Business Studies For Dummies E-Book

Richard Pettinger

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 601

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Your hands-on introduction to modern business and business education

Whether you're deciding on a course of study, headed to university, or settling down to your first year, Business Studies For Dummies provides you with a thorough overview of the subjects that form the foundation of a business studies degree.

You'll get trusted, easy-to-follow coverage of all the topics you'll encounter: business start-up, accounting and finance, operations, human resources, management, analytics, business environment, and economics.

• Includes a clear, engaging, and concise overview of the key topics you'll encounter in your studies
• The perfect study companion for students

With Business Studies For Dummies, you'll be one step ahead of the competition—at university and on the job.

Leseprobe

Business Studies For Dummies®

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, www.wiley.com

This edition first published 2013

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ISBN 978-1-118-34811-6 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-34814-7 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-34817-8 (ebk)

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Business Studies For Dummies®

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/businessstudies to view this book's cheat sheet.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Foolish Assumptions

Icons Used in This Book

Beyond The Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: What Is Business?

Chapter 1: Understanding Business and Business Studies

Defining Business

Why Study Business?

Knowing How to Study Business

Thinking for yourself

Putting theory into practice

Considering the Role of Business

Seeing the economic side of business

Understanding the social perspective

Understanding Business Risks

Situating the Business in Its Environment

Thinking about Beneficiaries and Stakeholders

Recognising Present Business Pressures

Chapter 2: Identifying the Internal and External Influences on Business

Considering Internal Influences: An Inside Job

Directors and top managers

Technology and expertise

Ethics and the work ethic

Drives and pressures

Crises and emergencies

Exploring External Influences: Looking Beyond Your Walls

Trade and the trading environment

Environmental issues

Chapter 3: Using Business Analyses

Starting with the Basics of Analyses

Figuring Out Three Principles of Business

Analysing the Environment

PESTEL analysis

Five Forces analysis

Competitor analysis

Analysing the Organisation

SWOT analysis

Locations

Costs and returns

Value

Analysing Products and Services

Product and service lifecycles

Product and service clusters

The Ford Matrix

Analysing Customers and Clients

Analysing Risks

Chapter 4: Making Decisions

Following the Decision-Making Process

Understanding Real-World Business Decisions

Reviewing the Role of Top Management in Decisions

Stakeholder pressures

Managerial pressures

Part II: How Business Works

Chapter 5: Structuring and Evolving Organisations

Identifying the Various Structures and Types of Organisations

Commercial organisations

Public service bodies

NGOs and quangos

The not-for-profit sector

Other organisational forms

Outsourcing Work to Other Companies and Countries

Changing Ownership and Activities

Takeovers and mergers

Privatisation

Chapter 6: Meeting Stakeholder Demands

Knowing Who the Stakeholders Are

Backers

Staff

Customers and clients

Suppliers

The public and the media

Pressure groups

Understanding Stakeholders’ Priorities

Considering Ethical Issues

Chapter 7: Organising for Success

Building the Foundations for Organising for Success

Understanding the Nature of Organisation

Considering Locations of Work

Weighing up a location

Working via the Internet

Organising Work and Work Groups

Departments, divisions and functions

Spans of control

Dealing with Staffing Issues

Investing in Technology and Assets

Part III: How to Be a Business and Do Business

Chapter 8: Understanding Business Strategy

Knowing What Strategy Is (and Isn’t)

Defining Your Organisation’s Strategy

What do you do?

When do you do it?

Where do you do it?

Why do you do it?

For whom do you do it?

