SUMMARY WEEK 1 - Introduction to IB
A business is any activity that seeks to provide goods and services to others while operating a
profit. Goods are tangible products (products that can be held in your hand) and services are
intangible products (products that you can't hold in your hand).
An entrepreneur is a person who risks time and money to start and manage a business.
Revenue is the total amount of money a business takes in during a period by selling goods and
services. Profit is the amount of money a business earns above and beyond what it spends for
salaries and other expenses needed to run the operation.
A loss occurs when a business's expenses are more than its revenues.
Risk is the chance an entrepreneur takes of losing time and money on a business that may not
prove profitable. Usually the enterprises that take the most risk may make the most profit. There
is a high risk in for example making a new product but reduced competition makes profit
possible.
Businesses and their employees pay taxes that the federal government and local communities
use to build hospitals, schools etc. Taxes also help to keep the environment clean, support
people in need and provide police and fire protection. Thus the wealth businesses generate and
the taxes they pay help everyone in their communities. A nation's businesses are part of an
economic system that contributes to the standard of living and quality of life for everyone in the
country. The term standard of living refers to the amount of goods and services people can
buy with the money they have. The term quality of life refers to the general well-being of a
society in terms of its political freedom, natural environment, education, health care, safety,
amount of leisure, and rewards that add to the satisfaction and joy that other goods and
services provide.
Maintaining a high quality life requires the combined effort of businesses, nonprofit
organizations, and government agencies.
Stakeholders are all the people who stand to gain or lose by the policies and activities of a
business and whose concerns the business needs to address.They include customer
employees stockholders suppliers dealers bakers the media people in the local community,
environmentalists and elected government leaders. The goal of a business leader is to try to
recognize and respond to the needs of these stakeholders and still make a profit.
Outsourcing means contracting with other companies to do some or all of the functions of a
firm, like its production or accounting tasks. The other side is insourcing many foreign
companies are setting up design and production facilities in the United States.
Nonprofit organizations are organizations whose goals do not include making a personal profit
for its owners or organizers. They often do strive for financial gains but they use them to meet
their social or educational goals rather than for personal profit.
There are two ways to succeed in business. One is through the ranks of a large company.
The advantage is that somebody else assumes the company's entrepreneurial risk and provides
you with benefits like paid vacation time and health insurance. The other riskier path is to
,become an entrepreneur. You gain freedom to make your own decisions but you have to prove
everything for yourself because you don't get paid vacation time or health insurance.
The five factors of production are:
1) Land. Land and other natural resources are used to make homes, cars and other
products.
2) Labor (workers). People have always been an important resource in producing goods
and services, but many people are now being replaced by technology.
3) Capital. This includes machines, tools, buildings or whatever else is used in the
production of goods. It might not include money: money is used to buy factors of
production but is not always considered a factor by itself.
4) Entrepreneurship. All the resources in the world have little value unless entrepreneurs
are willing to take the risk of starting businesses to use those resources.
5) Knowledge. Information technology has revolutionized business. Making it possible to
quickly determine wants and needs and to respond with desired goods and services.
The most important one is knowledge and entrepreneurship. As well as the economic
and political freedom matter.
The business environment consists of the surrounding factors that either help or hinder
the development of businesses. They have five elements.
1) The economic and legal environment
2) The technological environment
3) The competitive environment
4) The social environment
5) The global business environment
The economics system and the way the government works with or against businesses can have
a strong impact on the level of risk of starting a new business.
1) First of all, the government can minimize spending and keep taxes and regulations to a
minimum-policies that tend to favor business.
2) Another way for the government to actively promote entrepreneurship is to allow private
ownership of business.
3) And one of the best things the governments of less developed countries can do is to minimize
interference with the free exchange of goods and services,
4) further they can lessen the risks of entrepreneurship by passing laws that enable business
people to write enforceable contracts as well as establishing a currency that's tradable in world
markets.
5) Finally they can help minimize corruption in business and in its own ranks.
Technology is everything from phones to computers, mobile devices, medical imaging
machines, robots , the internet, artificial intelligence, social media, and the various software
programs and apps that make business processes more effective, efficient and productive.
Technology enables workers to be more effective, efficient and productive.
