Poland Liceum ogólnokształcące, klasa I Business and Management
Chapters: 6
1. The entrepreneurial person in today’s world
Entrepreneurial competences · Communication and teamwork · Creativity and innovation
- Entrepreneurial Traits: What Makes an Entrepreneur – An entrepreneur is a person who spots a problem or need, turns it into an opportunity, and organises money, people and materials to meet it, taking a risk for a possible reward. Key traits are: spotting opportunities, creativity and innovation, taking calculated risks, resilience, leadership and teamwork, and planning with good money sense. These traits can be learned and grown through practice. Entrepreneurs create jobs, new products, competition and tax income, and an enterprising attitude also helps employees and citizens.
- Business Communication – A business talks with many groups called stakeholders: employees inside, and customers, investors, banks, suppliers, the community and the state outside. Each group needs a different message through a different channel. A communication strategy decides the target, the message, the channel, the timing and how to measure results. Channels can be verbal, non-verbal, written or digital. Investors and banks get financial communication and a business plan. Inside the firm, good communication supports decisions, time management and teamwork, and uses honest influence instead of manipulation.
- From Ideas to Startups: Entrepreneurship – An entrepreneur turns an idea into a business by bringing together land, labour and capital and taking the risk. New ideas replace old ways, which economists call creative destruction. Startups grow with help from investors, banks, incubators, government schemes such as Startup India and Make in India, and small firms called MSMEs. A business plan maps the idea, costs and customers. The profit and loss statement shows Sales − Costs, and the balance sheet shows Assets = Liabilities + Capital.
- Entrepreneurship Development – Entrepreneurship is starting a new business by spotting a need, putting resources together and taking the risk. India needs entrepreneurs for jobs, new ideas and balanced growth. The process runs from knowing yourself to launching and growing. Start-up India (2016) supports new firms, funding comes from savings, angels, venture capital, banks and crowdfunding, and intellectual property rights protect new ideas, brands and creative work.
2. Project management
Running a project
- Project Management – A project is a one-time piece of work with a clear goal, a start and an end. Project management means planning and controlling it so it meets its scope on time and within cost. The life cycle runs initiate, plan, execute, monitor and close. Planners break the work into tasks (WBS), place them on a Gantt chart, find the critical path, manage risks and review lessons learned at the end.
3. Market economy
How markets work · The economy, the state and consumers
- Demand, Supply and Market Equilibrium – The law of demand says buyers want less when the price rises; the law of supply says sellers offer more. The market price settles at equilibrium, where quantity demanded equals quantity supplied, and shifts in demand or supply move it. Some goods break the usual laws (Giffen, Veblen, panic buying). A price ceiling set below equilibrium causes shortages. Markets can also fail, for example with pollution or public goods like street lights, so the government steps in.
4. Personal finance
Money, budget and taxes · Saving, investing and banking · Insurance and financial ethics
- Smart Ways to Manage Your Finances – Inflation makes prices rise, so the same money buys less. Money kept in a bank earns interest: simple interest is paid only on the original amount, while compound interest also earns interest on earlier interest, so it grows faster over time. A budget plans income into needs, wants and savings. Savings are kept safe; investments can grow but carry risk, and higher possible returns mean higher risk. Insurance shares risk among many people. Income tax is paid on income above a limit, at rates that rise with income.
- Investing Basics: Shares, Bonds, Funds and Risk – Saving keeps money safe; investing puts money to work so it can grow faster than prices rise. Shares make you part-owner of a company, bonds are loans that pay fixed interest, and funds are baskets of many shares or bonds. Higher possible return comes with higher risk. Spreading money across many investments (diversification) and staying invested for many years (compounding) are the two safest habits.
- Insurance: Principles and Types – Insurance spreads the loss of a few over many people who each pay a small premium into a common pool. It works on six principles: utmost good faith, insurable interest, indemnity, contribution, subrogation and causa proxima (plus mitigation of loss). The main types are life, health, fire and marine insurance.
5. The entrepreneurial person on the job market
Career planning · Applying and working
- Career Planning: From Knowing Yourself to Your First Job – Career planning has five steps. 1) Know yourself: interests, skills and values. 2) Explore career families and find out the work, study needed, pay and demand. 3) Plan a pathway with SMART goals and a plan B. 4) Search for jobs with a CV, cover letter, digital portfolio and interview practice. 5) Make the move from school to work and keep learning, because careers change over a lifetime.
- Employment Law: The Rules of Working for Someone – Employment law is the set of rules for the relationship between an employer and an employee. An employment contract exists when a person does work, for pay, under the employer's direction (subordination). Contracts may be permanent, fixed-term, temporary through an agency, part-time or telework; a civil-law or freelance contract is not employment. Employees have rights (at least the minimum wage, limited hours, rest and paid leave, a safe workplace, equal treatment, freedom from harassment) and duties (careful work, following lawful instructions, loyalty, safety rules). Employers can organise work and discipline, within the law. Pay is gross before tax and social insurance and net after; the employer's total cost is higher. Trade unions negotiate collective agreements. A contract ends by resignation, dismissal with a valid reason and fair procedure, mutual agreement or the end of a fixed term.
6. The enterprise
Management and a business idea · Environment, finance and ethics
- Nature and Significance of Management – Management means getting work done with and through people so that goals are reached on time (effectiveness) and at low cost (efficiency). It has organisational, social and personal objectives. It is partly a science, fully an art and not yet a full profession. It works at three levels (top, middle, lower) through five functions (planning, organising, staffing, directing, controlling), and coordination joins them all.
- Business Plan: How to Plan a New Business – A business plan is a written document that says what a business will do, who its customers are, how it will reach them, who will run it and how the money will work. Owners use it to think clearly, to spot risks early and to persuade banks or investors to lend or invest. A typical plan has these parts: executive summary, business idea and aims, market research (customers), competitors, marketing (the 4 Ps), operations and team, and a finance section. The finance section uses a few simple sums. Fixed costs stay the same whatever you sell (rent). Variable costs rise with each unit (ingredients). Total cost = fixed + variable. Revenue = price × units sold. Profit = revenue − total cost (a negative answer is a loss). The break-even point is the number of units where revenue equals total cost: fixed costs ÷ (price − variable cost per unit). A plan is a guess about the future, so it should be checked and updated often.