Implementing Your Strategy

Formulation

Execution

Measuring the results

Looking for the warning signs

Chapter 9: Creating Great Products and Services

What’s in Your Stable Today? Evaluating Your Existing Products and Services

Offering a range of products and services

Analysing the contribution of products and services

Looking at product and service lifecycles

Paying attention to quality

Creating the New Kids on the Block: Product and Service Development

Finding reasons for development

Producing a prototype or mock-up of your idea

Getting to market

Building on your successes

Abandoning your failures

Chapter 10: Marketing Your Products or Services

Knowing What Marketing Is and What Marketing Does

Targeting Your Piece of the Pie: Market Segmentation

Devising Your Marketing Strategy

Choosing a Marketing Mix

Selecting Your Marketing Media

Branding: Showing Who You Are and What You’re About

Thinking about the brand you want

Building a brand

Doing Market Research

Customer surveys

Focus groups

Meetings with customer groups

Specialist groups involved in new product and service testing

Tracking purchases

Tracking Internet buying habits

Putting It All Together

Part IV: Money, Money, Money

Chapter 11: Understanding Finance

Knowing What Finance Is and Where It Comes From

Capital and shares

Loans

Retained profits

Using Finance

Investing in the business

Bonuses and rewards

Dividends and returns

Structuring Finance

Using loan capital

Drilling down to the core: Strength and integrity

Understanding assets and liabilities

Allocating Resources

Budgeting

Knowing why budgets matter

Looking at different kinds of budgets

Developing a budget

Keeping your eye on the figures

Apportioning Costs

Chapter 12: Structuring Accounts

Getting to Grips with the Basics of Accounting

The accounting cycle

The accounting equation

Double-entry bookkeeping

Depreciating your assets

Understanding Financial Statements

Gathering the important financial statements

Taking a snapshot: The balance sheet

Making money: The profit-and-loss account

Keeping more money than you spend: The cash flow statement

Audits: The Key to Accuracy

Chapter 13: Investing in the Present and in the Future

Understanding the Purpose of Investment

Doing Your Due Diligence

The cost of capital

Returns on investment

Future effects

Focusing on Financial Forecasting

Analysing Performance

Variance analysis

Ratio analysis

Cost/volume/profit analysis

Reading an Annual Report

Chapter 14: Using Numbers in Business

Delving into Data

Finding the data you need

Making use of the data

Recognising what numbers tell you, and what they don’t

Sidling Up to Statistics

Knowing the statistics that are relevant to your business

Using statistics to your business’s advantage

Defining Business Analytics

Calculating Risk

Accepting and mitigating risk

Don’t go there: Avoiding risk

Part V: The Awkward Bit: The People!

Chapter 15: Knowing People

Oh, Behave! (How People Behave)

Communication Nation: Seeing the Importance of Communication

Channels of communication

Types of communication

What we have is a failure to communicate: Barriers to communication

Culture Club: Considering Your Organisation’s Culture and Values

Understanding the characteristics of culture

Seeing how culture evolves

Oh, Captain! My Captain! Looking at Leadership

Motivation: Why People Do What They Do

The hierarchy of needs

The two-factor theory

Building the Work Ethic You Want

Go, Team!

Managing across Cultures, Borders and Time Differences

Chapter 16: Managing Human Resources

Recruiting New Employees

Defining the job

Setting a salary

Finding the cream of the crop

Sorting through the applications

Interviewing candidates

Checking references

Ranking your candidates

Welcome aboard! The first few days and weeks

Training and Development: Helping Your Employees Learn and Grow

Developing at all levels

Using performance appraisal

Atta Boy! Atta Girl! Rewarding Your Employees

Identifying the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards

Making rewards and incentives pay off

Feeling Good: Health and Safety

Chapter 17: Handling Employee Relations

Policies and Procedures: Putting Them on Paper

Handling Conflict in the Workplace

Getting Employees Involved in the Organisation

Disciplining and Dismissing Employees

Discipline: Wearing the proverbial dunce cap

Dismissal: You’re outta here!