, Effectiveness means producing the desired result. Efficiency means producing goods and
services using the least amount of resources. Productivity is the amount of output you
generate given the amount of input (such as the number of hours you work). The more you can
produce in any given period, the more money you are worth to companies. Because of
technology everything can be done in a much shorter time of period which means fewer workers
are needed.
E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods over the internet. There are two major types of
e-commerce transactions: business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B).
technology can help businesses respond to customer needs in many ways like bar codes to
identify products which at the checkout scanner identifies the price but can also put all your
purchase information into a database, an electronic storage file for information. In this way
companies know what you buy by trading database information and can send you ads. This
collection can lead to Identity theft is the obtaining of individuals personal information, such as
social security and credit card numbers, for illegal purposes.
Companies need to offer both high quality products and good value that is outstanding service
at competitive prices which makes them stand out as a company. As said, the customers not
only want good quality at low prices but also great service (exceed customer expectations).
Businesses must listen more closely to customers to determine their wants and needs and then
adjust the firm's products, policies and practices accordingly. As well, businesses need to give
their workers the responsibility, authority, freedom, training and equipment they need to respond
quickly to customer requests. In addition they need to allow their workers to make other
decisions essential to producing high quality goods and services (empowerment)
First of all, businesses need to deal with the sensitivity of workers and cultures around the world
so they need to create a workplace that promotes inclusion and belonging, this includes older
adults, people with disabilities, as well as implementing programs such as a family leave for the
growing single parent families (diversity). As well, the social factors matter like the increasing
numbers of older citizens conclude that the businesses need to make more products and
services for them which also has something to with Providing Social Security to older citizens in
the future that will draw huge amounts of money from the working population. And lastly,
because generation z will soon be the largest group of consumers in the world the businesses
need to make a variety of tools to capture the attention from gen z ers to meet their broad taste.
The threat of more wars and terrosrism leads the government to spend even more money on
spying and the military Climate change is the movement of the temperature of the planet up or
down over time. Greening is the trend toward saving energy and producing products that cause
less farm to the environment.
WEEK 2 SUMMARY - INTRODUCTION IB
A business is any activity that seeks to provide goods and services to others while operating a
profit. Goods are tangible products (products that can be held in your hand) and services are
intangible products (products that you can't hold in your hand).
An entrepreneur is a person who risks time and money to start and manage a business.
Revenue is the total amount of money a business takes in during a period by selling goods and
services. Profit is the amount of money a business earns above and beyond what it spends for
salaries and other expenses needed to run the operation.
A loss occurs when a business's expenses are more than its revenues.
Risk is the chance an entrepreneur takes of losing time and money on a business that may not
prove profitable. Usually the enterprises that take the most risk may make the most profit. There
is a high risk in for example making a new product but reduced competition makes profit
possible.
Businesses and their employees pay taxes that the federal government and local communities
use to build hospitals, schools etc. Taxes also help to keep the environment clean, support
people in need and provide police and fire protection. Thus the wealth businesses generate and
the taxes they pay help everyone in their communities. A nation's businesses are part of an
economic system that contributes to the standard of living and quality of life for everyone in the
country. The term standard of living refers to the amount of goods and services people can
buy with the money they have. The term quality of life refers to the general well-being of a
society in terms of its political freedom, natural environment, education, health care, safety,
amount of leisure, and rewards that add to the satisfaction and joy that other goods and
services provide.
Maintaining a high quality life requires the combined effort of businesses, nonprofit
organizations, and government agencies.
Stakeholders are all the people who stand to gain or lose by the policies and activities of a
business and whose concerns the business needs to address.They include customer
employees stockholders suppliers dealers bakers the media people in the local community,
environmentalists and elected government leaders. The goal of a business leader is to try to
recognize and respond to the needs of these stakeholders and still make a profit.
Outsourcing means contracting with other companies to do some or all of the functions of a
firm, like its production or accounting tasks. The other side is insourcing many foreign
companies are setting up design and production facilities in the United States.
Nonprofit organizations are organizations whose goals do not include making a personal profit
for its owners or organizers. They often do strive for financial gains but they use them to meet
their social or educational goals rather than for personal profit.
