Origins of business marketing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the broadest sense, the practice of one purveyor of goods doing trade with another is as old as commerce itself. As a niche in the field of marketing as we know it today, however, its history is more recent. In his introduction to Fundamentals of Business Marketing Research, J. David Lichtenthal, professor of marketing at the City University of New York's Zicklin School of Business, notes that industrial marketing has been around since the mid-19th century, although the bulk of research on the discipline of business marketing has come about in the last 25 years.

Morris, Pitt and Honeycutt, 2001, point out that for many years business marketing took a back seat to consumer marketing, which entailed providers of goods or services selling directly to households through mass media and retail channels. This began to change in middle to late1970s. A variety of academic periodicals, such as the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing and the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, now publish studies on the subject regularly, and professional conferences on business-to-business marketing are held every year. What's more, business marketing courses are commonplace at many universities today. In fact, Dwyer and Tanner (2006) point out that more marketing majors begin their careers in business marketing today than in consumer marketing.

Business marketing vs. consumer marketing

Although on the surface the differences between business and consumer marketing may seem obvious, there are more subtle distinctions between the two with substantial ramifications. Dwyer and Tanner (2006) note that business marketing generally entails shorter and more direct channels of distribution.

While consumer marketing is aimed at large demographic groups through mass media and retailers, the negotiation process between the buyer and seller is more personal in business marketing. According to Hutt and Speh (2001), most business marketers commit only a small part of their promotional budgets to advertising, and that is usually through direct mail efforts and trade journals. While that advertising is limited, it often helps the business marketer set up successful sales calls.

Who is the business marketing customer?

While "other businesses" might seem like the simple answer, Dwyer and Tanner (2006) say business customers fall into four broad categories: companies that consume products or services, government agencies, institutions and resellers.

The first category includes original equipment manufacturers, such as automakers, who buy gauges to put in their cars, and users, which are companies that purchase products for their own consumption. The second category, government agencies, is the biggest. In fact, the U.S. government is the biggest single purchaser of products and services in the country, spending more than $300 billion annually. But this category also includes state and local governments. The third category, institutions, includes schools, hospitals and nursing homes, churches and charities. Finally, resellers consist of wholesalers, brokers and industrial distributors.

How big is business marketing?

Hutt and Speh (2001) note that "business marketers serve the largest market of all; the dollar volume of transactions in the industrial or business market significantly exceeds that of the ultimate consumer market." For example, they note that companies such as GE, DuPont and IBM spend more than $60 million a day on purchases to support their operations.

Dwyer and Tanner (2006) say the purchases made by companies, government agencies and institutions "account for more than half of the economic activity in industrialized countries such as the United States, Canada and France."

A 2003 study sponsored by the Business Marketing Association estimated that business-to-business marketers in the United States spend about $85 billion a year to promote their goods and services. The BMA study breaks that spending out as follows (figures are in billions of dollars):

* Trade Shows/Events -- $17.3
* Internet/Electronic Media -- $12.5
* Promotion/Market Support -- $10.9
* Magazine Advertising -- $10.8
* Publicity/Public Relations -- $10.5
* Direct Mail -- $9.4
* Dealer/Distributor Materials -- $5.2
* Market Research -- $3.8
* Telemarketing -- $2.4
* Directories -- $1.4
* Other -- $5.1

The fact that there is such a thing as the Business Marketing Association speaks to the size and credibility of the industry. BMA traces its origins to 1922 with the formation of the National Industrial Advertising Association. Today, BMA, headquartered in Chicago, has more than 2,000 members in 19 chapters across the country. Among its members are marketing communications agencies that are largely or exclusively business-to-business-oriented.

What's driving growth in b-to-b

The tremendous growth and change that business marketing is experiencing is due in large part to three "revolutions" occurring around the world today, according to Morris, Pitt and Honeycutt (2001).

First is the technological revolution. Technology is changing at an unprecedented pace, and these changes are speeding up the pace of new product and service development. A large part of that has to do with the Internet, which is discussed in more detail below.

