Business Essentials (4th Edition) [Paperback]

Ronald J. Ebert (Author), Ricky W. Griffin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 013067544X | ISBN-13: 978-0130675446 | Publication Date: February 19, 2002 | Edition: 4

This best-selling book presents a brief “no-nonsense” approach to the fundamentals of business which spans the range of all functional areas—management, marketing, operations, accounting, information systems, finance, and legal studies. A six-part organization introduces readers to the basics of the business system in the U.S.; addresses the management side of business; looks at human resources, marketing, and the way business manage information for both internal users and for reporting to external constituents; and finally, presents the financial elements of business. For anyone preparing for a business career in the third millennium.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This best-selling book presents a brief “no-nonsense” approach to the fundamentals of business which spans the range of all functional areas—management, marketing, operations, accounting, information systems, finance, and legal studies. A six-part organization introduces readers to the basics of the business system in the U.S.; addresses the management side of business; looks at human resources, marketing, and the way business manage information for both internal users and for reporting to external constituents; and finally, presents the financial elements of business. For anyone preparing for a business career in the third millennium.

About the Author

Ronald J. Ebert is Emeritus Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia where he teaches in the Management Department and serves as advisor to students and student organizations. Dr. Ebert draws upon more than 30 years of teaching experience at such schools as Sinclair College, University of Washington, University of Missouri, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (Romania), and Consortium International University (Italy). His consulting alliances include such firms as Mobay Corporation, Kraft Foods, Oscar Mayer, Atlas Powder, and John Deere. He has designed and conducted management development programs for such diverse clients as the American Public Power Association, the United States Savings and Loan League, and the Central Missouri Manufacturing Training Consortium.

His experience as a practitioner has fostered an advocacy for integrating concepts with best business practices in business education. The five business books he has written include translations in Spanish, Chinese, and Romanian languages. Dr. Ebert has served as the Editor of the Journal of Operations Management. He is a Past-President and Fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute. He currently serves as Consultant and External Evaluator for Quantitative Reasoning for Business Studies an introduction-to-business project sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Ricky W. Griffin is Professor of Management and holds the Blocker Chair in Business Administration in the Mays College & Graduate School of Business at Texas A&M University. He also currently serves as Executive Associate Dean. He previously served as Head of the Department of Management and as Director of the Center for Human Resource Management at Texas A&M. His research interests include workplace aggression and violence, executive skills and decision making, and workplace culture. Dr. Griffin's research has been published in such journals as Academy of Management Review, Academy o f Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Journal of Management. He has also served as Editor of Journal of Management. Dr. Griffin has consulted with such organizations as Texas Instruments, Tenneco, Amoco, Compaq Computer, and Continental Airlines.

Dr. Griffin has served the Academy of Management as Chair of the Organizational Behavior Division. He has also served as President of the Southwest Division of the Academy of Management and on the Board of Directors of the Southern Management Association. He is a Fellow of both the Academy of Management and the Southern Management Association. He is also the author of several successful textbooks, each of which is a market leader. In addition, they are widely used in dozens of countries and have been translated into numerous foreign languages, including Spanish, Polish, and Russian.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 4 edition (February 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 013067544X
• ISBN-13: 978-0130675446
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,867,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An O-K text, with a few gems., December 15, 2004

By 

Jessica Leung (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Business Essentials (5th Edition) (Paperback)

For your basic introductory business class, this book is good. It offers a lot of vocabulary, and I can see why a lot of people would say the book has no depth since most of the information can be drawn from simply living the real world. (Unless of course you live in a refrigerator.) So why bother grabbing the text if I can get the same exact knowledge from life?

Well, in the beginning, end and throughout each chapter, tons of real life examples are woven in to illustrate each of the "business essentials." On top of that, real quotes from millionares, successful CEOs and entrepreneurs, and trusted business executives allows the average student a valuable glance into what makes up a smart business mindset.

What's my point? To study business, you need to study the principles that real professionals swear by. Texts written by "just" business professors who don't actually participate in the business world really just don't cut the chase. They're probably broke anyway. Now textbooks with information from successful people, that's what's going to make a student of business really churn out a beautiful future.

So while the material is very, very basic. The real life examples are awesome. However, these lessons can be taught by even better books by great people like Stephen R. Covey and Dale Carnegie. But if you do need a book chock full o' business vocabulary and basics, this isn't a terrible pick. And it certainly does spell everything out.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chances are, your boss should probably read this book, March 10, 2009

By 

Dairenn Lombard (Los Angeles, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Business Essentials (5th Edition) (Paperback)

There is cutting-edge information in this book about how to start, run, maintain and protect a business, whether it is a small partnership or a bustling enterprise of many employees. Ebert and Griffin do thorough job of presenting new concepts in an easily understood format that allows anyone with a high school diploma grasp the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Of particular importance is stressing the ideas of assessing one's own strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats in the marketplace. It talks about the critical nature of human resource management, how to retain productive employees and keep them motivated. You learn the all-important concept of strategic tactics for developing your short, intermediate and long-term goals, mission statement, a written code of ethics and corporate culture as well as understanding the crucial significance of your Organizational Stakeholders. Even if you don't plan on starting or buying your own business or franchise, even shift supervisors will greatly benefit from understanding how to improve their effectiveness on their team if they even read Half of this book. Sometimes the stories that come at the beginning of each chapter can be distracting, but this is a minor issue with the presentation. This is a must-read for anyone looking for their careers escalate in the business world.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Textbook, February 4, 2009

By 

S. Adams - See all my reviews

This review is from: Business Essentials, 6th Edition (Paperback)

I fell in love with my Intro to Business course, and the book had a lot to do with it. "Business Essentials" is extremely simple to follow and has wonderful content.