What Is A Business?
22 mins, 1995 A clear explanation of the features common to all businesses. The film takes us on a tour of a toy firm and explains how staff tackle day-to-day problems. We look at how the business is organised: the company structure and its aims and objective. We explore how they develop a new product… Read more »
A Quality Revolution?
24 mins, 1992 What is “total quality management”? This film tells the story of Kemble Instruments, a manufacturing firm which set out to improve quality at all levels by transforming the culture of the company. The starting point is to involve the workforce and gain their commitment to change. At the same time the company… Read more »
Management Styles 2
40 mins, 2003 Textbooks speak of three management styles – autocratic, democratic and laissez faire. But how neatly do people fit into these categories? Lively dramatised case studies show what happens in the real world. LIMITS OF DEMOCRACY: Simon prides himself on being open-minded. He listens to staff and involves them in decision-making. But if… Read more »
What Is Marketing?
32 mins, 2001 The 1950s saw the start of a consumer boom. TV enabled advertisers to enter people’s homes. Marketing became a huge industry and was defined as the “4ps”: product, price, promotion and place. But how helpful is this? You buy one product, not another. Is it because of the packaging or where you… Read more »
The Learning Organisation
25 mins, 1992 Much is heard about how the development of a firm’s “human resources” – its people – can transform the fortunes of a business. This case study shows how Club 24 claims to have achieved exactly this by using active learning techniques. Club 24 collects payments from people buying clothes on credit. Its… Read more »
Can Regeneration Work?
30 mins, 1998 A study of the Cardiff Bay regeneration project. Cardiff was once a major international port, but the decline in the coal and steel industry led to a decline in the docks. Unemployment soared and Cardiff docks became a depressed area. Then in the 1980s the Government began a series of urban regeneration… Read more »
The Teamworking Experiment
29 mins, 1999 Manager Tony Spence used to be an autocratic bully. Now he’s trying to bring a new team-working approach to his firm. The idea is to give staff a feeling of ownership over their work. But the team-working experiment goes badly wrong when trust between Tony and his staff breaks down. This is… Read more »
Recruitment In Action
27 mins, 1995 How does a firm recruit a new member of staff? This is a blow-by-blow account, from specifying the job, to the interviews and final selection. Dream Cruises advertise for a new marketing assistant. Applications flood in and they draw up a short list. Spelling and presentation of CVs are key issues. Three… Read more »
Management Styles 1
31 mins, 1992 This classic best seller vividly illustrates different management styles in action. Tony Spence is the epitome of the autocratic manager. Shouting and swearing, he bullies and generally humiliates his team of sales people. By contrast, supermarket personnel manager June takes a more bureaucratic approach, strictly applying the rules and regulations. Consultative manager… Read more »
The Internet In Business
25 mins, 1999 The film features case studies of three US companies relying on the Internet to conduct their business. RETAILING: CDnow is a record shop – without a shop. They offer customers a vast selection of CDs which they can buy via the Internet. CDnow doesn’t have to hold any stock – this is… Read more »
Going Live
28 mins, 1994 A bakery swaps from its old information system to a new one — and runs into disaster. First they have to choose the system, then make sure it works. At last comes the day when the new system goes live – and it’s then that things really go wrong. Lack of training… Read more »
Flattening The Organisation
42 mins, 1993 What does a company do when it wants to flatten its hierarchy? Lloyd’s Bank decided to send some of its information technology staff on an extraordinary training weekend to prepare them for revolutionary change. They dress up as King Arthur and his men, and undertake all kinds of strange “quests”, designed to… Read more »