Technology and business strategy go hand in hand. Both are corelated .While technology supports forming organization strategy, the business strategy is also helpful in technology development. Both play a great role in business marketing.

Second is the entrepreneurial revolution. To stay competitive, many companies have downsized and reinvented themselves. Adaptability, flexibility, speed, aggressiveness and innovativeness are the keys to remaining competitive today. Marketing is taking the entrepreneurial lead by finding market segments, untapped needs and new uses for existing products, and by creating new processes for sales, distribution and customer service.

The third revolution is one occurring within marketing itself. Companies are looking beyond traditional assumptions and adopting new frameworks, theories, models and concepts. They're also moving away from the mass market and the preoccupation with the transaction. Relationships, partnerships and alliances are what define marketing today. The cookie-cutter approach is out. Companies are customizing marketing programs to individual accounts.

The impact of the Internet

The Internet has become an integral component of the customer relationship management strategy for business marketers. Dwyer and Tanner (2006) note that business marketers not only use the Internet to improve customer service but also to improve opportunities with distributors.

According to Anderson and Narus (2004), two new types of resellers have emerged as by-products of the Internet: infomediaries and metamediaries. Infomediaries, such as Google and Yahoo, are search engine companies that also function as brokers, or middlemen, in the business marketing world. They charge companies fees to find information on the Web as well as for banner and pop-up ads and search engine optimization services. Metamediaries are companies with robust Internet sites that furnish customers with multiproduct, multivendor and multiservice marketspace in return for commissions on sales.

With the advent of b-to-b exchanges, the Internet ushered in an enthusiasm for collaboration that never existed before--and in fact might have even seemed ludicrous 10 years ago. For example, a decade ago who would have imagined Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler entering into a joint venture? That's exactly what happened after all three of the Big Three began moving their purchases online in the late 1990s. All three companies were pursuing their own initiatives when they realized the economies of scale they could achieve by pooling their efforts. Thus was born what then was the world's largest Internet business when Ford's Auto-Xchange and GM's TradeXchange merged, with DaimlerChrysler representing the third partner.

While this exchange did not stand the test of time, others have, including Agentrics, which was formed last year with the merger of WorldWide Retail Exchange and GlobalNetXchange, or GNX. Agentrics serves more 50 retailers around the world and more than 300 customers, and its members have combined sales of about $1 trillion. Hutt and Speh (2001) note that such virtual marketplaces enable companies and their suppliers to conduct business in real time as well as simplify purchase processes and cut costs.




References

* Anderson, James C., and Narus, James A. (2004) Business Market Management: Understanding, Creating, and Delivering Value, 2nd Edition, 2004, Pearson Education, Inc.
* Business Marketing Association (2003) "Marketing Reality Survey"
* Dwyer, F. Robert, Tanner, John F. (2006) Business Marketing: Connecting Strategy, Relationships, and Learning, 3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill/Irwin
* Greco, John A. Jr., (2005) "Past indicates promising future for b-to-b direct; BtoB magazine, June 13, 2005
* Hutt, Michael D., Speh, Thomas W. (2001) Business Marketing Management: A Strategic View of Industrial and Organizational Markets, 7th Edition, Harcourt Inc.
* Morris, Michael H., Pitt, Leyland F., and Honeycutt, Earl Dwight (2001) Business-to-Business Marketing: A Strategic Approach, Sage Publications Inc.
* Reid, David A., and Plank, Richard E. (2004) Fundamentals of Business Marketing Research, Best Business Books, an Imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc.

Business marketing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Business marketing is the practice of organizations, including commercial businesses, governments and institutions, facilitating the sale of their products or services to other companies or organizations that in turn resell them, use them as components in products or services they offer, or use them to support their operations. Also known as industrial marketing, business marketing is also called business-to-business marketing, or b-to-b marketing, for short.

