Gruter Institute Project on
Values and Free Enterprise
With support from:
John Templeton Foundation
UCLA – Sloan Research Program
Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation
What is a Business For?*
Charles Handy
Fellow of the London Business School
This chapter is part of a collection posted on the SSRN website in the Economics
Research Network section located at - http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=932676
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=932676
2
What is a Business For?
Charles Handy
Could capitalists bring down capitalism, wondered the New York Times in the wake of the series of corporate scandals in both America and Europe in recent years?
They concluded that a few rotten apples would not contaminate
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Cutting or postponing expenditures that are geared to the future rather than the present will push up the profits immediately even if it imperils the longer term. Buying and selling other businesses is another favoured strategy. It is a far quicker way to boost your balance sheet and your numbers than relying on organic growth, and, for those at the top it can be much more interesting. The fact that most mergers and acquisitions do not, in the end, add value has not discouraged others from trying. One result is an inevitable shortening of horizons. Paul Kennedy is not alone in believing that companies are mortgaging their futures in return for a higher stock price in the present, but he may be optimistic in sensing the coming end of the obsession with shareholder value.
The stock option, that new favourite child of stock market capitalism, must share a large part of the blame. Whereas in 1980 only about 2% of executive pay was tied to share options it is now thought to be over 60% in the US. These executives, not unnaturally, want to realise their options as soon as they can, rather than relying on their successors to deliver. The stock option has also acquired a new popularity in
Europe as more and more companies go public. To many Europeans, however,
hugely
ECON 2301 Principles of Macroeconomics Time: Th 7:05 pm – 9:45 pm Synonym: 40512 Section: 023 Room: NRG2 2120
READ: Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, Charles Wheeland, W.W. Norton, 2003. Completely- cover to cover.
Author Wheelan writes, "Life is about trade-offs, and so is economics." Indeed, so is Naked Economics. This book promises to be a good introduction to economics for the layman. Throughout the book, the author uses easy-to-understand language and vivid examples to illustrate his points in strategic places maintaining a sense of lightness with the readers in reading the material. Here is a summary of each of the 12 Chapters of the book Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan.
Santos C. with Higginson M., Himmelweit S., Howells P., Lowe J., Mackintosh M., Morgan W., Parris S., Simonetti R., Stone H. and Trigg A. (2013) Running the economy
It is important for stockholders to continuously re-evaluate their investments. Although some investors do this more frequently and thoroughly than others, the majority of shareholders do so at least once each year. Therefore, Torres’ desire to update her analysis in order to determine whether Costco was still operating efficiently makes perfect sense. After thorough examination, my analysis proves that Costco remains one of the industry’s leading competitors and there seems to be no reason for Torres to sell her shares as long as she wishes to retain holdings of a retail wholesale club in her portfolio.
The novels of The Road by Cormac McCarthy and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins deal quite deeply with the common theme of Good vs Evil. This is as in both the world that we live in was destroyed by a great tragedy, leaving the characters in a world and state that allows for the more innate forms of humanity to show through much easier- whether they be good or evil. Though that is not for the same reasons in each story as in The Road the characters have no structure of society so the true dark of humanity can still be seen, while a different form of dark can be found in the structure of the government and the Game in The Hunger Games. As it attracts in life so this dichotomy of good and evil and the struggle between them in both the true
Historically, economics has focused on the study of the distribution, production, and allocation of scarce goods, and how firms and individuals make decisions while inevitably facing trade-offs between costs and benefits. Economics has slowly evolved as a discourse community characteristic of quantitative theories that seek to set the stage in which economic and political policies and decisions can be diffused through the nation and the world. The field of economics is a discourse community whose purposes are to quantitatively analyze economic research questions, come up with hypotheses, construct models and equations to test the hypotheses’ validity and argue about its findings. Economic scientists and professionals gather and publish their
I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to formally write an evaluation of Professor McDevitt. As you might be aware, I enrolled into three of professor McDevitt’s classes: Economics 11, Economics 121, and Economics 134M. The reason I decided to enroll in his class a second and third time is because his lectures are highly structured and organized, he has a strong willingness to assist students beyond lecture hours, and because of his fairness in grading.
Contrary to what if often thought, capitalism is not an immoderate and immoral seek for money, but a rational and controlled way of doing business.
Seeing as I have never taken an economics class in my life, nor have I held any particular interest in the subject, I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. However, almost immediately I noticed that Wheelan addresses economics with an interesting perspective. Rather than just droning on tirelessly about topics like government and the economy, he offers a unique sense of humor and relatability that can be observed throughout the book.
This article was published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives and it was written by two Assistant Professors of Economics: Nancy Qian and Nathan Nunn. The former taught at Yale
* In the first paragraph, discuss the relevant economic theory of your topic (your textbook is a good source for this paragraph).
CEOs play a role in dividing the wealthy from everyone else, assisting in widening the income gap in the United States. Harvard Business School conducted a study that found out Americans think CEO’s make around 30 times more than the average worker, this fact is almost true if we talked about the 1950s (Ferdman). In the 1950s, the ratio between a worker and a chief executive was 20 to 1 (Koehn). The truth is CEOs now make more than 350 times than the average worker widening the gap much larger than before. The main reasons for CEO pay growth since the 1990’s include base pay, bonuses, stock-based awards, and non-cash perks.
Despite the fact that the company could grow by doing more and more acquisitions, it was vital for the company to invest in its own organic growth. The company aims to grow organically two to three times higher than the global GDP of 80% (Immelt, 2005).
Capitalism is the concept of which private corporations strive upon and expand their profits. This is the belief, which most Americans live by in the United States of America. The opportunity to make as much money as possible before their time runs out and gain enough pay to meet their goals and carry out their long term dreams. This philosophy is what makes company’s thrive everyday and sell their products and services to consumers in a competitive market. This is why capitalism is often referred