France Terminale STMG (management and business) — Terminale specialties

Chapters: 9

1. Law and economics — law

What is a contract for? · What does being liable mean? · How law frames paid employment · How and in what form to start a business

Tort Law: Negligence, Nuisance and Liability – A tort is a civil wrong where one person's act or carelessness harms another, and there is no contract between them. The person harmed (the claimant) can sue the wrongdoer (the defendant) for a remedy, usually money called damages. The main torts are negligence (needs duty, breach, causation and damage), occupiers' liability, nuisance and dangerous escapes. Employers can be liable for their employees' torts (vicarious liability). Defences such as contributory negligence and consent can reduce or remove liability.
Employment Law: The Rules of Working for Someone – Employment law is the set of rules for the relationship between an employer and an employee. An employment contract exists when a person does work, for pay, under the employer's direction (subordination). Contracts may be permanent, fixed-term, temporary through an agency, part-time or telework; a civil-law or freelance contract is not employment. Employees have rights (at least the minimum wage, limited hours, rest and paid leave, a safe workplace, equal treatment, freedom from harassment) and duties (careful work, following lawful instructions, loyalty, safety rules). Employers can organise work and discipline, within the law. Pay is gross before tax and social insurance and net after; the employer's total cost is higher. Trade unions negotiate collective agreements. A contract ends by resignation, dismissal with a valid reason and fair procedure, mutual agreement or the end of a fixed term.
Business Law: The Rules Every Business Must Follow – Business law is the set of rules made by government and enforced by courts that a business must follow. It decides the legal form of a business and who pays its debts (liability), when a promise becomes a contract, how workers must be treated (wages, equality, safety), what customers can demand (goods that work and are as described), and how disputes are settled.

2. Law and economics — economics

How can the state act in the economy? · The state’s influence on jobs and unemployment · Organising trade in a global economy · Growth and sustainable development

Government Intervention in Markets – Markets often work well, but they can fail: harmful goods are over-used, useful ones under-used, public goods are not provided, firms gain monopoly power, and incomes become very unequal. Governments step in with indirect taxes (which raise price and cut quantity), subsidies (which lower price and raise quantity), maximum and minimum prices, regulation, state provision of public goods and services, public ownership or privatisation, competition policy, and redistribution through taxes and benefits. They also use fiscal and monetary policy to smooth the economic cycle. Intervention can itself go wrong – this is government failure.
Unemployment: Meaning, Rate, Types, Costs and Cures – A person is unemployed when they have no job, are able to work, and are actively looking for work. The labour force is everyone who is employed plus everyone who is unemployed. The unemployment rate is the unemployed divided by the labour force, times 100. Economists sort unemployment by its cause: frictional (moving between jobs), structural (skills or places no longer match the jobs), cyclical (a slump in total demand) and seasonal (work only in some months). Unemployment costs the person income, costs the country lost output and tax, and can harm health and society. Governments fight it with spending and interest-rate policy for cyclical unemployment and with training, information and mobility for the other types. Some unemployment always remains; the lowest sustainable level is called the natural rate.
International Trade – International trade is buying and selling goods and services across the boundaries of countries. Selling abroad is export; buying from abroad is import. It helps nations (foreign exchange, growth, jobs) and firms (profit, new markets). Exports and imports follow fixed steps and need many documents, such as the letter of credit and bill of lading. The WTO (1995) makes trade rules and works to cut trade barriers.
International Trade: Basis, Balance, WTO and Ports – International trade is the exchange of goods and services between countries. It began with barter, grew along routes like the Silk Route, passed through the cruel slave trade and colonial trade, and expanded with industry. Countries trade because they differ in resources, population, development, foreign investment and transport. Balance of trade compares exports and imports. Trade can be bilateral or multilateral; free trade lowers barriers, while dumping sells goods abroad below cost. The WTO sets global rules, regional blocs group neighbours, and ports of many types act as gateways.
Environment and Sustainable Development – The environment gives us resources, soaks up our waste, supports life and gives beauty. When we take resources faster than nature renews them, or throw waste faster than it can absorb, we cross its carrying capacity and face an environmental crisis. India faces land degradation, air and water pollution, forest and biodiversity loss. Burning fossil fuels traps heat and causes global warming; CFCs thin the ozone layer. Sustainable development meets today's needs without harming the ability of future generations to meet theirs, using clean energy, less waste and traditional knowledge.

