Poland Liceum ogólnokształcące, klasa IV Business and Management (extended level)

1. The enterprise

Business idea and model · Market analysis and value proposition · Organisation and people · Operations, marketing and finance

• Business Models – A business model explains how a business creates value, delivers it to customers and captures value back as money. The business model canvas breaks it into 9 blocks: customer segments, value proposition, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key activities, key resources, key partners and cost structure. Common types are one-time sale, subscription, freemium, marketplace (platform), advertising, franchise and social enterprise. Technology keeps creating new models. A good model is tested with real customers and changed using feedback.
• Market Research: Finding Out What Customers Want – Market research means collecting and analysing information about customers, competitors and the market so a business can make better decisions and reduce risk. Primary (field) research collects new, first-hand data through surveys, interviews, observation, focus groups and test marketing. Secondary (desk) research uses data that already exists, like government statistics, reports and websites. Because you cannot ask everyone, you choose a sample: random, stratified, quota or convenience. Data can be quantitative (numbers) or qualitative (opinions and reasons). Results help with market segmentation, market mapping, finding gaps and building a value proposition. Research has costs and limits: bias, small samples and out-of-date data.
• Business Planning: Forecasts, Budgets and Break-even – Planning means deciding today what a business will do tomorrow. Managers plan for three horizons: short term (up to a year), medium term (1–3 years) and long term (over 3 years). They gather fresh information (a business watch), make forecasts with surveys and past data, and turn them into budgets. They check the break-even point to know how much they must sell. They remember that money today is worth more than money later (time value of money). Tools like Gantt charts and spreadsheet simulations help plan tasks and test 'what if' ideas. Each department (operations, marketing, finance) has its own plan.