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O X F O R D I B D I P L O M A P R O G R A M M E
2 0 2 2 E D I T I O N
B U S IN E S S
M A N A GE M E N T
C O U R S E C O M PA N I O N
Loykie Lominé
Mar tin Muchena
Rober t A. Pierce
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3
3.9 Budgets (HL only)
Practice question
To answer the question below effectively, see Unit 6 pages 398–402.
3.9 Budgets (HL only)

EEB
The pupa
EEB is a small, well-known, reputable and nancially stable online hotel
reservation service. EEB employees are highly motivated and take great
By the end of this chap ter, you should be able to: Key terms
pride in their work. EEB has received recognition for its high-quality
customer service. Due to an increase in global demand, greater competition
Budget
Explain the dierence bet ween cost and prot centres
and changes in technology, the nance director, Maia, has decided to
a quantitative nancial plan

upgrade EEB’s computers and/or software. Analyse the role of cost and prot centres
that estimates the revenue
Maia has two options: Construct and comment on a budget

and expenditure over a
specied future time period

Option A: purchase new software called “Book-Fast” from a local Calculate and analyse variances
larva
software designer.
Explain the impor tance of budgets and variances in decision-making Budget holder
stnuocca dna ecnaniF 3
stnuocca dna ecnaniF 3
Option B: purchase new computers, with installed software called “Global
a person involved in the
Reach”, from a manufacturer abroad.
formulation and achievement

budget is a quantitative nancial plan that estimates revenue and
of a budget
Option A Option B expenditure over a specied future time period. Budgets can be prepared
for individuals, for governments, or for any type of organization.

Cost $20,000 $40,000
Cost centre
Technical suppor t 24 hours onsite at EEB 24 hours online

Budgets help in setting targets and are aligned with the main objectives of
a section of a business
Further payments payable: the organization. They enable the efcient allocation of resources within
where costs are incurred and
the specied time period.

Employees No change At the end of their contract 15% of
recorded
employees to be made redundant,

The person involved in the formulation and achievement of a budget
Prot centre
cost: $15,000 in year 2
is known as the budget holder . The budget holder is responsible for
larva
Training cost On-the-job: free Intensive: $12,000 in year 1
ensuring that the specied budget allocations are being met. Commonly a section of a business where
Maintenance cost Free $1,000 per year used budgets are sales revenue budgets and cost budgets. both costs and revenues are
identied and recorded

Insurance cost $500 per year $1,000 per year
Cost and prot centres (HL only)

The estimated return/total The average rate of return (ARR) of Option A is 46.25%.
To be able to account for the revenues generated and costs incurred,

revenue in $ per year is
Maia is considering carrying out an investment appraisal on each option.
different parts of a business are divided into cost centres or prot centres
shown below. Each option
EEB employees favour Option A, even though some of their competitors

will last for four years.
Cost centres
using Book-Fast have reported problems with the software, including
Option A Option B
security issues. However, Maia has chosen Option B, which will provide This is a part or section of a business where costs are incurred and recorded.
more up-to-date, sophisticated and secure reservation system software. It Cost centres can help managers to collect and use cost data effectively.
Year 1 10,000 14,000
will also give EEB a competitive advantage and an ability to handle a large Examples of costs collected and recorded in these sections include
Year 2 12,000 16,800
global volume of hotel reservations. electricity, wages, advertising, and insurance, among other costs. Businesses
Year 3 17,000 23,800

can be divided into cost centres in some of the following ways:
a) Dene the term investment appraisal . [ 2 marks
Year 4 20,000 28,000

By department – examples include nance, production, marketing,
b) Calculate the payback period for Option A (show all
and human resources, where each department is a specic cost centre.
your working). [ 2 marks
By product – a business producing several products could ensure that
c) Calculate the average rate of return (ARR) for Option B
each product is a cost centre. For example, Samsung produces mobile
(show all your working). [ 2 marks
phones, televisions, computers, and many more products. Each of
d) For both Option A and Option B, calculate the net present value
these products could be cost centres because costs are incurred in their
KFC has outlets all round the world
(NPV) using a discount rate of 4% (show all your working). [ 4 marks

production.
(these two are in the Netherlands
e) Explain one advantage and one disadvantage for EEB of using

By geographical location – businesses such as KFC or The Coca- and Thailand) – each geographical
the NPV method of investment appraisal. [ 4 marks

Cola Company are located in different parts of the world. Each of the area could be treated as a
geographic areas that they are located in could be cost centres. cost centre
f) Examine Maia’s choice of Option B. [ 10 marks
218 219
For more information, visit:
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Need help?
Contact your local educational consultant: www.oxfordsecondary.com/contact-us
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2 0 2 2 E D I T I O N
BUSIN E S S
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C O U R S E C O M PA N I O N
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Mar tin Muchena
Rober t A. Pierce
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4/3/22, 3:27 AM
Contents
Introduction iv Unit 4: Marketing
4.1 Introduction to marketing 227
Introduction to concepts v
4.2 Marketing planning 235
Introduction to the Business Management
4.3 Sales forecasting (HL only) 251
toolkit vii
4.4 Market research 256
Introduction to Theory of Knowledge (TOK) x

4.5 The seven Ps of the marketing mix 270
4.6 International marketing (HL only) 308

Introduction to inquiry xii
Unit 1: Introduction to business management Unit 5: Operations management
5.1 Introduction to operations

1.1 What is a business? 1
management 313
1.2 Types of business entities 14
5.2 Operations methods 320

1.3 Business objectives 34
5.3 Lean production and quality

1.4 Stakeholders 52
management (HL only) 327
1.5 Growth and evolution 59
5.4 Location 338
1.6 Multinational companies (MNCs) 76
5.5 Break-even analysis 349
5.6 Production planning (HL only) 362
Unit 2: Human resource management
5.7 Crisis management and contingency
2.1 Introduction to human resource

planning (HL only) 374
management 80
5.8 Research and development (HL only) 378
2.2 Organizational structure 94
5.9 Management information
2.3 Leadership and management 102

systems (HL only) 385
2.4 Motivation and demotivation 111
2.5 Organizational (corporate)
Unit 6: Assessment
culture (HL only) 131
External Assessment 396
2.6 Communication 139
Internal Assessment 403
2.7 Industrial/employee relations
(HL only) 144
Index 407
Unit 3: Finance and accounts
Access your support website for the answers
3.1 Introduction to nance 149
to the student workpoints, toolkits and
3.2 Sources of nance 152
practice questions here:
3.3 Costs and revenues 166

www.oxfordsecondary.com/9781382016834
3.4 Final accounts 170
3.5 Protability and liquidity ratio analysis 187
3.6 Debt/equity ratio analysis (HL only) 194
3.7 Cash ow 202
3.8 Investment appraisal 210
3.9 Budgets (HL only) 219
iii
4/3/22, 3:27 AM
INTRODUCTION
This book is a companion for students of Business Some of the questions and activities in the book
Management in the International Baccalaureate will challenge you and you will want to learn
Diploma Programme (IB DP). It rigorously follows more. This book can act as a foundational resource
the DP Business Management Guide published by the if you plan to study business management at
IB, regarding not only the syllabus (the curriculum university, or if you want to set up your own
content) and the assessment strategy, but also the business. It also gives you the skills necessary
IB educational philosophy (the IB Learner Prole) to work in an organization and understand its
and pedagogy (the IB approaches to teaching and structure, functions and operations. Even if you
learning, especially regarding the importance of do not plan to study business management at
concepts and contexts). university or set up your own business, this book
and your IB DP Business Management course will
As IB educators, we wrote this book to help you
help you to better understand the world around
study business management, and also to inspire
you and give you valuable knowledge and skills
you to become a lifelong learner, giving you the
applicable to whatever vocation calls you.
keys to make sense of the dynamic business world
around you. In this book we also make many links to theory
of knowledge (TOK), which is at the core of
During your course, you will study a diverse range
the Diploma Programme. TOK can help you
of organizations, both for-prot (commercial) ones
understand Business Management (for example,
and not-for-prot ones, and you will learn about
the sources of knowledge we have in our subject),
many topics, from marketing to nance, and from
and in turn Business Management can help you
human resources to operations. You will discover
better understand what TOK aims to achieve in
how the concepts of change, creativity, ethics and
terms of critical thinking.
sustainability can help us understand the world of
business management as it is today, and as it will This book will help you as you study IB DP
develop tomorrow. Regarding contexts, you will Business Management, at standard level or at
explore local, national and international examples higher level, and it will also help you become an
and case studies of business organizations, and how even better IB learner!
they adapt to their environments.
The authors
The “In cooperation with IB” logo signies the content in this textbook has been reviewed by the IB
to ensure it fully aligns with current IB curriculum and offers high quality guidance and support for
IB teaching and learning.
iv
4/3/22, 3:27 AM
INTRODUCTION TO CONCEPTS
Concepts can be dened as big ideas that reach beyond the boundaries
of a specic subject. For example, topics such as “social media marketing”
(Chapter 4.5) and “benchmarking” (Chapter 5.3) are subject-specic: they
belong exclusively to Business Management. However, big ideas such as ethics
and creativity are not specic to Business Management: they are“concepts”.
IB DP Business Management has four key concepts: change, creativity,
ethics and sustainability.
Dening the four key concepts
There is no universally accepted denition of these terms, but the table
below gives you a solid starting point. You are not expected to memorize
the denitions; what matters is that you understand these four key
concepts, both in general and in Business Management.
Concepts Initial denitions
Change Change refers to modication or transformation from one form, state or value to another, over time or across places.
In Business Management, change is usually the result of internal or external inuences. For example, externally,
new competitors and new trends in consumer behaviour may lead an organization to adapt its objectives and opera-
tions; internally, the arrival of a new CEO may lead to a shift in the priorities of the organization’s strategic plan.
Creativity Creativity refers to the process of generating new ideas and considering existing ideas from new perspectives. It
includes the ability to recognize the value of ideas when developing innovative responses to problems. In Busi-
ness Management, creativity may lead to the incremental or radical improvement of a business idea, of a product
or of a process, in order to be more successful or more competitive. For many organizations, a key challenge is
bringing innovation and managing the process of improvement in a sustainable way that does not create conict.
Ethics Ethics refer to the moral principles and values that form the basis of how a person or an organization conducts their
activities. In Business Management, it is impor tant to realize that every decision may have moral implications,
impacting on internal and external stakeholders and the natural environment. Ethics is present throughout the orga-
nization, from marketing communication to operations, and from recruitment of new sta to accounting practices.
Sustainability Sustainability refers to the ability of the present generation to meet its needs without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs. It can be enhanced by conserving resources, nding more ecient
ways to produce or discovering new resources. In Business Management, decisions should consider the triple
bottom line of people, planet and prot, and their resulting impact, taking into account not only nancial aspects,
but also communities and the natural environment.
Why learn about the four key concepts?
There are several reasons why it is important to learn about the four
key concepts.
1. The four key concepts enable you to gain a better understanding
of Business Management as a whole by realizing how the different
topics relate to one another. For example, creativity connects research
and development, product development, and promotional activities.
You could otherwise have the impression that the elements constituting
the course are disconnected, but they are not: the concepts enable us to
make these links!
4/3/22, 3:27 AM
2. The four key concepts will help you make connections to other
As IB learners we strive to be:
IB subjects. For example, ethics is one of the four components of
KNOWLEDGE ABLE
the knowledge framework in TOK, and creativity is at the heart
We develop and use conceptual

of all literature and artistic endeavour. Thinking through concepts
understanding, exploring
can help you learn across disciplines, which is a key aspect of the
knowledge across a range of

“knowledgeable” attribute of the IB Learner Prole.
disciplines. We engage with
3. Your conceptual understanding is assessed in your internal
issues and ideas that have local
assessment (IA), where you write about an organization from a
and global signicance.
conceptual viewpoint, ie from the perspective of one of the four
Source: IB Learner Prole
key concepts. The way you connect your chosen concept and your
chosen organization is assessed through criterionA, worth up to
5marks (one fth of your total IAscore!).
4. Your ability to think and reason conceptually will also help
you with your exams, even in the absence of a direct question
about the concepts themselves. For example, Paper 3 has a social
entrepreneurship focus; social enterprise is about ethics, creativity,
change and sustainability, so the four key concepts give you a
framework to analyse the scenario of the exam paper.
The four key concepts in this book
C oncep t
The four key concepts are not “extra topics” that would be added to
the rest of the syllabus. Therefore there is no specic chapter about
CHANGE them; they are present throughout. In many cases, you will see boxes
drawing your attention to important conceptual links, like the example
Due to changes in their external

in themargin.
environment (such as new
However, these boxes are not the only instances where you can link
competitors) and changes in their
internal environment (such as the concepts and the contents of the syllabus. As you progress through
restructuring), organizations may the book, and you learn more about Business Management, you should
need to modify their objectives

keep making links between the contents and the four key concepts.
and strategies.
Likewise, as you discover new examples and case studies, and as you
Do some research to nd learn about business issues in their context, you should keep identifying
examples of such changes in links to the key concepts. This will help you to understand the
objectives or strategies.
concepts… and the contents! Ultimately, the three aspects are linked
(concepts, contents, contexts), as shown by this diagram.
Concepts
(change, creativity,
ethics, sustainability)
Content
Contexts
(Business Management:
(Case studies,
tools and theories)

