CSET: Business cheat sheet
CSET: Business · Keep the key ideas within reach.
Business and its environment
Added value is revenue minus bought-in input costs, not profit.
Legal form affects control, financing and exposure, but actual liability and compliance rules require local verification.
Integration type depends on the stage of the supply chain, not the size of the deal.
PESTLE analysis needs an effect on demand, cost or risk to score marks.
Stakeholder conflict is resolved partly by relative power and interest.
Human resource management
Turnover uses average employees; absenteeism uses possible working days.
Job description = duties; person specification = candidate attributes.
Herzberg separates hygiene factors from motivators; pay alone is hygiene.
Leadership style should be matched to task, workforce skill and time pressure.
Redundancy and dismissal have different legal and motivational implications.
Marketing
PED compares percentage changes, so units cancel; interpret |PED| against 1.
Elastic demand means a price cut raises revenue but can lower contribution.
Market share uses firm sales over total market sales, not capacity.
Boston matrix axes are market growth and relative market share.
The 4Ps must be consistent with the chosen segment and positioning.
Operations management
Capacity utilisation = actual output ÷ maximum output × 100.
Break-even = fixed costs ÷ contribution per unit; margin of safety = current sales − break-even.
JIT cuts holding costs but raises supply-chain vulnerability.
TQM is preventive and company-wide; quality control is inspection-based.
Critical path is the longest route through the network and sets project duration.
Finance and accounting
Profit and cash differ because of credit, stock and capital spending.
Break-even = fixed costs ÷ unit contribution; contribution funds fixed costs and profit.
Gearing formulas vary; use the debt and capital definitions supplied in the exercise.
Payback ignores later cash flows; NPV discounts all cash flows.
Liquidity ratios need interpretation, not just calculation.
Business strategy
A business model connects customer value, delivery, resources, costs and revenue; its assumptions require evidence.
Porter's generic strategies require a clear basis for competitive advantage.
Expected value weights outcomes by probability but ignores risk attitude.
Suitability, acceptability and feasibility structure strategy evaluation.
Implementation fails when culture, structure and resources are misaligned.
Choice, markets and elasticity
Opportunity cost is the next-best alternative forgone and can have a monetary valuation.
A shortage at a price is different from scarcity of resources across competing uses.
An own-price movement differs from a demand or supply shift.
State the point, initial-base or midpoint elasticity convention.
Revenue and profit can move in different directions.
National accounts, money and fiscal reasoning
Distinguish a budget flow, a debt stock and the financing transactions.
A bank loan can create a corresponding deposit; a 1/r multiplier is a deliberately simplified model.
Policy rates influence, but do not equal, every retail borrowing rate.
Real and nominal measures need the relevant price index and base normalization.
Spending and tax multipliers require their model and sign conventions.
Information Technology and Business Communication
Relative references shift when copied; absolute references stay fixed.
A primary key uniquely identifies a record; a foreign key links to another table.
Phishing is a social-engineering attack using fraudulent messages to steal credentials.
The communication process includes sender, encoding, channel, decoding, receiver, feedback, and noise.
Communicate material facts promptly and clearly, with an appropriate tone, explanation and next steps.