Help the environment

Protect sunrise industries

Barriers to trade can be used to protect sunrise industries, also known as infant industries, such as those involving new technologies. This gives new firms the chance to develop, grow, and become globally competitive.

Protection of domestic industries may allow they to develop a comparative advantage.

Protect strategic industries

Barriers may also be erected to protect strategic industries, such as energy, water, steel, armaments, and food. The implicit aim of the EUs Common Agricultural Policy is to create food security for Europe by protecting its agricultural sector.

Deter unfair competition

Barriers may be erected to deter unfair competition, such as dumping by foreign firms at prices below cost.

Save jobs

Protecting an industry may, in the short run, protect jobs, though in the long run it is unlikely that jobs can be protected indefinitely.

Help the environment

Some countries may protect themselves from trade to help limit damage to their environment, such as that arising from CO₂ emissions caused by increased production and transportation.

In addition to the economic arguments for protection, some protection may be for political reasons.

5) Do you think globalization has an impact on international trade? If so,how?

6) What two common types of stock market investors are known?

Active Investors
These investors sometimes refer to fanatics. They read everything on investing, study the stocks, and subscribe to magazines, associations, or newsletters. Their motivation can be to flip stocks and make money fast.

These investors learn how to read financial statements, market predictions, economic analysis reports, and editorials. They learn the names of the world's best economists, and are familiar with the London and New York Times Newspapers.
Passive Investors

These people are often interested in investing their money, but they do not want to spend their weekends studying financial statements, markets, and even weather reports. This type of investor laughs at the good luck mantras and charms used by some investors. They are often happy to put their money in the hands of a broker and walk away.
The passive investor creates a plan, researches stocks, invests, and then patiently waits for a return in the future. A passive investor takes a look at the company's value, assets, debt, and financial health. They consider market and competition when estimating the company's opportunity for success. They are not aggressive, or looking for a quick gain.

7) Why are companies interested in export trade? What are the most important reasons for exporting?

Ownership advantages are the firm's specific assets, international experience, and the ability to develop either low-cost or differentiated products within the contacts of its value chain. The locational advantages of a particular market are a combination of market potential and investment risk. Internationalization advantages are the benefits of retaining a core competence within the company and threading it though the value chain rather than obtain to license, outsource, or sell it. In relation to the Eclectic paradigm, companies that have low levels of ownership advantages either do not enter foreign markets. If the company and its products are equipped with ownership advantage and internalization advantage, they enter through low-risk modes such as exporting. Exporting requires significantly lower level of investment than other modes of international expansion, such as FDI. As you might expect, the lower risk of export typically results in a lower rate of return on sales than possible though other modes of international business. In other words, the usual return on export sales may not be tremendous, but neither is the risk. Exporting allows managers to exercise operation control but does not provide them the option to exercise as much marketing control. An exporter usually resides far from the end consumer and often enlists various intermediaries to manage marketing activities.

Quality
8) How to define quality in business? How important is it?

Quality in business, engineering and manufacturing has a pragmatic interpretation as the non-inferiority or superiority of something; it is also defined as fitness for purpose. Quality is a perceptual, conditional and somewhat subjective attribute and may be understood differently by different people. Consumers may focus on the specification quality of a product/service, or how it compares to competitors in the marketplace. Producers might measure the conformance quality, or degree to which the product/service was produced correctly. Support personnel may measure quality in the degree that a product is reliable, maintainable, or sustainable. Simply put, a quality item (an item that has quality) has the ability to perform satisfactorily in service and is suitable for its intended purpose.

There are five aspects of quality in a business context:

1. Producing - providing something.

2. Checking - confirming that something has been done correctly.

3. Quality Control - controlling a process to ensure that the outcomes are predictable.

4. Quality Management – directing an organisation so that it optimises its performance through analysis and improvement.

5. Quality Assurance – obtaining confidence that a product or service will be satisfactory.

9) What different business philosophies are practised to control quality?

Kanban (literally signboard or billboard) is a scheduling system for lean and just-in-time (JIT) production. Kanban is a system to control the logistical chain from a production point of view, and is not an inventory control system.

Just in time (JIT) is a production strategy that strives to improve a business return on investment by reducing in-process inventory and associated carrying costs.

Business process re-engineering is a business management strategy, originally pioneered in the early 1990s, focusing on the analysis and design of workflows and processes within an organization. BPR aimed to help organizations fundamentally rethink how they do their work in order to dramatically improve customer service, cut operational costs, and become world-class competitors.