real-world examples)
vi
4/3/22, 3:27 AM
INTRODUCTION TO THE BUSINESS
MANAGEMENT TOOLKIT
The Business Management (BM) toolkit is a collection of tools designed
to help in the analysis and evaluation of the course. These tools can be
broadly categorized as either situational, planning or decision-making tools.
• Situational tools assist in examining the internal and external
factors affecting a business.
• Planning tools review the action steps that businesses need to take
while implementing their projects.
• Decision-making tools assess the possible alternatives facing a
business before a decision is made.
Despite this categorization, the tools provided in this BM toolkit do have
overlapping applications. They should be used to help you learn about
the course content, concepts and contexts. Each unit in this book contains
toolkit boxes that provide suggestions about how the BM tools are
integrated throughout the course, like the one below.
BCG matrix
The BCG matrix is a planning and decision-making tool that uses graphical
representations of a rm’s goods or services in order to help the rm to decide
what to keep, sell or invest more in.
How can the knowledge of this tool help businesses to improve their nancial
decision-making?
The tables on the next two pages show the BM tools used in the course as
well as their brief denitions.
vii
4/3/22, 3:27 AM
Table 1 The Business Management toolkit (SL and HL)
Business
Brief denition
management tools
Anso matrix The Anso matrix is a tool that provides a business with a framework to analyse and plan its
(pages 48, 297) growth strategies. The four growth strategies it includes are: market penetration, market
development, product development, and diversication.
Boston Consulting Group The BCG matrix is a tool that evaluates an organization’s por tfolio potential based on relative
(BCG) matrix market share and industry growth rate factors. It helps in long-term strategic planning and
(pages 215, 276–79) decision-making with regard to what the organization should invest in, discontinue or develop
in the future. It is a four-square matrix that uses graphical representations to plot the
organization’s oerings.
Business plan A business plan is a road map that provides a detailed account of a business’s goals and how it
(pages 10, 301, 324) plans to achieve those goals. It is a guide that lays out a business’s functions from nance, human
resources and marketing to operations and other elements essential to its success. It can be used
to attract investment for the business as well as keep it on track .
Circular business models Circular business models signify the diverse ways in which goods and services are produced and
(pages 42, 275, 318, 331, 391) consumed. These models explore how organizations create, oer and deliver value to their stake-
holders while reducing environmental pressure and social costs resulting from economic activity.
In this BM course the following circular business models will be studied:
• Circular supply models
• Resource recovery models
• Product life extension models
• Sharing models
• Product service system models
Decision trees A decision tree is a graphical tool that uses a branching model to demonstrate every possible
(pages 68, 342) outcome of an organization’s decision. These tree-like branches represent various choices facing
the organization, including costs, results, probabilities or risks. Businesses use decision trees to
determine specic courses of action.
Descriptive statistics Descriptive statistics are quantitative means that are used to summarize a given set of data. It is a
(pages 91, 98, 121, 126, process of using and analysing given statistical data. Descriptive statistics help to present a large
168, 369) amount of quantitative data in a simplied or manageable form. They are broken down into mea-
sures of central tendency and measures of variability. In this BM course the following measures
will be used:
• Mean • Pie char ts
• Mode • Infographics
• Median • Quar tiles
• Bar char ts • Standard deviation
STEEPLE analysis STEEPLE stands for Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal and Ethical.
(pages 59–62) STEEPLE analysis is a useful tool for a business that aims to study its external environment. It pro-
vides a detailed overview of or insight into the various external factors inuencing an organization.
S WOT analysis SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Oppor tunities and Threats. Strengths and weaknesses
(pages 45–48, 83, 192, 303) are internal aspects inuencing an organization, while oppor tunities and threats are external
factors aecting an organization. In conducting a SWOT analysis, a business must examine all of
these elements as they all have the potential to impact its success or failure.
viii
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Table 2 The Business Management toolkit (HL only)
Business
Brief denition
management tools
Contribution Contribution in this context refers to a set of tools that are used to aid decision-making in a
(pages 168, 349–50) business after analysing and evaluating its given revenue and cost situations. Businesses need
to pay par ticular attention to the decisions they make due to their direct impact on their nancial
performance. The contribution tools studied in this case are:
• Make or buy analysis
• Contribution costing
• Absorption costing
Critical path analysis Critical path analysis is a tool that helps a business to schedule and manage complex and
(page 367) time-sensitive projects. It is used to map out all impor tant tasks that are essential to complete
a project. It helps to set realistic deadlines for a project and monitor the achievement of project
goals, providing remedial action where required. In this BM course the following will be required:
• Completion and analyses of a critical path diagram (drawing of the diagram is not expected)
• Identication of the critical path
• Calculation of free and total oat
Force eld analysis Force eld analysis is a tool used by businesses to analyse the forces for and against change to
(page 347) inform decision-making. It is useful when organizations are planning and implementing pro-
grammes on change management. The force eld analysis diagram provides a comprehensive
overview by illustrating the driving and restraining forces inuencing a given situation.
Gantt char t A Gantt char t is a graphical tool that helps to plan and schedule project tasks. It shows a given
(page 372) project schedule, including how the tasks or activities are performed over a set period of time. It
is useful in breaking down complex projects into a simpler display that is easy to understand. In
addition, where large teams of stakeholders are involved, it helps to keep tasks on track .
Hofstede’s cultural Hofstede’s cultural dimensions is a tool aimed at understanding the cultural similarities and
dimensions dierences across countries and determining the various ways that business can be conducted in
(pages 109, 311) these cultures. It is a framework that compares the dierent national cultures and their dimen-
sions as well as examining their impact on a given business setting. Countries can be classied
according to six cultural dimensions: power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/fem-
ininity, uncer tainty avoidance, long-term/shor t-term orientation, and indulgence/restraint.
Por ter ’s generic strategies Por ter ’s generic strategies explore how a business can obtain a competitive advantage over
(page 246) other similar businesses across its specied market scope. These strategies help a business to
determine its direction as well as how to beat its competition. The generic strategies include: cost
leadership (producing at a low cost); dierentiation (oering uniquely dierent and value-added
quality products); and focus (selling its product to specialized market segments). Focus is fur ther
subdivided into cost focus and dierentiation focus.
Simple linear regression Simple linear regression includes a set of tools that describe or predict the relationship between
(pages 253, 254, 351) two variables. They estimate how changes in an independent variable (the variable used to
predict the value) may aect changes in the dependent variable (the variable being predicted).
The simple linear regression models explored in the BM course are:
• Scatter diagrams
• Line of best t
• Correlation/extrapolation
ix
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INTRODUCTION TO THEORY OF
KNOWLEDGE (TOK)
Every Diploma Programme (DP) student must complete the DP course
called Theory of Knowledge (TOK), which is unique to the IB. TOK is
about critical thinking and inquiry into the process of knowing. It is not
about learning a new body of knowledge. Instead it explores the nature
of knowledge and how we know what we claim to know.
TOK is taught in two ways:
• Through 100 hours of tuition (compared to 150 hours for a subject
at standard level and 240 hours for a subject at higher level).
• Through the DP subjects themselves, as they all give students
the opportunity to ask questions that contribute to their overall
understanding of TOK.
TOK in this book

TOK links
As TOK encourages students to analyse knowledge claims and explore
1. To what extent does how knowledge is constructed, each chapter in this book suggests
knowing help us in relevant TOK knowledge questions. They are meant to illustrate TOK
predicting? and ignite classroom discussion, giving opportunities to explore the
nature of knowledge and TOK connections to Business Management.

2. How do we know that
our sales predictions are
reliable?
How is TOK assessed?
3. Is it ethical to knowingly
TOK is assessed in two ways:
overpredict?
• Through an essay (on one of the six prescribed titles issued by the
IB for each examination session, and submitted at the end of the
second year of DP for external assessment).
• Through an exhibition (normally organized in the rst year of DP,
internally marked by the teacher and externally moderated by
theIB).
For the exhibition, students explore how TOK manifests in the world
around us. You will select three specic objects (or images of objects)
that connect to one of the 35 “internal assessment (IA) prompts” listed
in the TOK guide. Some of those prompts have a direct relevance
for Business Management; for example, “Who owns knowledge?”
(number29) conjures up images of copyright agreements and patents
(see Chapter 5.8) or of data centres (see Chapter 5.9).
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Links between TOK and Business Management
Name of TOK Brief denition Possible links and applications to
element Business Management
Core theme: The core theme encourages This core theme can be addressed by discussing what counts (or not)
“K nowledge and the students to reect on themselves as knowledge in Business Management; where (and how) we can gain
knower ” as “knowers”, on what shapes knowledge in this subject; and who created this knowledge, for what
their views and perspectives, purposes, with which authority. Notions of values and communities
where their values come from, and are impor tant, with regard to both the subject knowledge and
how they make sense of the world the students themselves, within their own sociocultural and
around them. economic context.
Optional themes Those themes all have a signicant The theme “knowledge and technology” is par ticularly relevant to
impact on the world today and Business Management. For example, Chapter 5.9 considers how
play a key role in shaping people’s advanced computer technologies (enabling data mining and data
perspectives and identities. You will analytics) and innovations (such as ar ticial intelligence) may impact
explore two from a list of ve: decision-making processes in business organizations, and raise ethical
issues, for example about data anonymity and privacy.

• Knowledge and technology
• Knowledge and language

The theme “knowledge and language” is relevant to Business Management
• Knowledge and politics

as some models (such as the seven Ps of the marketing mix (HL only) or
• Knowledge and religion

the ve Vs of big data) were coined in English. When translating them into
• Knowledge and indigenous

other languages, we lose the consistency of the initial letters and therefore
societies
the overall coherence of the model. This shows that this knowledge about
the marketing mix and about big data was constructed through the English
language and is linked to that specic language.
Areas of knowledge The ve areas of knowledge (AOK) As Business Management is one of the human sciences, it is
are specic branches of knowledge, interesting to explore how research methods such as questionnaires
with their own nature and methods are trusted as reliable ways to gain knowledge (eg about a market, a
for producing knowledge: product or a business), given the challenges around neutral language,
leading questions, or sampling and selection eect. Market research

• History
is often under taken to help companies increase their prots, so it

• Human sciences
could also be wor th examining the purpose and context within which
• Natural sciences
knowledge is pursued in the human sciences in general, and in

• Mathematics
Business Management specically.

• The ar ts
K nowledge This tool helps to explore the Ethics is particularly relevant as it is one of the four key concepts
framework themes and the AOK . It is underpinning the DP Business Management curriculum. The rst aim
composed of four elements: of the course is “to develop ... condent, creative and compassionate
business leaders, entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, and ... change

• Scope
agents”. Ethical decision-making is relevant in all areas of the curriculum,

• Perspectives
from the moral objectives of social enterprises to privacy issues relating

• Methods and tools
to big data and consumer proling. From a TOK viewpoint, the focus should
• Ethics
be on ethics concerning knowledge, for example about criteria used to
make judgements, who decides, and based on which values.
Perspectives is also relevant, especially as the topic of stakeholders is
recurrent in Business Management, regarding their diering viewpoints,
conicting objectives, and how they are aected by change. It is helpful
to consider the diering perspectives of stakeholder groups in order to
gain a greater understanding of issues as diverse as nancial accounts
and workforce par ticipation.
xi
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INTRODUCTION TO INQUIRY
Inquiry is a key aspect of the IB approaches to teaching (ATT) and
As IB learners we strive to be:
approaches to learning (ATL): the principles that, according to the IB,
INQUIRERS
can help you be a successful IB learner. Being an inquirer is the rst of
We nur ture our curiosity,

the ten attributes of the IBlearner prole.
developing skills for inquiry and
In Business Management, learning through inquiry can take different
research. We know how to learn
forms, especially:
independently and with others.
We learn with enthusiasm and • Inquiry through research
sustain our love of learning
• Inquiry through “inquiry questions”
throughout life.
• Inquiry through problem-based learning (PBL)
Source: IB Learner Prole
Inquiry through research
Inquiry and research go together. This book covers the syllabus of the
IB DP Business Management, but for your studies you will also need to
carry out your own research to nd contemporary examples of business
issues around you, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
For instance, after learning about franchising (Chapter 1.5) or about
crowdfunding (Chapter 3.2), you should do research to learn about
examples of franchises near you, or about recent crowdfunding
campaigns on topics that interest you. This will also help you to link
the contents of the course to the world around you, and appreciate the
relevance of our subject to business news in the media.
Your internal assessment (IA) is a research project. The task has specic
requirements regarding research activities, but research will also
be necessary throughout the course to help you contextualize your
theoretical learning.
Inquiry through “inquiry questions”
These open questions can help you to link the content of this textbook,
the key concepts (sustainability, ethics, change, creativity) and the
contexts (of the examples that you will nd through your research).
Formulating such questions is a good exercise in itself, as it makes
you create links. Answering them will also help you to develop your
thinking skills and your writing skills.
xii
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The table below gives you some examples of such inquiry questions.
Unit in this tex tbook Examples of inquiry questions
Unit 1 • How can change lead to conicts between
stakeholders?
Introduction to business
management • Is the impact of multinational corporations on
host countries always ethical?
Unit 2 • How can a democratic style of leadership
encourage creativity in a business?
Human resource management
• Can fringe payments sometimes be regarded as
not fair and thus not ethical?
Unit 3 • Why could nal accounts analysis be essential
in changing stakeholder perspectives?
Finance and accounts
• In some countries, the state subsidizes many
organizations in the creative industries. Does
that mean that they do not need to be nancially
sustainable?
Unit 4 • How can social media change an organization’s
marketing strategies?
Marketing
• Are all pricing strategies ethical?
Unit 5 • Is intellectual proper ty protection only about
ethics and creativity?
Operations management
• How has digital technology enabled new
business models to ourish?
Inquiry through problem-based learning (PBL)
PBL is about analysing a real-world problem faced by an organization
and proposing solutions to it, using your knowledge of business
management tools, theories and techniques. Comparing different
investment options (Chapter 3.8) or different pricing strategies
(Chapter4.5) will help you appreciate the applied nature of our subject.
Beyond the Business Management subject itself, this can also help you
to improve other skills such as evaluation, reasoning, critical thinking,
communication skills and even teamwork, if you collaborate with
otherstudents.
xiii
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ssenisub ot noitcudortnI 1
tnemeganam
INTRODUCTION
1
TO BUSINE SS
MAN AGEMENT
1.1 What is a business?
By the end of this chap ter, you should be able to:
➔ Explain the nature of businesses and how they combine human,
physical and nancial resources to create goods and ser vices
➔ Dene primary, secondary, ter tiary and quaternary sectors
➔ Outline the nature of business acti vity in each sector and the impact
of sectoral change on business acti vity
➔ Examine challenges and oppor tunities for star ting up a business
The nature of business
A business aims to meet the needs and wants of individuals or
organizations through any of the following activities:
● Producing crops or extracting raw materials from the earth
● Creating a product
● Providing a service
Some businesses focus on one activity. For example, a business may grow
olives or manufacture transistors. Other businesses engage in multiple
activities. For example, a farm that grows olives may convert the olives
into olive oil for sale under its own label. Sometimes a business will cluster
several related activities or sometimes even engage in activities that are
completely different from each other.
4/3/22, 3:28 AM
All of these businesses input resources and process them to generate the
desired output. This is how the business adds value (sometimes referred to
tnemeganam
as “added value”) to the inputs. It is rewarded by gaining revenue (sales)
and/or recognition for satisfying a want or a need.
Many activities or organizations that most people would not consider to be
“a business” operate under various business principles. All organizations
must have human, physical, and nancial resources. Thus, many charities,
religious organizations (churches, mosques or synagogues, for example)
and other types of organizations (such as clubs) are in a sense a business.
Needs and wants are different. To survive, we all need the basics – food and
water, clothing and shelter – and many businesses provide for our basic
needs. Other businesses provide for our wants. Religious organizations,
charities, clubs and so on all provide services or products that people need
or want, and in that sense they are businesses.
Business activity is summarized in the ow chart shown in Figure 1.1.1.
human
goods
physical
production
nancial
services
enterprise
Resource inputs Processes to add value Product outputs
Figure 1.1.1 Summary of business activity
The resource inputs can be categorized as follows:
● Human – the right quality and quantity of people required to make the
product or provide the service. All businesses, even highly automated
ones, still require human input – even if it is only one person. Others
require many individuals, often with different skillsets.
● Physical – the right quality and quantity of materials, machinery,
and land space required to make the product or service. Even internet
businesses require some ofce space and a computer.
● Financial – the right quantity of cash and other forms of nance
required to make the product or service.
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● Enterprise – the least tangible input but crucially important for
business. It is the business idea and the determination to turn that
tnemeganam
idea into a functioning and, ideally, thriving business. Enterprise is
sometimes referred to as “entrepreneurship”, which is a term often
associated with high-tech and cutting-edge businesses dealing with
computers, smartphones, social media, etc. But enterprise exists in
all types of business, including the everyday (such as lawn-mowing
services, laundry services or brick manufacturing).
Production processes to add value can take many forms:
● Capital-intensive processes use a large proportion of land or
machinery relative to other inputs, especially labour. Sometimes the
land or machinery may have proprietary or special qualities (land rich
in a resource, or specialized equipment with unique features), or the
land and the machinery simply cost a great deal due to the scale of the
operation (a car factory, for example).
● Labour-intensive processes use a large proportion of labour relative
to other inputs, especially in relation to land or machinery. Labour-
intensive operations may involve fairly low-skilled workers but can also
involve highly skilled employees.
Product outputs can be categorized as follows:
● Goods – these are tangible products that we can physically take
home. They might be items produced in the primary sector, such as
agricultural products or other items extracted from the environment,
or they might be things made in the secondary (manufacturing) sector,
such as an iPad or a car.
● Services – these are intangible and the buyer does not physically
take them home. They include, for example, a karate class, a medical
examination, and the international delivery of a package. Retail sales
are a service: the retailer provides the service of having an array of
products for consumers to purchase.
Business functions
All businesses, from small start-ups to huge conglomerates, are organized
along the same lines, by function – what is to be done. There are four key
functions:
● Human resources (HR)
● Marketing
● Finance and accounts
● Operations management or production
The only difference between small businesses and large ones is that the
owners of smaller businesses have to deal with these functions themselves,
whereas a larger business can afford to hire specialized managers to carry
out the functions in separate departments.
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1
tnemeganam
HR
HR
Finance
Business
Marketing and
organization
accounts
Finance
Business
Marketing and
organization
accounts
Operations
Operations
A small business
A large business
Figure 1.1.2 Business functions in a small business and a large business
The role of business depar tments
In larger businesses, “specialized” managers will focus only on their
function and in doing so help the business to achieve its overall objectives.
Some examples are set out below.
Table 1.1.1 Business functions
Function Role
HR Ensuring that appropriate people are employed to make the product or
service and that they are suitably rewarded for doing so. To accomplish
these goals, the HR depar tment must recruit people, train them, at
times dismiss them, and determine appropriate compensation.
Finance and Ensuring that appropriate funds are made available to make the
accounts product or service. To accomplish this goal, the nance and accounts
depar tment must forecast requirements, keep accurate records,
procure nancial resources from various providers, and ensure proper
payment for goods and services acquired to operate the business.
Marketing Ensuring that the business oers a product or service that is desired by
a sucient number of people or businesses for protable operations.
To accomplish this goal, the marketing depar tment must use
appropriate strategies to promote, price, package, and distribute the
product or service.
Operations Ensuring that appropriate processes are used in order to make the
management or product or service, and that the product or service is of the desired quality.
production To accomplish this goal, the operations management or production
department must control the quantity and ow of stock, determine
appropriate methods of production, and, in today’s competitive world, look
for ways to produce the good or service more eciently.
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All of these functions are interdependent. For example, if the marketing
department determines that a product needs to be made differently
tnemeganam
as a result of changes in consumer taste, the operations management
or production function must redesign its processes, at least to some
degree. That redesign may require nancial resources, which the nance
department must procure. The redesign may inuence the number
and type of people working in the business, which would have to be
coordinated with the HR function.
The character of the interdependence can change over time. Initially,
businesses typically focus on survival, with HR, nance and accounts,
marketing, and operations management or production all geared towards
that end. Once a business is established in the marketplace, its priorities
may change. For example, a business may plan to diversify (produce other
goods or services), which places new requirements on each of the four
business departments. If a business is very successful, then growth and
even control of the market might become a priority, which could require
signicant modications to the different business departments.
The strength of a particular business depends on how successfully aligned
the four functions are. Is the business producing a desired good or service
for the market it is targeting? Are the right people producing the good or
service, and are those people rewarded appropriately (nancially and
non-nancially)?
Small businesses often have an advantage in that they can respond quickly
to changes in the marketplace. On the other hand, large businesses
generally have greater resources, wider reach, and more name recognition.
However, even a business dominating a market must remain vigilant. If
they become complacent, large businesses can fail.

