Introduction To Business

students will likely work in a business someday, regardless of their major. Thus, this Introduction to Business course can have a profound impact on career direction and future success. This text motivates students to learn about business and makes it easy and enjoyable for students to understand business concepts. It provides the foundation of business knowledge that allows students to determine whether they would like to pursue a specific field of business (management, marketing, etc.). The text is a tool that the professors can adapt to fit their style of teaching.

Why This Text Is Unique

Business Valuation Theme

Students are motivated to learn business concepts if they recognize why those concepts are so important. This text is unique because it continually illustrates how the key business concepts affect the performance and value of a business. Each chapter in this text opens with a brief summary of key business decisions by a well-known firm (such as Google, Nike, etc.) that are discussed in the chapter, and how those business decisions affect a firm's performance and value. Business decisions commonly involve trade-offs and an assessment of whether the benefits (revenue) will exceed the expenses.

Decisions regarding a specific organizational structure, production pro-cess, compensation structure for employees, distribution system, or promotion strategy require a comparison of various possible choices. Students can more easily understand the tradeoffs when using the valuation framework shown here. This text makes it easy for students to understand the key types of business decisions, and how those decisions can affect a firm's value.

Furthermore, the summary of each chapter contains a diagram that illustrates how the key concepts of the chapter involve business decisions that affect the performance and value of a business.