Marketing Do's and Don'ts

Do:

• Regularly review your marketing strategies to meet changing situations.
• Focus on your customers' wants and needs, not on what you think you have to offer.
• Find a niche - small businesses tend to succeed by offering something that's a bit different.

Don't:

• Waste money on promotional opportunities that don't fit with your strategies.
• Neglect building networks to help you promote your business and build your reputation.
• Forget to assess the effectiveness of your strategies.

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Undertaking Market Research

Before you develop your marketing goals and strategies you need to identify what are the most promising market opportunities you should pursue. You need to consider:

Your Products/Services

It may seem obvious, but you will benefit from analysing your product/service offering from the customer point of view. Ask yourself what:

• benefits are you offering your customers;
• are all the features of your products/services and which ones will be most valued by customers;
• will be its likely life cycle and what is the risk of substitutions?

Your Marketplace

Understand your market and identify factors that will impact on your business. Aspects to consider:

• What is its size and is it growing or shrinking?
• Where is your main market located?
• What are its characteristics, eg gender, aspirations, ability to pay?
• What changing social trends and attitudes could affect your business?
• What technological developments are occurring? Emergence of substitute products/services?

Your Customers

Once you have researched your market you can define the specific segments you intend to target. Market segments are groups of customers who share similar attributes and attitudes - which segment(s) you target will depend on the nature of your business and your strengths and capabilities. Segments can be defined by: location, gender, industry, ethnic identity, attitudes (eg adventure seekers) and attributes (eg luxury car owners).

You need to understand the factors that will drive your customers to buy your products or services.

Your Competitors

Identify both direct competitors (those selling the same products and services to the same markets) and indirect competitors (those offering substitute or similar products/services).

Information you need to know about competitors includes:

• what exactly they offer their customers;
• how well established they are and their reputation;
• their strengths and weaknesses and what makes them successful;
• their pricing.

Market Research Sources

At this stage your main sources of information will be through:

• discussion with knowledgeable peers and potential customers and suppliers;
• desk research, including web searches, trade/industry material and market statistics, eg ABS, market research reports;
• discussion with business advisers, eg Business Advisory Service.

Your SWOT Analysis

Using the information you have collected you can undertake a SWOT analysis to help you determine your marketing goals. Your SWOT involves assessing:

Internally	Externally
Strengths you should build on	Opportunities you should exploit
Weaknesses you need to overcome	Threats you need to manage

Put dot points under each heading that honestly reflect your research. You need to develop strategies to deal with each identified issue.

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Setting Your Marketing Goals

Your marketing goals build on your broader business objectives and specify:

• what product/service you will offer for which market segments;
• what key benefits you will offer;
• how you will gain a competitive advantage;
• what specific targets you aim to meet over what time frame, eg market share, revenue, customer numbers.

Your marketing goals should pass the SMART test:

S - Specific

M - Measurable

A - Achievable

R - Realistic

T - Time bound

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Your Marketing Strategies

To put your goals into action you need to develop specific strategies to achieve them. Key aspects that need to be covered:

Product Your product/service offering, including quality, features, packaging, guarantees, after-sales service. See Customer Service for more details on this service aspect.

Price Your pricing policy, including discounts, allowances and credit policies. Your pricing should be based on a realistic assessment of all your costs and take into account what the market will bear and the image you are trying to create.

Promotion Your approach will depend on the nature of your business and can include advertising, personal selling, public relations, networking, web-based marketing. See Advertising and Promotion.

Place How you will distribute your products or services. Consider locations, retailers, inventory implications, transport and warehousing.

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Monitor and Control

Marketing is a necessary cost to the business and you should set a marketing budget, including monthly cash flow, as part of your business plan.

Measuring the results of your marketing activities will ensure you continue to get value for your marketing investment. For example, assessing an increase in revenue or customer numbers as a result of promotional activities allows you to decide what activities give you the best return.

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More Information

Industry Associations and your local Chamber of Commerce and Industry offer advice and services to members.

