Brian Clough: big mouth, football pundit, genius! There are some people whose passing really is a tragedy, Brian Clough is one such. Take a look in the Management section of the menu at the wit and wisdom of the man, as extracted from his autobiography by yours truly!

I read the chapter of a book on managers who have made a difference by changing their organisations: this was on the changes made by Colin, Lord Marshall, at British Airways. I then constructed a case study from it: look at the menu under Management.

How about some graphs to take a look at? The last year's worth of crude oil prices and a selection of US, European and other world Stock Exchange Indices. Spot the patterns. Look under the Statistics section of the menu on the left.

Football again, by coincidence: my new article is a compilation of a variety of materials on the economics of the football World Cup: generally this comes under the heading of what is known as soccernomics. The article also contains the results of a number of economic/econometric style models relating to the self same football tournament.

The majority of the content of the article is not mine but I have given precise sources of where my information came from. The linking paragraphs and commentaries are mine, however. It's under Economics in the menu on the left.

Take a look at the Football Correlation analysis for fantastic insights into correlation analysis by visiting our page under the statistics section of the menu. It's a winner!

Television programmes to watch to learn more about business studies: Holby City, UK Hospital Drama and American Chopper, US custom motor bike reality tv.

Go to the Management Accounting page, too, to see a couple of presentations on introducing yourself to management accounting by ... going to the kitchen!

I have prepared a case study about Amtrak, the US railway company. They are essentially the same case study but for the first version, one of the tasks works from a table and gets to some graphs whereas version two starts with the graphs and asks you to get to the table. It all makes sense when you read it. They are both PDF files and bona fide teachers/lecturers can write to me and get the teacher's notes for either or both files at any time ... also PDF files. This case concerns some management, some strategy, some business development ideas and some statistical analysis. It's in the GCSE and A Level Section of the menu.

Two pages at once this time:

I took a look at an article on strategy by Daivd Maister and have summarised some of his argument here. It's interesting how peoples' minds work and David is no exception.
I also had a look at an article on Research and Development and this could come as a surprise too.

Both pages are in the Management section of the menu on the left.

I just put together a page on Leadership in the UK following my reading of a couple of articles from ISR. I then expanded on that a little and finish by giving you a short reading list of classics from the Harvard Business Review. I think the state of management and leadership skills and ability in the UK is woeful ... read on! Look in the management section from the menu on the left hand side of this page.

Stelios is back: with easyHotel this time. You may be aware that I am not an easy fan and I think his Hotel idea is as bad as everything else he does. Take a look at the page I have put together on the day he aunches his new easyHotel venture.

When you want to search the internet with google, you just type in the phrase you want and press enter ... right? There's much more to it than that: take a look at my page on searching with google: Sundry & Marketing menu on the left.

Following a request from Simon, I have put together a new page on combinations: with a small amount on tree diagrams and permutations too. A worthy addition I think.

A question for you: taken from the foreword of a book that I'm reading and that the author says is the most important thing he's ever seen. I think it's not so vital at all ... who's right? You decide! Go to the GDP Question in the Economics menu and have your say.

The Manchester United Takeover by the Glazer Family and the City Code. Download the file from the PDFs Page ... click here to go there. Please note that I have left the Takeover Panel rules in full so the file is a bit lengthy but make some notes as appropriate.

Business Studies texts have to contain accounting examples and explanations and they often do so indifferently. This new page corrects a number of mistakes that you are likely to come across. Look at the Correcting Misunderstandings entry in the GCSE and A Level ... menu on the left.

The Gorgeous Gateaux business studies simulation game finally made it here. After years of making this available via email, I have now decided that it's time to host it here ... still free of charge, of course. Just go to the menu on the left and follow the trail for GCSE and A Level Business Studies

June 2005 AQA AS Business Studies Case Materials:

The AQA AS Business Studies Case Study for the June 2005 exam, Chinatown: this exam was completed in June and the complete set of our materials are available here free of charge. Just go here to get them all ... our approach is innovative and unique.

FREE GIFTs: you can receive part one of Duncan's and part one of Chris's analyses absolutely free of charge. Go to the case study page to find out how to get this stunning free offer!

Free Gifts from last time! Take a look at the Sounds Perfect Ltd Page from the GCSE and A level sub menu to see an update to the stunning things that are awaiting anyone else who invests in the case study materials that Chris Sivewright and I have put together.
there is also a free PDF file on Labour Turnover that seems important to this case. Again click on the GCSE and A level sub menu to the left to find it.

Following a lively online debate with the management of the tutor2u web site, I have felt the need to prepare another pdf file on the subject of preparing charts. In any case it's a valuable file in its own right, so download it free of charge from the PDF File page!

A fascinating article from the Wharton Business School in the US on Buzz Marketing: what it is, what it does and what might be wrong with it

More shocking news from the corporate world: read how US executives make mistakes that have cost $1 billion. Strategic management mistakes that is.

Here's some more on amazon.com: I seem to have been a lone voice in the wilderness until now. Take a look at my new page on this company in the Management section from the menu on the left. Some great insights from Wharton Business School.

Here's a page to delight some of you: how to draw a Statistical process Control Chart: complete with upper and lower control limts. Both the Xbar and Rbar charts are discussed. See the menu Statistics and thenStatistical process Control Chart.

Following the ruling by the EU that Ryanair and Charleroi airport have to end their subsidised relationship, I have put together a compilation file comprising the story, the ruling and the impact of the story and ruling. You can download this compilation as a text file by clicking the link in the menu.

