How a Business Works: What Every Businessperson, Citizen, Consumer, and Employee Needs to Know About Business

by William C. Haeberle

The goal of How a Business Works is to create a framework for understanding business in 12 chapters that you can read, understand, and apply in a relatively short period of time. This framework will serve you in three ways: 1. It will help you to understand the behavior of sellers and employers, so that you can be a more informed businessperson, citizen, consumer, and employee. 2. It will help you to predict the future behavior of sellers and employers, so that you can make better plans and achieve better outcomes as a businessperson, citizen, consumer, and employee. 3. It will give you a basic understanding of business (a framework), so that you can effectively and efficiently learn more about business and organizations from the perspectives of your roles: as a citizen, consumer, employee, and possibly businessperson. All of us have the roles of a citizen and a consumer. Most of us have the role of an employee of an organization. And, some of us may choose the role of a businessperson. How a Business Works seeks to make business understandable to citizens and consumers. The book can help you in your career whether you are an employee of an organization or are self employed. And, finally, the book can assist you in becoming a businessperson.

228 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2008

Reviews

[Blake]

Very good, thorough introduction to all the fundamentals of businesses. Stress"introduction". Really covers the necessary base knowledge and key concepts with enough explanation to get you familiar with things without overwhelming you with specialised terminology or confusing equations. Interesting that it was put out in 2008 and yet it didn't feel obsolete at all - except for the chapter on Information Technology at the end (but that is kind of inevitable). He talks about how business models are definitely going to need to change, and they certainly have, so it would be interesting to see what he has to say about the sharing economy, crowd funding and other developments.

Downsides: The style of writing is irritating at first (a very "spoken" style peppered with countless ellipses that look unprofessional and are mostly unnecessary) but surprisingly enough you get used to it before long. And the final business case in the appendix gets you all interested in the scenario and the company, you wonder what's going to happen and what kind of analysis is possible, and then the book just finishes with no follow up whatsoever. Feels like missing the last step on the staircase, but maybe that's just me.

[Brian]

Excellent starter book for college freshmen.