Your local Business Advisory Service can offer you one-on-one advice on developing your marketing plan, including assisting with your market research. It also offers low-cost marketing workshops and access to useful tools such as benchmarking software. Call 1300 650 058.

copyright : http://www.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/smallbusiness/Managing+a+Business/Marketing+and+Sales/

How do I write a business plan?

Once you've conducted research into the feasibility of your new business you're ready to write your business plan.

Your business plan is essential for your business - it's your blueprint for the future. It sets the direction for your business and keeps you on track once you're up and running. It's also a requirement when you're seeking finance.

Depending on what type of business you intend to start, your business plan could include these elements:

• executive summary - a one-page overview written after your business plan is finalised
• introduction - explains the purpose and objectives of going into business
• marketing analysis - looks at the industry you are entering and how you fit in
• marketing plan - your marketing strategy
• operations plan - how you'll set up the business, i.e. structure, location, regulations
• management plan - how you'll manage your business
• financial plan - how you'll finance your business, costing and financial projections.

Business planning is an ongoing business activity - you should regularly review and revise your business plan.

Building an adsense business With Free Blogs

When I first started out with adsense, I had little money to spare on web hosting, and I knew nothing about how to get a site ranked in the search engines or to generate traffic. It took a lot of work, reading, experimenting and failure before I discovered great ways to build my adsense business.

I feel like it’s about time that I paid back to the community for all of the knowledge and help that I received along the way. Hopefully this post will help you get started in the adsense business even if you have little or no money to spare but desperately want to try your hand at it.

Normally google won’t approve adsense applications for free websites, but there is one exception. So if you're short on cash for hosting and are eager to get started, you might give this a try.

Blogger.com Blogs

Not long after google bought Blogger.com, they made adsense available to Blogger blog owners. Blogger is great because it has an easy interface, google and Yahoo crawl the blogs quickly, and best of all if you're broke--they're free, and google loves to give out adsense accounts to Blogger owners. :)

So if you're looking to get started with adsense and not spend much money, Blogger is a great way to get started.

Before I talk about how to setup a Blogger blog for adsense, though, let me tell you what an RSS feed is and how it works. If you already know this you can skip ahead. I make reference to this in the setup instructions, so it’s important to understand.

An RSS feed (as it applies to a blog) is basically a list of all of the recent posts made to your blog. People can use “RSS Aggregators” (software that continually checks up on your RSS feed to see if there’s anything new) to keep up with new posts on your blog. Websites will also want to publish your RSS feed on their sites if your content is good. This gives them fresh content for their visitors. And we all know that content is King in the world of website building.

Blogger blogs come with an RSS feed built-in, and you can use this to your advantage to generate traffic to your blog. I’ll discuss that in a bit, but first let’s get into building the blog.

Create Your Blogger.com Account

Determine Your Blog Topic First

Before you create the blog, you need to figure out what topic the blog will focus on. Think about your skills or hobbies that you’re really good at. You might not be a mechanic, but if you’re really good at working on cars on the weekend, and you love to do it, that would make a great blog topic. Brainstorm your skills and interests to determine what you would enjoy writing about. It’s important that you like to write about it, since you will have to do so to build up the blog!

I will say this: If you have some knowledge on a commercial or industrial topic, this will usually get higher paying adsense ads. But a hobby blog can do very well also (I know this from experience!).

Create the Blog

Once you have a topic chosen, it only takes about 5 minutes to setup a blog. From the Blogger homepage click the “Create Your Blog Now” link and follow the blog wizard instructions. I won’t get into detail about them because it’s pretty straight-forward, but there are a few points I want to make.

First of all, when you choose your blog URL, make sure that the URL contains the keywords for your topic. For example, if you’re creating a blog about health insurance, “healthinsurance.blogspot.com” is ideal, or “health-insurance” or even “health-insurance-blog” or “health-insurance-12345”. Just make sure that your keywords are in the URL, that will help you be found when people search for your keywords in the search engines.