yduts esaC
Thomas Cook
For 178 years, Thomas Cook provided
travel agency services for the British. The
company arranged individual and group
travel rst within the UK, and then to
Europe and eventually to the entire world.
However, when the internet became widely
available, traditional travel agency services
were severely threatened. Companies
offering travel services (like Expedia, Kayak,
and Travelocity) reduced the need for
traditional travel agents.
By the beginning of the 21st century,
Thomas Cook was experiencing signicant
competition from these new online booking
services. A poorly conceived merger in 2007 with MyTravel added to Thomas Cook’s problems.
Though the company tried a number of tactical moves to retain its viability, none of them seemed
to work. According to The Guardian, on the eve of Thomas Cook’s collapse, only one in seven Brits
used traditional travel agency services. Finally, in 2019, the venerable company that had created the
phenomenon of mass tourism began laying off 22,000 employees, liquidating its assets, and leaving
150,000 travellers stranded overseas.
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Primary, secondary, tertiary, and

Key terms
tnemeganam
quaternary sectors
Primary sector
Traditionally, economists have grouped business activity into different
the par t of the economy

sectors, as set out in Table 1.1.2, and this activity can take place in different
engaged in extraction (such

geographic areas.
as of minerals or oil) or
Table 1.1.2 Sectors of business activity

production of raw materials
(farming, shing, forestry,

Goods Primary All raw materials are acquired in the primary sector. This can be by
raising livestock , and

extraction, mining, farming, shing, hunting, or even trapping. Today,
quarrying)
because of the scarce nature of many resources in the primary
sector or because of the potential to damage fragile environments,
Secondary sector
governments closely monitor activities in the primary sector.

Secondary In the secondary sector raw materials are processed, usually by
engaged in the production

manufacturing. Goods from the secondary sector can take many
of nished goods (ie the

forms, such as consumer durables, non-durable consumer goods,
manufacturing sector of the

and capital goods. For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, much
economy)
secondary sector production occurred in what are referred to today
as “developed” countries. Since the 1970s, however, manufacturers
Ter tiary sector
in developed countries have been facing increasing competition

from manufacturing rms located in “developing” countries and
engaged in the delivery of

“emerging markets”.
services, such as banking,
Ser vices Ter tiary All services are provided in the ter tiary sector, sometimes using
healthcare and restaurants
manufactured products. These services can be nancial, leisure,
healthcare, education, transpor t, security, and many others. As

Quaternary sector
manufacturing (the secondary sector) has shifted to developing
countries, the ter tiary sector has grown in impor tance in developed
engaged in the production,
countries. Services such as banking, insurance, transpor tation,
processing and transmission
retail and wholesale, and consultancy have become especially
of information. Whereas some
impor tant.
consider the quaternary
Quaternary This sector, a subgroup of the ter tiary sector, provides services
sector a subset of the ter tiary
that are focused on knowledge. Generally speaking, various types
sector, others emphasize that
of e-services and those involving IT, the media, and web-based
quaternary sector activities
services are considered quaternary. This sector is typical of “post-
are based on advanced
industrial” economies and, thus, many businesses in the developed
knowledge and include
world engage in quaternary activities.
information technology
services, consultancy, and
The four sectors are typically linked in what is referred to as the
research and development.
production chain or chain of production. A chain of production is the
steps through the different sectors that have to occur in order to turn raw
materials into a consumer good that is marketed.
Fishing is an example of an industry in the primary sector
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For example, many types of raw material (metals, rubber, materials to
Student workpoint
make plastic and glass, etc) are extracted (primary sector) and processed
tnemeganam
1.1
into the materials (secondary sector) that manufacturers turn into car parts
(secondary sector). The car parts are then used on an assembly line to
Be a thinker
make cars (secondary sector). The cars are shipped (tertiary sector) to car
Think of some everyday

dealerships, which sell the cars to consumers (tertiary sector). Car dealers
products that you use and

also typically provide after-sale services (oil changes, tune-ups, and even
imagine their production

major repairs), also in the tertiary sector. Sometimes, before consumers
chain. Consider:
buy cars, they read magazines or online reports about car features and
service records. Sometimes this information is free and provided by the

● A cherry pie you
government, but in other cases this type of information is produced by

purchase
for-prot companies that sell information. This type of business is in the
● A skateboard
quaternary sector.
● A smartphone
Sectoral change
What primary, secondary,
The size of each sector of the economy may change because, just as
tertiary, and quaternary
individuals or businesses grow and develop, so too will countries.
businesses are involved
Economists usually measure the size of each sector in terms of the number
in the production,
of people employed by the industries in that sector. The traditional pattern
distribution, and marketing
is set out in Figure 1.1.3.
of these products?
Closely related to changing economies are the complexities of social contexts.
The more advanced sectors require more complex social contexts for
businesses to thrive. Thus, whereas raw material extraction is often Less developed
possible with relatively few skilled workers and large numbers of low- (low income) economies
skilled workers, the quaternary sector relies both on highly skilled
primary
workers (producers and managers of information) and consumers –
secondary
people and businesses that want and have the ability to make use of
ter tiary
advanced information. Thus, more developed economies typically see
quaternary
social technologies and economies advance in tandem: as the economy
develops, social technologies improve; as social technologies improve,
economies develop.
Developing
However, developments are not linear. Technological innovation in (middle income) economies
one area (for example computerized word processors) and its related
primary
workers (individuals knowledgeable about operating word processors)
secondary
can make other technologies and occupations obsolete, such as
ter tiary
typewriters and typists. Thus, while some occupations become obsolete,
quaternary
new ones emerge (which are often perceived as “high skill”).
Businesses that can anticipate or adapt to the changing environment can
Developed
do well, even in industries that are perceived as “in decline”. In general,
(high income) economies

developed economies have moved away from the primary sector. In
both Canada and Australia, however, two primary sector industries have
primary
done remarkably well: organic farming in Canada and wine production
secondary
in Australia. Another example is Germany: as one of the most
ter tiary
developed economies of the world, it has a strong quaternary sector.
quaternary
However, German businesses have retained two of their long-standing
strengths: high-quality engineering and a strong secondary sector.
Figure 1.1.3 Size of sectors
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The process of shifting from one proportional weighting of sectors in an

economy to a different weighting (shifting from an economy based on the

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primary sector to an economy based on the secondary sector, for example)
can produce strains on resources, such as human resources. Secondary
sector businesses may require specialist skills that may be in short supply.
Financial resources, too, will be diverted from one sector to another.
Finally, an economy based mainly in the tertiary or quaternary sectors will
require fewer physical resources (they will not be needed as much in the
production of intangible services as for tangible goods).
Other strains can occur as well. As an economy shifts to the secondary
sector, legislation and other protections against environmental damage
are often weak, and manufacturing rms in developing countries
often do more damage to the environment than manufacturing in
developedeconomies.
Challenges and opportunities for starting
up a business
Reasons for star ting up a business or enterprise
People start businesses for many reasons, as summarized in Table 1.1.3.
Each of these reasons presents an opportunity.
Table 1.1.3 Reasons to star t a business
Rewards Working for someone else means that you do not get to keep
all the rewards yourself. Although some criticize this aspect of
capitalism, one central element is that those who put their capital
at risk (the business owners) get the rewards, whereas those
who do not put their capital at risk (employees) receive wages or
salaries that are typically less than the return on capital is to the
owners. Many millionaires own “boring” small businesses.
Independence Working for yourself means that you are your own boss and not
following someone else’s rules. Individuals with an entrepreneurial
spirit sometimes feel constrained by bosses, policies, and
procedures in large organizations. Star ting your own business
means that you can set and change the policies and procedures
as you see t.
Necessity Sometimes businesses are star ted by individuals whose positions
were made redundant or who could not nd work . The necessity of
having an income leads them to star t a small business.
Challenge Some people just want to see whether they can “make it”
themselves. Star ting a small business typically requires one
person to perform all functions of the business (HR, marketing,
accounts and nance, and operations management or
production). Over time, if the business is a success, the business
owner then has to learn new skills as his or her role changes to
accommodate a larger and more complex operation.
4/3/22, 3:28 AM
Interest Many interesting businesses are set up by people with a passion
for something who want to just keep doing what they enjoy doing.
C oncep t
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The business producing Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion was star ted
by a high-school chemistry teacher who liked spending time at the
CRE ATIVITY
beach. Many specialty shops – guitar stores, lamp stores, ballet
clothing stores, rare books stores, etc – allow their owners to work Creativity can be dened as the
in an area for which they have a passion. process of generating new ideas,
or of considering existing ideas

Finding a gap Businesses may see or nd an untapped oppor tunity in order to
from new perspectives. Setting

achieve “rst-mover advantage”. Sometimes businesses, large or
up a business involves creativity
small, stumble into oppor tunities that they were not looking for.
in numerous ways. For example,
The idea of Post-its, one of the most successful products of the 3M
entrepreneurs must be creative,
Company and which revolutionized interoce communications,
with the initial business idea itself,
was stumbled across by accident by Dr Spender Silver, a scientist
and also to prepare a business
working at 3M.
model with limited resources,
Sharing an idea If you really believe in something, you may want to sell the idea to to get the initial nance for their
others. Yoga studios, for example, are typically owned by people star t-up costs, or even to invent the
name of the business.

who themselves do yoga and want to spread the idea that yoga
enhances quality of life. Marketing the idea helps their business,

