Case Studies

In 1895 in Czechoslovakia, two keen cyclists, Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav Klement designed and produced their own bicycle. Their business became Skoda in 1925....

A business that grows is often better placed to meet its customers' needs. Growth can also help a business to stay ahead of its...

In its simplest form marketing answers the question - What does the customer want to buy? A key definition of marketing is: Marketing is...

When consumers decide to buy something, they not only want to know what they are buying, they also want to be confident of having...

Since it was established in Germany in 1949, by Adolf Dassler, Adidas has been synonymous with the sporting industry. Today, Adidas is a global...

Not so long ago, many organisations were quite prepared to take production decisions without any proper analysis of their market. Sometimes decision-makers hit on...

IKEA is an internationally known home furnishing retailer. It has grown rapidly since it was founded in 1943. Today it is the world's largest...

There is a growing consensus within society that companies should take a more active and structured approach to the relationships they have with the...

A marketplace is divided into consumer markets and organisational markets. In organisational markets, businesses sell goods or provide services to other business organisations. Buyers...

In 1985 the first mobile phone call was made on the Vodafone network. This is now one of the largest telecommunications companies in the...

A Nottingham County Surveyor, Edgar Purnell Hooley, discovered tarmac by accident in the early 20th century. He found a barrel of tar had spilled...

The Forestry Commission is a government department, making it a public sector organisation. Its mission is 'to protect and expand Britain's forests and woodlands...

Is that your view of trade unions? Really? And you don't know of trade unions with more women members than men? So: Where has your...

A Nottingham County Surveyor, Edgar Purnell Hooley, discovered tarmac by accident in the early 20th century. He found a barrel of tar had spilled...

Britain relies on rail. The railway is a vital part of Britain’s economy and infrastructure. More people travel by rail now than since the...

Founded just 15 years ago, Capco is a leading international provider of consulting, managed services and technology solutions for the financial services industry. With...

OPITO The Oil & Gas Academy is the focal point for skills, learning and workforce development for the oil and gas industry. Its role is...

Virgin Media was created from the merger of NTL, Telewest and Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile and is a part of Liberty Global plc, the...

The capital market enables individuals and organisations with spare capital (money which they want to invest) to channel these funds to businesses and other...

Britannia is the third largest UK building society, with group assets exceeding £16 billion. Following the conversion to plc status of a number of...

What is a budget? A budget is a financial plan that sets out, using figures, an organisation's expected future results. For planning purposes, organisations can...

When we think about the cost of an aircraft, we tend to think of the cost of buying the product rather than the costs...

Every morning millions of people in the UK have a bath or shower, make a cup of tea and wash the dishes before they...

Investment decisions involve weighing up the risk and the likely rewards of various options. It is often the riskiest alternatives that yield the highest...

PricewaterhouseCoopers was created in July 1998 by the merger of two firms - Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand - each with historical roots...

It was the European Commission that first coined the term ‘small and medium enterprise’ (SME) to describe businesses which employ less than 500 workers. This...

This case study examines the importance of futures trading and focuses more specifically on commodity futures trading. The futures market plays a key role...

Most people probably think they know what Enterprise Rent-A-Car does. It is in the car rental business and operates a fleet of more than...

Intelligent businesses in the 21st century operate with an awareness of their responsibilities to all of their stakeholders, not just responsibilities to directors and...

Parcelforce Worldwide is part of the Royal Mail Group Ltd. Royal Mail Group has three main operating brands: The Post Office Ltd provides counter services...

Good design is an important attribute of a successful product. A well designed product will stand out from rivals, win customer loyalty and sometimes...

AstraZeneca is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, producing a powerful range of medicines designed to fight disease in important areas of medical...

Information technology is causing fundamental change in almost every organisation and market-place. The effective application of such technologies has become a key resource central...

The background to Jaguar provides a good example of entrepreneurship - identifying opportunities, creating a winning formula and responding to consumer needs to build...

As a newly-formed rail operating company, Great North Eastern Railway Ltd (GNER) took over one of the new rail franchises to run train services...

One of the most significant economic developments is the internationalisation and globalisation of commerce. Almost every type of business is influenced by global events...

The Coca-Cola Company is truly global, and its main product is recognised and consumed worldwide. The Company organises and structures itself in a way...

One of the challenges facing every organisation today is how to make best use of its limited resources. In any aspect of business, there...

NATS is the world’s leading provider of a range of air traffic services. This includes providing air traffic control (ATC) services for some of the world’s...

The products and services that an organisation produces are the reason why it exists; timber merchants exist to sell timber, china factories to produce...

On Wednesday, July 12, 1989, Abbey National Building Society converted to become Abbey National plc. This case study tells the story of how that...

Inventions, literary works, music and design are all intangible assets. The legal right to these ‘creations of the mind’ is referred to as Intellectual...

The Nasdaq Stock Market® is a world famous stock market, based in the US. Nasdaq® uses computer and telecommunications networks to trade and monitor...

Northern Rock is the eighth largest bank in the UK by market capitalisation. In other words the value of the shares in the business....

Eurostar is the high-speed rail service directly linking the UK to France and Belgium via the Channel Tunnel. It started operating in 1994, providing city...

One of the biggest challenges for business organisations in the UK is learning how and where to trade overseas. In an interdependent world, international...

Jessops has been a leader in the photographic business for over 75 years. The Jessops story began in 1935, when Frank Jessop opened a photography...

With the discovery of a previously unknown planet, one of the first things we would want to know is its capacity for supporting any...

A brief history of Lloyd's -covering risks Economic prosperity in England during the second half of the 17th century created a significant group of wealthy...

Put a Victorian school teacher into a modern classroom, with books and blackboards, and he or she would find little had changed fundamentally. However,...

Today, more than ever, we have come to appreciate and value the relationships that can be forged between individuals, organisations and the wider community....

The environment is a key subject that affects us all. Protection of the environment and the move towards sustainable development remains a responsibility that...

To integrate or merge means to join together. There are often advantages for two organisations to merge to become one. The most important is...

In providing an overview of the workings of the economy, this case study focuses on the key role of HM Treasury in implementing Government...