HSC Business Studies Exam Thoughts: (3 Viewers)

[HoldingOn]

if you take a look on the business syllabus under 'global financial influences' its economic outlook, availability of funds and interest rates. hedging, derivatives are financial stategies

Yeah I covered all the influences and then moved onto strategies. Because the strategies themselves are an extension of the influence i.e you use strategies to manage and harness them

 

[parallaxd12]

At parallaxd12, that would also be correct because that's under influences too. I just forgot to add that point because I'm a bit tired and forgot (however, that doesn't excuse the forgetfulness). Sorry about that!

Nah it’s in strategies isn’t it? You talked about the right thing

 

[AuroraXT]

The question was something along the lines of the effect of global market influences on financial management which generally applies the syllabus of:

-Economic Outlook
-Availability of Funds
-Interest Rates

Also if you did the the Globalisation essay, it was a mixture of both the marketing syllabus and the operations syllabus as it doesn't directly state either but according the senior HSC marker, he said that since the question did not specifically ask for neither marketing or operations, both will be accepted, however the marking guidelines have been built around marketing and it will be extremely difficult to get over 15 if you chose to do operations strategies as they are a lot more difficult to link to price and quality interaction.

The syllabus dot points for the second question; something along the lines of the influence of globalisation on the interaction between price and quality includes:

Global Marketing Strategies:
-Global Branding
-Standardisation
-Customisation
-Global Pricing
-Competetive Positioning

Global Factors (Operations Strategies)
-Global Sourcing
-Economies of Scale
-Scanning and Learning
-Research and Development

 

[derrythkl]

The question was something along the lines of the effect of global market influences on financial management which generally applies the syllabus of:

-Economic Outlook
-Availability of Funds
-Interest Rates

Also if you did the the Globalisation essay, it was a mixture of both the marketing syllabus and the operations syllabus as it doesn't directly state either but according the senior HSC marker, he said that since the question did not specifically ask for neither marketing or operations, both will be accepted, however the marking guidelines have been built around marketing and it will be extremely difficult to get over 15 if you chose to do operations strategies as they are a lot more difficult to link to price and quality interaction.

The syllabus dot points for the second question; something along the lines of the influence of globalisation on the interaction between price and quality includes:

Global Marketing Strategies:
-Global Branding
-Standardisation
-Customisation
-Global Pricing
-Competetive Positioning

Global Factors (Operations Strategies)
-Global Sourcing
-Economies of Scale
-Scanning and Learning
-Research and Development

hey, for the global market influences i didnt talk about availability of funds, i instead i talked about the influence of exchange rate instead, do you think its still corrrect

 

[galaxys2000]

hey, for the global market influences i didnt talk about availability of funds, i instead i talked about the influence of exchange rate instead, do you think its still corrrect

Yes, exchange rates can also be talked about.

The syllabus dot points you needed to cover were:
1. Global Economic Outlook
2. Availability of Funds
3. Interest Rates

The floating of exchange rates is also a product of change within the global environment, and it has the ability to effect financial management in terms of managing business costs and revenue. Whilst it is technically part of strategies, you would then go on to explain how financial management has responded to this - Natural Hedging (Establishing offshore subsidiaries & Denominating trade in a single currency) and/or Financial Derivatives Hedging (Futures, Options, Swaps) If you wanted to push yourself to the upper band 6 range, you could have started talking about the sustained depreciation of the AUD and/or the currency crisis experienced in emerging economies, and this has effected financial management for businesses. If you had extra time you could have also talked about how this is an increasingly dominant influence because of globalisation and the emergence of global supply chains and trade.

1. Global economic outlook was fairly straightforward, and people who do economics should do fairly well on this (Consumer/Business confdience --> Increased levels of global consumption --> Increased demand for g/s --> Increased growth for business --> Finance managers must effectively manage cash-flow to ensure there isn't supply-chain issues. This is somewhere you can back up with stats, Eg. NAB Consumer Confidence Index, Global Economic Growth etc

2. Availability of funds was pretty straightforward as well, and you can just talk about the deregulation of financial systems as well as the payments revolution.

3. Interest rates was the meat of my essay and something that could easily push you to the upper band 6 range - Not only could you talk about the low interest rate environment, but also how the role of financial management has shifted Eg. Increasing focus on corporate buybacks following rising boardroom pressure, tightened corporate governance, and the recent rise in protectionist policies from Trump's Tariffs (Increased protection --> Reduced competition --> Businesses become complacent and instead of re-investing funds back into R&D/Employee Training, it decides to prop up its stock price). If you wanted to be extra spicy you can also extend it back to how it effects the global economic outlook [Increase in corporate buybacks --> Fuels the rise in stock prices (as seen in the 10year bull market with major indexes at all time highs) --> marginally positive effect on consumer confidence and consumption --> improved global economic outlook].

 

[HoldingOn]

Yes, exchange rates can also be talked about.

The syllabus dot points you needed to cover were:
1. Global Economic Outlook
2. Availability of Funds
3. Interest Rates

The floating of exchange rates is also a product of change within the global environment, and it has the ability to effect financial management in terms of managing business costs and revenue. Whilst it is technically part of strategies, you would then go on to explain how financial management has responded to this - Natural Hedging (Establishing offshore subsidiaries & Denominating trade in a single currency) and/or Financial Derivatives Hedging (Futures, Options, Swaps) If you wanted to push yourself to the upper band 6 range, you could have started talking about the sustained depreciation of the AUD and/or the currency crisis experienced in emerging economies, and this has effected financial management for businesses. If you had extra time you could have also talked about how this is an increasingly dominant influence because of globalisation and the emergence of global supply chains and trade.

