The Business Environment: Economics
Pre Reading Comment - Chapter One
Pay particular attention to the discussion of the laws
of supply and demand
Lecture Notes
Lecture
Summary
The key components of this
lecture are:
What is Business?
Business is book definition
“any organization that provides goods or services for profit”
What does this mean?
Taking
inputs “factors of production”(land, human
capital, physical capital, technology) and combining them in such a way
as to make something others will pay for – hopefully paying more than what it
cost you to develop, produce, promote and distribute the good or service.
Activity 1:
What are the inputs that McDonalds uses to produce their products? What about the way they combine resources has
resulted in their being so profitable?
Individuals who accepts both
the risks and the opportunities involved in creating and operating a new
business venture are know as entrepreneurs
Activity 2:
What are the purposes of profit? Can
there be too much profit? Too little profit?
Purpose
·
Incentive
for investors to take risk of investing
·
Investment in
new plant and equipment
While this course will focus
on for-profit organizations – much of the discussion is relevant to
not-for-profit and governmental organizations.
Activity 3:
How are profits distributed – or used by an organization?
Distribution
History of Business
There have been very small,
family-operated business entities for a very long time – dating to earliest
recorded history
However business structure
took a critical turn about 300 years ago. The first business
organizations that separated ownership (stockholders) from managers were
formed. These entities limited the
liability of the owners to their investment in the organization. (Dutch companies that invested in trading
ships)
The separation of ownership
from management and the limitation on owner liability allowed these
organizations to grow much larger and to have an ongoing life than would be
possible with a company owned by a single individual.
This evolution also gave
rise to the professional manager – a very good thing for many of you as that is
what you are likely to become.
Question: How many of you or your families own stock? Do you or your family members have a 401K
retirement program at work? Do you plan
on owning stock some day?
Economic Systems
Two economic systems have
been utilized in the last 100 years
Capitalism Or Socialism
Socialism (book refers to this as a “planned economy”) – A
system where the means of production (the capital) is owned by the state and
the state dictates the nature of the economic activity. Karl Marx is often identified as the
developer of this approach. As he
stated, this approach is based on “from each according to his abilities to each
according to his needs”
This system makes a positive
statement about human nature “we will all work hard for the common good.”
Unfortunately, there is no personal incentive in this system to work hard, the
incentive is to claim the largest need (least effort, highest reward).
Therefore, this system has never been associated with high levels of economic
growth or profit.
Capitalism (book refers to as a “market economy”) – System where
the means of production are owned by individuals and the nature of economic
activity is determined by the
interaction of supply and demand forces working through the price of goods and
services. This system is based on the
assumption that each individual will act in order to increase their income and
well being – will maximize their satisfaction in economic terms.
This system makes a somewhat
less positive statement that humans are motivated by self interest. However, it
gives individuals the strongest possible incentives to work and produce,
thereby creating larger economic output and higher standards of living than
socialism.
Over the past years the
relative success of these two alternative systems has been demonstrated by the
economic collapse of the former
“Communism
is inherently the equal sharing of misery while capitalism results in the
unequal sharing of blessings”
- Winston Churchill
Our economy is in reality a
mixture of pure market driven capitalism and some central planning (government
support for the aero space industry) and some government ownership of the means
of production (post offices and roads).
Activity 4: Consider a restaurant. What would it take to open a restaurant in a
market economy? What would it take to
open the restaurant in a planned economy?
Supply and Demand
The book (pages 12-15) does
a good job of reviewing the forces of supply and demand. Crucial to this analysis
is the realization that prices call out economic activity: Higher prices will
curtail the amount demanded while at the same time generating incentive for
suppliers to increase the amount produced (and vice versa). Therefore, it is
only when the amount that is demanded is exactly equal to the amount supplied
that prices will cease to change and we reach a situation known as economic
equilibrium (where there are no forces for change).
Activity 5:
Assume that the price and supply/demand for gas in the
Note our economy uses the
supply and demand interaction to allocate scarce resources at the margin. Do we allocate a little more or a little less of our
organizational resources to making gas, to discovering new ways to increase
fuel economy, to use more fuel efficient cars and trucks. The price mechanism – the Invisible-hand –
makes all of theses allocation decisions in a way that maximizes the utility of
those involved in our economy.
As a society there is a
tradeoff between the production of physical capital that allows us to produce
more in the future and the production of
consumer goods that enhance quality of life today (the opportunity cost)
Economic issues in the Business Plan
Identify the potential customers for your business
(demand) and the competition (supply).
How do you see these forces changing over time?
Summary of Beyond the Book – expectations for the
final
You should understand: