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Business & Management

Welcome to the Triple A Learning blog for DP Business & Management. The most recent blog posts are listed below and you can access the blog archive by following the appropriate link in the panel on the left.

The purpose of this blog is not to be a mouthpiece for my opinions (although I will express them) nor to be completely original (although I will sometimes attempt this), but to bring together news and views about current events relevant to the B&M programme, to stimulate debate and to include activities and assignments that I hope are useful to teachers in the delivery of the syllabus and preparation for assessment.

January 30, 2012

January 25, 2012

February 2012: Triple A Learning Business and Management workshops

Filed under: Business & Management — Tags: Business and Management workshop, IB professional development, IB Workshop, IB workshops, Triple A Learning workshops — Paul Clark @ 12:21 am

Triple A Learning is running two Business and Management workshops in February 2012. We have a new Triple A Learning Business workshop beginning on 20th February and lasting 3 weeks:

Business & Management: Teaching Accounting and Finance – this workshop has been designed to support teachers in the classroom delivering the topic. This workshop is mentored by Paul Hoang, a highly experienced classroom practitioner and author of the excellent and very popular International Baccalaureate Business and Management textbook.

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January 19, 2012

The gloss fades for Kodak as business folds

Filed under: Business & Management — Tags: assets, Liabilities — Paul Clark @ 3:28 pm

The iconic 131-year-old Kodak Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York on January 19th, after the struggling photographic film pioneer ran short of the cash needed to fund its much publicised restructuring. The former blue chip has secured $950 million in financing from Citigroup Inc. to help keep it afloat during bankruptcy proceedings. Kodak’s non-U.S. subsidiaries were not part of the bankruptcy filing.

Eastman Kodak, one of America’s best-known companies, has been one of the most innovative photography companies for more than a century from the invention of film stored in rolls to the creation of the first digital camera. The Rochester, New York-based company, which dates back to 1880s, led the way in popularising the cameras, slide projectors and home videos that preserved the memories of generations of Americans. The firm invented the hand-held camera and helped bring the world the first pictures from the moon. However, it has struggled for decades to cope with the emergence of competitors in its film business and to adapt to the rise of digital cameras from China, which destroyed much of its traditional business.

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Focused Business and Management online workshops

Filed under: Business & Management — Tags: Business and Management, IB Business and Management, IB online workshop, IB online workshops, ib resources, IB Workshop, IB workshops — Paul Clark @ 3:27 pm

Triple A Learning is developing a range of Business and Management online workshops designed to support busy teachers in the classroom and to complement our Business and Management topic BACCpacks. On the 20th February we are launching the first of these: Business & Management: Teaching Accounting and Finance. Paul Hoang, author of the very successful ‘International Baccalaureate Business and Management’ textbook, and experienced classroom practitioner will be mentoring the workshop on our behalf. There will be further opportunities to take this workshop throughout the year. If you wish to book this workshop, either follow this link, or select the IB Workshop tab above and then ‘browse our workshop calendar’.

If you are interested in purchasing any of our interactive downloadable Business BACCpacks, please follow this link or select the IB Resources tab and select the Diploma Programme BACCpacks. Our packs are an exciting new development for the IB Diploma Programme and Middle Years Programme. They apply cutting edge technology to classroom resources and offer an exciting and innovative solution to the perennial issue of what resources to use with students.

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January 18, 2012

Wikipedia protests blacks out website in piracy row

Filed under: Business & Management — Tags: Copyright, external environment, ISP, legal environment, stakeholders, technology — Paul Clark @ 1:36 pm

As digital technologies increasingly dominate personal and commercial activities, the issue of copyright protection becomes ever more controversial with stakeholder groups lining up to protect their interests. In a row dubbed by some (but denied by Wikipedia) as a clash between Hollywood and old media, and Silicon Valley, the US Congress has been attempting to enforce copyrights on the Internet, by proposing new legislative controls on internet service providers of websites that offer access to pirated material. The Congress Act, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and the Senate bill, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), have focused on targeting copyright infringers online and imposing a series of harsh penalties. The Bills would force ISPs to block non-U.S. websites accused of having infringing material, meaning sites from other countries might not be available in the United States. SOPA and PIPA are attempts to deal with the problem of online filesharing by granting powers to close down websites that are making material, such as films, music and television programmes, available without the permission of the rights holder.

