Syllabus: OCR - A and AS Level Business
Module: Introduction to Business
Lesson: Business Size and Growth

Introduction

The topic of “Business size and growth” sits within the OCR A Level Business syllabus under Unit 1: Business Objectives and Strategy. It introduces learners to how businesses expand, the metrics used to measure size, and the challenges that growth brings. For OCR educators, this lesson is foundational: it bridges theoretical understanding with practical, strategic thinking — giving students the tools to analyse real companies and assess their trajectories.

With increasing demands from Ofsted and stakeholders to connect curriculum content to the real world, this lesson offers plug-and-play potential. It builds not only commercial awareness, but also analytical depth, setting the stage for later content such as strategy, finance, and leadership.

Key Concepts

Students should be able to:

• Explain the ways business size can be measured, including revenue, profit, number of employees, market share and capital employed.

• Understand the distinction between organic and inorganic growth.

• Evaluate advantages and disadvantages of growth strategies such as mergers, takeovers, and franchising.

• Analyse problems of growth, including diseconomies of scale and overtrading.

• Assess how growth aligns (or conflicts) with business objectives like profit maximisation, survival or market leadership.

• Apply quantitative skills such as calculating percentage change in market share or revenue.

This content aligns with OCR’s focus on analytical reasoning and application of theory to contemporary business practice.

Real-World Relevance

Students often ask: why does business growth matter? Bring this to life using examples like:

Greggs Bakery: Expanded through high street growth and partnerships with retailers like Primark. A perfect case for organic growth and brand extension.

Meta (Facebook): Its acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp highlights inorganic growth through takeovers — raising questions about synergies, regulatory challenges, and culture clash.

Gymshark: A UK start-up that scaled quickly through e-commerce. Useful when discussing managing growth, scalability, and brand control.

Case-based discussion helps students explore the balance between ambition and operational stability — especially timely as many SMEs scale up post-pandemic.

How It’s Assessed

The OCR specification uses a blend of command words to test conceptual understanding, analysis, and evaluation:

• Explain – Define key terms or describe mechanisms (e.g. “Explain one benefit of organic growth”).

• Analyse – Link cause and effect with logical reasoning (e.g. “Analyse how rapid growth might affect cash flow”).

• Evaluate – Make a supported judgement based on both sides of an argument (e.g. “Evaluate whether franchising is a suitable strategy for business expansion”).

Assessment may include:

• Data response questions using real company figures.

• Extended written responses testing depth of understanding.

• Application of theory to unseen case studies.

Teachers should emphasise structure in responses: point, explain, apply, analyse, then evaluate.

Enterprise Skills Integration

Growth decisions are ideal ground for embedding enterprise skills:

• Problem-Solving: Students explore how to manage overtrading, cash flow strain, or staff shortages in a growing business.

• Decision-Making: Simulate a boardroom scenario — should a firm franchise or open company-owned stores? Students debate and decide.

• Numeracy: Use growth data to calculate market share or growth rates, applying these to strategic options.

• Commercial Awareness: Comparing growth paths and their impacts on brand, stakeholders, and culture builds real-world acumen.

Enterprise Skills’ Business Simulations can be used here — placing students in charge of growing a fictional company, with live decisions and consequences built-in.

Careers Links

This topic links directly to:

• Gatsby Benchmark 4 & 5: Linking curriculum to careers and encounters with employers.

• Roles such as:

  • Business Development Executive

  • Marketing Manager

  • Operations Analyst

  • Franchise Coordinator

  • Entrepreneur/Start-up Founder

Highlight how understanding business growth helps students plan or evaluate career progression in SMEs and corporates alike.

Teaching Notes

Tips for delivery:

• Use contrasting case studies (e.g. local franchise vs. global conglomerate) to show different growth pathways.

• Create a mini-investigation task: “What’s the best way for [insert real brand] to grow next?”

• Use graph interpretation tasks to link size metrics to decision-making.

Common pitfalls:

• Confusing growth in size with growth in profit.

• Overlooking diseconomies of scale or cultural integration challenges post-merger.

• Memorising definitions without applying them to real situations.

Extension activities:

• Link to finance: How is growth funded? Equity vs. debt.

• Connect to leadership: What kind of leadership does scaling require?

• Challenge students to evaluate growth strategies over time — e.g. Is success in 2025 the same as it was in 2010?