Business+Management+Rich+Task+Case+Study

**CASE STUDY**


**Business management Rich Task AHS**
(Greg, Nikki & Måns)

Our first Rich Task! __The Task:__ Students were supposed to create their own Shetland based company and then react to a change their company had to face. __The subject:__ 3rd Year Business Management __The class:__ 7 students

__What was personalised:__ Students were given freedom in creating their company and while creating their business plan reacting to the change of their company. This allowed them to draw on their own interests (creating products they could engage with), and utilise learning styles which suited them (for example, through designing poster artwork).

**__The process__** **Invitation:** After sending our research proposal to all departments in the school one of the younger Business Management teachers got back to us saying she was very interested in what we were doing and offered for us to work with one of her classes for two lessons.

**Preparation:** We had to consider the topics that the class was focusing on during their previous lessons (markets, and business structures) and include them into our Rich Task plan. We prepared a handout for students that both introduced the topic of changing businesses and explained their task for the two periods.

**Lessons:** //Period one// Despite facing technical difficulties in the beginning of the first lesson we introduced the topic of how, why and when businesses changed and presented some examples (e.g. New Coke, Nestlé,…). We closed the presentation with a class discussion on the topic and introduced first part of the task which was designing the company. The class were divided into two groups of three and four students. We asked the groups to include these points in their company profile: 

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**company names** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**target market** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**company purpose** (product/service) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**number of staff** and **premises** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**company structure** (e.g. partnership, government owned) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**history of the company** (how long has it been operating) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**suppliers** (i.e. local/national/international)

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">They were also free to add anything else they thought was important for their company profile. At the end of the first period both groups briefly presented their company profile to each other.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">//Period two// <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">At the very beginning we reminded students of the first task and they were given some time to finish it. After that we had a group discussion about different scenarios companies may have to face (such as a market crash, increased competition or environmental pressure) and how companies may react to such circumstances. We introduced the second task and the two groups picked their change scenarios. At the end of the second lesson students presented how and why their business changed, and shared their thoughts on each others’ strategy. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Students’ outcomes:** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">__The first group__ came up with the idea of designing a Shetland clothes shop selling their own clothes brand “TNL” (The Newest Look) and also other brands. This group also designed the interior of their shop and chose their company colors. ====<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Their change scenario was: **“Your company has a lot of bad publicity about non environmental / unethical practices. How can you cha** **nge your reputation?”** and they designed a strategy based on turning people’s old clothes into new trendy clothes which the people could buy back <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">with a 10% discount. ====

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">__The second group__ created a company designing and selling futuristic technology (e.g. flying toaster, fridge with mirror telling people what they should and shouldn’t eat). <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Their scenario was: **“Recent technological advances have left your product obsolete / out of date. What should you do about this?”** and the group designed a plan that would involve using new technologies to create new, better, products.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**Feedback:** Students’ rating: all the students rated the lesson with 7.5 – 10 points out of 10. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">We think that the students’ rating was influenced by lack of time for the Rich Task. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Teacher’s rating: the teacher couldn’t see any room for improvement of the lesson, and she was particularly pleased that it tied into both what the class had been studying, and what they were going to look at next.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**What worked:** The students had a lot of freedom in how they could go about the task. Not only through choosing what type of company to create, but also how they presented their information (e.g. product poster, awareness campaign, or shop floor plan).

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">**What didn’t work:** Most students commented that there was not enough time for them to finish their work. Also, we initially assigned the change scenarios at random, however the situations were both more relevant to the opposite company, so we switched.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Thanks to Ms. Tulloch for inviting us to her lesson, and to the students for taking part!

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Powerpoint Presentation: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Lesson Handout: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">