The following departments are expected to register BUS205, the course varies as a compulsory course or elective depending on the department.

Departments like;

Business Administration 200 Level First Semester,

Public Administration 200 Level First Semester,

Accounting 200 Level First Semester,

Economics 200 Level First Semester,

Business Education 200 Level First Semester.

Some basic concepts were introduced as the class commences, basic concepts in the business.

 

Speaking of which we talked about what Needs and Wants are, how to make choices and what a business does, business objectives, and characteristics.

The class then continued; do you want to know what Wants means then stick along.

 

What is the meaning of Wants in a layman’s language

Wants are things you wish you could have, things you imagine you could get let’s take for instance, you wish to have a wristwatch, you wish to have a job in oil and gas, you wish to become the governor of your state, or become the president of your country that ended the discussion about Wants.

The discussion continues with the meaning of Needs.

 

What is the meaning of Needs in a layman’s language

Needs as explained in the class, are needs the requirement for basic living. Needs are necessities required by humans to survive, needs could be referred to as the important things or necessities of life things you cannot do without, let’s take for example things, food, shelter, and clothing.

You therefore need to understand that needs translate to demand which in turn translates to goods and services.

Given this, we discussed what goods are.

What are goods

Goods are what we can refer to as consumables items, substances, or consumables, they can be physically measured lets take for example toiletries, stationeries, etc

 

We talked about what services are also;

 

What are services

A service or service are task performed either by people or machines to respond to demands or solve a problem.

We also discussed what resources are;

What are resources

Resources could be referred to as anything we can use to value or team what is required or needed let’s take for example salary wages or influence, we also took the bows what opportunity cost is.

We also discussed opportunity cost;

 

What are opportunities?

opportunity cost is said to be what you have to give up or let go to acquire something else, it could be in terms of money time, or anything substantial that you have to let go to acquire an item.

 

let’s take for example you have #200 and you want to buy either a recharge card or visit a friend, if you decide to visit a friend then you have to go buy a recharge card, which is the opportunity cost.

On this note, the class concluded. Then volume two began with what business is.

 

What does business mean

We can refer to business as all effort, involvement, or activities of an individual or group of individuals geared towards pulling efforts together to create or produce not just that but to distribute the produced good or service to the required consumers.

 

With this definition, business therefore has 3 recipes which are:

1.      Human efforts, involvement, or activities

2.      Creation or Production of Goods and Services

3.      Distribution, getting the goods and services to the people who need them.

It is proper to say, that business goes beyond just creating or producing the goods and services, without distributing what has been produced to the required consumers.

Business responds to the demands of society by supplying society with the demanded goods and services.

We can also view business as a system or a responsive strategy to know your needs and respond rapidly by selling goods or services to meet your specifications or requirements.

Given this, we may conclude that business involves the following activities

1.      Producing goods and services, and this requires that businesses must provide goods and services to offer to consumers good could be and said close computer gadgets radios, and so forth.

2.      Service like educating doctors and attending to patients traveling by air traveling by train or using the gym.

What is the type of activities the business engages in?

Business engages in activities like;

Organising

Managing

Production

marketing

What Resources Does Business Require

Business requires certain resources to keep functioning, resources as human resources and material resources.

under human resources, we have accountants and managers and so on, and under the material resources we have the likes of raw materials for production a station and storage facility, and a building for official purposes.

We also discuss the

What are the characteristics of business?

 and it was made clear that some of the characteristics of business are;

Exchange

profit-oriented

dealings in goods and services

bearing of risk and uncertainty

continuity.

 

 We also discussed;

What are the objectives of business?

which are to

Survivor

Growth

Market share

 

The expansion was made on market share which means, the essential share of business ownership over a particular market, let compare the market share of Coca-Cola in Nigeria with the market share of Biggi the market share of Toyota to that of Kia, the difference between both is clear.

 

Also, it was indicated that productivity is also one of these objectives of business likewise innovation and employee welfare.

The roles of citizens in business were also discussed;

What are the roles citizens play in business

Citizens’ actions affect business directly or indirectly, let’s for example if a terrible leader is elected to power, such a leader will make decisions that will affect the entire citizens of a country if this decision affects negatively then it will in turn affect the purchasing power of Citizens that will turn affect businesses.

Comparison between administration and management was also discussed.

What are the comparisons between Administration and Management?

The following comparisons were made;

 

Firstly, we need to establish that administration is mainly concerned with the formulation process of broad objectives policies, and directions 

while management on the other hand is particular about how these instructions are broken down into bits, in the form of tasks, responsibilities, or work and how they are being done or attended to using human resources or better still how these are achieved to enhance sets goals and objectives.

