Business

Students need to know something about every aspect of business and the environment in which business prospers. And make no mistake about it : We have prosperity because-or maybe despite the fact that-the rules of the game are constantly changing throughout the business environment and across the entire range of business practices.

There are new forces at work. Nowadays, companies come together on short notice for collaborative projects and then, just as quickly, return to their original shapes as separate (and often competing) entities. Employees and companies share new ideas about work-about when and where it takes place, about how it gets done, about who determines roles and activities in the workplace. With communications technologies having shattered the barriers of physical distance, tight-knit teams with members positioned around the world share information just as effectively as groups huddled together in the same room.

In nearly every aspect of business today, from relationships with customers and suppliers to, employees and stockholders, there are new ways of doing things, and a lot of them are surpassing traditional business practices, with surprising speed and often with better competitive results. Along with new ways come a host of unique legal and ethical (and financial) issues to challenge the creativity and judgment of people who do business.

For all of these reasons we, as authors and teachers, felt a certain urgency when it became obvious that, in revising Business for its sixth edition, we had to capture the flavor and convey the excitement of the new economy in all of its rapidly evolving practices.

Contents

• Understanding the contemporary business environment
• The business of managing
• Understanding people in organizations
• Understanding principles of marketing
• Managing operations and information
• Understanding financial issues
• Appendix
• Glossary
• Notes, sources, and credits
• Indexes