In December, a group of influential technology figures, including founders of Twitter, Google and YouTube, published an open letter to lawmakers saying that the legislation would enable Internet regulation and censorship on par with the government regulation in China and Iran. They argue that ISPs should not be required to police the internet. Last month, an article in the Stanford Law Review described the bills as “an unprecedented, legally sanctioned assault on the Internet’s critical technical infrastructure”. However, the backers of the legislation, including the Motion Picture Association of America (the MPAA), the major movie studios and television networks, most major book publishers and several ISPs, say that without the legislation at least 2.2 million industry jobs would be at risk. Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp, which backs SOPA and PIPA, equated copying a film with publishing pornography and hate speech.

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January 17, 2012

Professional development with Triple A Learning’s cost-effective online workshops

There is still time to take advantage of Triple A Learning’s cost-effective online workshops. Over the last three years we have trained over 4000 IB teachers on our IB authorised workshops, at both category 1 and category 3.

Follow the links below to see the range on offer. Our next session begins on FEBRUARY 20th. Do not miss out on these…book now to update your professional training. Our interactive workshops and resources will help take your career to the next level and support your classroom practice. Our courses cover subject-specific and whole-school topics and make the in-service training budget go further.

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January 12, 2012

December 9, 2011

Using averages can be a poor marketing strategy

Filed under: Business & Management — Tags: BRIC, external environment, GDP, recession — Paul Clark @ 5:38 pm

In a time of recession, and when business confidence is low, we know consumers begin to tighten their belts and demand falls across the economy. There are several measures of recession. The US National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) defines an economic recession as: a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. Other economic bodies define recession as a contraction in GDP over two successive quarters (6 months). A depression, such as occurred in the 1930s, is both deeper and longer lasting than a recession. The US president Harry S. Truman said that a ‘recession is when your neighbour loses his job; depression is when you lose yours. ‘

The following GDP data from tradingeconomics.com graphically indicates contrasts between the economic performance of different countries and regions. Of course, the problem with measuring the overall economic performance of a country is that there are significant differences between individual groups and geographic areas within that country. Contrasting performance between groups and regions will be exacerbated when figures are provided at a global level, and it is unlikely that the message that some groups and/or countries are still doing very well, will be adequately communicated when national or international statistics are reported in the news media. For example, although Greece and Italy are in economic turmoil, significant enough to bring down their governments and to raise the spectre of national default on loans, there will be individuals and groups within those countries whose incomes are increasing substantially.

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December 6, 2011

A puzzling approach to recruitment

Filed under: Business & Management — Tags: cyber-crime, HRM, intellectual property, recruitment, security — Paul Clark @ 3:47 pm

In the days of the Cold War and James Bond, recruitment to the security services was through a clandestine ‘nod and a wink’, a tap on the shoulder or a whisper in university corridors. Historically, particularly bright students were invited for a “cup of tea and a chat” by the intelligence service. It was who knew whom, and certainly not a transparent process. However, the UK intelligence agency, MI5, has been openly advertising for recruits since the 1990s.

However, with the increasing threat of cyber-attacks on the western world, the nature of the danger to national governments is changing and security services are opening their recruitment process to self-taught hackers and mathematical geniuses; not the normal stereotypical spy recruit!

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December 1, 2011

Business and Management Case Study 2012: UWP

Filed under: Business & Management — Tags: Business and Management, case study, HL Paper 1, IB Case Study, SL Paper 1, United World Peace, United World Peace Mission, UWP — Paul Clark @ 2:34 pm

The Business and Management case study required for Higher Level Paper 1 and for Standard Level Paper 1 has just been released for the May and November 2012 examination sessions and is available from the OCC. Triple A Learning is running a new 3 week workshop to support teachers in the process of tackling this pre-seen case study with their students:

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