Summary of the lectures

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1 Management of Organizations and Projects A business is any activity that seeks to provide goods or services to other business organizations or consumers, in exchange of monetary (or other forms of) payment from them. A business strives to operate at a profit. An entrepreneur is a person who risks time and resource to start and to manage a new business. An entrepreneur often seeks to satisfy unmet needs in the market. The high risk could be rewarded in future when the start-up turns into a successful business. A nonprofit organization is an entity dedicated to certain social cause, that generates revenue, and uses the surplus of the revenue to further achieve its ultimate objective, rather than making profits for its owners, or shareholders. (The ultimate goal is not to generate the maximum amount of money possible. Revenue in this case can come from souvenirs etc.) What do they have in common? They need to provide certain goods or services, or a combination of them: • Goods: tangible products, such as clothes, cars, food, devices, medicine, and so on. The value of goods is constantly decreasing: the growth of population in western countries is almost null. (The goods need people.) • Services: intangible products, such as education, recreation, consultation, healthcare, and so on. Services are the heart of the company. They're something you pay, but you cannot quite pick up. Example: entertainment (movie theaters), healthcare (knowledge of the doctors) Mostly, it’s a combination of both. Example: smartphones need 1) internet provided from a telecommunication provider 2) operating system + applications → they wouldn’t have much value without the services 3) …. This is what companies need to offer in order to generate revenue. The goods or services provided must be of…