Entrepreneurship and Business Fundamentals: Key Concepts

The Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is a person who takes the initiative and assumes the risk in a company. This individual may be referred to as an autonomous social agent and is a leader in a cooperative or commercial enterprise.

Concept of Business

A business is an economic production unit whose purpose is to create or increase the utility of goods and meet human needs. The end goal of the company is to achieve the objectives it has set, seeking to maximize its benefits.

Company Features

• Common: Accounting, financial, administrative, and HR.
• Specific: Commercial, production, research.
• Other: Technical, security, R&D.

Elements of a Company

• Internal:
  • Materials: Land, buildings and installations, machinery and transport elements, stocks, money, clients, debtors, intangible intellectual property, trade name or signature, signs, and marks.
  • Human Resources: Customer base, human elements.
• External: Technological, social, labor, economic, political, environmental.

Classification of Companies

• Legal Form: Commercial companies, cooperatives, and other legal forms.
• Ownership of Property: Public, private, mixed.
• Activity: Primary, secondary, tertiary.
• Development of Activity: Extractive, industrial, commercial, and services.

Organization

Organization is the coordination of resources to achieve a common goal through a set of principles and operating methods.

Organizational Principles

Unity of command, targeting, simplicity, division of labor, supervision, coordination, hierarchy, function, responsibility, fairness.

• Fayol's Hierarchical Organization: Authority comes from the highest levels and decreases as it descends the hierarchy.
• Taylor's Functional Organization: Specialization of activities within the company.
• Joint Organization: A union of the two.

Flowcharts

Flowcharts are graphic representations of the structural organization of a company, including its departments and areas. The guiding principle for company departmentalization is specialization.

Functions of Departments

• Runtime: Pursued by utility companies.
• Service: Assisting with implementation.
• Advice: Providing advice and information.
• Finalists: Ordering objectives.

Key Departments

• Human Resources (HR): Responsible for personnel matters, including:
  • Selection and training
  • Contracts and payroll
  • Labor relations
• Administrative: Control and execution of:
  • Accounting
  • Correspondence
  • Filing
  • Secretarial services
• Commercial:
  • Purchases
  • Sales
  • Marketing
• Financial:
  • Inflow and outflow of money
  • Budgeting
  • Treasury
  • Investment credits