ISC Class 11 Syllabus 2027 Business Studies

ISC YEAR 2027

INDIAN SCHOOL CERTIFICATE
EXAMINATION

BUSINESS STUDIES
(859)

February 2025
____________________________________________________________________________________________

© Copyright, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations
All rights reserved. The copyright to this publication and any part thereof solely vests in the Council for the Indian
School Certificate Examinations. This publication and no part thereof may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed or
stored in any manner whatsoever, without the prior written approval of the Council for the Indian School Certificate
Examinations.

Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE)

MISSION STATEMENT

The Council for the Indian School Certificate
Examinations is committed to serving the nation's
children, through high quality educational
endeavours, empowering them to contribute towards
a humane, just and pluralistic society, promoting
introspective living, by creating exciting learning
opportunities, with a commitment to excellence.

ETHOS OF CISCE

Trust and fair play.
Minimum monitoring.
Allowing schools to evolve their own niche.
Catering to the needs of the children.
Giving freedom to experiment with new ideas
and practices.
Diversity and plurality - the basic strength for
evolution of ideas.
Schools to motivate pupils towards the
cultivation of:
Excellence - The Indian and Global
experience.
Values - Spiritual and cultural - to be the bedrock
of the educational experience.
Schools to have an 'Indian Ethos', strong roots in
the national psyche and be sensitive to national
aspirations.

BUSINESS STUDIES (859)

Aims
1. To enable candidates to understand the modern 4. To acquaint candidates with the various aspects
business environment and to create awareness of Human Resource Management.
about various entrepreneurial opportunities. 5. To provide knowledge and understanding of
2. To awaken a spirit of enterprise amongst communication in modern business.
candidates. 6. To identify the various sources of business
3. To provide an insight into the recent trends in finance and the role of regulators and
business. intermediaries.

CLASS XI
There will be two papers in the subject: Meaning and definition of entrepreneur;
Paper I - Theory: 3 hours ……80 marks Classification of entrepreneurs:
independent and spin-off; types of
Paper II- Project Work ……20 marks entrepreneurs as given by Clarence Danhof:
PAPER – I (THEORY): 80 MARKS Innovative, Imitating, Fabian and Drone.
(ii) Introduction to Entrepreneurship.
1. Business Environment
(i) Introduction to the concept of business Meaning, definition and characteristics of
environment. entrepreneurship. Characteristics of
successful entrepreneur: forward looking,
Meaning and definition of business hardworking, passionate, opinionated,
environment. confident, resourceful, positive; Factors
(ii) Features and importance of business affecting entrepreneurship: political,
environment. statutory (legal and taxation), capital
Features: dynamic, relative, inter related, availability, availability of required labour,
complex, uncertain, totality of internal and availability of required raw material; Types
external forces, general and specific forces, of entrepreneurship: small business,
universality, various stakeholders; scalable startup, large company, social.
Need to understand business environment: (iii) Intrapreneurship
first mover advantage, early warning Meaning, definition and characteristics of
signals, business strategies, competitive intrapreneurship; Differences between
advantage, customer confidence and public entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship;
image, coping with change, customer needs, Classification of intrapreneurs: venture and
keeping pace with consumerism. PESTLE project; factors affecting entrepreneurship;
analysis and Porter’s five factor analysis in management support, resource availability,
understanding the business environment. organization structure, risk taking capacity,
(iii) SWOT Analysis reward.
Meaning and importance of SWOT analysis. (iv) Enterprise
Components of SWOT.
Meaning and definition; steps in setting up
2. Entrepreneurship an enterprise: selecting the line of business,
(i) Introduction to Entrepreneur. choosing the form of ownership, locating the
appropriate site to set up the business,