Addressing Employee Grievances

You’re in the Union, Jack: Appreciating the Role and Function of Trade Unions

Consulting and Negotiating with Your Staff

Flex Those Muscles! Flexible Working Conditions

Following the Letter of the Law

Part VI: Putting It All Together

Chapter 18: Examining Operations

Identifying the Nature of Production and Service Activities

Integrating the Efforts of Your Employees

Considering the Scales of Production and Service Delivery

Classifying production and service delivery

Seeing how technology helps

Making Quality Your Top Priority

Uniformity

Differentiation

Access and convenience

Tackling Organisational Issues

Managing alienation

Keeping control

Considering location

Balancing efficiency and effectiveness

Moving On Up: Growing and Diversifying

Chapter 19: Delivering Great Projects

Considering the Nature of Project Work

Getting to grips with the basics

Recognising the benefits of project work

Ticking off the trade-offs of project work

The Circle of Life: Looking at the Project Lifecycle

Phase 1: Design and conception

Phase 2: Building and delivery

Phase 3: Use and value

Time after Time: Setting and Meeting Deadlines

Critical paths

Some absolutes

Managing Projects Like a Pro

Following top management tips

Designing and structuring project organisation

Chapter 20: Using Technology to Your Best Advantage

Seeing What Technology Is and What It Can Do for You

Recognising the value of technology

Using technology

Focusing on Information Technology

Bringing Technology to Bear on Your Products and Services

Keeping Up with the Competition in the Technology Age

Keeping Current with Technology

Part VII: The Part of Tens

Chapter 21: Ten Tips for Succeeding at Business School

Contribute

Ask Questions

Go to Classes That Aren’t on Your Course (In Addition to Those That Are!)

Listen to Guest Speakers

Attend Conferences

Make the Most of Group Work

Join Societies

Read

Volunteer

Enjoy!

Chapter 22: Ten Ways to Put Your Knowledge to Work Outside the Classroom

Taking Internships

Working Outside of Your Studies

Volunteering

Visiting Companies and Organisations

Considering Customer Service

Networking

Evaluating Your Own Behaviour

Reading

Learning from Mentors

Creating a Winning Curriculum Vitae

About the Author

Cheat Sheet

Connect with Dummies

Introduction

There’s never been a more important, exciting or vital time to be studying business. So much has happened in the past: achievements and successes, but also mistakes and business conduct that, excellent though it may have been then, is no longer suitable or effective. And so much is going to change in the years to come, such as increased competition in a world that’s electronically charged and linked; industrial and commercial revolutions in countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China; and the commercialisation of public services like health, education and security.

So it’s clearly time to take a step back and think about just what business is, how it’s conducted and how it should be conducted, and the benefits that it should be delivering for society at large, as well as for companies and organisations. And that’s where Business Studies For Dummies comes in: it’s a concise point of reference for everyone who wants to know and understand what business is and what it ought to be, and how to succeed in business now and in the future.

About This Book

This book provides the basis for acquiring and developing the substantial body of knowledge, skills and understanding that’s required of anyone who comes to study business. This knowledge forms the base upon which you can build practical excellence and expertise, and relate the lessons learned to what goes on in the world.

This book is full of vital and useful information. Everything included in the book is tried and tested. Of course, I introduce organisation and management theories, and I also introduce the distinctive disciplines of business – marketing, finance, numeracy and the understanding of people and their behaviour. I concentrate on what’s useful and valuable. All these aspects give you a firm foundation on which to build your professional knowledge, understanding and expertise.

I also include lots of real-world examples that I hope inspire you to understand the expertise and principles on which they’re based, and learn from the failures also, so that you can make sure you never make these mistakes yourself.

I also place an emphasis on providing practical information – so you’ll find lots of tips and guidance you can apply to your own career in business. Becoming fully professional and expert in business is terrifically rewarding and fulfilling, whatever sector you go on to work in.

Always put in your best effort! Remember that the best directors and managers in the world have reached their positions because of their personal and professional commitment, as well as their expertise. In addition to working very hard, they have read books like this and many others so that they know as much as they possibly can about everything to do with business.

Foolish Assumptions

In my line of work, everyone I meet has an active interest in business, companies and organisations, how they work, and what causes some of them to be profitable and effective, while others fail. In this book, therefore, I assume that you’re studying business on a course, or else actively interested and/or involved in business – what it is, how it works and how it can be improved.

I assume that you need and want comprehensive basic information about every aspect of what business is and the different elements – organisation, people, marketing, sales, accounts and finance – that together make up the whole.

I also assume that, whatever your occupation, rank or level of qualification, you can get something out of this book – just a few insights, or a pearl of wisdom, or a different approach to reviewing those things with which you’re familiar. As you work your way through this book, you’re able to access both the whole of what business is, and also those specific parts that are of greatest value to you (feel free to browse the table of contents if you’re looking for a particular topic to dive into).