Can you think of other areas where
but often the original motivation to open a yoga studio is to spread

creativity is a key element of
the idea. entrepreneurship? This may give
you ideas for your IA.
The process of starting up a business
Two features are common to all successful start-ups:
● The business idea
● Planning
The business idea refers to the fundamental activity that the business
will do, whether it is something basic (such as a house-cleaning service)
or something more sophisticated (such as manufacturing). The business
idea can be market-driven – that is, determined by the needs of the market
or product– or service-driven, which means that in some sense the
entrepreneur or business must convince others that the product or service
is worth purchasing.
Regardless of whether the new business is basic or sophisticated, market- or
product-driven, the entrepreneur must have a basic business idea. Then
the entrepreneur should carefully plan the business in order to reduce the
many risks associated with starting up a business.
4 Establishing
1 Organizing 2 Researching 3 Planning 5 Raising the 6 Testing the
legal
the basics the market the business nance market
requirements
Figure 1.1.4 Steps for star t-ups
1. Organizing the basics. The entrepreneur starting a new business
must address several basic questions: Where is the business going to
be based? What will the entrepreneur call the business? What will
be its legal structure? What will be its operational structure? Is there
a sufcient business infrastructure to make the business feasible –
suppliers, potential customers, and government services?
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2. Rening the business idea through market research. Once the

entrepreneur has determined that, in broad outline, the business concept

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is feasible, they should do market research to determine how the business
will distinguish itself from others in the market. Rarely is a gap in the
market obvious. If that were the case, it would be easy to start a successful
business. However, new businesses have very high failure rates. While
precise rates of failure are difcult to determine, as many business are
so small and so short-lived that they elude detection in surveys, failure
rates in the United States, for example, are between 50 and 80% in the
rst four years of operation; 25% fail in the rst year alone. In Europe,
another developed economy, failure rates are also high.
Thus, once the basic business idea is determined, the business must
then do market research to determine the precise market segment it
will target, and the entrepreneur must answer some basic questions:
How will they conduct market research? Who will be the target
market? Can the new business test its concept? What will be its “unique
selling proposition” (USP)? How will the business communicate with
the market?
Let’s consider the example of the entrepreneur who wants to enter the
grocery business. The idea is very attractive. After all, food is one of the
basic necessities of human existence. However, market research may be
very revealing. A market may have too many competitors, or a segment
of the grocery market (high volume, low cost, for example) may be
saturated. Market research might reveal that a small niche market (such
as for organic products or specialized meats) is where there is a gap in
the market. Thus, researching the market has narrowed and rened
the basic business idea (a grocery store) to a signicantly more precise
idea: a speciality grocery store that offers either organic products and/or
specialized meats.
Student workpoint
1.2
Be a researcher
Imagine that you are an
Market research could lead an entrepreneur to sell only local, organic groceries
entrepreneur seeking to
start a for-prot social
3. Planning the business. Once the concept has been narrowed, the
enterprise. Develop a
entrepreneur should write a business plan, which is a document that
basic business plan for a
addresses all the issues that need to be planned before operations begin.
business with which you
The business plan will be of use to multiple stakeholders, especially
could make a prot and
potential owners of the business and nancial institutions (banks,
full a social purpose.
lending companies) that may provide capital.
http://www.statisticbrain.com/star tup-failure-by-industry/
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4/3/22, 3:28 AM
The composition of the business plan requires the entrepreneur or
people starting the business to think through most of the specic
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elements of how the business will operate. For investors and nanciers,
the business plan can provide some condence as it indicates that the
business has foreseen potential issues and is trying to address them.
4. Establishing legal requirements. All businesses operate in countries
that have laws that can inuence the legal organization of the business,
its labour practices, and its operational practices, as well as determine
tax obligations. In most countries, businesses must be registered, even
if they are sole traders (which are not legally separate entities from the
operator of the business). Other types of business – corporations, for
example – are legal entities that must be established in accordance with
the laws of the host country. In many countries, businesses must have
specic licences and/or pass certain inspections before they can operate.
These legal requirements can be extensive and costly.
Finally, the business must investigate the tax requirements of the
country. These taxes would include not only income taxes, but also
various sorts of payroll tax that must be paid, such as for employees’
pensions from the government, unemployment and sickness benets,
or even medical insurance.
5. Raising the nance. Once the basic business idea has been rened,
abusiness plan written, and legal requirements met, the business must
then raise nance – money – to get the business started and to support
the business until it can sustain operations from prots, which can
often take years. (Even if the business is protable from the beginning,
its cash requirements may be greater than the prots.) Any investor or
Student workpoint
lender must have condence in the accounting and auditing procedures
1.3
of the business. Who will prepare accounts in the business and who,
external to the business, will verify that they are accurate?

Be a thinker
The business must attract start-up monies. Some or all may come from Choose one of the
the entrepreneur, or other investors may be required. When someone following businesses:
provides equity capital, it means that person is a partial owner of the
● Local delicatessen
business. Most entrepreneurs who start up a business do not want to
and café
lose control of the business, so some of the capital will be in the form of
● Manufacturer of a
investment – selling shares – but some of the capital may be loans to the
new energy drink

business. Who will the lenders be? What kind of terms will they want?
● Travelling hairdresser
6. Testing the market. The nal stage is the launch of the business.
and beautician
How will that occur? Will the business begin on a small scale (a
“pilot”) to test consumer reaction? What will the criteria for success
● After-school sports club
of the pilot be? In some types of business, especially capital-intensive
Work in groups to discuss

manufacturing, the initial launch is extremely expensive and the rm
the challenges and

can respond to market reactions in only a limited and slow way. Other
opportunities that you

types of business – restaurants, for example – can often respond quickly
would face when opening

and easily, by changing the menu, changing recipes, or changing other
up such a business.
aspects of the business.
Write down at least
The purpose of testing the market is to verify that the business idea will
ve challenges and ve
be received well enough by consumers to suggest that the business has
opportunities.
a reasonable chance of success.
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4/3/22, 3:28 AM
Challenges that a new business may face

Even when the six steps outlined above are followed, start-ups still have
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a high probability of failure. Businesses that fail often do so because of
what they did before the business even opened. For example, the business
had problems in basic organization, its products or services were based
on insufcient or poor-quality market research, planning was poor, it
was unable to convince investors or lenders, legal requirements were not
properly satised, accounts were poorly kept and/or the business had
insufcient funds to operate, or the launch was unsuccessful and sales did
not materialize. All of these problems can cause a business to fail.
If a start-up has a good business idea and develops a strong business
plan, the business may still fail. Sometimes failure results from a lack of
Student workpoint recognition of the business name in the marketplace. Other times failure
1.4 stems from the inability to recruit labour with the right skills. In other
cases, it is because the business cannot accurately anticipate the reactions
Be an inquirer
of competitors (and certainly a start-up cannot control the actions of its
Go to Kiva or one of
competitors). New businesses generally have less capital to rely on if the
the other micronance

economy weakens. When a business is put under stress, often problems
lending sites. Find three

between managers or executives surface which would not be present if
businesses that you

the business were operating successfully. Therefore, many things outside a
nd interesting and

business’s control can cause it to fail.
compelling. What is it
Table 1.1.4 Reasons why star t-ups fail
about these businesses
that interests you? Why

Organization ● The location of the business was inappropriate.
do you think they could
● The structure of the business did not work .
be successful? Would you
● Supplies were unreliable.
consider making a small
donation to one of these Market research ● The market research was poor.
businesses?
● The target market wasn’t appropriate.
● The test was too optimistic.
● Channels of communication were weak .
TOK discussion
Business plan ● The business plan did not convince.
1. Is business management
● Goals were too vague or contradictory.
an ar t or is it a science?
Legal requirements ● Labour laws were not addressed.
2. As a business can
● Registration was too dicult.
operate in more than one
● Tax obligations were not addressed.
sector, why do we need
the categories called Finance ● The accounts were not kept properly – cash ow,
“sectors” (primary sector, in par ticular, was a problem.
secondary sector, etc)?

● Raising star t-up capital was too dicult.
3. To what extent can

● Raising medium-term to long-term nance was dicult.
entrepreneurs know in
The market ● The launch failed.
advance the challenges
● The pilot was inconclusive.
they may encounter when
● Success was limited – the product failed to inspire.

star ting up a business?
12
4/3/22, 3:28 AM
Revision checklist
✓ Businesses combine human, physical and nancial resources to produce
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goods and services.
✓ Human resources are the people needed to carry out the aims of the
organization. Physical resources include buildings, machinery and raw
materials. Financial resources include the money needed to make the
product or service.
✓ Business activity is categorized into one of four main sectors:
✓ The primary sector generally involves the acquisition of raw
materials.
✓ The secondary sector involves processing raw materials, usually to
create a product.
✓ The tertiary sector is where most service businesses sit.
✓ The quaternary sector provides services that focus on knowledge.
✓ Business offers many opportunities, which is why so many people start
businesses. Steps involved in starting up a business include researching
the market, planning the new business, establishing legal requirements,
raising nance, and testing the market.
✓ A new business might face challenges at each stage. The business will be
able to control some of the challenges but not all of them.
Practice question
To answer the question below effectively, see Unit 6 pages 398–402.
Starbucks
Starbucks, a large coffee store chain with its headquarters in the United
States, has been protable for years and thus has considerable cash and
other resources. Starbucks wants to open coffee shops in India, which
has a large population and is a potentially large market. The laws of India
regarding foreign businesses operating in the country present an obstacle to
Starbucks.
To get around this legal obstacle, Starbucks is considering working with
Tata Coffee, a major Indian company that has its own coffee shops and is
involved in aspects of the coffee business besides retail.
In addition to coffee shops, Tata Coffee also owns coffee farms where coffee
is grown. Its labour force on these farms is trained and knowledgeable.
a) With reference to Starbucks and Tata Coffee, explain the role
of businesses in combining two of the following: human
resources, physical resources, or nancial resources to create
goods and services. [4 marks]
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1
tnemeganam
1.2 Types of business entities
By the end of this chap ter, you should be able to:
➔ Distinguish between the pri vate and the public sectors
➔ Outline the main features of the following types of organizations:
● sole traders
● par tnerships
● pri vately held companies
● publicly held companies
Key terms
➔ Outline the main features of the following types of for-prot social
enterprises:
Private sector
the por tion of an economy ● pri vate sector companies
not controlled or owned by
● public sector companies
the government
● cooperati ves
Public sector
➔ Outline the main features of the following type of non-prot social
those por tions of the
enterprise:
economy owned or controlled
● non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

by the government, such as
government services, public
schools, and state-owned
Dierence between the private and public sectors

corporations
Public sector refers to those parts of the economy controlled by the
Sole trader
government. The term “public sector” can be used in a broad sense,
a business owned and meaning any type of activity (including the military, police, and public
operated by one person. education) that is run by the government and has meaningful economic
No legal distinction exists implications. However, in business, “public sector” generally has a narrower
between the business and usage. A public sector company is one that the government owns. Common
the owner. Thus, the owner types of public sector companies include utilities, telecommunications
has unlimited liability for the companies, and public transport.
liabilities of the business, and
Private sector refers to those parts of the economy not controlled by the
the business ceases to exist
government. The private sector is managed by individuals and companies
when the owner dies.
that are not owned by the government. Most private sector businesses are
for-prot.
Par tnership
a business owned and
operated by two or more Main features of the most common types of
people. No legal distinction
prot-based (commercial) organizations

exists between the business
Prot-making businesses come in various types of legal organization, but

and the par tners, each of
the most common are:

whom are legally responsible
for 100% of the liabilities of

● Sole traders
the par tnership.
● Partnerships
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4/3/22, 3:28 AM
● Privately held companies or corporations
● Publicly held companies or corporations
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One of the main aims of all of these types of business is to generate prot.
The prots a business receives can be shown using the following formula:
Prots = total revenues total costs
Total revenues, often called “sales” or “sales revenue”, are all the income
received by the business in a specied period of time. Total costs are all the
costs incurred by that business in the same period of time. (The way that
revenue and expenses are measured is actually more complex than this
simple formula suggests, but for now the simple form is enough.)
Sole trader
Most people starting their own business typically begin with a limited
budget and a simple organization. Facing these constraints, they often
choose to operate as a sole trader (sometimes called a sole proprietor),
which is the simplest form of business to organize.
Being a sole trader fullls many of the reasons why people start a business:
being their own boss, seeing a gap in the market and wanting to respond
quickly, creating their own product, serving the community, or just living
their dream.
The main features of a sole trader business include the following:
● The sole trader owns and runs the business. Sole traders may
employ other people, including those empowered to make some of the
decisions, but the sole traders themselves make management decisions
and have ultimate responsibility for the business.
● No legal distinction exists between the business and the sole
trader. The sole trader is the business and, thus, is liable for all the
debts of the business or other claims (such as the outcome of a lawsuit).
In other words, sole traders have “unlimited liability”.
● The nance is usually limited. Here, nance refers to the money
that the business has available for use. It can come from the personal
savings of the sole trader or from other sources, such as a loan from
family and friends or from a bank. Regardless, sole traders typically
have limited nance, either because their personal savings are limited
or because family, friends, banks, and other nancial institutions may
be reluctant to lend the sole trader money because of the high failure
rate of start-up businesses.
● The business is often geographically close to the customer. A sole
trader is usually a small business that allows the sole trader to interact
with each customer. Sole traders get to know their customers on an
individual basis, which allows them to provide a more personalized
service than larger businesses.
● The sole trader has privacy and limited accountability. Most of
the time, sole traders do not have to declare their nances to anyone
except the tax authorities, which want to know how much prot the
business has made for tax purposes. Sometimes sole traders borrow
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4/3/22, 3:28 AM
money or enter into a nancial contract (such as a lease), and lenders

or lessors may need to see nancial statements. In general, however,

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sole traders have a high degree of privacy.
● Registering the business is generally relatively easy and
inexpensive – and quick. Although laws vary from country to
country, starting and operating as a sole trader is generally simpler than
for other types of legal organizations. Sole traders usually have less legal
paperwork to ll out and le. Sole traders make all decisions themselves
and therefore do not have to devote time to discussion and to building
consensus for decisions.
Monique owns and runs her own
café business – she is a sole trader
Advantages of sole traders
One of the greatest advantages of being a sole trader is that all prots from
the business belong to the sole trader, as no legal distinction separates
the owner from the business. Other advantages of operating as a sole
traderinclude the following:
● Complete control over all the important decisions.
● Flexibility in terms of working hours, products and services, and
changes to operations.
● Privacy, as sole traders generally do not need to divulge information.
● Minimal legal formalities.
● Close ties to customers, which can give a competitive advantage.
Disadvantages of sole traders
The success of businesses operating as sole traders depends on the drive,
enthusiasm, and health of the sole traders themselves. Any of these
can falter. Sole traders also have other disadvantages, which include
thefollowing:
● Competing against established businesses all by yourself can be a
daunting challenge.
● There may be stress and potential ineffectiveness because the sole trader
makes all the decisions, often with limited time to make them and
limited opportunity to seek advice from others.
● There will be a lack of continuity in the event of a serious accident or
the owner’s death – the business itself may not continue.
● There may be limited scope for expansion as the owner spends all their
time running the business.
● Generally there will be limited capital, which may also create a burden
on the business. The focus will be more on having sufcient cash for
day-to-day operations than on looking to the future.
● There is unlimited liability of the owner for any faults, debts, or
mistakes made.
Most sole traders remain small businesses and typically the business comes
to an end when the sole trader retires or dies. Sometimes, sole traders
want to stay small, which allows them to make a decent living and not
have to manage and worry about the many complexities of operating on a
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4/3/22, 3:28 AM
larger scale. Sole traders often have a niche in the market and see no need
toexpand.
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When sole traders want to expand, the challenges are sometimes too great.
Their prots are not large enough to support growth, or the risks of growth
are too great. Just surviving may be the chief goal of a sole trader: many
sole traders give up or fail within the rst few years of existence.
Par tnerships
An alternative type of business is that of a partnership. This type of business
is formed by two or more people. They could be friends, associates,
or people with similar or related skills. Partnerships are popular with
professional people who have related qualications, such as doctors,
lawyers, accountants, or even business consultancy rms.
The main features of a partnership business include the following:
● Decisions are made jointly by the partners , who own and run the
business together. Partners may employ other people, but they make
all the management decisions. Partners also own the business, each
partner having a percentage ownership.
● The business is owned and managed by more than one person.
Although the number of partners is technically unlimited, getting
agreement is more difcult as the number of partners increases. Most
partnerships have between 2 to 20 partners.
● No legal distinction exists between the business and the
partners, who are liable for all of the partnership’s debts and other
obligations. Partners have unlimited liability and legally can be called
upon to pay for 100% of the partnership’s debts, even if a partner owns
only a small percentage of the business.
● Finance is usually more available than for a sole trader business.
All partners contribute some capital to start up the business or to
“buy into” the business, which usually means there is more capital
than if provided by only one person. Also, banks and other nancial
institutions are usually more willing to provide nance to a partnership
than to a sole trader, as a partnership is considered more stable than a
sole trader.
● Some partners may be “sleeping partners” , which means that
they provide some nance (their investment in the partnership) and
expect a share of the prot. A sleeping partner performs no other role
in thebusiness.
● The business operated as a partnership can often offer a more
varied service than a sole trader. Different partners may bring
different expertise, and the product or service offerings of the business
can vary. This situation is especially true in the case of partnerships of
professionals such as lawyers or doctors. For example, a law rm could
have lawyers specializing in criminal law, commercial law, international
law, and civil law.
● Partnerships typically have a greater degree of accountability
than a sole trader. Although in most countries partnerships are not
legally required to draw up a deed of partnership, partnerships oftendo.
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Having a deed of partnership makes good business sense because it is