ISC Examination Year 2027 1

financing the proposition (identifying authority; Principles of delegation of
capital requirements and its sources), authority; Centralization and
setting up the physical layout and the decentralization of authority; Distinction
facilities, acquiring required human between delegation and decentralization of
resource. Compliance with statutory authority.
requirements, launching the business). Five
(iv) Change management.
phases of a business: expansion, peak,
recession, trough, recovery. Meaning and definition of change
management; Types of change:
Startup business – meaning only.
developmental, transitional,
(v) Business risks and causes of failure. transformational.
Meaning of business risks. Types of business Need for change: Internal forces (need for
risks: strategic risks, financial risks, improving productivity, need to reduce
operational risks, compliance risks, costs, need for improving quality of work
competition and market risks, environmental life, Domino effect, deficiency in the existing
risks, reputational risks, credit risks, system, to enhance innovation); External
innovation risks: a brief explanation of each. forces (change in market situations -
national and international, changes in
Causes of business failure: internal causes
technology, changes in population
(poor management, premature scaling,
dynamics, changes in the political scenario,
funding shortfall, inadequate profits, labour
changes in the legal system).
problems, small customer base) and external
forces (economy fluctuations, market Resistance to change: reasons for resistance
fluctuations, non-availability of credit, to change - Individual reasons (habits and
change in technology, change in government conventions, fear of unknown, zero
policies and laws, natural disasters, lack of tolerance to change (status quo), fear of
availability of raw material). economic loss, redundancy of skills, egoistic
attitude, peer pressure, emotional resistance
Methods of managing business risk: accept
to change in social groups); Organizational
and absorb, avoid, transfer, mitigate, exploit
reasons (fear of the unknown, costs
(clear understanding of the methods).
involved, management’s lack of faith in
3. Managers and Managerial Roles change, constraints of organizational
(i) Introduction structure).

Meaning and definition of a Manager. Overcoming resistance to change: Brief
explanation of Kurt Lewin’s model of
(ii) Managerial roles change and ADKAR model of change.
Managerial roles as given by Mintzberg: 4. Automation at Workplaces
informational (monitor, disseminator,
spokesperson), interpersonal (figurehead, (i) Introduction
leader, and liaison), and decisional Meaning and definition of mechanization
(entrepreneur, disturbance handler, and automation; distinction between the
resource allocator, negotiator): brief two; evolution from mechanization to
explanation of these roles. automation; merits and demerits of
(iii) Authority, responsibility, and mechanization; merits and demerits of
accountability. automation.

Meaning and definition of authority, (ii) Productivity enhancement tools and
responsibility, and accountability; their facilities at different workplaces.
interrelationship; authority distinguished • Banks: ATM, passbook printing kiosk,
from power; sources of authority: formal, cheque/ cash depositing machine, SMS
acceptance, competence; delegation of alerts

ISC Examination Year 2027 2

• Retail Industry: barcode scanner and 4. Explain how promotion of startups contributes to
POS machine (Point of Sale), card the economic growth of the country. Consider
swipe machine different aspects such as:
• Corporate Office: Biometric system, • Employment generation
photocopy machine, LED Projector, • Mobility of labour
scanners, laptops, smartphones. Video
conferencing, intercom, internet and • Capital formation
wi-fi, VoIP (voice-over internet 5. Select one firm each from any two different
protocol). industries (e.g. banking, retail, hotel,
• Airports: self check-in kiosk, CUTE pharmaceuticals, tourism, automobile, cement,
workstations, automated backdrop, steel). Analyse the business risks for each of the
AODB solutions, Airport hub wireless, two firms selected by you. As an efficient
Advanced ATS. manager, how would you mitigate such risks?
A basic understanding of role of each of the 6. List any two businesses in different industries
above in enhancing productivity (details of that have failed drastically and study the reasons
functioning not required). for their failure. You may consider aspects such
as, Finance, Marketing, Operational
inefficiency, Managerial inefficiency, etc.
PAPER II- PROJECT WORK: 20 MARKS
7. Your organization is revamping its processes
Candidates will be expected to have completed two from manual to automated mode. There is a lot
projects from any topic covered in Theory. of resistance from the workers. As a senior
Mark allocation for each Project [10 marks]: manager, state how would you overcome this
resistance. Discuss on the basis of the following
Overall format 1 mark points:
Content 4 marks • The nature of business
Findings 2 marks • Changes that you would propose in the
process
Viva-voce based on the Project 3 marks • Positive and negative points for the
stakeholders
A list of suggested Projects is given below: • Benefits of the change to the employees
1. Study the importance of changes in the business • Unfreeze Change and Refreeze model for
environment. Examine any two companies that your change management
had first mover advantage in Indian business • Retention policies
environment and how they reacted to entry of • Conclusion
global competition.
8. Bring out in detail the upcoming innovations in
2. Study and compare SWOT analysis of two any two industries e.g. automobile, education,
leading public sector companies from different retail, aviation, hospitality, tourism.
industries. 9. Make a list of various productivity enhancement
3. As a fresh graduate, select a business tools and facilities available to banking industry
opportunity and prepare a business plan for a and retail business. Study two banks and two
startup business giving the following: departmental stores and examine if they are
using the facilities available to them. Evaluate
• Details of the business idea the benefits availed by the firm and the
• Products and/or services customers.
• Finance and its sources 10. Study the productivity enhancement tools and
facilities used by corporate world. Examine how
• Marketing plan it has helped the corporate world perform and
serve better.

ISC Examination Year 2027 3