Experienced author, teacher and examiner Adamantia Charchalaki offers her top tips on how to support students studying Business Management for the IB Diploma for the first time. Adamantia is an author on our new Business Management for the IB Diploma series updated for the revised syllabus.
Most of our students who first join the IB Diploma know very little about the Business Management course. Some of them are not even clear about the scope of the subject and how it differs from other disciplines such as economics. It is very important to set the scene for them. Here are some tips on how to support students studying Business Management for the IB Diploma for the first time:
Α) Start by asking students why they chose business management as part of their IB Diploma programme
Ask students to get a piece of paper in which they put down the reasons why they chose the subject and what they expect to learn throughout the 2-years course. Ask them to keep this paper for later.
Β) Present the scope of the business management subject
Emphasize the fact that it is all about how businesses make decisions. Remember, at this stage, your goal is to show your students the ‘big picture’. It’s better to avoid details about assessment components and criteria. Just introduce the four basic business functions and use simple real-life examples from world-famous organizations of decisions taken by these functions. For example:
- “Coca-Cola needs to decide on the appropriate combination of promotional activities. How much should it spend on TV advertising and how much on social media promotion? This is a marketing decision”.
- “Google has decided to allow a 20% autonomy time to its engineers, aiming to motivate them and to enhance creativity and innovation in the business. This is a Human Resource Management decision”.
- “A non-profit organization such as Doctors without Borders need to find appropriate sources of finance to reach their social goals. This is a Finance decision.”
Ask your students to brainstorm on possible factors affecting such decisions. You will be surprised by your students’ answers and how they can identify determinants of business strategy such as consumer preferences, disposable income, competitive environment, nature of the industry and many more.
C) Share a recent newspaper article on a strategic business decision with your students and analyse it in class
- “PepsiCo to sell Tropicana and other juice brands for $3.3 billion” (CNBC.com)
- “Amazon Has Grown into Several Businesses, Can Tesla Do The Same?” (Insideevs.com)
- “Starbucks is about to look a lot different—and COVID-19 is only part of the reason why” (Fastcompany.com)
These are just examples of the numerous available articles that could serve as a good basis for a discussion on basic business notions. By picking up an article like that and analysing it in class, you can potentially achieve the following goals:
- Engage students in the idea of real-world business case study analysis in an interactive way.
- Introduce key business concepts such as types of business activity, sectors of the economy, strategic decisions and many more by applying them to a case study.
- Use the article for future reference when various parts of the syllabus taught link to it.
D) Introduce the assessment components and the assessment criteria
Now that your students are familiar with the scope of the subject, you can give them more details of what is expected from them. Initially, students will find it difficult to understand the assessment criteria. Use the article that you analysed in class as a basis to phrase a few questions by assessment criterion, to demonstrate how they are practically phrased.
E) Ask students to revisit their statement of their expectations of the course
It’s time for your students to reflect on their expectations about the course and ask them if their perspectives changed after this ‘scope’ introduction. Many are likely to declare more confidence and will be excited to study Business Management for the IB Diploma!
Adamantia Charchalaki has 15 years of experience in the IB Diploma. Adamatia is currently teaching Business Management and Economics at the Moraitis IB school in Greece. She is also an experienced examiner. Before becoming a teacher, Adamantia was a Finance Manager working for the shipping industry and multinational FMCG companies. You can catch up on Adamantia’s webinar ‘How to teach Business Management for the IB Diploma’ here.
Get set for exam success with Business Management for the IB Diploma series
You can find a wide range of contemporary real-world case studies as well as useful tips on examination skills in our Business Management for the IB Diploma (3rd edition) series. There are also scaffolded activities, key concept links, IB learner profile sections and Theory of Knowledge applications that help students to better understand Business Management as part of the IB Diploma programme.