There are two ways to succeed in business. One is through the ranks of a large company.
The advantage is that somebody else assumes the company's entrepreneurial risk and provides
you with benefits like paid vacation time and health insurance. The other riskier path is to
,become an entrepreneur. You gain freedom to make your own decisions but you have to prove
everything for yourself because you don't get paid vacation time or health insurance.
The five factors of production are:
1) Land. Land and other natural resources are used to make homes, cars and other
products.
2) Labor (workers). People have always been an important resource in producing goods
and services, but many people are now being replaced by technology.
3) Capital. This includes machines, tools, buildings or whatever else is used in the
production of goods. It might not include money: money is used to buy factors of
production but is not always considered a factor by itself.
4) Entrepreneurship. All the resources in the world have little value unless entrepreneurs
are willing to take the risk of starting businesses to use those resources.
5) Knowledge. Information technology has revolutionized business. Making it possible to
quickly determine wants and needs and to respond with desired goods and services.
The most important one is knowledge and entrepreneurship. As well as the economic
and political freedom matter.
The business environment consists of the surrounding factors that either help or hinder
the development of businesses. They have five elements.
1) The economic and legal environment
2) The technological environment
3) The competitive environment
4) The social environment
5) The global business environment
The economics system and the way the government works with or against businesses can have
a strong impact on the level of risk of starting a new business.
1) First of all, the government can minimize spending and keep taxes and regulations to a
minimum-policies that tend to favor business.
2) Another way for the government to actively promote entrepreneurship is to allow private
ownership of business.
3) And one of the best things the governments of less developed countries can do is to minimize
interference with the free exchange of goods and services,
4) further they can lessen the risks of entrepreneurship by passing laws that enable business
people to write enforceable contracts as well as establishing a currency that's tradable in world
markets.
5) Finally they can help minimize corruption in business and in its own ranks.
Technology is everything from phones to computers, mobile devices, medical imaging
machines, robots , the internet, artificial intelligence, social media, and the various software
programs and apps that make business processes more effective, efficient and productive.
Technology enables workers to be more effective, efficient and productive.
, Effectiveness means producing the desired result. Efficiency means producing goods and
services using the least amount of resources. Productivity is the amount of output you
generate given the amount of input (such as the number of hours you work). The more you can
produce in any given period, the more money you are worth to companies. Because of
technology everything can be done in a much shorter time of period which means fewer workers
are needed.
E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods over the internet. There are two major types of
e-commerce transactions: business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B).
technology can help businesses respond to customer needs in many ways like bar codes to
identify products which at the checkout scanner identifies the price but can also put all your
purchase information into a database, an electronic storage file for information. In this way
companies know what you buy by trading database information and can send you ads. This
collection can lead to Identity theft is the obtaining of individuals personal information, such as
social security and credit card numbers, for illegal purposes.
Companies need to offer both high quality products and good value that is outstanding service
at competitive prices which makes them stand out as a company. As said, the customers not
only want good quality at low prices but also great service (exceed customer expectations).
Businesses must listen more closely to customers to determine their wants and needs and then
adjust the firm's products, policies and practices accordingly. As well, businesses need to give
their workers the responsibility, authority, freedom, training and equipment they need to respond
quickly to customer requests. In addition they need to allow their workers to make other
decisions essential to producing high quality goods and services (empowerment)
First of all, businesses need to deal with the sensitivity of workers and cultures around the world
so they need to create a workplace that promotes inclusion and belonging, this includes older
adults, people with disabilities, as well as implementing programs such as a family leave for the
growing single parent families (diversity). As well, the social factors matter like the increasing
numbers of older citizens conclude that the businesses need to make more products and
services for them which also has something to with Providing Social Security to older citizens in
the future that will draw huge amounts of money from the working population. And lastly,
because generation z will soon be the largest group of consumers in the world the businesses
need to make a variety of tools to capture the attention from gen z ers to meet their broad taste.
The threat of more wars and terrosrism leads the government to spend even more money on
spying and the military Climate change is the movement of the temperature of the planet up or
down over time. Greening is the trend toward saving energy and producing products that cause
less farm to the environment.
WEEK 2 SUMMARY - INTRODUCTION IB
