Mr Marcus McGowan MSc PgDip BA (Hons)

This Business Education Learning Blog is aimed primarily at Higher Business Management students/teachers and ICT students/teachers.

The aim of this blog is to provide you with interesting articles, news, trivia as well as resources or links to materials which will help in your course of study.

I am a Teacher of Business Education and I have written for Education Scotland and BBC Bitesize.

If you'd like to contact me please click on the link to: email me

Tuesday 30 April 2013

The end of Tablet PCs are near... according to Blackberry's CEO

Blackberry’s CEO Thorsten Heins, predicts that tablet PCs will soon be a thing of the past and will be taken over by smartphones.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/blackberry-ceo-tablets-will-be-dead-in-five-years/2013/04/30/dd3b6446-b18d-11e2-bbf2-a6f9e9d79e19_story.html?wprss=rss_social-postbusinessonly&Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

 

Personally I am unsure as smartphone screens are still too small and give many people (me included) eye strain. So personally, I think his argument may be flawed.

Monday 29 April 2013

Graphology

In Higher Business Management graphology is mentioned briefly as a selection method in Human Resources. While the UK and USA experts do not think it is a valid, France (and Poland for that matter) take it a bit more seriously.

 

Here is an article from the BBC here.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22198554

 

Also remember to look at the differences in Richard Nixon’s signature (I have put it on the blog before). One that was taken when he was newly elected, and later when he was under severe stress of the Watergate scandal. There is an incredible difference.

 

Saturday 20 April 2013

Business Facts

QANTAS is not a made up word designed to be unique because of no ‘U’ after ‘Q’ as is often said.

 

In fact it stands for Queensland And Northern Territories Aerial Service!

 

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Samsung behind bad reviews of HTC?

Websites that allow customers to review products and services are often criticised for allowing unfair or even fraudulent activity to appear. Trip Advisor has many counts of potential false reviews by hotel rivals. Now it seems that this dark practice has spread to the world of electronics.

 

Fair-trade officials in Taiwan are looking into reports that Samsung paid people to criticise rival HTC online. Samsung is alleged to have hired students to post negative comments about phones made by Taiwan's HTC.

 

Samsung, based in South Korea, said the "unfortunate incident" had gone against the company's "fundamental principles".

 

If found guilty of engaging in "false advertising", Samsung and its local agent could face fines of up to of 25m Taiwanese dollars (£547,000).

 

Read more here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22166606

 

Customer review based websites are excellent in my opinion. For example, I always look at Trip Advisor when looking to book hotels in a strange or foreign city. How do such websites prevent false or unfair reviews from appearing? At the same time we do have to allow criticism to appear. If every review had to be approved then all the firms would do is publish positive reviews and reject negative ones.

 

It has certainly changed consumer behaviour, so it is still a relatively new concept, but in my opinion a welcome one.

Tesco to pull out of the USA

Talking of strategic decisions in Higher Business Management, here is a real life one from Tesco – the UK’s largest supermarket.

 

Tesco's annual profits have fallen for the first time in almost 20 years, as it confirmed it was pulling out of the US.

 

Tesco is winding up its US chain of 199 Fresh & Easy shops, which have never made a profit, at a cost of £1.2bn. The company has also announced a one-off UK property write-down of £804m. Pre-tax profits were down 51% to £1.96bn, but post-tax profits including the cost of the US exit were just £120m, down 95.7%.

 

Tesco said sales at UK stores in the past three months, excluding fuel and VAT sales tax, rose 0.5%, a slowdown from growth of 1.8% in the six weeks to 5 January when the company hailed strong Christmas trading.

 

Read more here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22179255

 

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Bad Idea: Pupil Pitches

So what products/ideas have the pupils come up with?

 

You can check it out here.

 

Here is Alice’s idea: http://www.bloomvc.com/project/The-Check-U-Later

 

And here is Louise’s idea: http://www.bloomvc.com/project/The-Ultimate-Phone-Accessory-Cover-It

 

Bad Idea

Two of our stellar S6 Higher Business Management pupils, Louise Christie and Alice Wilkinson, have reached the semi finals of the first ever Bad Idea competition held at Glasgow Caledonian University.

 

Pupils come up with an idea for a product and then have to deliver a 5 minute presentation to potential investors.

 

Hamilton Grammar School are very proud of our competitors and we wish them all the best and hopefully they will qualify for the final and be in the running for the £3,000 grand prize.

 

http://local.stv.tv/glasgow/magazine/221178-bad-idea-project-with-u18-helps-young-people-into-business/

 

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