Icons Used in This Book

We use icons next to blocks of text to draw your attention to particular nuggets of information throughout the book.

The bull’s-eye highlights a good idea or shortcut that can save you time or trouble.

This icon draws your attention to a piece of information about business that you shouldn’t forget.

This icon indicates information that can help you to avoid disasters.

The world of business is full of inspirational stories of business successes and failures, and this icon highlights them.

This icon shows vital lessons to learn, based on the experiences of others.

This icon draws your attention to the main things that you’ll likely learn and apply as you study business and develop your knowledge and expertise.

Everyone in business has their own point of view on all aspects of what is good and best practice, and this icon highlights the best of these.

Beyond The Book

As you make your journey into the world of business studies, you can supplement what you discover in this book by checking out some of the bonus content available to you at Dummies.com.

You can locate the book's e-cheat sheet at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/businessstudies. Here you can find handy hints about the importance of people in everyday business, identifying and assessing risk, and relating your studies to real-life business.

Be sure to visit the book's extras page at www.dummies.com/extras/businessstudies for an extra Part of Tens chapter and many other interesting articles.

Where to Go from Here

The beauty of a book broken up into easily identifiable and manageable chunks is that you can start anywhere in your reading. Being new to business studies, you may want to start at the beginning and work your way through to the end. Then, later on, you can delve into the book, finding topics that are useful at different stages. A wealth of information and practical advice is waiting for you. Simply turn the page and begin!

Part I

What Is Business?

For Dummies can help you get started with lots of subjects. Visit www.dummies.com to learn more and do more with For Dummies.

In this part . . .

Get to grips with business. Identify whether studying business is for you and get advice on exactly how to go about doing this.

Apply a business-like approach to all business activity in order to improve the running of your commercial, public sector or not-for-profit business.

Acclimatize yourself to your business’s environment by learning about the internal and external influences on your business.

Optimize your business analyses skills to evaluate opportunities, constraints, drives and pressures from all parts of your business environment.

Chapter 1

Understanding Business and Business Studies

In This Chapter

Understanding why and how people study business

Thinking about the part that business plays socially and economically

Considering the risks facing businesses

Looking at the bigger picture: the business environment

Seeing what pressures businesses contend with

Welcome to the world of business and business studies!

The world of business is truly exciting. It provides everything that you need, want, consume and use in every part of your life. But the world of business can also be a scary one – times are uncertain, and this uncertainty is causing great changes in how companies and organisations conduct their affairs, how people organise their working and domestic lives, and how essential services (such as housing, energy and transport) are provided, delivered and paid for.

So, people knowing as much as possible about business is vital – how business is organised and structured, and how it goes about delivering what it’s supposed to produce.

That’s where you come in! Whether you’re studying business in order to get qualifications, or whether you’re doing so purely out of interest, you will acquire much greater knowledge, insight, understanding – and, ultimately, expertise – in everything to do with business and how business is conducted by reading this book!

In this chapter, I start you off on your business studies path by laying down the basics of this field of study, from defining business and understanding why people study it and how, to looking at the role of businesses, risks, the business environment, beneficiaries and stakeholders and, finally, the pressures that businesses face.

Defining Business

Business students must know the answers to two key questions:

What is business? Answer: the provision of products and services for consumption, in return for an agreed-upon price, charge or fee, or for having paid taxes and charges at some point (usually for public services – this also applies to direct debit payments for electricity, gas and water).

What is a business? Answer: an entity – an organisation – that conducts a particular set of activities, the purpose of which is to provide something – products, services or both – that’s of value to all or part of the community.

Ultimately, think of all organisations as businesses, whether they work on purely commercial lines, or whether they’re government departments, public service providers or charities. This makes studying business much more straightforward. Besides, all public service and charitable organisations are now run very much on ‘business lines’, with the kinds of pressures on their resources that have always occurred in commercial activities.

Why Study Business?

Business provides a fundamental structure for every part of society, affecting every walk of life and part of life. Most of what you do relates to businesses of one sort or another.