Lesson Element
Unit 3: Business decisions
LO1: Understand factors to be taken into
account when making business decisions
Making good business decisions
Instructions and answers for tutors
These instructions cover the learner activity section which can be found on page 4. This
Lesson Element supports Cambridge Technicals Level 3 in Business.
When distributing the activity section to the learners either as a printed copy or as a
Word file you will need to remove the tutor instructions section.
The activity
This lesson element involves learners researching why business products fail and then
discussing the information they would need if they were to consider a re-launch of the
product.
Suggested timing
1–2 hours
ABC – This activity offers an
opportunity for English skills
development.
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123 – This activity offers an
opportunity for maths skills
development.
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WORK – This activity offers
an opportunity for work
experience.
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Task 1
Ask learners to watch the video and read the article about the Sinclair C5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5N937V8ZOw
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9951876/Sinclair-C5-voted-biggest-innovationdisaster.html
The video and the article are about the Sinclair C5, a classic business failure. Use the
material to promote discussion about the reasons for the failure. Discussion can take place
to help students understand the importance of carrying out good marketing research before
launching a new product as over 80% of new product ideas fail. Watching any episodes of
Dragons’ Den is often a good starting point.
Ask learners why they think the Sinclair C5 was such a dramatic failure. Working in groups,
learners to produce a thought shower of reasons why they think the product failed. Learners
should be encouraged to discuss why the business ideas have failed and to identify what
information could have been collected to help prevent this from happening. The information
could be discussed and displayed in the form of a table. Once all learners have done this for
the C5, they could select another failed product and carry out the same activity.
Task 2
Groups then to discuss the information that they think they would need if they were to
consider a re-launch of an updated version of this or a similar product. Learners should base
their discussion around the following: internal and external information required, qualitative
and quantitative data, historic and forecasted data, primary and secondary research. This
could be produced as a table or a poster for each decision.
Tutors might suggest the learners produce some primary research documents. This link
might help the learners:
http://timoelliott.com/blog/2007/09/the_5_ingredients_of_good_deci.html
Task 3
There are further examples of business failures in this article:
http://uk.businessinsider.com/biggest-product-failures-in-business-history-20147?r=US&IR=T#2013--facebook-home-22
Learners could choose one failed product and, in groups, carry out the same activity as
above in order to suggest what information would be required in order to make an informed
decision.
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Lesson Element
Unit 3: Business decisions
LO1: Understand factors to be taken into
account when making business decisions
Learner Activity
Making good business decisions
You will carry out some tasks related to why business products fail and investigate what
information you would need to re-launch a failed product.
Task 1
Watch this video and read the article about the Sinclair C5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5N937V8ZOw
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9951876/Sinclair-C5-voted-biggest-innovationdisaster.html
The video and the article are about the Sinclair C5, a classic business failure. Why do you
think the Sinclair C5 was such a dramatic failure? Produce a thought shower of reasons why
the product failed.
Task 2
Discuss the information you would need if you were to consider a re-launch of an updated
version of this or a similar product. Base your discussion around the following: internal and
external information required, qualitative and quantitative data, historic and forecasted data,
primary and secondary research. This could be produced as a table or a poster for each
decision.
This link might help your discussions:
http://timoelliott.com/blog/2007/09/the_5_ingredients_of_good_deci.html
Task 3
There are further examples of business failures in this article:
http://uk.businessinsider.com/biggest-product-failures-in-business-history-20147?r=US&IR=T#2013--facebook-home-22
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© OCR 2016
Choose one failed product and, in groups, carry out the same activity as above in order to
suggest what information would be required in order to make an informed decision.
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© OCR 2016