Business

Business stands for different meanings and activities. First of all, it means definite commercial policy or a practice; any commercial establishment like a plant, factory, company, firm; commercial, industrial or professional dealing; the buying and selling of commodities or services; work or trade in which a person is engaged.

Business involves all profit-seeking activities and enterprises that provide goods and services necessary to national economy of the country.

Home and international business is a widespread process which changes, adapts and responds according to the conditions. Apart from conventional trade and public catering, there are various forms, such as buy-back transactions, turn­key projects, transactions in patents, licences, know-how projects, different services, various joint ventures, joint-stock banks, joint-stock companies and many other forms.

A business can be formed in several ways: sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations. About 74 percent of all businesses arc sole proprietorships. Some 17 percent of businesses агe corporations, and only 9 percent are partnerships. But corporations usually do 87 percent of the business in most developed countries, and proprietorships and partnerships do only 9 and 4 percent.

Management and Marketing

Management is the process of working with and through others to achieve organizational objectives in a changing environment An inability to work with people, not a lack of technical skills, is the main reason some managers fail to reach their full potential. A manager is effective if he or she reaches a stated objective and efficient if limited resources are not wasted in the process.

The basic formula for managerial success is:

Ability x Motivation to manage x Opportunity

Managers perform four basic functions goal setting and planning (to determine where the firm should be going and how to get there); organizing resources and activities to accomplish results in an efficient and effective manner; leading and motivating others to work in the best interest of the organization; and controlling ongoing activities through continual evaluation and regulation.

An integral part of a manager's work is decision making, that is, a set of possible alternative solutions and choosing one alternative from among that set. From the viewpoint of functional area, managers most often deal with finance, operations, marketing, human resources, and administration. Successful managers tend to possess a specific set of skills, such as technical, conceptual, interpersonal and analytic skills.

Marketing is the activities involved in getting goods from the producer to the consumer. The producer is responsible for the design and manufacture of goods. Early marketing techniques followed production and were responsible only for moving goods from the manufacturer to the point of final sale. Now, however, marketing is much more important: the marketing functions precede the manufacture of a product. They involve market research and product development, design, and testing.

Marketing concentrates primarily on the buyers, or consumers, determining their needs and desires, educating them with regard to the availability of products and to important product features, developing strategies to persuade them to buy, and, finally, satisfying them with a purchase.

Marketing management includes planning, organizing, directing, and controlling decision making regarding product lines, pricing, promotion, and servicing. In most of these areas marketing has complete control; in others, as in product-line development, its function is primarily advisory. In addition, the marketing department of a business firm is responsible for the distribution of the products, determining the channels of distribution and supervising the profitable flow of goods from the factory or warehouse to the consumer.

6. Speak on the topics: Business; Management and Marketing.