for setting deadlines, editing work and getting the project up and running.

Having been subjected first hand to a probing interview by one of the team's roving reporters and read a couple of their first articles, I am confident this is a project which will develop and provide all involved with some great skills that they can take forward in their schooling - teamworking, working to deadlines, communication skills etc. I have given full editorial responsibility to the group and act only as a contact should they wish any help or support.

The group aim to get their magazine link placed on the school website and hope to develop a strong and loyal readership. Please click on the link Pupil Business Magazine to read their first articles. Please feel free to leave some comments.