This best-selling book continues to present a brief “no-nonsense ” approach to the fundamentals of business that spans the range of all functional areas— management, marketing, operations, accounting, information systems, finance, and legal studies. Topics comprehensively covered the contemporary business environment; the business of managing; principles of marketing; managing information; people in organizations; and financial issues. An excellent reference resource for business managers and executives; also appropriate for entrepreneurs and others involved in business relations.
Downgrade the star rating by a half. Note: I read this as a Human Resources Management student - someone coming from a non-business background.
The information presented is excellent, and the cases relevant and fresh. Unfortunately, I found the layout to be choppy and distracting; in an effort to make the book interesting, someone (copy editors? authors? publisher?) decided to create a very busy layout, with lots of jumps and breaks, text that appears to go a whole page, with a graphic or textbox in down the middle in places - and really is laid out to have you read halfway down the page, jump to the top of the column at the other side (separated by the textbox of something else in the middle), and then go to the bottom left quarter of the page for the next bit.
As a college text, I found it too jumpy, and made things more difficult to follow. A shame, as the content is actually quite good. Fortunately for me, this course grading was fully centered on assignments, not tests - I'm not certain I could have studied well for an exam from this.
This genre seems to be crawling with lazily researched books which only cite sources that support already prevailing beliefs about business. Uncritically repeats myths like the Hawthorne effect. Makes sweeping statements about human behaviour with no supporting data or purely anecdotal evidence. Language is also DRY AS HELL. 2 stars because it's easy to navigate and on rare occasion presents an opposing view.
A good introduction to the essential components of a business. Very high level, perfect for a beginner like me. Gets pretty dry in the late accounting chapters.
Finally, it's done! I must admit that, despite a great level of detail that made getting through the book fairly difficult, it presented a good survey of business princes and provided a good intro into the study. The book used many examples (sometimes too many??) which added to the readers' understanding. All of that being said, it is a textbook, but not the worst I've seen, even if it has WAY too much information in it (even though it is for an introductory quote).
Note: I did not read the appendices (at this point) as it was not required for my class.
This was my text for Intro to Business at MCCC. It has many examples using modern companies, and while it didn't get into great depth in any subject...it did a great job giving you an intro to many Business ideas. It was very educational and I'm glad I had the opportunity to read it.
reading for school. boring as hell and pro-big business / globalization. ahhhhhhh! paperclips on the front cover - why??? i've never been so glad to finish a goddamn book. goddamn.
A required textbook for school. Overall, it wasn't bad, but it was a little dry and seemed to glaze over several important topics while go very in-depth for easy concepts like sustainability.