Also, be sure to pick one of the professional looking templates. I suggest you just pick the plain-white one that is first in the list of templates when you're creating the blog. Once the blog is created, then click on the "Templates" tab and select one of the nicer ones shown there. I'm not sure why Blogger doesn't show you all of the available templates in the blog setup wizard, but they don't.

The Settings Tab.

A discussion of the important points of each settings tab is outlined below.

Basic

On the "Basic" settings tab, set your blog title to the keywords you want to show up for in the search engines. That will help you get ranked.

Give a good, detailed description about the benefits of reading your blog daily. You want to get people to add your RSS feed to their aggregators and websites so you can get traffic, and this will help.

Answer “Yes” to the question “Add your Blog to our listings?”. This will have your blog appear on the main page of Blogger when you make new posts (albeit for a brief period of time), and allow people to search and find your blog using Blogger’s search tool.

One other, lesser known detail about setting that question to “Yes” is that if you set it to “No” Blogger will shove “nofollow/noindex” meta-tags into your blog template header, which will prevent your site from getting crawled or indexed. I believe this was done to fight what Blogger called “spam blogs”.

copyright by :http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum89/11905.htm

Cuisine of Indonesia

Indonesian cuisine reflects the vast variety of people that live on the 6,000 populated islands that make up Indonesia. Indonesian cuisine is as diverse as Indonesian culture, and has taken on culinary influences from many sources. Throughout its history, Indonesia has been involved in trade due to its location and natural resources. Indonesia’s indigenous techniques and ingredients, at least in the Malay World parts, are influenced by India, the Middle East, China and finally Europe. Spanish and Portuguese traders brought New World produce even before the Dutch came to colonize most of Indonesia. Indonesian island of Maluku is famed as "the Spice Island" also gave contribution on the introduction of native spices to Indonesian and global cuisine.

The most popular dishes that originated in Indonesia are common across most of Asia. Popular Indonesian dishes such as satay, beef rendang, and sambals also favored in Malaysia and Singapore. Soy-based dishes, such as variations of tofu (tahu) and tempeh, are also very popular. In fact, tempeh is an adaptation of tofu to the tropical climates of Indonesia. Indonesian meals are commonly eaten with the combination of spoon in the right hand and fork in the left hand, although in many parts of the country (such as West Java) it is also common to eat with one's hands.

What’s your business worth?

Whether you're passing the company on to a family-member or selling it to outside interests, you will require a business valuation that establishes a realistic and fair dollar number. This value will be an important focal point of your transition plan.

Valuating a business is not a simple task because the number you have in mind may not be the value that your family successors, potential buyers or tax assessors would arrive at. It's probably best to call in a specialist who can look at your assets, liabilities and goodwill with clear-eyed detachment.

To be able to deal with the situation, you should at least become aware of the different methods that can be used to arrive at your business valuation. Once you have that number, you may be able to find ways to improve the value of your existing business.

Valuation methods
There are a number of methods used to valuate a business and they can be used alone or in combination.

Asset-based approach: totals up all investments made in the business to-date. However, this does not account for the depreciation in the value of machinery that may be several years old, or other assets that have declined in value.

Business comparison: when a company's market value is examined, it is compared to similar companies in the field and transactions that have occurred in the recent past. For a very specialized business however, it may be difficult to research comparable transactions.

Company's past earnings: can be used to calculate a price but those earnings are not a guarantee of future growth.

Doing it yourself
First, you should determine just what it is that will be passed on—or sold to—your successor(s).

• Do you have significant physical assets or are you selling goodwill and client lists? How valuable is that client list, and does it include quality clients? Can you charge a premium for your client list, business name or logo?
• If you have equipment, how much equity do you have in it? If it's not leased, perhaps you can ask a machinery dealer for an appraisal.
• How about receivables? What state are they in? What percent are at 60, 90 or more days?

Once the assets have been added up, subtract any liabilities; these include all oustanding company debts and any lawsuits.

