What is business essentials?

Answer 1

Define human resource management, its strategic significance and explain how managers plan for human resources

- HRM is the set of organizational activities directed at attracting, developing and maintaining an effective workforce

- HRM plays a key strategic role in organizational performance

- Managers planning for human resource needs entails several steps

- 1) Conduct a job analysis 2) forecasting supply and demand 3) matching HR supply and demand

Chapter 9

Describe the nature and importance of individual differences among employees.

- Individual differences are personal attributes that vary from one person to another. Personality is the relatively stable set of psychological attributes that distinguish one person from another.

- The big 5 personality traits are agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotionality, extraversion and openness

- Emotional intelligence refers to the extent to which people are self aware, can manage their emotions, can motivate themselves, express empathy for others, and possess social skills. Attitudes reflect our beliefs and feelings about specific ideas situations, or other people. Especially important attitudes are job satisfaction and organizational commitment

Explain the meaning and importance of psychological contracts and the person-job fit in the workplace

-Psychological contract is the overall set of expectations held by employees and the organization regarding what employees will contribute to the organization and what the organization will provide in return.

-A good person-job fit is achieved when the employee's contributions match the inducements the organization offers. Having a good match between people and their jobs can help enhance performance, job satisfaction and motivation

Chapter 10

Explain the meaning of production (or operations) and describe the 4 kinds of utility it provides

-Production refers to the processes and activities for transforming resources into finished services and goods for customers. Production creates:

Time utility (products are available when customers want them)

Place utility (products are available where they're convenient for customers

Ownership utility (customers benefit from possessing and using the product)

Form utility (products are in a form that is useful to that customer)

Describe the factors involved in operations planning and operations control

Operations planning involves forecasting (determining future demand for products)

Capacity planning (calculation how much of a product can be produced)

Location planning (analyzing proposed facility sites)

Layout planning (designing a facility to enhance production efficiency)

Quality planning (ensuring that products meet a firms quality standards)

Methods planning (identifying specific production steps and methods for performing them)

Operations control requires production managers to monitor production performace (by comparing results with detailed plans and schedules) and then take corrective action as needed. Materials management involves the planning, organizing and controlling of the flow of materials. There are several tools for helping managers control operations processes, including worker training programs, JIT production systems, MRP and quality control

Chapter 11

Describe the 3 basic financial statements and show how they reflect the activity and financial condition of a business

-The balance sheet summarizes a company's assets, liabilities and owners equity at a given point in time.

-The income statement details revenues and expenses for a given period of time and identifies any profit or loss.

-The statement of cash flows reports cash receipts and payment from operating, investing, and financial activities

Chapter 12

Explain the concept of marketing.

-Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services, to create exchanges that satisfy individuals and organizational goals. It can be used to promote consumer and industrial goods

Explain market segmentation and show how it is used in target marketing

-groups of people who have similar wants and needs. Target marketing requires market segmentation, dividing a market into customer segments. 4 important influences are geographic variables, demographic variables, psychographic variables and behavioral variables

Explain the purpose and value of market research

-The study of what buyers need and the best ways to meet those needs. 1) studying the current situation 2) selecting a research method 3) collecting and analyzing data 4) prepare report

-The 4 most common methods are observation, surveys, focus group and experimentation

Chapter 13

Identify the important obj of promotion and discuss the considerations involved in selecting a promotional mix.

- Besides increasing sales, marketers use promotion to accomplish 4 goals. 1) communicating information 2) positioning products 3) adding value 4) controlling sales volume

Describe the key advertising media.

-The combination of media through which a company advertises (tv, radio, newspaper, direct advertising, internet, mobile) differ in their cost and ability to segment markets

Chapter 14

Identify the various pricing obj that govern pricing decisions and describe the price setting tools used in making decisions.

-The 2 main pricing obj are pricing to maximize profits and pricing to achieve market share obj. Price setting tools include cost-oriented pricing (considering the firms desire to make profit and cover production costs) and break even analysis

Discuss pricing strategies and tactic for existing and new products.

-Pricing above, below and at the market. Companies pricing new products often choose between price skimming (setting price high price to cover costs and create profit or penetration pricing (setting low price to establish new product in market)

-Pricing tactics include price lining (offering all items in certain categories at a limited number of prices), psychological pricing and discounting

Chapter 15

Explain the functions of Bank of Canada and describe the tools it uses to control the money supply.

-Bank of Canada manages the Canadian economy, controls money supply and regulates certain aspects of chartered banking operations. To increase money supply it can sell the government securities or increase bank rate

Chapter 16

Explain how risk affects business operations

- Businesses face 2 types of risk, Speculative risk and pure risk. Risk management entails conserving earning power and assets by reducing threat of losses due to uncontrollable events

Identify the 5 steps in the risk management process

- 1) Identify risk and potential losses 2) measure the frequency and severity of losses and their impact 3) evaluate alternatives 4) implement risk management program 5) monitor results