Take a look at the links I've posted that relate to some of Max Weber's work.

Why not get invovled in the debate on CICs? That's Community Interest Companies for the uninitiated. A proposed form of Social Enterprise for the UK.

Click here to download a Word file that contains lots of web site links that will be of interest to UK based SMEs: links from Business Link, the Inland Revenue, the BBC and the NatWest Bank. Put together for MagentaCircle but made available free of charge to you too!

I have just, Christmas Eve no less,posted a major set of pages on times series analysis: multiplicative and additive methods PLUS a few questions from CIMA and ACCA examination papers. Brilliant!

I volunteered to discuss some of the limitations of PEST analysis and put together a page of links together with a bit of commentary: it gives you some idea of what PEST analysis is, provides links that include SWOT and other forms of analysis and gives a few clues as to what's wrong with PEST analysis.

I was asked for a series of definitions relating to statistics: median, modes and class intervals and felt it was worth turning into a web page. Here it is: some statistical terms.

Here's a page consisting of a series of extracts of articles from the BBC and Wharton Business School concerning Executive Remuneration that provides some food for thought for us all.

Notes on Inflation and Growth. Take a look and see how useful it is!

Here's a page concerned with marginal cost and other calculations ... from the economist's point of view: plus two exercises with solutions, for revision.

If you're interested in Permutations and Combinations, look no further. A page of maths with a bit of spreadsheeting thrown in.

Here's a simple file on demand schedules: to deal with a movement in demand and a shift in demad: a three slide PowerPoint Presentation.

I've brought over a few files from the Blog to try to be helpful: Lorenz curves, corporate governance, management styles and structures.

We've added to the two pages on statistics that we presented last week: we've added Means, Standard Deviations and Coefficients of Variations of Grouped Data and plotting Box and Whisker Diagrams using MS Excel to the standard deviation and the normal distribution. Excellent starting points for A level/early undergraduate as well as for accountancy students.

For teachers: a new file in the Bloom's Taxonomy series. This page concerns the Affective Domain: the domain that is concerned with how learners relate to their learning environment and process ... as opposed to the Cognitive Domain that is concerned with levels of learning: from knowledge to evaluation. This is a PowerPoint Presentation.

I have also revamped the Cognitive Domain Presentation.

Keen students could learn a lot about how their teachers assess them, by the way, by looking at these Bloom's taxonomy files.

There's now a good explanation of the backward sloping supply curve in the context of wages on this site: good for economists and business studies.

Following a couple of e-mail exchanges, I took a look at Wal Mart, the US giant retailer to see if the assertion that their productivity is the best in the world ... I found the evidence lacking. Please note, my analysis was based only on limited data and in the PDF file I have asked for help in tracking down Wal Mart's employee data.

Most of us will have heard of Polo and Ralph Lauren; but what about Ralph Lipshitz? Take a look at the page on Ralph Lauren to find out! This page is a glossary checker for teachers and students and it includes a relatively large number of business related and finance words in the context of a very good article in Forbes Global magazine.

Copyleft's a new concept for me. Here's an article from the New Scientist, though, that tells us all about it.

Want to learn a bit more about averages? There's a new section on means (arithmetic and weighted), medians and modes, including grouped data examples. Worked examples, tables and formulae, a perfect starting point for this topic. Split into three pages for your greater convenience ... starts here!

A smart trick that might help you out when working on loans, investments, compound interest: the Rule of 72. The rule of 72 gives us a quick way to estimate when an investment or loan will double in size.

Enron a side swipe! A tongue in cheek look at Enron that begins with Feudalism and ends with Capitalism.

Throughout the Enron scandal we have heard the accusation that the management of that company operated as a Ponzi Scheme ... what is a Ponzi Scheme? This page introduces Charles K Ponzi back to the world and gives a couple of examples of what his schemes can do.

Want to know what a LORENZ CURVE is? In my spreadsheet section you'll find out about them and there's a step by step demonstration of how to draw one using Microsoft Excel.

Following up on Trans National Companies, I volunteered to add a section on Transfer Pricing ... I also decided it warranted a page of its own.

A page for Monte Carlo Simulation example for GCSE Business Studies: an example of how to use random numbers in making decisions and in developing decision making models. In fact, this topic is relatively advanced but since a GCSE student thought of using it, I thought it worthy of demonstrating here.

I've added what must be about the last charting page for a while. It's a run through alternative ways of alooking at the same data: visitor stats for this site. Worth a read through for teacher, student and practitioner alike. Go to the Charts Page to start with

The BBC Working Lunch topic of the week: Insolvency. The BBC pages on Insolvency are up to their usual good standard and for my efforts this week, I have provided some additional background, questions and activities.

An unusual approach for my review of the BBC's GCSE Bitesize pages. I've been honest and fair in my analysis. This discussion also pulls in a few pages from this site too where the reader/student will benefit.

A Worksheet for Business Studies Students. Based on a couple of reports from the BBC Working Lunch Series: Franchising. Leads to discussion of franchises, what they are, advice, advantages and more . Can be used at a variety of levels of knowledge and ability.

A Worksheet based on a couple of reports from the BBC Working Lunch Series: Raleigh Bicycles. Leads to discussion of bicycles, web site appeal, history of bicycles, marketing strategy and more. Can be used at a variety of levels of knowledge and ability.

Introduction to Mind Mapping

Duncan Williamson
2nd March 2007