Some industry groups publish business valuation data based on sales and net cash flow. This data can be used to estimate the value of your business. Research firms similar to yours and see how much they sold for. However, your own company may be a model of efficiency and profitability that outstrips all the rest, making those other numbers irrelevant to your situation.

Getting professional help
Business valuation requires some leg work and a lot of research work. Do you have the time, the proper tools and the inclination to do it?

If not, you may be better served by a specialist—a business valuator—who may be an accountant or a lawyer, but who should be experienced enough to determine the best method or combination of methods for the task at hand.

Your present lawyer or accountant may be able to recommend someone. Be sure to ask for references for similar business valuations.

BDC Consulting has the resources to provide you with succession planning and customized management solutions to make your company more valuable.

Improving that number
Once you've arrived at a realistic number, it's only reasonable to wonder how that number can be improved.

• Try to find some way to enhance value. One way to do this, is by increasing sales - the "top line" and reducing expenses such as owner perks to improve - the "bottom line".
• Do you have any liabilities such as outstanding lawsuits? If so, these should be settled before you begin the transition process.
• And if you are the business, that is, you are closely identified with the company, consider giving more responsibility to employees. They can make the transition to ownership and will thereby render your company more valuable.
• Don't forget, your business may be more valuable in pieces rather than as a whole. A buyer for instance, may find your real estate more attractive as an asset rather than investing in a potentially risky business.

There are many ways to estimate and enhance the value of your company prior to your business succession and it pays to do your research and find a qualified business valuator. A professionally derived valuation will contribute to a smooth transition and continued harmony among family members.

From :http://www.bdc.ca/en/my_project/Projects/articles/succession_value.htm?cookie%5Ftest=1

What is business ethics?

We hear the word ethics in business more and more but what does it actually mean? The word “ethics” comes from the Greek word “ethos” meaning conduct, customs or character. Ethics addresses the implementation of concepts such as responsibility, right and wrong and the application of moral ideals to practical human activities. Ethical analysis will address the constraints of moral standards and legal requirements and the consequences of actions. The output of such analysis is the determining of principles and protocols, the development of individual and group responsibilities and the verification of the outcome of the implementation of such a framework. Individual countries, cultures and business organisations will determine distinct codes of ethical behaviour. Individual organisations therefore need to determine their ethical strategy and the scope of such strategy may include the following:

1. Criminal behaviour and the need to operate within the legal framework. The strategy may include awareness training for individuals and teams so that employees understand the legal constraints on the business and the responsibilities this places on individuals;

2. Human values and personal behaviour. Ethical policy needs to define at a strategic and human resources level how people are expected to behave both internally within the business and also in their interactions with suppliers, customers and competitors and the development of business relationships;

3. Behaviour in business. Ethical policy should address how all corporate activities are undertaken, monitored and verified to ensure that they comply with legal guidelines and ethical standards. Ethical strategy should also include a review of potential ethical business risks and how these can be mitigated.

So what is your organisation’s ethical strategy and does it stand up to scrutiny?

strategy - what is strategy?

Overall Definition:

Johnson and Scholes (Exploring Corporate Strategy) define strategy as follows:

"Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder expectations".

In other words, strategy is about:

* Where is the business trying to get to in the long-term (direction)

* Which markets should a business compete in and what kind of activities are involved in such markets? (markets; scope)

* How can the business perform better than the competition in those markets? (advantage)?

* What resources (skills, assets, finance, relationships, technical competence, facilities) are required in order to be able to compete? (resources)?

* What external, environmental factors affect the businesses' ability to compete? (environment)?

* What are the values and expectations of those who have power in and around the business? (stakeholders)

Strategy at Different Levels of a Business

Strategies exist at several levels in any organisation - ranging from the overall business (or group of businesses) through to individuals working in it.

Corporate Strategy - is concerned with the overall purpose and scope of the business to meet stakeholder expectations. This is a crucial level since it is heavily influenced by investors in the business and acts to guide strategic decision-making throughout the business. Corporate strategy is often stated explicitly in a "mission statement".