Secondly; administration is mainly particular about policies and the decision-making processes 

while management, on the other hand, does best at ensuring that these policies and decisions made by their administration are executed properly.

In conclusion about the comparison between administration and management, it was therefore said that administration can be referred to as the legislative arm of government, whose sole responsibility is to make law 

while management on the other hand can be seen as the executive arm of government charged with the responsibility of executing the formulated principle by the legislative arms.

The type of administrative organization was also discussed;

 

What are the types of administrative organizations

There are three types of administrative organization. The very first type that was discussed was the line organization.

What is the line organization?

 The line organization is seen as an organization that deals in functions on what we may refer to as direct authority over subordinates through what is seen as a chain of command.

What is Line and Staff Organization?

Line and staff at the organization possess two types of authority relationships which are the true authority and advising authority, the two authorities coexist. In this type of organization, most of the managers have line authority to decide to use their discretion.

We also discussed the functional organization;

 

What is a functional organization

A functional organization is an organization in which the line authority, staff authority, and functional authority exist together. It was emphasized that the functional authority is a limited form of authority.

 

The functional authority is the type of authority whereby power is delegated by senior employees and gives responsibilities or tasks to junior or subordinate employees for a particular time and as soon as the task is accomplished the authority is withdrawn.

What is line and functional authority

When we talk of authority in the line organization it flows from the top the apex to the bottom while on the other hand functional organization authority is divided decentralized or separated in the departments.

We also talk about the types and functions of management;

What are the types of management

 Management can be classified according to their level of responsibility and the range of activity they get involved in running the activities of an organization, therefore management or managers can be classified as thus;

 

Junior or first-line management

The Junior or first-line are managers found at the lower level of management and the hand a range of responsibilities.

 

Senior management

Senior management is found at the top level of management, they include executives, chairman, chief executive, and so on. They are in charge of a lot of responsibilities among which are strategizing and formulating policies.  

We also discussed theories of management and references were made to the likes of;

Frederick Taylor and how he rose to management level in a rolling mill at 31.

We also talked about Frank Gilbert and Lillian Gilbert and their popular study on time and motion.

 

We also talked about Henry Taylor from 1841 to 1925 who highlighted five functions of management and expanded these functions further into 14 principles of management.

 

We also talked about the behavioral Theory which is credited to the works of  Hugo Mistberg and Eltin Mayo using lightning to measure the effect of workers’ productivity.

It was also stated that management is best when it comes to planning and controlling.

 

We also discussed the system approach;

What is the system approach

The system approach is a combination consisting of interrelated parts that are dependent on each other to bring up the best and help an organization achieve its purpose in the same environment.

We talked about who a Sole Trader is;

 Who is a Sole Trader

A sole trader is an individual who creates or begins a business working for himself.

A sole trader is an individual who goes into a business all by himself and sees hand all activities involved to ensure the business thrives.

You should understand that as a sole trader, you are alone, in running a business and you can also refer to a sole trader as a sole proprietor. Sole trading is mostly found in what we regard as retailing business and this is the type of business we can be sure to see the oldest type of business you can find in Nigeria.

 

The sole trading business has lived up to the 19th Century and it is mostly found around villages cities and so on.

A sole trader can represent a lot of things among which are;

 A sole trade as a Capitalist

The sole trader is seen as a capitalist, and as a capitalist, means that he is the owner of his business and receives all the profits.

 

A sole trader as a laborer

 A sole trader can also be seen as a laborer because basically, he performs all the tasks, ranging from being the CEO, the accountant, the storekeeper, the manager, etc.

 

A sole trader as an entrepreneur

A sole trader can also be seen as an entrepreneur who takes upon himself the risk attached to the survival of the business and any financial losses the business might suffer.

We also talked about the features of a sole trader

What are the features of a sole trader

 Some of the features of the sole trader are;

Ownership: this implies one thing, which is being in charge. He makes all the decisions.

Liability: His liabilities are unlimited, which means that if anything happens to the business, like if the business suffers a financial setback, he is going to pay for it either by selling his belongings or by any other means.

The source of capital is limited as well as it comes from loans, maybe from banks or friends, personal saving credits, or grants.

Legal entity: he’s not acknowledged or regarded by the law.

Motive: the motive is to make a profit, this is what keeps the sole trader going. This is what is used to measure if the business is thriving.

We talked about the advantages among which are;

small capital

all profits made can be quickly and easily withdrawn.

 

We also discussed some disadvantages which are;

 Financial resources are Limited,

Lack of continuity if the owner dies or is imprisoned.

 

This ends the discussion on BUS205 with Tutor Ayo, for the first week.

 

Stay tuned for more information discussion on BUS205 with Tutor Ayo.