Business Strategy, Development, Application, 4th Canadian
Edition By Gary Bissonette (CH 1-14)
SOLUTION MANUAL
, INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part 1: Macro Business Environment
1. What Is Business?
2. The Canadian Economic Environment
3. The Global Marketplace
4. The Environment and Sustainable Business Practices
5. Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Part 2: Managing and Guiding Your Team
6. Developing a Business Strategy
7. Entrepreneurship and Forms of Business Ownership
8. Developing Your Business Structure and Culture
9. Managing and Leading the Organization’s Talent
Part 3: Managing the Value Chain
10. The Marketing Challenge
11. Understanding the Marketing Effort
12. Technology, Analytics, and Operations Management
Part 4: Financial Management
13. Understanding Business Finances
14. Financial Statements Structure and Interpretation
15. Analyzing New Business Ventures
1-1
, INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL
Chapter 1: Understanding and managing Today’s Business Enterprise
Chapter Summary
In this Chapter, we have described the nature of business and discussed the ways in which
businesses strive to maintain their viability and relevancy through interacting with the
marketplace in ways that meet the needs, wants, and desires of targeted customers. Our
discussion focused on the interaction of business as a commercial endeavour, guided by
employee interaction and supported by organizational efficiency and structure. This process
results in the development of a business system and ultimately a business model, which together
are designed to deliver desired goods and services to the marketplace. Utilizing productive
resources at their disposal (assets, labour, capital, and managerial acumen), businesses seek to
create demand, generate revenue, and drive a profit from the sale of such goods and services,
thereby ensuring their long-term profitability and growth. While striving for profitability,
businesses are being increasingly challenged by customers, and the marketplace at large, to be
good corporate citizens, acknowledging their responsibility to act in a socially acceptable manner
and respecting the finite nature and scarcity of resources. This evolving requirement of
businesses is resulting in a significant emphasis on resource sustainability and environmental
initiatives.
To help you to understand why some companies are more successful than others, this Chapter’s
focus emphasizes (at a macro level) the importance of positioning, and developing and
communicating a value proposition to the customer group that a business is trying to attract, in a
manner that differentiates the business’s products and services from those of its direct
competitors and that attempts to develop and sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
The creation of this value proposition takes into consideration both tangible and intangible
benefits that the product or service offers, and looks to determine the extent at which price will
become a key decision criterion within the customer’s purchase decision. The Chapter closes
with a discussion associated with the importance and interrelationship between strategy and
1-2
, INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL
tactics and the need for managers to recognize that in order to be successful, businesses not only
have to properly develop a plan for serving the marketplace, but also must be effective in the
implementation of this plan.
Learning Objectives
This Chapter is designed to provide students with:
1. A macro-level understanding of what business is
2. An overview of the major components of a business model and how their successful
1-3
Edition By Gary Bissonette (CH 1-14)
SOLUTION MANUAL
, INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part 1: Macro Business Environment
1. What Is Business?
2. The Canadian Economic Environment
3. The Global Marketplace
4. The Environment and Sustainable Business Practices
5. Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Part 2: Managing and Guiding Your Team
6. Developing a Business Strategy
7. Entrepreneurship and Forms of Business Ownership
8. Developing Your Business Structure and Culture
9. Managing and Leading the Organization’s Talent
Part 3: Managing the Value Chain
10. The Marketing Challenge
11. Understanding the Marketing Effort
12. Technology, Analytics, and Operations Management
Part 4: Financial Management
13. Understanding Business Finances
14. Financial Statements Structure and Interpretation
15. Analyzing New Business Ventures
1-1
, INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL
Chapter 1: Understanding and managing Today’s Business Enterprise
Chapter Summary
In this Chapter, we have described the nature of business and discussed the ways in which
businesses strive to maintain their viability and relevancy through interacting with the
marketplace in ways that meet the needs, wants, and desires of targeted customers. Our
discussion focused on the interaction of business as a commercial endeavour, guided by
employee interaction and supported by organizational efficiency and structure. This process
results in the development of a business system and ultimately a business model, which together
are designed to deliver desired goods and services to the marketplace. Utilizing productive
resources at their disposal (assets, labour, capital, and managerial acumen), businesses seek to
create demand, generate revenue, and drive a profit from the sale of such goods and services,
thereby ensuring their long-term profitability and growth. While striving for profitability,
businesses are being increasingly challenged by customers, and the marketplace at large, to be
good corporate citizens, acknowledging their responsibility to act in a socially acceptable manner
and respecting the finite nature and scarcity of resources. This evolving requirement of
businesses is resulting in a significant emphasis on resource sustainability and environmental
initiatives.
To help you to understand why some companies are more successful than others, this Chapter’s
focus emphasizes (at a macro level) the importance of positioning, and developing and
communicating a value proposition to the customer group that a business is trying to attract, in a
manner that differentiates the business’s products and services from those of its direct
competitors and that attempts to develop and sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
The creation of this value proposition takes into consideration both tangible and intangible
benefits that the product or service offers, and looks to determine the extent at which price will
become a key decision criterion within the customer’s purchase decision. The Chapter closes
with a discussion associated with the importance and interrelationship between strategy and
1-2
, INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL
tactics and the need for managers to recognize that in order to be successful, businesses not only
have to properly develop a plan for serving the marketplace, but also must be effective in the
implementation of this plan.
Learning Objectives
This Chapter is designed to provide students with:
1. A macro-level understanding of what business is
2. An overview of the major components of a business model and how their successful
1-3