a legally binding document that sets out the rights and duties of the
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partners. It includes information about:
■ responsibilities
■ nancing
■ division of prots
■ liabilities
■ procedures for changing circumstances.
With a deed of partnership, partners know their rights and
responsibilities within the partnership, and the likelihood of a major
disagreement between the partners reduces.
● Partnerships are typically more stable than sole traders and
have a higher likelihood of continuity. Drawing up a deed of
partnership will slow down the registering of the business, but it will
help the organization in the long term.
● Partners do not necessarily share all of the prots equally.
Usually, prots are allocated and paid out according to each partner’s
percentage ownership of the business. If one partner has provided a
substantial amount of nance, then that person may expect a greater
proportion of prots than the other partners are allocated. In addition,
in partnerships with “sleeping partners”, the active partners may get
agreed-upon salaries or drawings that are considered expenses for the
purpose of determining the partnership’s prot. Then, after the prot
is determined, the prots are allocated to partners according to their
percentage ownership.
Advantages of par tnerships
Partnerships have certain advantages compared to sole traders:
● As partners often bring different skills and qualities, partnerships may
have more efcient production as a result of the specialization and the
division of labour.
● In general, partners bring more expertise to a business than one
personcan.
● As partnerships are perceived as having greater stability and lower risk,
they generally have access to more nance.
● Partners can help in emergencies or when others are ill or on holiday.
● Partnerships have more chance of continuity as the business will not
necessarily end if one partner dies.
Disadvantages of par tnerships
Partnerships also have certain disadvantages:
● Each partner has unlimited liability, which means that each partner
is legally responsible for all of the business’s debts or the actions of
any other partner. The one exception to this liability is when, in the
deed of partnership, a partner or certain partners are declared “limited
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partners”. Although the laws vary according to country, in general,
limited partners have limited liability but also limited control (both
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specied in the deed of partnership).
● Compared to businesses that operate as companies (corporations),
partnerships usually have less access to loans from banks and other
nancial institutions. Limited nance can often prevent a business from
expanding or maximizing opportunities for making prots.
● An individual partner does not have complete control over the business
and has to rely on the work and goodwill of others.
● Prots must be shared among the partners.
● Partners may disagree, which in the worst case could lead to the break-
up of the partnership.
In summary, partnerships are safer than sole traders but they are more
complex organizations. As multiple partners can typically raise more
nance than sole traders, and because of the greater inherent stability,
partnerships have a greater chance of surviving changing market conditions
and have more chance to expand if the conditions are right.

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Brown Brothers Harriman
Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH)
is one of the largest and oldest
private banks in the United States.
Unusually, the bank operates as
a partnership. Businesses legally
organized as a partnership are
usually relatively small, but BBH,
headquartered in New York City, has approximately 6,000 employees
and ofces around the world. Founded in 1931, the bank has grown
and has revenue in excess of $1.3 billion. Despite this growth and size,
the owners of the business have decided to remain a partnership.
Companies or corporations
The main categories of companies (also called “corporations” in North
America) are privately held companies and publicly held companies. Their
similarities and differences are examined below.
You can recognize a company as it may have the following abbreviations
after its logo:
● INC – Incorporated (USA/Canada)
● LLC – Limited Liability Company (USA)
● PLC – Private or Public Limited Company (UK)
● LTD – Limited Company (various)
● SA – Sociedad Anónima (Latin America except Brazil and Mexico)
● SA – Sociedades Anônimas (Brazil, Portugal)
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● SpA – Società per Azioni (Italy)

● AB – Aktiebolag (Finland, Sweden)

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● Bhd – Berhad (Malaysia, Brunei)
● GIE – Groupement d’Intérêt Economique (France)
● GmbH – Gesellschaft mit beschraenkter Haftung (Austria, Germany,
Switzerland)
Other countries have other designations and abbreviations. Whichever is
used, this type of designation means the same thing: that the business is
a limited liability company. This type of business is the only one that can
be called a “company” (corporation) to distinguish it from the other types
ofbusiness.
A business can become a company by a simple but very powerful process–
the business and the owners of the business are legally separated and the
liability of the company is distinct from the liability of those who own it.
Another feature of a company is that, typically, it has multiple owners, each
owning a fraction of the company in the form of shares (shares of stock or
equity shares) in the company.
The business – the company – has legal existence in its own right. The
company employs executives to manage the business and workers who
handle the day-to-day operations.
Just like sole traders and partnerships, a company has certain
responsibilities in the community: it must obey the laws of the land and
pay taxes. Unlike sole traders and partnerships, companies keep the prots
from their business activities – unless the owners (also called shareholders)
decide to pay all or a portion of prots (past or present) to the shareholders
in the form of dividends.
Shareholders receive a proportion of the prots as dividends at the
discretion of the company, and their proportion of the dividends is
determined by their proportion of the shares of stock. For example, if a
company makes a prot of €1,000,000 and decides to pay total dividends
of €600,000, the total payout (€600,000) will be divided by the number
of shares of stock issued and outstanding. If that gure was 100,000, the
owner of each share of stock would receive a dividend of €6 for each
share the person owned. If one person owned 20,000 of the issued and
outstanding shares, that person would receive €120,000.
Often individual shareholders own only a part of the business. When
that is the case, in theory individual shareholders do not control the
business unless they own a majority of the shares. In practice, sometimes a
shareholder who owns a smaller percentage can still have a deciding say in
the decisions of the company and can, therefore, control it.
In the case of very large companies, it is rare for one person to own all or a
A large company like Walmar t majority of the shares. With smaller companies, it is not uncommon for one
might have hundreds of thousands person to own 100% of the shares, or for a small group of family members
of shareholders or friends to own 100% of the shares.
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Advantages of being a shareholder
Shareholders are rewarded for investing in a company in three ways:
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● The price of the share(s) they hold may increase in value if
the company is performing well. In theory (though not always
in practice), the value of a company is based on its prots. As prots
increase, so too should the total value of its shares. Therefore,
individual shares of stock in the company should increase in value at
the same rate.
● The company issues a portion of the company prots as
dividends. The amount of money each shareholder receives depends
on the number of shares they own. With small or new companies,
dividends are often not paid or are relatively small. With large,
established companies, dividends are often paid regularly – once every
three months (quarterly) – and individuals invest in the company partly
because they want the regular dividend income that comes with share
ownership in that particular company.
● The shareholder has limited liability , which is one of the single
most important features and benets of owning stock in a company.
Unlike sole proprietors or partners in a partnership, shareholders in a
company are not responsible in any way for the company’s debts. If the
business fails, then all the shareholders can lose is their investment in
the company, but no more.
For example, if a company goes into receivership (bankruptcy) owing
millions to individuals, banks, and other companies, the shareholders
do not have to pay any of those debts. The shareholders’ liability is
limited to their investment. (However, in the event of liquidation of
a company, the shareholders are the last party to receive any monies
from the sale of the assets of a business; all debts will be paid rst).
Disadvantages of being a shareholder
The costs to the shareholders of investing in a company are as follows:
● The price of the share(s) they hold may decrease in value if
the company is not performing well. As noted above, in theory
the value of a company is based on its prots. If prot declines, so too
(typically) will the value of individual shares.
● The company may choose not to issues dividends if it does not
have to. Businesses need funds for many reasons. Companies that
are doing poorly may not have sufcient cash on hand to be able to
pay dividends. Businesses that are growing rapidly also need money
to support the growth (to pay for more investment in equipment and
working capital). As a result, many companies rarely or never pay
dividends. The entire measurement of the value of the investment is
based upon the rise or fall in the stock value.
● As “owners” often own only a fraction of the shares of the company,
owning shares in a rm may not mean that an individual
shareholder has any meaningful say in decisions about the
business. In April 2021, Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) in Japan
hadmore than 2.14 billion issued and outstanding shares of stock.
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Anindividual investor owning 100 shares would, practically speaking,

have no say at all in a giant company such as MC. To own even 1%

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of the company (and thus have a 1% say in who the executives are)
would require an investment of approximately $606 million dollars.
Typically, businesses initially choose to become a company because the
owners of the business want the business to have a separate legal existence
from them personally, thus giving the owners, as shareholders rather than
as a sole trader or partners, limited liability.
There are also other reasons for becoming a company:
● The enhanced status of being a company is generally recognition that
the business has been successful.
● Selling shares is a good source of nance for a business, especially one
with growing working-capital requirements.
● Being a company increases the stability of the business, as a company
has a legal existence separate from its owners. If a shareholder or
shareholders die, the business continues. In the case of small businesses,
the death of a major shareholder (if that person is also an active
executive in the rm) can cause some disruption. Nevertheless, the
business does continue.
Key terms
● Companies typically have improved chances of gaining further nance,
Privately held company especially loans, from nancial institutions and governments.
an incorporated business
Achieving company status is often a turning point in the evolution of a
oering limited liability to

business. Up until the point that a business becomes a company, some
the owners. Owners’ liability

questions exist about the survival of the business and its continuity
is limited to their investment

andgrowth.
in the company. In most
As with any legal organization of a business, the choice to become a
countries, shareholders of
company has advantages and disadvantages. To take full advantage of
privately held companies
becoming a company, a business will have multiple investors and thus a
cannot sell their shares unless
major infusion of capital. However, when this occurs, the original business
they have rst been oered
owner loses some control over the business and could even lose personal
to existing shareholders; the
involvement in the company. When a business becomes a company, its
shares cannot be traded on
new owners (the shareholders) may hire executives to make all major
a stock exchange; and there
decisions. The original business owner (as sole trader or partner) may now
are limits on the number of
be merely an investor.
shareholders.
Publicly held company

Privately held companies and publicly held companies
an incorporated business When a business reorganizes as a company, it can choose to become either
oering limited liability to of these types of organization:
the owners. Owners’ liability
● Privately held company
is limited to their investment
● Publicly held company

in the company. The shares
of the company are traded

The main difference between the two forms of company is that the
on some public exchanges,

privately held company can only sell shares in the company privately:
and publicly held companies

to people known to the owners (such as friends, family, and associates).
must disclose or make public

Although the number of shareholders permitted in a privately held
considerable information
company varies from country to country, generally it is low (around20). As
about the company, including

a result, becoming a privately held company limits the amount of nance
audited nancial information.

available but allows more control to be maintained.
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Another difference is that, in most countries, privately held companies
have less onerous disclosure and reporting requirements than publicly held
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companies. For example, publicly held companies must produce audited
nancial statements once a year, whereas in many countries privately held
companies do not have to.
If the business decides to become a publicly held company (and the phrase
typically used is “the company is going public”), then it has to offer its shares
in a public place, such as a stock exchange in one of the major nancial
centres (London, New York, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Shanghai or Singapore), or
online. For example, the FTSE, Wall Street, the Nasdaq, theNikkei.
Going public opens up the possibility of securing large sums of capital. In
2012, for example, Facebook acquired $16 billion from its “initial public
offering” (IPO), or rst sale of shares to the public. More recently in 2020,
The shares of a publicly held
for example, Airbnb acquired $3.51 billion from its “initial public offering”
company can be bought by
(IPO), or its rst sale of shares to the public.
anyone through a stock exchange
When a company goes public, it does lose some privacy. Publicly held
or “over the counter ”, via a
companies have to allow potential investors to see their accounts, which

dealer network
become open to everyone. Further, the business itself has no control over
who buys their shares.
Assessment ad vice
The main features of a company include the following:
● The shareholders own but do not necessarily run the

Do not confuse the term
business. Their purchase of shares provides nance, but otherwise

“public sector ” with “publicly
the shareholders have little input into the day-to-day running of

held company”, or “private
the business (unless they are very small privately traded companies
sector ” with “privately
with a small number of shareholders who also serve as managers).

held company”.
Instead, professional managers are normally employed to make all the
management decisions.
● The business and the owners are legally separate entities. The
shareholders are not liable for any of the debts of the business. The
shareholders’ liability is limited to their investment in the company.
As the business and the owners (shareholders) are legally distinct, the
owners can change. A person owning shares in the company can decide
to sell the shares for any reason whatsoever.
● The details of the company’s formation are legally recorded and
are matters of public record. To form a company, owners of the
business must have two documents drawn up and registered with the
appropriate government agency, which varies in name from country to
country (as do the names of the documents):
■ Memorandum of association – this document records the
key characteristics and the external activities of the company
being created. For example, the memorandum will provide basic
information on the objectives of the business and record the share
capital initially required.
■ Articles of association – this document species how the company
will be regulated internally. For example, it will explain the initial
organization of the executives of the company, with their titles and
areas of responsibilities (chief executive ofcer, chief nancial ofcer,
etc), and the rights and responsibilities of each shareholder.
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4/3/22, 3:28 AM
● Greater nance is generally available. The initial offering of shares