10) Does high quality mean high cost? Give your reasons.

It usually does. Quality means high price for the customer and high cost for the project. Unfortunately, quality is the first one to suffer when upper management wants to cut costs on a project.

11) Which features express the idea of quality in the best way? Why?

Reliable, value for money, expensive

Ethics
12) What are the main objectives of any business?

Objectives give the business a clearly defined target. Plans can then be made to achieve these targets. This can motivate the employees. It also enables the business to measure the progress towards to its stated aims.

Survival – a short term objective, probably for small business just starting out, or when a new firm enters the market or at a time of crisis.

Profit maximisation – try to make the most profit possible – most like to be the aim of the owners and shareholders.

Profit satisficing – try to make enough profit to keep the owners comfortable – probably the aim of smaller businesses whose owners do not want to work longer hours.

Sales growth – where the business tries to make as many sales as possible. This may be because the managers believe that the survival of the business depends on being large. Large businesses can also benefit from economies of scale.

But also there are:

Ethical and socially responsible objectives – organisations like the Body Shop have objectives which are based on their beliefs on how one should treat the environment and people who are less fortunate.

Public sector corporations are run to not only generate a profit but provide a service to the public. This service will need to meet the needs of the less well off in society or help improve the ability of the economy to function: e.g. cheap and accessible transport service.

Public sector organisations that monitor or control private sector activities have objectives that are to ensure that the business they are monitoring comply with the laws laid down.

Health care and education establishments – their objectives are to provide a service – most private schools for instance have charitable status. Their aim is the enhancement of their pupils through education.

Charities and voluntary organisations – their aims and objectives are led by the beliefs they stand for.

13) How do companies deal with different ethical issues?

14) Which act of wrongdoing do you think is the most (least) serious?

The most serious is using your influence to get a job for relatives, avoiding paying tax.

The least – using work facilities for private purposes.

15) What practical steps can companies take to prevent their trade secrets from being stolen?

Patent some new technologies, code of ethics, Chinese walls (barriers), motivation of employees.

Leadership
16) What makes a great (bad) leader?

17) In what ways can successful leaders win the respect of subordinates and exercise authority over them?

The leader makes people feel that they are in the heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels he or she makes a difference to the success of the company. When that happens people feel that they are needed and that gives their work meaning.

18) Are there differences between men and women as leaders?

19) What is the difference between a manager and a leader?

20) Should employees be involved in choosing their leaders? If you agree, say what the benefits would be. If you disagree, say why such an idea wouldn’t work.

Employees should be involved in choosing their leaders, because so they will work better, more effectively and productively and motivate, because of employees know that their leader is someone who was chosen by them and they believe him.

Innovation
21) What is the role of innovation in business?

Innovation is what gives life to a business in a market economy. The businesses that never get going or if they do, then fail or fail later under pressure of a changing economy or marketplace have all failed to innovate appropriately.
What is appropriately? Only the fittest survive. Fit means passing the test of a changing marketplace which means learning that what had value yesterday may be, without innovation, un-competitive today. It means learning that the greatest potential value is almost always in something that is presently unknown,
Unfortunately, making money in the short term is always a matter of implementation - design the product/service, make the product, sell the product/service, deliver the product/service. Every step of the way is an opportunity for innovation. But, unlike innovation, implementation can be predictably cost and scheduled and so it is implementation that often receives disproportionate management attention.
A sustainable business needs coexisting implementation and innovation.

22) What is the difference between creativity and innovation?

Creativity is the ability to generate innovative ideas and manifest them from thought into reality. The process involves original thinking and then producing.

Innovation is the development of new customers value through solutions that meet new needs, inarticulate needs, or old customer and market needs in new ways.

The American heritage dictionary -“The act of introducing something new”

23) Do you agree that small business has more advantages over big business in innovative process?

In some ways, because small businesses need spend more power on surviving on the market they should try to decrease their costs and some innovations can help them in the better ways. But, unfortunately, big companies have some comparative advantage – money.

24) What stages does a new product (or service) go through before launching?

Making a discovery or sudden clever idea or brainwave => in R&D department – concept and then build a prototype => in the developing process there are some setbacks => then it can be breakthrough-a solution is found => patent

25) How do you think new technologies will change the way we work in the future?

We will spend less time on some routine works and also there will more freelancers.

Competition
26) What strategies do companies use to gain a competitive advantage?