3. Management and digital — organisations and production

Which products for which needs? · Which resources to produce? · Organising production: flexibility, quality, cost · Digital change as a chance for production · Keeping an organisation coherent

Marketing Management – Marketing means finding out what buyers need and meeting that need in exchange for value, at a profit. It has many functions (research, planning, branding, labelling, packaging, pricing, promotion, distribution, service) and five philosophies (production, product, selling, marketing, societal). The marketing mix is the 4Ps: product (with branding, labelling, packaging), price (shaped by cost, demand, competition, government rules, objectives and marketing methods), place (channels and physical distribution) and promotion (advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations).
Nature and Significance of Management – Management means getting work done with and through people so that goals are reached on time (effectiveness) and at low cost (efficiency). It has organisational, social and personal objectives. It is partly a science, fully an art and not yet a full profession. It works at three levels (top, middle, lower) through five functions (planning, organising, staffing, directing, controlling), and coordination joins them all.
Operations Management: How Businesses Make Goods and Services – Operations management is how a business turns inputs (materials, workers, machines, money) into outputs (goods and services) as well as possible. Production can be job (one-off, made to order), batch (groups of the same item) or flow (non-stop mass production). Operations set objectives: low cost, high quality, speed, flexibility and care for the environment. Performance is measured with capacity (the most it can make), capacity utilisation (output ÷ capacity × 100), labour productivity (output ÷ workers) and unit cost (total cost ÷ output). The supply chain links suppliers, factory, shops and customers; push flow makes goods first, pull flow (just-in-time) makes them when ordered. Quality control checks finished goods; quality assurance and continuous improvement (kaizen) prevent faults at every stage.
Information Systems – An information system (IS) is a set of people, hardware, software, data, networks and procedures that work together to collect, store, process and share information. It turns raw data into useful information through a chain: capture, encode, send, store, process and present. Systems are built in a cycle (plan, analyse, design, build, test, run and improve). They make work faster and let many people share knowledge, but they cost money, can fail, can be hacked and can make an organisation rigid.
Organising: Process, Structures, Delegation and Decentralisation – Organising means arranging work, people and resources so that plans can be carried out. It has 4 steps: divide the work, group it into departments, assign duties and set reporting lines. The result is an organisation structure, either functional (by type of work) or divisional (by product). Besides the formal structure, an informal one grows from friendships. Delegation passes authority to a junior; decentralisation spreads decision power across all levels.

4. Management and digital — organisations and actors

Bringing an organisation’s actors together · Does digital improve customer relations? · Communicating with different stakeholders

Organisational Behaviour: Why People Act As They Do at Work – Organisational behaviour (OB) studies how individuals, groups and structures affect behaviour in an organisation, so that managers can get better results and people can feel better at work. An individual brings personality, perception and attitudes, and today also a digital identity. People pass messages through interpersonal communication, which noise and barriers can spoil. People form groups with status, roles and a sense of belonging, and share a culture with norms. Managers use authority, leadership and motivation to guide the group. When goals, resources or values clash, conflict arises; it can be handled by talking, compromise or a joint solution.
Consumer Behaviour: Why and How People Buy – Consumer behaviour is the study of how people choose, buy, use and give up goods and services. Most purchases follow five stages: need recognition, information search, evaluation of options, purchase and post-purchase feeling. Motives (need, pleasure, status, helping others) push people to buy; brakes (price, risk, habit) hold them back. Personal, psychological, social and cultural factors shape every choice. Firms collect data to build a consumer profile and target segments. Digital tools change the relationship: digital traces, personal offers, chat support, reviews and social networks, and online public services (e-government). Satisfaction comes from comparing experience with expectation, and perceived value is the benefit a buyer feels minus what they give up. Experiential marketing sells a memorable experience, not just a product.
Business Communication – A business talks with many groups called stakeholders: employees inside, and customers, investors, banks, suppliers, the community and the state outside. Each group needs a different message through a different channel. A communication strategy decides the target, the message, the channel, the timing and how to measure results. Channels can be verbal, non-verbal, written or digital. Investors and banks get financial communication and a business plan. Inside the firm, good communication supports decisions, time management and teamwork, and uses honest influence instead of manipulation.

