Business--It's Role in Today's Society

Bus 100

In today's fast paced and technology driven society business is changing by the minute; as well as how we conduct and do business on foreign and a domestic level. A business is defined as any activity that provides goods and services in an effort to earn a profit. The role of business in the economy is huge especially when analyzing its impact when there is a lack of job availibity and household revenue. Lets take the economic breakdown in 2008 when we were in a recession as an example.

During the economic downfall of 2008, the economy took a huge hit and from that came a rise in the loss of homes, jobs, and income. A decline in each of these critical areas resulted in a loss for the nation because if people are unable to find work then in turn they are reluctant to spend money; decreasing the flow of revenue into the economy. This all ties into business. If businesses are successful then there is a positive trend in the economy and the same can be said of the opposite. All was not lost though, in 2008 with the economy in a downward spiral we still had 19% of american adults who were involved in entreprenur activity by managing or starting their own company. Alot can be learned about entrepreneurs by studying the entrepreneurship era, one the four eras of business. During this time individuals were "self-starters", working and promoting themselves.

The production era which was in the early 1900's where business focused on refining the production process and creating greater efficiences. Now to the era we are currently in which is the relationship era where building relationships with customers and clients and partners to further expand our products to the world. So as we continue to break down the role of business in our economy, we have to look at the non profit organizations. These are business like establishments however; the primary goal is not to make a profit for example red cross, hospitals, food banks, and goodwill just to name a few. All of these are organizations needed in the economy to help in one way or another and are jobs that often times go overlooked in today's society.

As we move into fiscal and monetary policy one is the government influencing the economy through taxation and spending (fiscal policy). The other refers to actions that shape the economy by influencing intertest rates and the supply of money (monetary policy). A great example of fiscsal policy was the efforts of the government bailing out Ford Motors, General Motors and Chrysler in 2008. All in an effort to create job stability and not allow the economy to further go into a recession. Also, under the first term in the Obama administration they proposed a $825 billion economic stimulus package called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This was a plan designed primarly to turn the economy around over a two year span.

With monetary policy also taking a hit during the recession, the housing market crumbled. Many homeowners were faced with foreclosures or high interest rates on mortgages in which they couldn't pay. There was also a rise in banks lending people money for loans with extremely high interest rates in order to prevent bankruptcy for the bank industry itself. Meanwhile, a huge number of homeowners were left suffering. In all, as we continue to rebuild our economy day by day, it will take a joint effort from the government as well as coporate America to get it back to what it once was.

In selecting my service of choice I went with the massage therapy business. It is something I'm familiar with; I went to school for it and its a very lucritive business venture if marketed and ran properly. My first strategy in taking my business to a global level would be to put and ad of my business on facebook and twitter. Social media is powerful and could be used to put my brand out to the world. As I bulid my clientel I would take a trip to a foriegn country in Asia like Japan where massage therapy is a huge market.

I would join forces with businesses over there and network to get better ideas for myself. Each culture has a different approach to teaching massage therapy. In the Asian culture they practice a lot of meditating and herbal medicines that I find interesting and can be beneficial to my business in America. Once aclimated with my global connection then I would present dvds as a blueprint to a successful business through networking and business partners. I would sell them on ebay and expand worldwide, hosting free seminars and job fairs every year to promote. Once business flourished I would then be at a point where I could explore selling parts of my business and incorporating stakeholders.

Stakeholders support business ventures and organizations and are critical to their existence. In exploring the social responsibility of organizations to stakeholders, we can use the NFL and the Carolina Panthers. Their stakeholders are in a business review to better equip the stadium to make it more luxurious for the fans. The organizations social responsibiltiy is to keep their investors up to date with all current information and to provide details of new plans and layouts and as a stakeholder they are part of a majority rule decision so its crucial for the organization to be in communication at all times. The relationship between organization and stakeholder is a two way street. In the end, with out stakeholders then businesses are not as successful and in some instances it can cause a business to be unsuccesful.

Reference Page

Chapter 1 Business Now: Change Is the Only Constant
Chapter 2 Economics: The Framework for Business
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/econ/faculty/Vrooman/quotes.htm