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Business

Learn how organizations are managed, financed, started, and organize work to deliver projects.

For: Learners at any starting point, including students, workers, and people exploring a business idea.

After this page you can: Choose a learning path and use basic business concepts to analyze an organization or plan a small project.

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About Business

Business is an organized activity in which an organization provides goods or services desired by customers, often aiming to earn a profit. Studying business means examining how organizations coordinate resources and make decisions. Introductory business study can cover management, leadership, production, marketing, finance, ethics, entrepreneurship, customer satisfaction, global business, and change. This hub focuses on management, finance, entrepreneurship, and project management.

Business can be studied by learning concepts, applying them to examples, and investigating the evidence behind organizational choices. Management study can cover planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. Finance study can examine cash movements and distinguish them from reported profit. Entrepreneurship study can follow identifying a market opportunity, planning, and starting an enterprise. Project management study can focus on scope, deliverables, risks, and communication. Choose a path based on your goal, then use the exercises to apply one idea at a time.

Start here

route

I’m new to business

Start with a broad introduction to business functions and concepts, then choose a subtopic that interests you.

Start with: Introduction to Business 2e

route

I’m returning to business studies

Refresh management fundamentals by reviewing how planning sets goals and how organizations monitor plans.

Start with: Is Planning Important?

route

I want to explore a business idea

Use the SBA’s planning guide to investigate a market, consider competition, and develop a business plan.

Start with: Plan your business

Learn the foundations

1.Management: coordinate people and workManagement can be studied through functions such as planning, organizing, directing, and controlling.

Management can be studied through functions such as planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. Leadership is related but distinct: it concerns influence between people working toward a goal.

Planning

Establishing goals and specifying how to attain them.

Leadership

An interpersonal influence relationship between people who depend on one another to attain a goal.

Try it

A team wants to reduce missed deadlines. Name one management action and one leadership action that could help.

Model answer: Set a shared goal and a schedule for checking progress; invite the team to discuss obstacles and agree on how to address them.

2.Finance: understand cash and performanceFinancial study includes examining how an organization records performance and manages cash.

Financial study includes examining how an organization records performance and manages cash. A cash flow statement summarizes cash sources and uses, and separates operating, investing, and financing activities.

Cash flow

Cash moving into and out of a business during a period.

Profit

The amount left after a company pays its costs from its revenues.

Try it

A business reports a profit but has trouble paying its bills on time. What should a learner examine next?

Model answer: Examine the timing and sources of cash receipts and payments; reported profit and cash available can differ.

3.Entrepreneurship: investigate and shape an ideaEntrepreneurship study can start by investigating customer needs and a market opportunity, then developing a plan.

Entrepreneurship study can start by investigating customer needs and a market opportunity, then developing a plan. Market research can combine consumer behavior and economic trends to confirm or improve a business idea.

  • New Enterprises

    The course covers identifying and quantifying market opportunities, planning a new enterprise, and developing a startup business plan.

Market research

Using consumer behavior and economic trends to confirm and improve a business idea.

Business plan

A roadmap for structuring, running, and growing a business.

Try it

Choose a simple product or service idea. Write one question about customer demand and one way to learn what alternatives customers already use.

Model answer: Ask potential customers whether they need the service; compare the options they currently use and what they value about them.

4.Project management: define work and track deliveryProject management applies knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet requirements.

Project management applies knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet requirements. Studying scope, deliverables, risks, and communication helps learners describe how work is planned and coordinated.

Project scope

The project’s objectives, activities involved in achieving them, and resources consumed.

Project schedule

A display of how project time is allocated.

Try it

Plan a small event page. Name one deliverable and two activities that need to happen before it is published.

Model answer: The deliverable is a published event page; the activities are drafting the page and reviewing it before release.

Explore subtopics

Management

An introductory map of management practices, leadership, decisions, and organizational operations.

1 subtopicsFinance

Learn core ideas in financial statements, cash flows, valuation, business finance, saving, investing and risk.

0 subtopicsEntrepreneurship

Learn how ventures identify opportunities, develop business models, test assumptions and plan for operation.

0 subtopicsProject Management

An introductory map of project purpose, planning, teamwork, scheduling, and risk.

0 subtopics

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Books

Glossary

Every free Business course and book on RedLectern

Free Business online courses

  1. Business Analysis Using Financial StatementsMIT 15.535 · Browse materials
  2. Dynamic Leadership: Using Improvisation in BusinessMIT 15.969 · Browse materials
  3. Economy and Business in Modern China and IndiaMIT 15.225 · Browse materials
  4. Introduction to Operations ManagementMIT 15.761 · Browse materials
  5. IT and Business TransformationMIT 15.598 · Browse materials
  6. S-Lab: Laboratory for Sustainable BusinessMIT 15.992 · Browse materials
  7. Taxes and Business StrategyMIT 15.518 · Browse materials
  8. Technology-based Business TransformationMIT ESD.57 · Browse materials · Video
Show all 16 coursesShow fewer courses
  1. The Business of Politics: A View of Latin AmericaMIT 21A.506 · Browse materials
  2. The Software BusinessMIT 15.358 · Browse materials
  3. Business and Impact Planning for Social Enterprises (0.SolveX)MIT RES.SolveX · Open on OCW
  4. Business Model Innovation: Global Health in Frontier MarketsMIT 15.232 · Open on OCW
  5. Economic Analysis for Business DecisionsMIT 15.010 · Open on OCW
  6. Generating Business Value from Information TechnologyMIT 15.571 · Open on OCW
  7. Optimization Methods in Business AnalyticsMIT 15.053x, 15.053 · Open on OCW · Video
  8. The Science and Business of BiotechnologyMIT 15.480x · Open on OCW
How these courses are chosen

Listed as Business courses:

  • those whose title contains “Business”, or
  • those tagged “Business” as one of at most 2 topic tags, or as the first of 3.

Free Business textbooks and books

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