Mandatory - Business Planning L1

Question 1

What is a business plan?

Answer 1

A document that defines business objectives and suggests strategies to be undertaken to realise how this will be achieved within a defined time-frame.

Question 2

What can a business plan achieve?

Answer 2

-Funding
-New customer/clients
-A focus on organisational change
-A focus on priorities
-Set targets for staff
-Set budgets

Question 3

What are some types of business plans?

Answer 3

Strategic Plan
Start-up business plan
One-page business plan
What-if business plan
Growth business plan
Operations business plan
Business acquisition plan

Question 4

What is a public sector business objective?

Answer 4

Maximise net social benefit within its available funds

Question 5

What is a private sector business objective?

Answer 5

Typical focus directed towards profits for shareholders

Question 6

What are the six elements of a business plan?

Answer 6

1. Executive Summary - concise overview of business plan
   2.Company Description - Who (you are), What (are your goals) and How (will you achieve this)
2. Products and Services - What do you provide. why is this necessary?Conclusions from market research
3. Market Analysis- Summarise sales/strategy and implementation of operating plan
4. Organisation and Management Team - organisational structure and identify key members
5. Financial Plan/Projections: developed with accountant to set goals in terms of finances.

Question 7

What is a Hierarchal Organisational Structure?

Answer 7

Employees grouped so that every employee has one clear supervisor.

Question 8

What is a Matrix Organisational Structure?

Answer 8

Individuals with similar skills pooled for work assignments.

Question 9

What is a Horizontal/Flat Organisational Structure?

Answer 9

Sees that many levels of middle management are eliminated.

Question 10

What is a Line Organisational Structure?

Answer 10

Authority flows from top to bottom

Question 11

What is a Team Based Organisational Structure?

Answer 11

Made of teams working towards a common goal whilst working on their own individual tasks

Question 12

What is Financial Benchmarking?

Answer 12

A process of assessing current performance against a peer group of of organisations of comparable scale and complexity

Question 13

What are some methods of Financial Benchmarking?

Answer 13

1.Profitability/Return on Investment - performance in the use of business resources.
2. Liquidity Ratios - demonstrates company’s ability to pay current obligations
3.Leverage Ratios - Looks at extent to which company has relied on borrowing to finance operations
4. Efficiency Ratios - assess use of credit, inventory and assets to help owners/managers conduct business better

Question 14

What is a Key Performance Indicator?

Answer 14

Measurable value that demonstrates how effectively an organisation is achieving key business objectives.

Question 15

What is Marketing Analysis?

Answer 15

Qualitative and Quantitive assessment of the market:
What is the size of the market?
What are customer buying patterns?
What is the competition?
Are there any legal or economic barriers?

Question 16

What is a SWOT Analysis?

Answer 16

Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats

Question 17

What is a PESTLE Analysis?

Answer 17

Political
Economic
Social
Technological
Legal
Environmental

Question 18

What is short-term planning?

Answer 18

Planning that looks at the present performance of a company and develops strategies to improve any issues:
skills/attitudes of employees
condition of production equipment

Question 19

What is long-term planning?

Answer 19

Planning too solve problems permanently and reach overall targets:
further adapting and influencing position to achieve long-term goals

Question 20

What is a PLC?

Answer 20

Public Limited Company:
ownership is open to the public and anyone can buy shares in the company’s stocks

Question 21

What is a Private Limited Company?

Answer 21

Cannot be owned by any members of the public
Owned by a non-government organisation or relatively small number of shareholders.
Sale of company shares is handled privately

Question 22

What is a Royal Charter?

Answer 22

Organisation granted a power or right by the Monarch

Question 23

What is an LLP?

Answer 23

Limited Liability Partnership:
some or all partners have limited liabilities.
Each member is not responsible or liable for another person’s misconduct or negligence.

Question 24

What is cash accounting?

Answer 24

Records revenues an expenses when they are received and paid

Question 25

What is accrual accounting?

Answer 25

records revenues as and when they occur

Question 26

What is working capital?

Answer 26

Difference between company’s current assets and current liabilities

Question 27

What is stock?

Answer 27

Share in the ownership of the company

Question 28

What is a debtor?

Answer 28

Person/company that owes money to another entity

Question 29

What is a creditor?

Answer 29

Person/company that supplies goods or services to another entity in exchange for repayment at a later date.

Question 30

What is the Delphi Forecasting Technique?

Answer 30

Group of field experts respond to a series of questionnaires, are kept apart and are not aware of each other whilst commenting on projections.

Question 31

What is the Subjective Forecasting Approach?

Answer 31

Forecasters will predict outcomes based on thoughts and feelings

Question 32

What is Time-Series Forecasting?

Answer 32

Quantitative technique that measures data gathered over time to identify trends