I.B. BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT.

If you want to get top marks on your IB Business & Management course you have to be able to synthesize and evaluate well. It is classified as a ‘ higher order skill’ and so gains high marks for students who can do it well.

So what is it,  how do you do it and when do you need to do it?

It is one of the courses’  ‘Assessment Objectives’, AO3 in particular.

According to the syllabus, synthesis and evaluation:-

“ …..require students to rearrange component ideas into a new whole and make judgments based on evidence or a set of criteria”. (P21 Business & Management syllabus.)

Synthesis is the process by which a seemingly disparate set of ideas and concepts is brought together into a simplified whole. Evaluation involves making a balanced judgement based on evidence.

What do you need to apply it to? Business strategies and practices or decisions. It requires critical thinking and formulating recommendations at the end of the process.

Examples of the type of decisions might be a business:-

Launching a new product, entering a new market, deciding to downsize and delayer,  implementing a new production process, or deciding to merge with another company. The possible scenarios are endless.

When and where do you need to do it? Whenever you see the following ‘command terms’ in the exam:-

And in these sections of the exam and internal assessment:-

How do you do it? Well it is quite hard, especially under the limited time of examination conditions,and requires practice.

A number of approaches can be taken:-

1. Focus on the different stakeholders in the business – investors, employees, shareholders, suppliers, the local community etc.  Which ones benefit and lose out from the decision or strategy and why? What are the short and long run effects on these stakeholders? List the stakeholders from most affected, to least affected and why.
2. Focus on how the different functional departments are affected by the decision or strategy. The Marketing, Finance, Operations (Production) and Human Resources departments. How will they be affected by the strategy? What policies will they need to implement and will this be positive or negative for the company?
3. Focus on the impact of the decision or strategy on the company financial statements, the Profit & Loss Account, the Balance Sheet and the Cash Flow Statement. Will the decision increase or decrease revenues and costs (the Profit & Loss Account)? Will it have a positive or negative impact on working capital or on the overall valuation of the company (Balance Sheet)? Will it increase or decrease net cash flow (Cash Flow Statement)?

As you can see, this is quite a difficult thing to to do, but is possible with lots of practice!