Introduction to Business


Book Description

Introduction to Business covers the scope and sequence of most introductory business courses. The book provides detailed explanations in the context of core themes such as customer satisfaction, ethics, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing change. Introduction to Business includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations, which feature a variety of individuals. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of business concepts, with attention to the knowledge and skills necessary for student success in this course and beyond. This is an adaptation of Introduction to Business by OpenStax. You can access the textbook as pdf for free at openstax.org. Minor editorial changes were made to ensure a better ebook reading experience. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.




The Future of Work


Book Description

Throughout the history of business employees had to adapt to managers and managers had to adapt to organizations. In the future this is reversed with managers and organizations adapting to employees. This means that in order to succeed and thrive organizations must rethink and challenge everything they know about work. The demographics of employees are changing and so are employee expectations, values, attitudes, and styles of working. Conventional management models must be replaced with leadership approaches adapted to the future employee. Organizations must also rethink their traditional structure, how they empower employees, and what they need to do to remain competitive in a rapidly changing world. This is a book about how employees of the future will work, how managers will lead, and what organizations of the future will look like. The Future of Work will help you: Stay ahead of the competition Create better leaders Tap into the freelancer economy Attract and retain top talent Rethink management Structure effective teams Embrace flexible work environments Adapt to the changing workforce Build the organization of the future And more The book features uncommon examples and easy to understand concepts which will challenge and inspire you to work differently.




Corporate and Trust Structures


Book Description

Corporate and Trust Structures: Legal and Illegal Dimensions is a collection of essays by experts in company law, trusts and financial crime. It explores the nature of companies and trusts, how they have been utilised for legitimate business purposes, and how they can be exploited by criminals for illegal purposes. Basic concepts relating to trusts and companies are considered, together with recent developments in corporate liability, including when liability may be attributed to companies and when the veil of limited liability may be lifted. Complex corporate structures, including the ownership structure of the Alibaba Group, are examined. The Panama Papers’ revelations are also discussed together with the mechanisms within trusts and company structures that make them vulnerable and attractive for criminal abuse. The essayists address critical issues in the domestic and international contexts, including the requirements of the international standards against money laundering relevant to trusts and companies. Academics, lawyers, business people and policy-makers will find the essays topical and relevant.




Private Equity Funds


Book Description

"The best guide to private equity funds. Insight and explanations for both fund sponsors and investors. The gold standard." --Andrew Zalasin, General Partner and CFO: RRE Ventures Best Practices for Organizing and Managing a Fund With nearly $7 trillion invested in more than 20,000 funds, investor interest in the private equity industry has returned, despite the economic turmoil of recent years. Still, guidance about the organization and administration of these funds is tough to find. This 1,400+ page resource, will equip corporate lawyers, investment professionals, and tax practitioners and with best practices to manage these funds effectively. Private Equity Funds: Business Structure and Operations covers a wide range of important issues, such as: the key economic differences between various types of funds; structuring the private equity fund to meet economic expectations and investment goals; securing maximum tax benefits for the sponsor of the fund; duties of the fund's General Partner and Investment Advisor; the major regulatory issues affecting the private equity fund; and much more. Private Equity Funds: Business Structure and Operations reflects the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009. The authors also focus on cyber risk and the compliance obligations of investment advisers.




Strategy and Structure


Book Description

This book shows how the seventy largest corporations in America have dealt with a single economic problem: the effective administration of an expanding business. The author summarizes the history of the expansion of the nation's largest industries during the past hundred years and then examines in depth the modern decentralized corporate structure as it was developed independently by four companies—du Pont, General Motors, Standard Oil (New Jersey), and Sears, Roebuck. This 1990 reprint includes a new introduction by the author.




