PAU Business Operations (Catalonia) cheat sheet

PESTEL factors: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Ecological, Legal - used to scan the macro-environment before SWOT.

Porter's five forces: rivalry among existing competitors, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers.

SWOT pairs internal Strengths and Weaknesses with external Opportunities and Threats; it diagnoses, it does not by itself select a strategy.

Strategy levels: corporate (which businesses and scope), competitive/business (how to win in each market), functional (operations, marketing, HR, finance).

Ansoff matrix: market penetration, product development, market development, diversification - ordered from lowest to highest risk.

Porter's generic strategies: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus (cost focus or differentiation focus); being stuck in the middle erodes returns.

Vertical integration extends along the value chain (backward to suppliers, forward to customers); horizontal integration merges competitors at the same stage.

A firm's competitive advantage is defensible only if it is valuable, rare, hard to imitate and organized to capture value (VRIO test).

Break-even volume = Fixed costs ÷ (Price − Variable cost per unit); the result is the minimum output for zero profit.

Span of control is the number of subordinates reporting to one manager; a narrow span creates a tall structure with more hierarchical levels.

Functional structure groups by activity (marketing, production); divisional structure groups by product, customer or geography, each with its own profit responsibility.

Mechanistic structures rely on rules, specialization and central authority; organic structures rely on lateral communication, broad roles and decentralized decisions.

Line authority commands subordinates directly; staff authority advises and supports without commanding.

Taylor's scientific management separates planning from execution and standardizes tasks; the human-relations school (Mayo) stresses social factors and informal groups.

Mintzberg's five coordination mechanisms: mutual adjustment, direct supervision, standardization of work processes, of outputs, and of skills.

A matrix structure gives employees two bosses (functional and project), trading faster coordination for potential role conflict.

Delegation transfers authority and accountability for a task while the delegating manager keeps overall responsibility.

Centralization concentrates decision rights at the top; decentralization pushes them to lower levels closer to operational information.

Corporate social responsibility covers economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities; Carroll's pyramid orders them from economic base to philanthropic top.

The triple bottom line reports performance on three dimensions: profit (economic), people (social) and planet (environmental).

Stakeholder theory holds that a firm answers to groups affected by it - employees, customers, suppliers, community, shareholders - not only to owners.

A code of ethics states principles and expected conduct; it works only if supported by training, reporting channels and consistent enforcement.

Whistleblowing is the disclosure of wrongdoing inside or outside the organization; legal protection for whistleblowers is increasingly explicit in EU and Spanish law.

Conflict of interest arises when a personal interest could improperly influence a professional decision; the standard remedy is disclosure and withdrawal from the decision.

The circular economy designs out waste by keeping materials in use through reuse, repair and recycling, replacing the linear take-make-dispose model.

Greenwashing is marketing an environmental claim that overstates actual performance; it damages trust and increasingly triggers regulatory scrutiny.

Sustainability reporting frameworks include the Global Reporting Initiative standards and the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.