represents a one-time injection of capital to the business. Once the

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business sells its shares, it receives the price paid at the IPO. Thereafter,
the initial shares and any future gains (or losses) in price are to the
benet (or cost) of the shareholders only, unless the company issues
and sells additional shares to raise more capital.
● A company is held to a high degree of accountability. The
owners and the company are separate entities, so from time to time the
company must provide information to the shareholders so that they can
understand the condition of their investment, and so that the company
and its management are seen as being held accountable. Information on
a company is generally provided by:
■ published, audited annual company reports (and in some countries,
unaudited quarterly reports)
■ an annual general meeting (AGM) open to all shareholders
■ an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) if called by the
shareholders.
● Compared to other forms of business organizations, companies
have greater stability and a higher chance of continuity. When a
shareholder dies or sells shares, the company continues to operate. The
death of a shareholder or the sale of shares has no direct impact on the
company. All that happens is that one partial owner of the business is
replaced by another partial owner. A company can theoretically last for
ever because it is independent of the shareholders.
The oldest company in the world is a Japanese construction company,
Kongo Gumi, which was founded in 578 CE and began operations
by building a Buddhist temple. In 2006, the Takamatsu Construction
Group acquired the shares of Kongo Gumi, which nonetheless
continues to operate.
Advantages of companies
Advantages of operating a business as a company include the following:
● Finance is more readily available than for sole traders and
partnerships. Companies are perceived as having greater stability
and lower risk than sole traders and partnerships. Individuals
and institutions are more likely to invest, and banks and nancial
institutions are more likely to make loans to companies.
● The investor has limited liability. Investors can lose only the value
of the shares and nothing else. By owning small numbers of shares
in many different companies, investors can build up relatively safe
investment portfolios. Each individual investment is limited, and thus
their risks are spread out among many companies.
The companies also benet from this. Many companies have a huge
number of “small” investors (individuals or institutions that own a very
small number of shares). However, the sum of the investment of all
those small investors can add up to a large amount of nance.
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● There is continuity. The business will not necessarily end if a
shareholder dies or sells their shares, or if any of the directors leave.
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Companies can go bankrupt and be liquidated (with all the assets sold
off to pay off the liabilities), thus terminating their operations. However,
companies have a greater chance of continuity than a sole trader
orpartnership.
● There are possibilities for expansion. Companies have more
opportunity to expand because generally they last longer and have
more access to nance. For a business to grow, it often needs to invest
money in equipment, marketing efforts, or new activities. With fewer
opportunities for nance, many small businesses, including sole traders
and partnerships, cannot take advantage of business opportunities to
expand. Often companies can.
● An established organizational structure exists. Managers and
workers do not have to change every time a shareholder sells shares.
This stability can help the business develop long-term relationships
with customers and suppliers alike. It can also allow the business to hire
individuals with expertise for individual positions who will enhance the
performance of the business.
Disadvantages of companies
Disadvantages of operating as a company include the following:
● Setting up a company can take time and cost a great deal of
money to full the necessary legal requirements. Whether
reorganizing into a company or starting a business as a company, the
owners must retain lawyers, have legally required paperwork lled out,
and le papers with the appropriate government agencies.
● Selling shares, especially if the company “goes public”, does
not guarantee that the desired or intended amount of nance
will be raised. Sometimes IPOs are unsuccessful, and a business has
sold itself for relatively little cash. Thus, reorganizing a business as a
company or starting up a company involves risk.
● Owners risk partial or entire loss of control of the business. If
a business decides to become a company, especially for a publicly held
company, the owners must give up some control of their business. Even
if, during incorporation, former owners still retain 51% of the shares,
they must still answer to the new owners (other shareholders). In the
case of public companies, loss of control can be signicant. Original
owners can have a very small percentage of the shares after the rm
has gone public.
● There is a loss of privacy. A publicly held company is required to
full a number of legal obligations, including publishing its accounts
publicly. Many business people unaccustomed to sharing information
with others dislike publishing their accounts. Further, if the company’s
performance has been weak – sales are down or prots are negative –
the future performance can be further jeopardized. Some customers

A publicly held company’s
may not want to purchase from or do business with a weak company,

accounts can be scrutinised by
a situation that can be particularly damaging to those businesses that

those outside the business
offer product warranties or after-sales service on products.
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● A company has no control over the stock market. Share prices

may fall, which can damage the image of the company. Such a loss of
C oncep t
tnemeganam
share value can sometimes occur not because the business has done
anything wrong, but simply because of an external factor: an election,
CHANGE
negative news about another business in the same industry, a downturn
in the economy, or a natural disaster.

Business entities sometimes
change the legal status of their

● A company has limited control over who buys its shares. For
business. The common examples
example, a competitor may want to take over the business. If the
are a sole trader who decides
shareholders are willing to sell their shares, the company cannot
to register as a privately held
prevent a takeover. Companies are especially vulnerable to being taken
company, or a privately held
over if their share price falls, which, as noted above, sometimes occurs
company that “goes public”
through no fault of the business itself.

(becomes a publicly held company
and sells its shares in a public

In general, privately held companies are smaller than publicly held
place, like a stock exchange).

companies. However, many small public companies exist, and some
Do some research to nd privately held companies are huge. Mars, Incorporated – which
examples of such changes of legal

manufactures many different types of sweets, food and petcare – is a
status – in the case of sole traders

privately held company with annual revenues in the billions of dollars.
and privately held companies, it

Mars is a multinational enterprise and one of the larger companies
may be businesses around you.
headquartered in the United States.

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Tsuen Tea
Tsuen Tea in Kyoto, Japan, is the thirteenth oldest company in Japan.
Founded in 1160 CE, Tsuen Tea is over 800 years old. Though the
building it operates in is not the original, the location is, just east of the
Uji Bridge. Currently, Yusuke Tsuen manages the business. He is the
twenty-fourth generation of the Tsuen family to run the shop and tea
house. The business is organized as a private company, one feature of
which is legal continuity.
For-prot social enterprises
The term “social enterprise” has a slightly different meaning or legal
standing in different countries. Scholars and business people have not
settled on a universally agreed denition. In general, the term “social
enterprise” refers to a form of business that has a social purpose. “Social
purpose” generally means that the organization aims to improve human,
social, or environmental well-being.
Although social enterprises should and typically do operate to a
professional standard (regarding legal existence, proper accounts,
management structure, reporting procedures, etc), the social aim
nevertheless takes priority over any other aim – such as growth,
maximizing sales, or making prots, which are typical objectives of
for-prot organizations.
For-prot social enterprises aim to make a prot. However, they do not
want to maximize prots if doing so compromises their social purpose.
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Private sector companies
Key terms
Social enterprises vary in their legal organization. Some take the form
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Social enterprise
of one of the three models examined above (sole trader, partnership, or
company). Some for-prot social enterprises operate in the private sector.

a business that advances a
social purpose in a nancially

One example of a for-prot social enterprise organized as a company and
sustainable way. While aiming

operating in the private sector is TOMs. For every pair of shoes that TOMs
to do social good, social

sells, the company donates one pair of shoes to underprivileged children in
enterprises rely on business

developing countries and emerging markets.
models, have sales revenue,
Public sector companies and reinvest what prots they
make in the business. Social
Some social enterprises, typically organized as companies, operate in the
enterprises generally do not
public sector. Examples are for-prot companies that make meals and
depend on philanthropy.
deliver them to older people who for nancial or physical reasons are
unable to prepare their own meals. Such for-prot social enterprises bid for
For-prot social enterprise
contracts with local or regional governments.
an organization with many
Another common area where for-prot social enterprises operate in the

similarities to a normal social
public sector is services related to recycling.

enterprise, except that it
often earns a prot, some of
Cooperatives
which might be distributed to
Some social enterprises are organized as cooperatives. A cooperative is owners. The primary aim of a
a form of partnership where the business is owned and run by all the for-prot social enterprise is to
“members”. Unlike partnerships, which in most countries have limits on provide a social service.
the number of partners, cooperatives typically have many members. Each
Cooperative
member participates actively in the running of the business.
business organization owned
Cooperatives can take many forms:
and operated by its members,
● A nancial cooperative is a nancial institution with ethical and

who share any prots.
social aims that take precedence over prots. Sometimes, for example in
Cooperatives exist in many
the case of credit unions, the social aims might mean lending money at
industries but are common in
lower rates of interest or providing non-lending services at a lower cost

agriculture.
than banks or other nancial institutions. Or a nancial cooperative
may provide nance (loans) to its members who otherwise might not
be able to borrow money.
● A housing cooperative is run to provide housing for its members (as
opposed to providing rent for private landlords). A common activity of
a housing cooperative is owning an apartment building in which each
“member” is entitled to one housing unit in the building. The members,
through the cooperative, own the building, and surpluses are reinvested
in the building and its operation, so costs to individual members
arelower.
In addition, housing cooperatives typically have control over who can
become a member, thereby ensuring that all members agree to rules
and conditions and thus increase the likelihood of social harmony in
the building.
● A workers’ cooperative is a business that is owned and operated
by the workers themselves, and the wages of the managers and the
workers are similar. Providing employment to workers is a priority.
Often, a workers’ cooperative emerges when a business is about to fail.
Workers, fearful of losing their jobs, take over the business, sack the
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4/3/22, 3:28 AM
managers (or drastically reduce their pay), and reinvest all of the prots
in the business (rather than paying them out as dividends).

