Exploring Business

Abstract

The author's goals in writing Exploring Business Version 2.0 were simple: (1) introduce students to business in an exciting way and (2) provide faculty with a fully developed teaching package that allows them to do the former. Toward those ends, the following features (beyond an extraordinarily clear book) make this an outstanding text: 1- Integrated (Optional) Nike Case Study: A Nike case study is available for instructors who wish to introduce students to business using an exciting and integrated case (updated each semester). Through an in-depth study of a real company, students learn about the functional areas of business and how these areas fit together. Studying a dynamic organization on a real-time basis allows students to discover the challenges that it faces, and exposes them to critical issues affecting the business, such as globalization, ethics and social responsibility, product innovation, diversity, supply chain management, and e-business. Students learn about Nike by reading a case study broken down into 26 individual case notes, each linked to the appropriate section(s) of the text. Each provides a real-world example to help students master a particular topic. We also provide four award-winning videos featuring company executives discussing: the company’s history, its corporate responsibility challenges and initiatives, its commitment to product innovation, and its entrance into the soccer shoe market. Instructors can show the 15-minute videos in class or have students watch them online. Discussion questions written by the author aid classroom discussions on the video topics. Each chapter contains a multi-part question on one of the Nike case notes covered in the chapter. In addition, the test item file contains multiple-choice questions keyed to the Nike cases. 2- A Progressive (Optional) Business Plan: Having students develop a business plan in the course introduces students to the excitement and challenges of starting a business and helps them discover how the functional areas of business interact. This textbook package includes an optionalintegrated business plan project modeled after one refined by the author and her teaching team over the past ten years. Students begin by reviewing a document describing the business plan project. In subsequent chapters, students complete another section of the 10-part business plan project. By the end of the course they're shown how to integrate each individual section into a final plan. Because the project is carefully coordinated with the presentation of course materials, students are able to apply what they're learning, as they're learning it, to the practical process of preparing a business plan. Preparing the financial section of the business plan can be difficult for students, so we furnish students with an Excel template that simplifies the process.