Business Unit Strategy - is concerned more with how a business competes successfully in a particular market. It concerns strategic decisions about choice of products, meeting needs of customers, gaining advantage over competitors, exploiting or creating new opportunities etc.

Operational Strategy - is concerned with how each part of the business is organised to deliver the corporate and business-unit level strategic direction. Operational strategy therefore focuses on issues of resources, processes, people etc.

How Strategy is Managed - Strategic Management

In its broadest sense, strategic management is about taking "strategic decisions" - decisions that answer the questions above.

In practice, a thorough strategic management process has three main components, shown in the figure below:

Strategic Analysis

This is all about the analysing the strength of businesses' position and understanding the important external factors that may influence that position. The process of Strategic Analysis can be assisted by a number of tools, including:

PEST Analysis - a technique for understanding the "environment" in which a business operates

Scenario Planning - a technique that builds various plausible views of possible futures for a business

Five Forces Analysis - a technique for identifying the forces which affect the level of competition in an industry

Market Segmentation - a technique which seeks to identify similarities and differences between groups of customers or users

Directional Policy Matrix - a technique which summarises the competitive strength of a businesses operations in specific markets

Competitor Analysis - a wide range of techniques and analysis that seeks to summarise a businesses' overall competitive position

Critical Success Factor Analysis - a technique to identify those areas in which a business must outperform the competition in order to succeed

SWOT Analysis - a useful summary technique for summarising the key issues arising from an assessment of a businesses "internal" position and "external" environmental influences.

Strategic Choice

This process involves understanding the nature of stakeholder expectations (the "ground rules"), identifying strategic options, and then evaluating and selecting strategic options.

Strategy Implementation

Often the hardest part. When a strategy has been analysed and selected, the task is then to translate it into organisational action.

By :http://tutor2u.net/business/strategy/what_is_strategy.htm

What Is Busines?

1. What is business?

A business can be defined as an organization that provides goods and services to others who want or need them. When many people think of business careers, they often think of jobs in large wealthy corporations. Many business-related careers, however, exist in small businesses, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and educational settings. Furthermore, you don't need a degree in business to obtain many of these positions. In short, every sector of our economy needs people with strong overall skills that can be applied to business-type careers. There are a wide variety of career areas that exist in business settings. Some of these include:

• Accounting
• Administrative management
• Business management
• Finance
• Human resources
• Information systems
• Insurance
• Marketing
• Operations management
• Public relations
• Purchasing/merchandising
• Retail management
• Sales

Within each of these categories are a wide variety of career titles that someone interested in business could pursue. For more examples of careers in each of these areas visit one of the websites listed below:

• ISEEK: Minnesota-specific career information
• Careers in Business: Information about select business careers
• U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook

How can I learn if business is the right career for me?
While many students know they are interested in business, there are so many career possibilities and potential work environments, it can still be very challenging to find a good fit. You have to consider what types of daily activities you want to complete, the size of the organization you want to work for and even the type of organization you want to join. The Career and Community Learning Center is a resource available to CLA students to help them identify a career path which fits well with their unique interests, personality, values, and skills. The office provides many ways to help students through this process including:

• Workshops on deciding on a major, and developing job search skills
• Career courses for students including Career Exploration, Career Planning and Internship: Perspectives on Work.
• Interest inventories, that identify interests and personality traits.
• Internship postings on GoldPASS to assist students in gaining business experience.
• CLA Alumni Mentor Program to meet and learn from other professionals in your interest area.
• Individual consultations with peer advisers.
• One-on-one appointments with career counselors.
• Hundreds of books and handouts to help you learn about careers and obtaining employment. A few of the many business-related titles include:
  "Careers in Focus: Business"
  "Real People Working in Business"
  "Careers in Business"
  "Opportunities in Marketing Careers"

By :http://www.class.umn.edu/business_and_cla_degrees/what_is_business.html