5. Management and digital — organisations and society

Can organisations ignore social issues? · Do lifestyle changes shape organisations? · New responsibilities from digital change · Organisations and their ecosystem

Business Ethics: Concept and Elements – Business ethics are the moral rules of right and wrong that guide how a business behaves. They ask for more than the law: honesty, fairness and care for people. A firm builds ethics through five elements: top management commitment, a published code of conduct, a compliance mechanism, involving employees at all levels, and measuring results.
Social Change and Social Order in Villages and Cities – Social change means a big, lasting change in how society is organised. It can be slow (evolutionary) or sudden (revolutionary), and it can change structures, ideas or values. It is caused by the environment, technology and the economy, politics and culture. Social order is the other side: the way society keeps itself steady through shared values, domination, authority and law. Order is always challenged by contest, crime and violence. Villages, towns and cities differ in size, density and work, and each changes in its own way.
Data Privacy: Who Gets Your Data and How to Protect It – Personal data is any information that can point to you. Apps and websites collect it all the time. Privacy means you control who sees it and how it is used. Fair rules say data must be used for a clear purpose, kept small, kept safe and deleted when done. You have rights over your data, and simple habits keep you safe.
Business Strategy – A business strategy is a long-term plan that takes a firm from where it is to where it wants to be. It starts from a mission (why the firm exists), turns it into SMART objectives, checks the firm's position with SWOT, chooses where to compete (Ansoff matrix: markets and products) and how to compete (Porter: cost leadership, differentiation or focus), and then puts the plan into action with people, money and control.

6. Specific option — management and finance

Accounting information system and digital tools · Recording purchases and sales · Recording investment · A true and fair accounting picture · Measuring performance · Financial structure and survival · Choosing how to finance · Optimising cash · Allocating profit · Cost analysis for decisions

Value Added, Profit Allocation and the Accounting Information System – Value added = sales minus goods and services bought from other firms. It is shared between staff (wages), the state (taxes), lenders (interest) and owners (profit). Profit is then split into reserves, dividends and retained earnings. An accounting information system (often an ERP) records every deal once, from source document to ledger to statements, and keeps the data safe.
Journal and Special Purpose Books – The journal is the book of first entry: each transaction is written in date order with the account debited, the account credited and a narration. Busy firms split it into special purpose books — cash book, petty cash book, purchases, sales and return books — and keep a journal proper for everything else.
Depreciation, Provisions and Reserves – Depreciation is the fall in value of a fixed asset because of use, time and new technology; its cost is spread over its useful life by the straight line method (same amount yearly) or the written down value method (same rate on the reducing balance). A provision is a charge against profit for a known loss or liability; a reserve is a part of profit kept back to strengthen the business.
Financial Statements of a Sole Proprietor – At the end of the year, the trial balance is turned into two statements. The trading and profit and loss account uses revenue items to find gross profit, operating profit and net profit. The balance sheet uses capital items to show assets, liabilities and capital on the last day, grouped and arranged in order. Its closing balances open next year's books through the opening entry.
Accounting Ratios: Liquidity, Solvency, Activity and Profitability – A ratio compares two related numbers from the financial statements. Liquidity ratios check if short-term debts can be paid; solvency ratios check long-term safety; activity (turnover) ratios check how fast assets are used; profitability ratios check how much profit each rupee earns.
Sources of Business Finance – Every business needs money for long-term assets (fixed capital) and daily running (working capital). This money comes from two big pools: owners' funds (equity shares, preference shares, retained earnings) that need not be paid back, and borrowed funds (debentures, bonds, bank and institution loans, public deposits, trade credit, inter-corporate deposits) that must be repaid with interest.
Cash Flow – Cash flow is the money moving into and out of a business. Net cash flow = cash inflows − cash outflows, and closing balance = opening balance + net cash flow. A cash flow forecast predicts this month by month so the firm can spot shortfalls early. A business can make a profit and still run out of cash, so managers improve cash flow with overdrafts, faster collection from customers, slower payment to suppliers, lower stock, factoring and sale and leaseback.
Break-Even Analysis – A business breaks even when total revenue equals total cost, so profit is zero. Each unit sold brings a contribution = price − variable cost per unit, which first pays off the fixed costs. Break-even output = fixed costs ÷ contribution per unit. Sales above this make a profit; below it make a loss. Margin of safety = actual sales − break-even sales. To earn a target profit, sell (fixed costs + target profit) ÷ contribution per unit.

