CUEGIS

Paper 1 Section C
The principal focus of questions in this section is on the concepts of change, culture, ethics, globalization,
innovation and strategy that underpin the business management course.
While the principal focus for each question is on two of the concepts, students need to draw on their
knowledge of other relevant topics in the syllabus.
There is no stimulus material provided for the questions.
Students are required to address the question in relation to at least one real-world organization but may use
information from a range of sources, which may include real-world case studies examined in class and IA
research. The real-world organization that students use in their responses must not be the case study
organization featured in paper 1.
The response should consider the perspectives of individuals and societies on which the real-world organization
impacts.
Students answer one extended response question from a choice of three.
Assessment objective level 3 (AO3) command terms are used in the questions.
The questions require: knowledge and understanding; application and analysis; synthesis and evaluation; and a
variety of appropriate skills.
Each question is worth 20 marks.
Section C is worth a total of 20 marks.

Key Concepts
The CUEGIS Answer Method

Here is my step-by-step method for answering these questions, to make sure you
get full marks on the exam. Remember, this one question can easily bring you
up an ENTIRE GRADE level, if you do it right. It's worth 10% of the whole course.
First, know that you will have about 34 minutes for this question.

The CUEGIS method

The body will address each concept, but mostly just one concept at a time. The
basic model you’ll follow will be repeatedly doing the normal answer method
stuff (CTs, CLs and SWs), but in this case the course theory is your normal insights
from the course (as always), but ALSO your insights into the concept. So keep
making links to your company as well as your insights about the concepts (i.e.
innovation, or strategy) while also linking your answer to normal insights from the
course (i.e. Ansoff's matrix).

CL = Case Link. Give a fact about your chosen company and the first concept.

CT = Course Theory. Use a keyword, tool or idea from the course to develop your
insight.

if you find this CT and CL stuff a bit complicated click here for a more detailed
explanation of How to Answer IB Business Questions (IBM).

Before you start

You need to carefully read the question and decide how you’re going to approach
it. You’ve got basically three choices. Each of these basic approaches help you to
look at the concepts and your chosen business from two sides. Just like in ToK you
want to look at things from both sides. The most popular choices are these ones:

1. These concepts have been HELPFUL and also UNHELPFUL to the business.
2. This company has been PROACTIVE and also REACTIVE in their approach to
these concepts.
3. This company has BENEFITTED, but also they’ve SUFFERED as a result of
these concepts.

The main thing is that you remember is that you're your business in a balanced
way.
The Introduction (4 minutes)
Intro - 1 Paragraph
• Introductory sentence. Tell us the name of the company and a couple of
things about it. What is their scale? What is their industry?
• Define all the key terms in the question --including the concepts.
• And you should include a hypothesis -- Something like, “Company X has
generally relied on innovation to improve their competitiveness in an
increasingly globalised market.” Make sure your hypothesis is actually an
answer to the question because it’s going to be the focus of your essay.

The Body (20 minutes)

The Concept - Positive and Negative - 2
paragraphs
You’ve already explained the concept, but now do do in more depth, linking it to
some examples at the company. Tell the story of the company a little bit. Impress
us with your knowledge. In this section you explore how the company’s major
experiences with the first concept. Use at least 3 course-keywords in your answer.
And explain at least one effect on a stakeholder. The approach here is: CT + CL +
CT + SW. Again, if this CT, CL stuff is all new to you, it's worth reading How to
Answer IB Business Questions (IBM).

CL = Case link. Give a fact about your chosen company and the first concept.

CT = Course theory. Use a keyword or idea from the course to develop your insight.

CT = Course theory. Use another keyword or idea from the course to develop your
insight further.

Don’t worry about doing this in the right order. Just remember to keep ticking
those specific boxes.
For example you might explain how the the company has really embraced the
concept (i.e. globalization) and it’s benefited them, using some true facts about the
company. And then show how they could have gone further (i.e. trying to outsource
production overseas even more). Explain something that is true about your
company, which clearly relates to this concept. And use some related course
theories to explain this from a “textbook perspective.” When you’re using keywords
from the course, don’t just drop them in, but use them to go deeper. Show that you
really know what these words mean, by using them to give us some really
thoughtful insights about the company. (This means you’ll need to have done your
homework --and really learned about your company, or you could just study the
case notes I’ve given you). So for example, don’t just say that the company have
used “job production.” Say that:

“They use job production because it allows them to provide a

higher quality product, from the customer’s perspective. Customers get exactly
what they want and this increases customer loyalty.”

Notice the key words from the course I've used in there. Also notice that you need
to know not just what the company has done, but also why and how, etc. You need
to know your companies really well, so if you're not getting the CUEGIS course case
studies, make sure you gather a lot of details about each concept for each of your
companies.

The Conclusion (10 minutes)

Stakeholders and Conclusion - 2
paragraphs
• Take a few minutes to explain some conflicts between stakeholder
interests and some ways that the stakeholders have priorities in
common. Make sure each of the stakeholder interests is completely clear, so
the reader understands the exact reasons for the conflict.
• Pull it all together in terms of the concept (or concepts, if there was more
than one). What is the end result for the company? Are they doing well or not
and how is their success or failure related to the concept?
• If you have extra time go back and underline all of the course key terms you
used during the essay.
Marking Scheme