The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures


Book Description

Smart leaders know that they would greatly increase productivity and innovation if only they could get everyone fully engaged. So do professors, facilitators and all changemakers. The challenge is how. Liberating Structures are novel, practical and no-nonsense methods to help you accomplish this goal with groups of any size. Prepare to be surprised by how simple and easy they are for anyone to use. This book shows you how with detailed descriptions for putting them into practice plus tips on how to get started and traps to avoid. It takes the design and facilitation methods experts use and puts them within reach of anyone in any organization or initiative, from the frontline to the C-suite. Part One: The Hidden Structure of Engagement will ground you with the conceptual framework and vocabulary of Liberating Structures. It contrasts Liberating Structures with conventional methods and shows the benefits of using them to transform the way people collaborate, learn, and discover solutions together. Part Two: Getting Started and Beyond offers guidelines for experimenting in a wide range of applications from small group interactions to system-wide initiatives: meetings, projects, problem solving, change initiatives, product launches, strategy development, etc. Part Three: Stories from the Field illustrates the endless possibilities Liberating Structures offer with stories from users around the world, in all types of organizations -- from healthcare to academic to military to global business enterprises, from judicial and legislative environments to R&D. Part Four: The Field Guide for Including, Engaging, and Unleashing Everyone describes how to use each of the 33 Liberating Structures with step-by-step explanations of what to do and what to expect. Discover today what Liberating Structures can do for you, without expensive investments, complicated training, or difficult restructuring. Liberate everyone's contributions -- all it takes is the determination to experiment.




Organization Structures


Book Description

Organization Structures: Theory and Design, Analysis and Prescription describes how to organize people to achieve a desired outcome. This is accomplished by establishing sets of rules from "real world" organization contexts. Moreover, the development of these rules within "real world" contexts means that the rules must be true, general, operational, technically sound, and easy to use. With an understanding of rules and the processes of their use, organization structures can be identified, which in turn form the basis of a theoretical framework. This book discusses, examines, and demonstrates the interrelationship of the design rules, their theoretical use within these organization structures, along with their practical implications. Throughout the book, an extended example of the Masters Brewing Corporation (MBC) is used to illustrate the conceptual material and to make the implications of the organizational analysis explicitly concrete.







Complex Ownership Structures and Corporate Valuations


Book Description

The bulk of corporate governance theory examines the agency problems that arise from two extreme ownership structures: 100 percent small shareholders or one large, controlling owner combined with small shareholders. In this paper, we question the empirical validity of this dichotomy. In fact, one-third of publicly listed firms in Europe have multiple large owners, and the market value of firms with multiple blockholders differs from firms with a single large owner and from widely-held firms. Moreover, the relationship between corporate valuations and the distribution of cash-flow rights across multiple large owners is consistent with the predictions of recent theoretical models.




The Handbook for Quality Management, Second Edition


Book Description

The definitive guide to organizational excellence--completely updated Fully revised for the latest American Society for Quality (ASQ) Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/QE) Body of Knowledge, The Handbook for Quality Management: A Complete Guide to Operational Excellence, Second Edition offers in-depth guidance on effectively applying the principles of quality management in today's business environment and delivering superior results. Designed to help you prepare for and pass the ASQ CMQ/QE exam, this authoritative volume also serves as an essential on-the-job reference. Coverage includes: Business-integrated quality systems Organizational structures The quality function Approaches to quality Customer-focused organizations Integrated planning Strategic planning Understanding customer expectations and needs Benchmarking Organizational assessment Process control Quantifying process variation Quality audits Supply chain management Continuous improvement Effective change management Six Sigma methodology, including detailed descriptions of the DMAIC and DMADV approaches Management of human resources Motivation theories and principles Management styles Resource requirements to manage the quality function Over the past 40 years, the quality management discipline has undergone steady evolution from disparate quality assurance efforts to strategic, business-integrated functions. Today's quality manager must be able to plan and implement measurable, cost-effective process-improvement initiatives across the organization. Written by two of the foremost authorities on the subject and fully updated for the latest American Society for Quality (ASQ) Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE) Body of Knowledge, The Handbook for Quality Management, Second Edition provides an operational guide to the proper understanding and application of quality management in the current business environment. It serves as a primary reference source for an organization's quality program and for anyone seeking to pass the CMQ/OE exam, given by the ASQ. The Handbook for Quality Management: A Complete Guide to Operational Excellence, Second Edition: Clearly defines quality management principles and their application within a cross section of industries Integrates the application of Theory of Constraints, Six Sigma, and Lean thinking into the Quality Management discipline Contains detailed methods for planning, including customer needs recognition, benchmarking, and organizational assessments Discusses controls such as statistical process control, audits, and supply chain management Explains the stages of continuous improvement Incorporates classic motivation theory with more current management practices advocated by Joiner, Senge, and Deming, among others Features simulated and past exam questions to help you study for the ASQ CMQ/OE exam with answers that can be found at www.mhprofessional.com/HQM2