7. Specific option — marketing

Must the offer be personalised? · Consumption as experience · Price: reason or illusion? · Can we skip intermediaries? · Does the consumer shape distribution? · Digital as a new way to distribute · Communicating: visibility and media · Richer customer relations through digital

Marketing Management – Marketing means finding out what buyers need and meeting that need in exchange for value, at a profit. It has many functions (research, planning, branding, labelling, packaging, pricing, promotion, distribution, service) and five philosophies (production, product, selling, marketing, societal). The marketing mix is the 4Ps: product (with branding, labelling, packaging), price (shaped by cost, demand, competition, government rules, objectives and marketing methods), place (channels and physical distribution) and promotion (advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations).
Consumer Behaviour: Why and How People Buy – Consumer behaviour is the study of how people choose, buy, use and give up goods and services. Most purchases follow five stages: need recognition, information search, evaluation of options, purchase and post-purchase feeling. Motives (need, pleasure, status, helping others) push people to buy; brakes (price, risk, habit) hold them back. Personal, psychological, social and cultural factors shape every choice. Firms collect data to build a consumer profile and target segments. Digital tools change the relationship: digital traces, personal offers, chat support, reviews and social networks, and online public services (e-government). Satisfaction comes from comparing experience with expectation, and perceived value is the benefit a buyer feels minus what they give up. Experiential marketing sells a memorable experience, not just a product.
Pricing Strategies: How Firms Set a Price – A price starts from cost (cost-plus: cost + mark-up), is limited by what customers will accept (price sensitivity or elasticity), and can be shaped by one price for all, different prices for different buyers, package prices, yield management and dynamic pricing, or even a free offer paid for in another way.
Distribution Channels: How Products Reach You – A distribution channel is the path a product takes from producer to consumer. Direct channels have no intermediaries; indirect channels use wholesalers and retailers, who add services and a margin. The internet lets firms skip intermediaries (disintermediation) but new ones appear. Firms choose intensive, selective or exclusive coverage and, because shoppers move between online and physical outlets, link all channels in an omnichannel strategy.
E-commerce – E-commerce is buying and selling goods and services over the internet. It is a form of non-store retailing, like telemarketing and catalogue selling. By who sells to whom, it can be B2C, B2B, C2C or D2C. Marketplaces join many sellers and buyers on one platform and earn a commission. M-commerce is e-commerce on mobile phones, often with digital payments. Physical shops also become digital, using QR codes, screens and click-and-collect, and firms that combine channels are omnichannel. Behind every order is e-retail logistics: warehouses, picking and packing, hubs, last-mile delivery and returns. E-marketing (search, social media, email) brings customers to the online shop.
Advertising – Advertising is a paid, non-personal message from an identified sponsor, sent through mass media to persuade a target audience. It follows a communication process: advertiser → message → medium → audience → feedback. Its aims are to inform, persuade and remind, and a good ad moves people through AIDA: attention, interest, desire, action. Ads can be of many types (product, institutional, public service, comparative) and forms (print, broadcast, outdoor, online). Firms choose media and exact supports by reach, target, cost per thousand (CPM) and message. Other communication tools are direct marketing, sales promotion, sponsorship and events.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – Customer relationship management means building lasting relationships with customers instead of making one-off sales. Firms improve the customer experience at every touchpoint, use loyalty factors and programmes to keep customers, estimate customer lifetime value (yearly spend × years × margin), keep records in CRM tools, and use influencers and community managers to talk with customers online.

8. Specific option — human resources and communication

Is recruitment enough to meet skill needs? · Can all work be evaluated? · Skills management and employability · Well-being at work and performance · Health and safety at work · Individual pay and recognition · Tensions and cohesion · Social dialogue and communication

