Business Studies For Dummies

Richard Pettinger, MBA, is the Principal Teaching Fellow in Management Education at the Department of Management Science and Innovation, University College London. He is also Director of the BSc/MSci Information Management for Business programme, a major national initiative to transform undergraduate and pre-professional business and management education.

• Introduction 1 Part I: What Is Business? 5Chapter 1: Understanding Business and Business Studies 7Chapter 2: Identifying the Internal and External Influences on Business 21Chapter 3: Using Business Analyses 37Chapter 4: Making Decisions 61Part II: How Business Works 75Chapter 5: Structuring and Evolving Organisations 77Chapter 6: Meeting Stakeholder Demands 91Chapter 7: Organising for Success 103Part III: How to Be a Business and Do Business 119Chapter 8: Understanding Business Strategy 121Chapter 9: Creating Great Products and Services 137Chapter 10: Marketing Your Products or Services 151Part IV: Money, Money, Money 171Chapter 11: Understanding Finance 173Chapter 12: Structuring Accounts 193Chapter 13: Investing in the Present and in the Future 211Chapter 14: Using Numbers in Business 231Part V: The Awkward Bit: The People! 245Chapter 15: Knowing People 247Chapter 16: Managing Human Resources 269Chapter 17: Handling Employee Relations 289Part VI: Putting It All Together 307Chapter 18: Examining Operations 309Chapter 19: Delivering Great Projects 327Chapter 20: Using Technology to Your Best Advantage 341Part VII: The Part of Tens 357Chapter 21: Ten Tips for Succeeding at Business School 359Chapter 22: Ten Ways to Put Your Knowledge to Work Outside the Classroom 367Index 375