IB Business & Management.

The Key Concepts – The New Syllabus for Examinations Starting In May 2016.

 The teaching of the new syllabus should be based around three elements; the course content (the syllabus), contexts (the companies that you study throughout the course, whether they be related to your Internal Assessment, an Extended Essay, case studies that you have done in class, a company that you are familiar with) and the key concepts. See the following diagram: –

Course Key Concepts *

 Change

 A famous adage in business is that if a business does not adapt to the changing external environment, then it will die.

 Change is constantly happening, whether it be in consumer tastes, fashion, technology, culture, globalization, the external economic and social environments and the competition. Businesses are therefore having to adapt their organization, structures, aims and strategies accordingly.

One feature of the modern world is that change is accelerating.

 Culture

 The attitudes and values held by people in an organization which determine the norms, ways of thinking, courses of action and behavior of individuals in that organization.

 Businesses are located in certain countries and geographical regions, which possess their own unique cultures, attitudes and ways of doing things. However, due to globalization, these cultures are becoming increasingly interconnected and mixed up.

 Globalization

The increasing inter-connectedness of the world, economically, politically, socially, culturally and technologically.

 How businesses are increasingly selling their products, locating, conducting marketing campaigns, sourcing their finances, recruiting staff, worldwide, rather than just in their home countries.

Ethics

Relates to the decisions individuals, stakeholders and organizations make and whether they are morally right or wrong.

Innovation

In order for a business to survive, they need to innovate. This involves coming up with new ways of doing things, whether it be producing a new good or service, creating a a new production method, a new technology, a new distribution system, or a new marketing strategy. Businesses that don’t innovate cannot compete and eventually go bankrupt.

Strategy

A plan of action, usually formulated by the senior managers of a company, aimed at reaching certain goals or objectives in the future.

Your teacher should include all of these elements throughout the teaching program. These concepts are tested on Paper 2, Section C, of the final exam. More information will be provided about how  to approach this question.

*= these are my definitions / explanations of the key concepts. You may find others that are different.