Staffing: Recruitment, Selection and Training – Staffing means filling posts with the right people and keeping them skilled. It is a part of Human Resource Management. Its process runs from estimating manpower needs to recruitment, selection, placement, training, appraisal, promotion and pay. Recruitment finds applicants from internal or external sources. Selection picks the best through tests, interviews and checks. Training builds job skills on the job (induction, apprenticeship, internship, coaching) or off the job (vestibule, classroom, case study).
Performance Appraisal – Performance appraisal is judging how well an employee does their job. Methods include manager rating, self-appraisal, management by objectives and 360-degree feedback. Firms hold yearly reviews and separate career (professional) reviews, and use skills assessment to find gaps that become a training plan. Not all work can be measured by numbers, so fair appraisal needs clear criteria, evidence and watchfulness against bias.
Training and Skills Development – A job asks for certain skills. Training closes the gap between the skills a person has and the skills the job needs. Continuing training keeps skills fresh through life, e-learning lets people learn online at their own pace, a skills development plan sets goals year by year, a personal training account gives each worker learning credit, and training helps people change jobs or careers. Together these build employability: the chance to find and keep work.
Motivation, Well-being and Performance at Work – People work best when their needs are met and their work has meaning. Maslow says needs rise from body needs, safety, belonging and respect up to growth. Herzberg splits work factors in two: hygiene factors (pay, safe place, rules) only stop unhappiness, while motivators (praise, growth, interesting work) create real drive. Quality of work life and ergonomics (a body-friendly workplace) protect health. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) shows how a firm treats staff, society and nature. Better well-being usually raises performance.
Health and Safety: Hazards, Risks and Controls – A hazard is anything that can cause harm. Risk is how likely the harm is and how bad it would be: risk = likelihood × severity. A risk assessment finds hazards, decides who could be harmed, rates the risk, adds controls and is reviewed. Use the hierarchy of control: eliminate, substitute, engineering controls, admin (rules, training, signs), then PPE last. Safety signs use colour and shape. Workshops, art rooms and workplaces need guards, ventilation, labelled materials, clear exits and first aid. Laws in most countries make employers and workers share the duty to stay safe.
Remuneration: How Employees Are Paid and What It Costs – Remuneration is everything an employee gets for work: pay, bonuses, fringe benefits and shared profits. The employer pays more than the worker takes home, because of social contributions. Firms track labour cost, average hourly rate and staff cost ratios, and use bonuses, benefits and profit sharing to reward and keep staff.
Industrial Relations: How Employers and Workers Get Along – Industrial relations (also called employee or employer-employee relations) is the relationship between a business and its workers. Good relations rest on two-way communication and on giving workers a voice, alone or through unions and works councils. Pay and conditions are often set by collective bargaining. When talks fail, there may be industrial action such as strikes; neutral help through conciliation, mediation or arbitration can end a dispute.

9. Specific option — management information systems

How an organisation handles information · Are digital changes risk-free? · The IS function and organisational choices · Information-system projects · Turning data into information · Can management problems be automated? · Standards and the flow of information · Network technologies and collaboration

Information Systems – An information system (IS) is a set of people, hardware, software, data, networks and procedures that work together to collect, store, process and share information. It turns raw data into useful information through a chain: capture, encode, send, store, process and present. Systems are built in a cycle (plan, analyse, design, build, test, run and improve). They make work faster and let many people share knowledge, but they cost money, can fail, can be hacked and can make an organisation rigid.
Cybersecurity: Threats and How We Stop Them – Cybersecurity protects computers, networks and data. It aims for confidentiality, integrity and availability (the CIA triad). Common threats are malware, phishing and social engineering, brute-force password attacks and denial of service. Defences include strong authentication, encryption, firewalls, anti-malware software, updates, access control and backups.
Project Management – A project is a one-time piece of work with a clear goal, a start and an end. Project management means planning and controlling it so it meets its scope on time and within cost. The life cycle runs initiate, plan, execute, monitor and close. Planners break the work into tasks (WBS), place them on a Gantt chart, find the critical path, manage risks and review lessons learned at the end.
Database Concepts: DBMS, Relations and Keys – Keeping data in separate files causes duplication, inconsistency and poor security. A database stores related data in one organised place, and a DBMS (like MySQL) is the software that manages it. In the relational model, data is kept in tables (relations) made of columns (attributes) and rows (tuples); a domain is the set of allowed values of a column. A candidate key uniquely identifies each row; one is chosen as the primary key and the others are alternate keys.
Introduction to Problem Solving – Problem solving on a computer has stages: analyse the problem (inputs, outputs, rules), develop an algorithm (a finite, clear, ordered set of steps), code it in a programming language, test it with different inputs, and debug (find and remove errors). An algorithm can be shown as a flowchart (oval = start/stop, parallelogram = input/output, rectangle = process, diamond = decision, arrows = flow) or as pseudocode (structured plain English). Decomposition breaks a big problem into smaller sub-problems that are solved separately and then joined.
Network Types, Topologies and Protocols: Size, Shape and Rules – Networks are grouped by size: PAN (a few metres around one person), LAN (a room, building or campus), MAN (a city) and WAN (a country or the world). A topology is the layout of how nodes are wired: bus (all on one backbone cable), star (all to a central hub or switch) and tree (stars joined in levels). A protocol is a set of rules: TCP/IP breaks and routes data on the Internet, HTTP and HTTPS carry web pages, FTP moves files, SMTP sends email, POP3 downloads email, PPP links two devices directly, TELNET logs into a remote computer, and VoIP carries voice calls over the Internet.