Business Foundations

NEW

Fall 2013, Winter 2014 and Spring 2014 quarters

Faculty

Allen Jenkins

Fields of Study

business and management and leadership studies

Preparatory for studies or careers in

business, management, marketing, entrepreneurship

Description

The Business Foundations Program provides a functional overview of all phases of business including ownership, marketing, personnel, accounting, finance, managerial controls, leadership, and the relationship of business to the ethical, economic, and social environment in which it operates.  Business Foundations provides students a window on global business: how the global market place operates and how a country’s customs, politics, and ethnicity affects business. 

The Business Foundations Program is for business and non-business degree seeking students, current and future entrepreneurs, or anyone that desires to gain a practical foundation in business.  Business Foundations' essentials are presented over three consecutive quarters:

• 8-credit fall: Management, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship; 
• 8-credit winter: Financial and Managerial Accounting Fundamentals;  
• 12-credit spring: 4-credit Fundamentals of Business Finance, 4-credit Student Selected Study, and 4-credit Business Internship. 

These collectively function as the Business Foundations program.  Each quarter's specific topics are designed as foundations for students with no prior academic business background.

The instructor will strive to teach the program in an engaging manner, using successful managers, a mix of uncluttered reading materials, conversational language, humor, and real-world examples to introduce students to the essentials of business and management without sacrificing rigor or content.  We will use a real-world focus to illustrate fundamental concepts, using case studies of companies whose products and services that are familiar to students.

The intent of the program is to provide a theoretical framework for the realities of starting, managing, and growing a small to medium size business.  Our goal is for students to gain insight into the operational, legal, financial, ethical, and practical challenges associated with running a business.  We will explore how organizations are legally and financially defined, what is unique about them and explore advantages and disadvantages of each type.  The program uses seminar, case studies, simulations, guest speakers, discussions, assignments, self-study, and an internship to integrate classroom knowledge with current best practices, protocols, and cultural aspects of doing business in today's global, albeit diverse, economies.

Advertised Schedule

5:30-9p Wed, 9a-1p Sat

Campus Location

Olympia

Online Learning

Enhanced Online Learning

Books

Greener Store

Internship Required

Spring: Students registered for spring quarter are required to have arranged an internship of 10 hours per week.  Support for developing spring internships will be provided in winter quarter.

Offered During

Evening and Weekend

Program Revisions