tnemeganam
● A producer cooperative is where groups of producers collaborate
in certain stages of production. Producer cooperatives are particularly
common in agriculture, such as grape farmers having a cooperative
wine-production facility, or olive producers having a cooperatively
owned press to produce oil.
With producer cooperatives, often the aim is to maximize the utilization
of an expensive piece of equipment that individual members by
themselves could not afford. At other times, cost efciencies can only
be achieved when a stage of the production process is carried out on
a large scale. Thus, many producers pool their resources to obtain the
costefciencies.
● A consumer cooperative provides a service to its consumers who are
also part owners of the business. In Europe and the United States, a
common type of consumer cooperative involves certain grocery stores.
Grape farmers and wine producers Individual consumers become “members”, which entitles them to
can form a producer cooperative purchase groceries at the cooperative, often at lower prices than
together for-prot grocery stores.
In many cases, the cooperative’s priority is not to make prot. Rather, the
cooperative sells or offers its products or services typically at as close to cost
price as possible, thereby lowering the costs to members. However, if its
prices are too low, the cooperative runs the risk of failure by not reinvesting
in the business (and thus not updating its products or services), or not
having a signicant nancial cushion to weather a difcult period or an
unexpected expense. Thus, cooperatives generally aim to make some prot,
but maximizing prot is not their main aim.
The main common features of for-prot social enterprises include
the following:
● Prot is important but not the priority – social aims take
precedence. These aims may vary, and for-prot social enterprises
need to generate prots to ensure the survival and growth of the
business. The aim, however, is not to maximize prots but to earn
prots sufcient to sustain the business.
● A high degree of collaboration between the business and
the local community exists. For-prot social enterprises usually
signify a desire for cooperation between the business community and
government because both recognize a need being met by ordinary
business activity or by government.
● Cooperatives are more democratic than other typical for-prot
companies or organizations. In for-prot social enterprises, decision-
making tends to be more consultative and transparent. This style of
governance reects the spirit of social enterprises, which is typically to
do good and not devise aggressive business strategies (such as to take
market share from competitors or to maximize prots).
This style of governance also stems from the nature of social enterprises,
which often rely on support or aid from others (such as workers willing
to work for lower wages, or landlords willing to lease properties at
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discounted rates). Consultation and transparency convey the social
spirit and generate greater willingness on the part of stakeholders to
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be supportive.
● The business operates the same functions as any other business.
For-prot social enterprises are businesses, and must attend to
production, marketing, HR, and nance decisions, just as in any other
business. In some respects, areas of the business have to be run with
more care than other businesses, which often have greater prots
andprotability.
Advantages of for-prot social enterprises
Advantages of for-prot social enterprises compared to traditional sole
traders, partnerships, and companies include the following:
● A favourable legal status is achieved. Anyone can engage in
activities that are good for humans, society, or the environment. The
legal structure of a for-prot social enterprise allows individuals to
engage in those activities without being personally liable or accountable
to shareholders with traditional business interests (maximizing prots).
● A strong communal identity exists. For-prot social enterprises
often have highly motivated employees and other stakeholders working
together with a common sense of purpose. Employees often report a
high degree of satisfaction, knowing that they are doing something
positive for society.
● The stakeholder community benets. For-prot social enterprises
help many stakeholders, including the direct beneciaries of their
products and services. They may help the government more,
because for-prot social enterprises typically tackle human, social, or
environmental problems that a government is not addressing, and so
help reduce problems in the community.
Disadvantages of for-prot social enterprises
Disadvantages of for-prot social enterprises compared to traditional sole
traders, partnerships, and companies include these:
● Decision-making is complex and time-consuming. In being
consultative and transparent, for-prot social enterprises often take
a long time to make decisions. If many parties are involved with the
decision, which is often the case, this extended decision-making time
can limit the effectiveness of the business.
● Capital may be insufcient for growth. The business model for a
for-prot social enterprise may not be sufcient in the long term. Most
businesses rely on healthy prot margins and prots, much of which
are retained, for investment in property, plant, and equipment, and
to provide working capital as working capital requirements increase
with the size of the business. Without large prots, for-prot social
enterprises may struggle to survive and expand.
● Capital may be insufcient for nancial strength. For-prot
social enterprises tend to have lower prot margins and prots than
traditional for-prot businesses because they often try to make their
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The good dame was Norman French, a Rouennaise by birth, and a
big, broad-shouldered woman with a keen, brown eye and a
pleasant, broad face, her black hair brushed smoothly back under
her wide-winged white cap; and her dress was that of a well-to-do
tradesman’s wife, and withal scrupulously neat. But there was no
beauty about her, while about the child there were both beauty and
grace of movement. Even in his plain clothes his little figure was
striking, and he had a fine, fully developed head for his years. His
reserve, his quaint air of dignity, were unlike the manners of the
children at play in the streets. Indeed, he had a fixity of purpose
which was to prove troublesome to Madame Michel. He accepted
her blandishments—but he remembered the attic.
One fair day his opportunity came, as all things come to him who
waits. Jacques des Horloges was busy in the shop, the apprentices
were deeply engaged on a large clock for M. de Rambuteau, and the
cat, M. de Turenne, ran away from Péron and hid. The child hunted
for his playmate with the zeal born of idleness, and finding the rooms
below empty, he clambered up the stairs to the upper floor. When he
came to Madame Michel’s room he stood transfixed at the open
door. The ladder was at the trap, and he heard madame’s voice in
the court, engaged in shrill altercation with a peddler. The child could
scarcely believe his eyes. M. de Turenne was forgotten; here was
something of far greater interest. He advanced cautiously, not
because he felt himself a transgressor, but because he was awed at
the possible revelation which lay before him. His heart beat as he set
his small foot on the first rung of the ladder, and then he drew back.
The stories of the hobgoblins beset him with strange misgivings; he
fancied that he heard a soft sound overhead; he hesitated, and a
little tremor of excitement ran over him. What would he see up
there? Ah, that was the question! He reflected, however, that he
would like to see a hobgoblin, and he did not believe that they ate
little boys. He was screwing up his courage, admitting to himself that
the possibilities were ugly. But curiosity is a strong motive power,
and the child was no coward, if over-imaginative, as children so
brought up are likely to be. He wavered only a moment or two;
decisive action was necessary before Madame Michel returned. He
took his life in his hand and climbed the ladder like a young hero; he
did not pause again until he reached the floor of the attic, for fear his
courage might fail. At the top he drew his breath and stood still; it
took a few minutes for his eyes to become accustomed to the gloom,
for there was only one window in the roof, and that a small one.
Then he looked about him with a sharp sense of disappointment, for
he saw nothing,—that is, nothing of interest to a child. It was a very
small room indeed, with the naked rafters above, and, strange to
say, in spite of madame’s neatness, a cobweb or two festooned the
corners. The window in the roof revealed the rough boards of the
floor and nothing more except three large plain chests of solid wood
standing in a row on one side. A barren spot to have excited so
much curiosity, and certainly not a promising home for hobgoblins.
Péron’s first impulse was to go down the ladder again, but he
thought better of it and began to move about the attic, examining it
until he assured himself that there was nothing to be seen except the
chests. Having arrived at this conclusion, he betook himself to these;
he tried the lid of the one nearest the trap-door, but it defied even the
industrious efforts of little fingers, and he turned away, disappointed
and piqued. The next was equally unaccommodating, although he
devoted more time to it; he found the lock and applied his eye to it, in
a fruitless effort to see inside. Curiosity now was whetted by defeat
and he approached the third, his little face more rosy than usual and
his lips pinched tightly together. He was destined to succeed at last;
the first touch assured him that the lid was unlocked, and he put out
all his child’s strength to lift it and peep in. Again a disappointment;
he saw only some neatly folded clothing; but something in the color
and appearance attracted him and he pursued his investigations.
With infinite care and labor he lifted the lid upright and turned it back
on its hinges, then stood gazing with pleased eyes at the objects
revealed. Nothing very unusual, only the small clothing of a child of
two or three years old, but of a quality and color so delicate that little
Péron examined them in wonder. They were as beautiful as the
gowns of the belles of the Marais. The chest was closely packed, but
the boy got no deeper than the upper layer. Here was a little coat of
the palest blue, and Péron knew that it was of velvet and satin, and
the lace on it seemed to him like the frost-work that he had
sometimes seen on the windows at Christmas. He fingered it gently,
for he was a careful child, and the tiny roses in the pattern delighted
him. It was while he was examining them that he felt something cold
touch his exploring fingers, and a tiny chain of gold slipped out from
the folds with a locket on the end of it. His attention was at once
absorbed by this new object of interest; it was small and round, and
Péron thought it was the brightest piece of red glass that he had ever
seen. On it was engraved a very curious picture,—curious to him, at
least,—a little lion rampant, a wreath or a scroll, and some figures
which he could not decipher. He did not know what it was, but he
took it nearer the window, when he discovered that the light made it
sparkle. The chain did not interest him, and he gently worked at the
links until he accidentally detached it, and then he dropped the chain
back into the chest and stood shifting the stone in his fingers to catch
the changes of light. He remembered seeing one such stone before,
—he thought it was on the neck of the Duchess of Rohan,—and he
was delighted with his discovery. It was still in the little nervous
fingers when Madame Michel came suddenly up the ladder, having
approached unheard while he was fascinated with his bit of red
glass. At first the good dame did not see the invader of her sanctum,
and when she did, she discovered the open chest at the same
instant and came forward with an outcry that frightened the child so
much that he drew back, clasping his treasure tightly to his breast,
and gazing at her angry face in mute, wide-eyed alarm.
“Mère de Dieu!” she cried, running to the open box, and looking in
with feverish anxiety, “what have you done, you little rogue?”
She examined the clothes with fierce scrutiny, but she could detect
no disturbance of their neat folds, for Péron had handled them so
delicately that no harm was done. She slammed down the lid, and,
locking it, thrust the key in her bosom before she turned to the child.
Her anger was slightly mollified, but there was still some agitation in
her face and manner, and she gazed searchingly at the offender.
“How long have you been here?” she demanded sharply.
The boy was still alarmed by her unusual conduct, and he kept the
bit of red glass tight in his little fist.
“I do not know,” he said, shaking his head; “I was looking for M. de
Turenne, I—”
“Mon Dieu!” cried madame, looking about behind the boxes, “is that
beast here? If he had got into the chest, he would have torn up
everything.”
“He is not here,” replied Péron soberly. “I could not find him, and I
came up the ladder.”
“What did you want to come up here for?” asked the woman
suspiciously, having satisfied herself that M. de Turenne was not in
hiding.
“I wanted to see the hobgoblins,” rejoined the child calmly, his
agitation departing as her anger subsided.
Madame looked at him in amazement, her eyes very round.
“Ciel! the boy is mad,” she said to herself softly, and then aloud, “You
are dreaming, mon enfant, what do you mean? There are no
hobgoblins in this house.”
“Mais oui, madame!” exclaimed the child wisely, “there are, here
under the roof; they said so;” and he pointed downward.
“They?” repeated the good woman, bewildered; “who are ‘they’?”
“Jehan and Pierre, the apprentices, and Manchette, too,” he replied;
“it must be true!”
“Ah!” ejaculated madame sharply; “so they gossip about this place,
do they?”
Gossip was a long word for little Péron; he wrinkled his brows.
“They told me of the hobgoblins,” he repeated stoutly.
Madame Michel’s face cleared a little.
“Ah, only nonsense to frighten the child!” she exclaimed, with a sigh
of relief. “Sainte Geneviève! I thought—” But she did not finish the
sentence; she laid a heavy hand on Péron’s shoulder.
“Listen to me,” she said, in a sharp, clear tone. “I have never
whipped you, mon enfant, but if you say one word of this attic to
Jehan, Pierre, Manchette, or any one else, I will surely whip you,
Péron, and you shall have no dinner; neither shall you go to the Rue
des Petits Champs;—do you understand me, eh?”
Péron looked up at her red face and his childish courage quaked; but
he was a proud child, and he inwardly resolved that he would never
bear a blow—he would run away first.
“Why do you not speak?” she cried angrily; “you hear me, enfant!”
“I will not tell, madame,” the boy answered gravely, “but you will not
whip me!”
She let go of him, amazed at the look on his face, an expression of
almost shame coming over hers. She knelt down on the garret floor
and kissed the child’s hand, the picture of humility.
“I beg your pardon, monsieur,” she said, tears in her voice; “you are
right, I will not whip you.”
There were tears in her eyes also. A moment later she rose, and
brushed the moisture from her eyelashes with the back of her broad,
strong hand.
“I am an old fool!” she said, giving the boy a push toward the ladder;
“go away, mon enfant, there is nothing here but some old chests, old
clothes, and old hopes!”
At this moment her eyes fell on the form of M. de Turenne, who was
sitting placidly at the top of the ladder, licking his gray fur, the end of
his tail moving in a charmed circle.
“Scat!” she cried, stamping her feet, “between the cat and the child I
shall go mad,” and she drove them both down the ladder and
slammed down the door after them.
All the while the piece of red glass had remained tightly clasped in
Péron’s hand. In his agitation he had held it unconsciously, and now
he was afraid to tell Madame Michel, dreading a repetition of the
scene. He crept away with it to his own little room and examined it
with a tremor of excitement. It was so pretty, and it had so nearly
precipitated a terrible calamity; for he felt that had madame struck
him, he should have died of shame. He was afraid to return the
stone and afraid to play with it, and it became a fresh cause for
embarrassment. However, he finally solved the problem by
determining to hide it away. In a little cupboard in the corner of his
room there was one shelf devoted to his treasures,—wax and paper
models of jacquemarts, broken watch-springs, some fancifully
shaped pebbles, a number of marvellously useless valuables, and
here Madame Michel never meddled. Therefore he loved it with the
pride of sole proprietorship, and here in a dark corner he stowed
away the bit of red glass wrapped in a soiled sheet of paper. For a
few days he took it out surreptitiously and played with it, and then he
forgot it and it lay there unheeded and unsought; for as yet Madame
Michel had not discovered her loss.
CHAPTER III
PÈRE ANTOINE
AFTER Péron had gratified his curiosity in regard to the garret and
found it such a bare and unprofitable spot, he speedily forgot it, and
only once again during his childhood was he to startle Madame
Michel with the mention of it. This was on the occasion of a
conversation which took place some months later in the shop. The
house at the sign of Ste. Geneviève was too small to harbor any of
the apprentices at night, so after work hours they took their
departure, leaving the members of the little family to themselves. As
none of his patrons ever visited him in the evening, Jacques des
Horloges was then at liberty to entertain his personal friends. The
clockmaker was a quiet man, not much addicted to conviviality, and
he had few visitors at such times, occupying himself frequently with
studies connected with his work or in straightening his accounts. It
was the family custom in the evening to gather around the table in
the living-room, which was cheerfully lighted with tapers. Madame
Michel was always knitting, her needles flying with marvellous
celerity, while her eyes were equally alert in observing Péron and M.
de Turenne. Jacques des Horloges was a broad-shouldered,
stalwart-looking man, a native of Picardy, his rugged face and
honest, kindly eye commending him to the observer. He had a
powerful build for one of his profession, and looked better suited to
bear the sword than to wind the machinery of delicate watches. His
dress was suited to his station in life and showed no signs of the
fortune which, it was whispered, he had accumulated. His only
ornament was a chain of gold around his neck which supported a
tiny, cruciform watch, so ingeniously manufactured that it not only
struck the hours but showed also the day of the month.[1]
It was on one of these evenings, when Jacques and his wife and
little Péron sat around the table, that a knock at the shop door
disturbed the quiet scene. Madame Michel rose and went to answer
it, still knitting, even when she walked across the dimly lighted shop,
not even dropping a stitch as she made her way between the tiers of
clocks. When she opened the door she curtsied low and greeted the
visitor with reverence as well as affection. A moment later she
returned to the living-room conducting a tall, thin man wearing the
plain black habit of a priest,—a man of middle age, stooping slightly
in his bearing and with a face of unusual sweetness and refinement
of expression. Michel greeted the new-comer with as much cordiality
as his wife had shown; and even little Péron ran to draw forward a
chair for him, while the cat rubbed himself against his cassock with
evident affection. There are some persons to whom all animals turn
with instinctive trust and affection, and there is no better sign, as
there is no worse than the aversion shown to others. The instinct of
an animal is more unerring than human perception: it recognizes
both brutes and traitors.
The priest smiled an equal welcome upon all, but there was
perplexity in his blue eyes. He sat down and laid his broad-brimmed
hat on the table and clasped his hands on his knee; and he had
handsome hands, slender and nervous, with delicate finger-tips. His
face was pale, with lines about the thin lips and under the large eyes,
showing care, anxiety, midnight vigils; he had the face of a student,
and the hair, already gray at the back of his head, was white on the
temples. His gaze rested now on the child, who, having seated the
visitor, had resumed his own place on the floor, where he was cutting
out a paper clock. The priest watched him attentively, while Jacques
des Horloges and his wife waited in respectful silence for him to
open the conversation. Something about little Péron interested Père
Antoine so much that it was some moments before he looked up,
and when he did, it was with a grave face.
“I have strange tidings,” he said softly, glancing from Jacques to his
wife. “M. de Bruneau has been arrested and will be condemned to
death.”
Michel stared at him in blank amazement, and madame uttered a cry
and dropped her knitting-needles. The priest made a sign with his
hand toward the child on the floor, and it had its effect at once; both
his auditors restrained their agitation.
“I cannot understand,” Jacques des Horloges said. “What was his
offence? Not a plot against the king, surely?”
“Ay,” Père Antoine replied soberly, “something of that sort, although a
much exaggerated charge, manufactured, I fear, by his enemies. He
was taken on the Rue St. Denis, on information furnished by one
high in the favor of Albert de Luynes.”
“Who is he?” asked Michel eagerly.
The priest glanced again at the child.
“It is M. de Nançay,” he said, in a low voice; “one of the witnesses
against the accused is his cousin, Lemoigne de Marsou.”
“Ah!” ejaculated Jacques des Horloges, nodding his head slowly.
“A trap, of course, mon père,” Madame Michel exclaimed, leaning
forward in her interest, her knitting forgotten.
“It would seem so,” Père Antoine replied thoughtfully. “M. de
Bruneau was led into making some admission. There has been too
much sharp practice in tracing plotters. I truly believe that de
Bruneau may be innocent of all treason, but it cannot be proved.
Since his majesty reached his majority, madame his mother has
been discontented with her position. She cannot accept any place
but the first. She has ruled so long during the king’s childhood that
she is not willing to give up. It is said publicly by her partisans that
she has been admitted to the council merely for the sake of
appearances and has no voice in anything, though her name is
used, and the people hold her responsible for affairs in which she
has no part. The young men of her party are therefore constantly
plotting to reinstate her in authority, and her jealousy of her son
fosters these intrigues both here and in her court at Blois. It is some
affair of this kind in which de Bruneau is implicated, but I think that
M. de Nançay is far more likely to have burned his fingers than this
young man.”
“It is strange,” remarked Jacques des Horloges; “M. de Bruneau is
the last man of whom I should expect such disloyalty; he could not
have been in his senses.”
“He says that he had been drinking when the confession was forced
from him,” Père Antoine rejoined; “it was at Archambault’s pastry
shop.”
“You have seen him, then?” asked Madame Michel eagerly.
“I went immediately to the Châtelet,” the priest replied; “I found him
much as I expected. He has not the fortitude to meet such a
calamity.”
“He has powerful patrons, mon père,” the goodwife said; “is there no
hope of intercession?”
The priest shook his head.
“None,” he answered; “there have been too many plots, too many
intrigues; they will make an example of him. The whole weight of the
Marquis de Nançay’s influence, never greater than now, will be
thrown into the scale against the prisoner.”
“Ay,” remarked Michel sternly, “’tis his opportunity to be rid of a
troublesome rival, and marvellously well planned too, if I mistake
not.”
“I fear so,” said Père Antoine thoughtfully; “it has worked out
strangely, at least. Certainly, M. de Bruneau’s death is in his favor.”
“I am sorry for the accused,” said the clockmaker; “I remember him
from a lad of twelve. ’Tis a sad end for a young man and a soldier.
Did you tell him aught of that matter whereof we spoke before?” he
added, glancing anxiously at the priest.
Père Antoine shook his head. “Nay,” he answered. “How would it
profit us? He is as good as a dead man, so could not aid us if he
would, and I have never been sure that he would. He is a feather-
brain, and we cannot put so weighty a matter into idle or desperate
hands. He cannot aid us, but he might work us some mischief with
his careless tongue even now. I deemed it best that he should die in
ignorance of that which would not serve him, and might harm
others.”
“I have felt much as you do, father,” Michel rejoined, after a
moment’s silence; “once or twice he came here to the shop, talking
with me freely, yet I did not wholly trust him. He seemed to me a
harebrained, ambitious young man, desiring nothing so much as his
own aggrandizement and not likely to welcome the thought that one
stood ahead of him upon the road to name and fortune.”
The priest did not immediately reply; he was leaning forward and
fingering out a silent piece of music on the table with his slender
fingers.
“There might have been some question as to his claim,” he said
thoughtfully; “in a case like this, where there is confiscation, he might
have had a better chance than the true heir.”
Madame Michel drew her breath deeply, clasping her hands to her
bosom.
“The finger of God is in it!” she exclaimed devoutly.
“His hand directs all things,” Père Antoine returned quietly; “it is our
blindness which does not recognize it.”
There was another pause, and in it Madame Michel surreptitiously
wiped a tear from her eyes. The regular throbbing tick of the clocks
sounded distinctly from the shop, and little Péron began to doze, with
his head on the low stool in the corner; it was past his bedtime, but
he was forgotten.
“When will M. de Bruneau be tried?” asked Jacques des Horloges, at
last.
“Immediately,” Père Antoine replied; “’tis a well established case;
there are several witnesses, all relatives of M. le Marquis.”
“Sent purposely, no doubt,” exclaimed madame indignantly. “The old
rogue!”
“I am sorry for the poor gentleman,” Michel said once more; “he is
like to have a short shrift. Will you see him again, mon père?”
“I have a permit from the king,” the priest replied, “and I shall stay
with the unhappy prisoner to the end. There is absolutely no earthly
hope, and I fear M. de Bruneau has never set great store by the
heavenly.”
As he spoke, he rose from his seat to leave them, and the movement
startled Péron, who opened his sleepy eyes just as the priest
glanced in his direction.
“The child has been asleep,” Père Antoine remarked, smiling. “How
great a blessing is the unconscious freedom from care! I had well
nigh forgotten your present, Péron,” he added, thrusting his hand
into his wallet and drawing out a pale blue silk handkerchief; “I
brought this for you, little one, because you begged for a silk
handkerchief the other day.”
The child was wide-awake now and came running to the priest, all
eagerness for the small bit of silk in Père Antoine’s outstretched
hand.
“Oh, madame, it is just like the beautiful silk in the chest in the
garret!” Péron cried, delighted; “the same pale blue—but it is not so
thick and glossy!” he added, on examination.
At the child’s words both men glanced quickly at Madame Michel,
whose face flushed scarlet.
“Hush, Péron!” she exclaimed angrily, “you do not know what you
say.”
“How is this, mother?” asked Jacques des Horloges gravely.
She laughed a little, her agitation giving way to a milder feeling.
“I left the ladder down and the little rogue is as active as a cat and
more curious,” she said, apologetically.
Père Antoine smiled, laying his hand softly on the child’s curls.
“The likeness to his father grows daily,” he remarked to Jacques; “do
you not see it?”
“I try to think it is in my eyes,” rejoined the clockmaker bluntly; “it is
like to do him more mischief than good.”
“He is in higher hands than ours,” replied the priest sadly, making a
sign as though he blessed the child, before he bade them good-night
and went on his solemn errand to the Châtelet.
CHAPTER IV
THE PASTRY SHOP ON THE RUE DES PETITS
CHAMPS
IT was one of Péron’s few privileges to pay an occasional visit to the