1. Global economic outlook was fairly straightforward, and people who do economics should do fairly well on this (Consumer/Business confdience --> Increased levels of global consumption --> Increased demand for g/s --> Increased growth for business --> Finance managers must effectively manage cash-flow to ensure there isn't supply-chain issues. This is somewhere you can back up with stats, Eg. NAB Consumer Confidence Index, Global Economic Growth etc

2. Availability of funds was pretty straightforward as well, and you can just talk about the deregulation of financial systems as well as the payments revolution.

3. Interest rates was the meat of my essay and something that could easily push you to the upper band 6 range - Not only could you talk about the low interest rate environment, but also how the role of financial management has shifted Eg. Increasing focus on corporate buybacks following rising boardroom pressure, tightened corporate governance, and the recent rise in protectionist policies from Trump's Tariffs (Increased protection --> Reduced competition --> Businesses become complacent and instead of re-investing funds back into R&D/Employee Training, it decides to prop up its stock price). If you wanted to be extra spicy you can also extend it back to how it effects the global economic outlook [Increase in corporate buybacks --> Fuels the rise in stock prices (as seen in the 10year bull market with major indexes at all time highs) --> marginally positive effect on consumer confidence and consumption --> improved global economic outlook].

I thought the economics exam wasn't until next Wednesday?

 

[GetThatUpYaWaves]

does anyone have a copy of the paper?

 

[derrythkl]

Yes, exchange rates can also be talked about.

The syllabus dot points you needed to cover were:
1. Global Economic Outlook
2. Availability of Funds
3. Interest Rates

The floating of exchange rates is also a product of change within the global environment, and it has the ability to effect financial management in terms of managing business costs and revenue. Whilst it is technically part of strategies, you would then go on to explain how financial management has responded to this - Natural Hedging (Establishing offshore subsidiaries & Denominating trade in a single currency) and/or Financial Derivatives Hedging (Futures, Options, Swaps) If you wanted to push yourself to the upper band 6 range, you could have started talking about the sustained depreciation of the AUD and/or the currency crisis experienced in emerging economies, and this has effected financial management for businesses. If you had extra time you could have also talked about how this is an increasingly dominant influence because of globalisation and the emergence of global supply chains and trade.

1. Global economic outlook was fairly straightforward, and people who do economics should do fairly well on this (Consumer/Business confdience --> Increased levels of global consumption --> Increased demand for g/s --> Increased growth for business --> Finance managers must effectively manage cash-flow to ensure there isn't supply-chain issues. This is somewhere you can back up with stats, Eg. NAB Consumer Confidence Index, Global Economic Growth etc

2. Availability of funds was pretty straightforward as well, and you can just talk about the deregulation of financial systems as well as the payments revolution.

3. Interest rates was the meat of my essay and something that could easily push you to the upper band 6 range - Not only could you talk about the low interest rate environment, but also how the role of financial management has shifted Eg. Increasing focus on corporate buybacks following rising boardroom pressure, tightened corporate governance, and the recent rise in protectionist policies from Trump's Tariffs (Increased protection --> Reduced competition --> Businesses become complacent and instead of re-investing funds back into R&D/Employee Training, it decides to prop up its stock price). If you wanted to be extra spicy you can also extend it back to how it effects the global economic outlook [Increase in corporate buybacks --> Fuels the rise in stock prices (as seen in the 10year bull market with major indexes at all time highs) --> marginally positive effect on consumer confidence and consumption --> improved global economic outlook].

thanks so much for clarifying this

 

[SirLaptop]

Everything for the paper was very easy.

Bar the Section 4 questions which were more on the challenging side.

I dodged the finance question which was a bit of a mistake because after the paper I realised it was an economics essay. Instead I did the price/quality interaction essay which I felt I had a fair crack at. 3 marketing paragraphs and 2 operations paragraphs because my gut instinct said it was a marketing/operations hybrid. Each of the strategies had to be linked to price/quality interaction, so I approached the angle that globalisation has influenced businesses to adopt strategy XYZ and this has impacted on their price/quality interaction in this way.

(1) Standardisation - starbucks is the case study and standardisation prevented them from being competitive in the Australian market due to 'cafe culture' and a perception of low price and poor quality by consumers
(2) Technology - wrote about Ford as a case study, globalisation meant they had to use robots in order to stay competitive and maintain a balance between cost and quality
(3) Competitive Positioning - BMW is the case study and BMW had to reposition to a luxury market in the 80s, changing the cost/quality interaction towards quality at the expense of lower prices
(4) Price - wrote about cost based pricing with Holden as a case study, Holden had to lower their prices to stay competitive which resulted in lower quality inputs as a result, leading to decreased sales as consumers believed Holden cars were lower quality products
(5) Supply chain management - wrote about McDonalds as a case study, using global sourcing to find inputs that match the strategic role of their operations, leading to lower prices at the expense of quality.

 

[Brxxklynn]

The last extended response questions were ridiculous. The dot points they corresponded to in the syllabus were quite loosely related. I chose question 27 which was the influence of globalisation on the interaction of price and quality and only ended up writing 4 pages to my normal 6+ pages. I doubt I'd get anything over a 16