ACCA BT study plan

Distinguish the main forms of business organisation (sole trader, partnership, private and public company, public sector) and state two advantages and two disadvantages of each.

Label span of control, scalar chain, chain of command, unity of command and centralisation versus decentralisation on a hand-drawn organisation chart.

Compare tall, flat and matrix structures, listing two strengths and two weaknesses of each.

Explain the purpose of corporate governance and describe the roles of the board, the audit committee and non-executive directors.

Explain the agency problem and identify two mechanisms that align directors' interests with those of shareholders.

Classify at least eight stakeholder groups of a named company on Mendelow's power/interest matrix and state a tailored response for each quadrant.

Describe how the management functions of planning, organising, directing and controlling link to organisational objectives.

Build a PESTEL grid applied to one named industry, listing two concrete influences per letter.

Explain how government policy, competition law and pressure groups constrain business behaviour.

Explain how inflation, interest rates, exchange rates and the business cycle affect costs, demand and pricing decisions.

Distinguish fiscal from monetary policy and state one business consequence of each.

Outline the legal environment of business: employment protection, consumer protection and data protection, with one practical effect of each.

Evaluate the arguments for and against a business adopting a formal corporate social responsibility and sustainability stance.

Outline the purpose and three core activities of the marketing, human resources and operations functions.

Apply the 7Ps marketing mix to a named service business and justify each element.

Describe the HR cycle: recruitment and selection, induction, appraisal, reward and development.

Compare transaction processing, management information and executive information systems by user level and purpose.

Explain how an accounting system captures and reports transactions, and distinguish financial from management accounting.

Describe e-business models (B2B, B2C, C2C) and explain how cloud computing changes business processes and costs.

Identify the main threats to information and data security and match each to a mitigating control.

Explain big data, data analytics and the role of spreadsheets and databases in decision making.

Distinguish leadership from management and compare trait, style and contingency approaches to leadership.

Apply Maslow, Herzberg and McGregor to explain motivation in a short workplace scenario.

Explain Tuckman's stages of team development and Belbin's team roles, and identify which role is missing from a described team.

Describe the purpose and process of performance appraisal and identify two common rating errors.

Describe the communication process, four barriers to effective communication and one remedy for each barrier.

Explain delegation, coaching, mentoring and empowerment as management tools, giving one benefit and one risk of each.

Distinguish formal from informal groups and explain how group norms and cohesion affect performance.

Identify the qualities needed to lead and communicate a change programme to a resistant team.

Re-attempt every logged wrong answer from weeks 1 to 7 and write a corrected one-line explanation for each.

Sit two full-length timed mocks under exam conditions with no notes and no pauses.

Recite from memory the structural, environmental, functional and behavioural models on one blank sheet of paper.

Identify the three weakest topics from mock analysis and re-read only those areas in the final two days.