pastry shop of his friend Archambault. A privilege which he prized
most highly when he could go without Madame Michel, because he
was then certain to be the recipient of various little gifts of
sweetmeats, of which he did not receive so large a share in her
presence. But the permission to go alone was so rare that it was
scarcely obtained in a twelvemonth, and then only when the
goodwife was so occupied that she could not spare the time either to
make or to fetch some dainty for the dinner of Jacques des
Horloges. But it was only a few weeks after Père Antoine’s evening
visit that one of these rare opportunities presented itself, and little
Péron trotted off as fast as his sturdy legs could carry him to the Rue
des Petits Champs. He was clad in his every-day clothes, and his
taffety jacket was beginning to show threadbare spots at the elbows;
but his apparel did not disguise the child’s native grace, and his dark
eyes shone with happiness. He walked swiftly, not stopping to speak
to any one, ignoring the children at play, according to his
instructions, and clasping a livre tightly in his rosy fist; for madame
had bidden him be careful of it and bring her the change, and he
knew well that she made much ado over the careless spending of a
denier or a sou. It was a great thing for him to be trusted with so
stupendous a sum as a whole silver livre, and he felt the
responsibility, resisting the temptation to disobey orders and stop to
watch the youngsters at play in the Rue de l’Arbre Sec, which was
right in his way. With a strong appreciation of his own virtues, he
kept straight upon his course, and arrived at the pastry shop, above
the door of which swung the sign of Les Trois Champignons. In this
establishment there were two rooms,—the outer one, which Péron
entered, furnished with a long counter in front of the kitchen door,
and full of small tables for the accommodation of a motley crowd of
visitors; and the inner apartment, on the opposite side from the
kitchen, which was for the entertainment of persons of consequence.
No one was more quick to recognize the most ethereal differences in
rank or social degree than Archambault, the cook, and like all vulgar
people he was noisy in his eagerness to serve the rich and the great;
yet—with all the faults natural to his class—the honest fellow had a
good heart, and fed the poor at his back door as liberally as he fed
the rich at his front. For which he was not to blame, as it is a
common fault of human nature to prefer to receive the poor at the
back door. St. Teresa and her two sous had the help of God, but
doubtless she would have had a low seat at the pastry cook’s.
When little Péron entered the shop, the outer room was well filled
with guests, scattered in groups at the various tables. The greater
number of them were soldiers, and there was a good deal of noisy
talk and laughter. The attendants were moving about at a rapid pace,
endeavoring to fulfil the demands made on them from every quarter,
and there was no one behind the counter when the boy reached it. A
little embarrassed by the crowd and the noise, the child stood waiting
for some one to attend to his wants, watching meanwhile the groups
nearest at hand. At a table close by sat three young soldiers wearing
the dress of musketeers. They had reached a course of sweetmeats
and pastry, which they were washing down with a liberal supply of
good red wine. A soldier is always interesting to a boy, and little
Péron gazed at these men with eager curiosity; their rich uniforms,
their fiercely curled moustaches, their polished accoutrements, all
pleased his eye. After awhile, a few words of their conversation
attracted his attention, and he listened trying to understand, for the
name of M. de Bruneau was one that he remembered hearing from
Père Antoine. The men were discussing in low tones the trial of the
latest political offender; they were talking also of M. de Luynes and
of the king, and it seemed as if the fate of de Bruneau, for some
reason, excited unusual interest. It was evident that no one quite
believed in his guilt, although no one could prove his innocence.
“M. de Bruneau died like a gentleman at noon to-day,” remarked one
of the musketeers, eating a citron with a certain placid enjoyment of
the sweetmeat and his gruesome subject.
“I heard that his knees shook and he was sadly frightened at the
sight of the block,” said another, shrugging his shoulders.
“Parbleu! I do not blame him,” cried the third; “’tis one thing to die in
a fight, or even to fall by a sword-thrust on the Place Royale, quite
another to walk up to the block to be bled like an ox. No one seems
to know what was the full charge against him either, except the
accuser.”
“Who is a cousin of M. de Nançay, whereby hangs a tale as long as
a sermon,” said the first speaker.
“And Bruneau was the cousin of the dead marquis, was he not?”
asked the second soldier.
“Ay,” responded the other, “which is the handle of the tale.”
“And M. de Bruneau’s property is confiscated?” continued the
inquiring soldier.
“Certainly, and that is the gist of the tale!” retorted his companions,
laughing.
“His accomplices both escaped,” said the first speaker,—“one to
England, the other, M. Benoit, to Flanders.”
“M. de Bruneau stopped,” began one of the others, “to—”
“To bid his sweetheart adieu!” interjected the gayest member of the
party, laughing.
“And was taken on the Rue St. Denis by the provost-marshal and”—
the speaker held his hand over his mouth and pointed at the inner
room,—“and M. de Nançay.”
“Ventrebleu!” exclaimed the other, “what a pleasant rencounter.”
At this they all laughed loudly, and little Péron, who was still watching
and listening, wondered what could be so amusing in a subject
which seemed to be the same of which Père Antoine had spoken so
gravely. The child’s wondering gaze attracted the attention of the
youngest musketeer, and he mistook the boy’s eager attention for a
longing after the sweets on the table, seeing that he was neglected
and wore a rather shabby coat. The soldier had eaten well and was
in the humor to be not only kind but mischievous. He leaned back in
his chair and held out a rissole to Péron.
“Here, Master Bluecoat,” he said gayly, “have a tidbit. I have eaten
and you are not yet served.”
Péron shook his head, drawing back indignantly, but the musketeer
did not recognize the meaning of his repugnance.
“Come, come,” he said, “no need of shyness; I do not want it, my
boy, I have had one bite—and one of my bites is equal to three of
yours.”
He pressed it upon the child, who retreated still more toward the
counter, his little face flushing scarlet. The other two soldiers had
now become interested and each held out a sweetmeat laughing,
much diverted at the boy’s discomfiture.
“Here is a citron,” said one.
“And here a tart,” cried another, while the first offender still flourished
his rissole.
“I do not want them!” exclaimed Péron, now backed against the
counter, and looking at them in angry bewilderment.
But they were not to be put off so easily.
“You will miss it, Master Bluecoat,” said the soldier with the rissole;
“’tis an opportunity not often found at Archambault’s, sweetmeats
free of charge! Try my cake, monsieur.”
“I do not want what you have tasted!” cried Péron, with disgust.
This sally was greeted with laughter as the astonished guardsman
looked blankly at the child. He recovered, however, in an instant, and
made the boy a mocking bow.
“I beg your pardon, M. le Marquis!” he said. “Can I not order for your
excellency? Archambault does not know who is without.”
The jest caught the fancy of his idle companions.
“Give place here at the table,” they cried, clearing a space in the
dishes; “let the marquis sit!”
Before the child realized their intention, the gay musketeer had
picked him up in his arms and set him down in the center of the
table.
“Place for the pièce de résistance!” he cried, laughing; “room for M.
le Marquis de Rissole!”
Amazed, angry, half frightened, little Péron sat amid the dishes
gazing defiantly at his tormentors, too proud to cry, too surprised to
attempt an escape, remembering only to hold tightly to Madame
Michel’s precious livre. Around him the three musketeers gathered,
jesting, laughing, making him fanciful obeisances as they offered
every dish in turn, as if serving a prince. Their boisterous merriment
drew a group of idle spectators, and the child was soon the center of
a noisy circle, which constantly widened.
“M. le Marquis, permit me,” said his first tormentor, “here are some
bouchées à la reine—or here are tartelettes aux confitures.”
“And here, your excellency,” cried another, “are macarons aux
amandes!”
“Coquilles de volaille,” said a third, “œufs farcis!”
“Croquettes de ris de veau,” said one of the new-comers, “and a
roast of hobgoblins, with a sauce aux champignons!”
Amidst this hubbub the child remained silent, his courage was
wavering a little, and his small mouth closed tighter as did his
clenched fists, but he kept his dark eyes fastened defiantly on the
ring of laughing faces. The jest was no jest to him, and it required all
his force of will to bear it; but he was too proud to waver, too shy to
understand or retort to their rough pleasantry. The table on which he
sat was being crowded at the edge with dishes, and the light fell full
on his golden brown head and shabby, blue taffety jacket. The color
which had come to his face with his first anger had faded with his
increasing alarm, and his eyes looked unnaturally large and bright.
The jesters had just begun a fresh assault with cakes and pies, when
the door of the inner room opened and a tall man came slowly out,
pausing at the sound of the merriment at the table by the counter,
and glancing in that direction with an air of displeasure. He was
evidently a person of consequence, as his bearing and the richness
of his dress indicated. His face was handsome and severe, and his
brow was concealed by a great plumed hat; he wore a collar of rich
lace over his velvet coat, and ruffles of lace, two fingers deep,
finished his satin breeches at the knee and fell over the wide tops of
his boots. He stared haughtily at the laughing circle about the boy,
and then his glance alighted on Péron and seemed for the moment
arrested by the child’s face and figure, and he looked long and
attentively at him. There were still many persons at the other tables
in the room, and presently the tall stranger began to attract nearly as
much notice, though of a respectful kind, as did Péron. But the new-
comer heeded no one save the child, and it was evident that the
scene did not meet with his approval. At last he moved forward to the
edge of the circle of jesters, and as one of the servants approached
he spoke to him with an imperative tone and gesture.
“Who is the child?” he demanded sharply.
At the sound of his voice the musketeers and their friends looked
about, and seeing him fell back discomfited; only the little boy
remained motionless in his seat on the table, not knowing how to
escape.
“Who is that child?” exclaimed the great man again, impatiently.
Some one had warned the chief pastry cook, and Archambault came
hurrying from the kitchens. A glance told him the story, and with a
swift movement he swept the little fellow from the table into the
background and stood bowing obsequiously to his tall guest.
“Are you all deaf?” exclaimed that personage tartly; “I have asked
three times about that boy. Who is he?”
“Only little Péron, M. le Marquis,” replied Archambault blandly; “the
son of a poor tradesman.”
“An ill-mannered cub to make such a scene,” remarked the great
man haughtily. “I did not know you kept a playhouse, Archambault.”
The pastry cook was profuse in his apologies. He was a little round
man with a bald spot the size of a poached egg on the back of his
round head, he had little round eyes that glistened not unkindly, and
even his fingers were as round and plump as croquettes. He made a
thousand excuses and waited on M. le Marquis to the door, looking
out at the liveried lackeys awaiting his irritable guest. When he was
safely out of hearing, however, Archambault was no longer amiable.
He hurried back, and as he passed through the group of musketeers
he flourished his hands in frantic gesticulations.
“Morbleu!” he cried, “you will ruin me, you coxcombs! That was M. de
Nançay, and he is more ticklish for the proprieties than M. de
Luynes! Between your appetites and your manners I shall be a
ruined man! If you do not mend your ways, you dogs,” he added,
shaking his fat fist at them, “I will run you all out with a spit. Mordieu!
I shall be outlawed!”
With these words he disappeared into the kitchen, pushing Péron
before him, and closing the door sharply behind him.
In spite of Péron’s recent alarm and anger, he became at once so
interested in the busy scene which opened before his eyes that he
almost forgot his troubles; but not so did Archambault. The pastry
cook seemed absorbed in thought and took no notice of the cooks
and scullions hurrying to and fro with smoking pots and gaudily
dressed dishes. He even forgot the child’s errand and hurried him
through the kitchens, across the court, and into a room which
opened at the back of the house on the Rue de Beaujolais. So rapid
had been their movements that the bewildered boy did not recollect
Madame Michel’s orders until he suddenly bethought himself of the
livre still in his hand.
“I have not the tarts,” he said, drawing back as Archambault began to
unfasten the outer door. The pastry cook stopped and rubbed his
head.

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To answer the question below effectively, see Unit 6 pages 398–402.

3.9 Budgets (HL only)

EEB is a small, well-known, reputable and nancially stable online hotel

customer service. Due to an increase in global demand, greater competition

and changes in technology, the nance director, Maia, has decided to

a quantitative nancial plan

that estimates the revenue

Maia has two options: Construct and comment on a budget

specied future time period

Option B: purchase new computers, with installed software called “Global

a person involved in the

Reach”, from a manufacturer abroad.

formulation and achievement

for individuals, for governments, or for any type of organization.

Technical suppor t 24 hours onsite at EEB 24 hours online

where costs are incurred and

the specied time period.

employees to be made redundant,

identied and recorded

Cost and prot centres (HL only)

To be able to account for the revenues generated and costs incurred,

Maia is considering carrying out an investment appraisal on each option.

EEB employees favour Option A, even though some of their competitors

Year 2 12,000 16,800

Year 3 17,000 23,800

a) Dene the term investment appraisal . [ 2 marks

Year 4 20,000 28,000

b) Calculate the payback period for Option A (show all

and human resources, where each department is a specic cost centre.

your working). [ 2 marks

By product – a business producing several products could ensure that

c) Calculate the average rate of return (ARR) for Option B

each product is a cost centre. For example, Samsung produces mobile

(show all your working). [ 2 marks

phones, televisions, computers, and many more products. Each of

KFC has outlets all round the world

(NPV) using a discount rate of 4% (show all your working). [ 4 marks

(these two are in the Netherlands

e) Explain one advantage and one disadvantage for EEB of using

the NPV method of investment appraisal. [ 4 marks

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