Introduction to Business Management

None

• Contents and tasks of business administration as an applied social science
• The company as the subject of business administration
• Stakeholders, entrepreneurial functional areas, value creation
• Basic characteristics of location, legal form, degree of independence
• Importance of theories and models for the organisation of a company
• Thinking in (social) systems
• System-oriented understanding of organisation
• The St. Galler Management Model (SGMM)
• Basic concepts of business organisation theory
• Importance of an entrepreneurial mindset
• Effectuation principles
• Framing of problems
• Tools for self-reflection and goal setting
• Techniques of creativity
• Entrepreneurship competences

In the context of conducting a business game:

• Basic processes procurement, production, sales
• Mapping in business accounting
• Success analysis
• Evaluation and control of entrepreneurial activities from a business perspective

Students are given an overview of the contents and tasks of business administration. Essential terms are introduced and explained. The students get an orientation about the subject and learn about important business management targets. The students are enabled to describe and classify companies according to their value creation and to understand the most important real and financial elements of the nature of companies to such an extent that they can analyse real existing companies accordingly.

The students learn the importance of models as well as basic concepts of thinking in (social) systems and the St. Gallen Management Model. In addition, essential technical terms and coordination mechanisms of organisational theory are explained from a business perspective and their meaning is illustrated.

By applying what has been learned in a business game, the processes in production companies are simulated. The students manage a company in a team and take on the roles and tasks in the operational functional areas. They experience the basic decisions for planning, procurement, production and sales associated with the value-added process. In doing so, they learn how to depict the performance process in the balance sheet, P&L, cash flow statement and the importance of the operational planning processes with the connections between sales, production and financial planning.

In addition, students acquire basic knowledge for entrepreneurial thinking and action. They know the basic considerations of the entrepreneurial method "Effectuation" and can describe how entrepreneurs proceed when implementing their business ideas. Students understand how important the mindset of founders is in the early stages of business creation and can describe a founder's mindset. Students can identify problems as the basis for business ideas. Students can reflect for themselves which business ideas are particularly relevant and what they would like to achieve with them.

Interactive course with lecture, case studies, exercises in individual and group work, realization of a simulation game

Written exam, written paper, participation in simulation game, individual weighting according to the instructors, announcement at the beginning of the semester

None

International Institute of Business Analysis (2017): BABOK v3. Leitfaden zur Business-Analy-se BABOK Guide 3.0, 3. Aufl., Gießen: Götz Schmidt

Minonne, Clemente (2016): Business-Analyse. Konzepte, Methoden und Instrumente zur Optimierung der Business-Architektur, Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poeschl

Mccallum, Elin; Weicht, Rebecca u.a. (2018): EntreComp into Action - Get inspired, make it happen: A user guide to the European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework, herausgegeben von Bacigalupo, Margherita; O`keeffe, William, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, DOI: 10.2760/574864, JRC109128

Osterwalder, Alexander; Pigneur, Yves (2011): Business Model Generation: Ein Handbuch für Visionäre, Spielveränderer und Herausforderer. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.

Read, Stuart; Sarasvathy, Saras; Dew, Nick; Wiltbank, Robert (2017). Effectual Entrepreneurship. London, New York: Routledge.

Rüegg-Stürm, Johannes; Grand, Simon (2019): Das St. Galler Management-Modell. Management in einer komplexen Welt, Bern: Haupt

Schweitzer, Marcell; Baumeister, Alexander (Hrsg.) (2015), Allgemeine Betriebswirtschaftslehre. Theorie und Politik des Wirtschaftens in Unternehmen. 11. Aufl., Berlin: ESV

Vahs, Dietmar (2019): Organisation, 10. überarb.  Aufl., Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poeschl

Vahs, Dietmar/Schäfer-Kunz, Jan (2015): Einführung in die Betriebswirtschaftslehre. 7. Aufl., Stuttgart: Schäffer-Poeschl

Wedell-Wedellsborg, Thomas (2020). What’s your problem? Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.

Classes with compulsory attendance in individual teaching units (simulation game, seminars)