" Every year, some advertising tricks and trends come into play and seem to be at the forefront of all big company marketing campaigns. Others stand the test of time and appear over and over because they work. As we move into 2020, there are a few trends you can count on and should learn well so you can apply them to your business."
Don’t Fall for These Common 9 Money Myths — They May Actually Be Preventing You from Getting Rich, According to Barbara Corcoran and other Moguls
There's so much money advice out there that it can be difficult to differentiate the good ones from the bad ones.
To save you some trouble, we asked nine financially savvy business owners and advisors in The Oracles to share the biggest money myths that can stunt your financial success:
18 Major U.S. Cities Where Rent and Taxes Eat up All of a Worker’s Paycheck
"A new study shows just how hard it is for many Americans to get ahead. The average American spends roughly $1,272 per paycheck on living expenses — with the majority of expenses coming from housing and utility bills — according to a recent Clever Real Estate report using Bureau of Economic Analysis spending and income data and IRS state tax data.
"Clever Real Estate compiled a ranking of the best and worst metro areas to live in based on how much money residents have leftover from a typical biweekly paycheck. After subtracting expenses and income taxes from biweekly pretax income, the average amount of money leftover among all Americans was $136.39."
A Personal Message from Court Bovee and John Thill
As educators, we pride ourselves on preparing students for the opportunities they will encounter in their careers. This has never been an easy goal with the introduction to business course, given the wide range of topics it needs to address, and the challenge gets more daunting every year as the business world continues to evolve and grow more complex.
How do you stay on top of all the changes taking place—particularly if you have limited prep time?
Helping you meet this challenge has always been the driving force behind Business in Action. To prepare the Ninth Edition, we studied every aspect of business, from retailing to finance, to identify the forces and trends that are reshaping the way business works. Here’s a quick look at some of the biggest changes we’re seeing. For some of these, Business in Action is the only text you’ll find that covers them in a meaningful way.
The digital transformation is reshaping every functional area in business, and more than three-quarters of executives say that digital technology will have a “major” or “transformative” impact on their industries. Alert companies are scrambling to reinvent themselves by implementing new business models or optimizing existing approaches. Business in Action is the only leading textbook in this market that helps students appreciate the full scope of this transformation. In fact, our theme for the Ninth Edition is “Thriving in the Digital Enterprise,” and this concept informs the entire text.
Financial services are a great example of how digital technologies are disrupting one sector after another. Did you know that more than 10,000 companies are now active in the fintech arena? We introduce students to five major benefits that fintech is starting to produce, from making financial services more inclusive to enhancing financial decision-making with robo advisors and other artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
The field of marketing has changed so much in recent years that is scarcely recognizable from the old days of the “Four Ps.” The innovations we cover in Business in Action include involving the customer in the marketing process with efforts such as voice of the customer programs, making data-driven marketing decisions (including the all-important challenge of attribution in ad spending), marketing with greater concern for ethics and etiquette, and creating satisfying customer experiences (including creating customer experience touchpoints and the growing practice of social customer care).
Perhaps no aspect of marketing is undergoing as much disruption as the retailing sector. We introduce students to the challenging economics of retailing; discuss how innovations such as mobile commerce, social commerce, and subscription shopping are changing consumer behavior; and take a clear look at the facts and myths of the “retail apocalypse.”
Even as all these changes are happening in the external business environment, many companies are taking a fresh look at what kinds of organizations they want to be and even what it means to be a company. Business in Action explores such topical issues as workplace negativity, safe workspaces, inclusive workplaces and opportunities, the evolving role of HR, the gig economy, and unstructured organizations that rely on social networks and virtual communities.
Sadly, not all recent developments in the business world are positive, of course. The last few years have witnessed stunning ethical meltdowns by some of the biggest companies in the world. The Ninth Edition takes an unflinching look at these lapses and identifies three primary causes of unethical behavior that students need to be aware of: management pressure and corporate culture, a willful blindness to harm, and a sense of ethical and even legal impunity bred in part by the Silicon Valley mentality of “move fast and break things.”
To those of you who already rely on Business in Action to provide your students with the latest coverage of the dynamic field of business, we extend our sincere thanks and continued wishes for success. If you haven’t explored this text yet, we invite you to take a look at its pedagogical features, the range of up-to-date topics it covers, and the value it offers your students. Here’s a video preview and in-depth information about Ninth Edition. We invite you to order a complimentary examination copy today.
Respectfully,
Court Bovee
John Thill
P.S. You might enjoy some of the posts on our Teaching Introduction to Business Blog, too.
How to Eliminate Small Business Debt in 7 Simple Steps
"You can’t run from your business debt or do nothing and hope it goes away on its own, but you can take steps to get it under control or otherwise find business debt relief. If you struggle with small business debt, we’re going to take you step-by-step through what you need to do to eliminate what you owe and get your business back in good financial standing."
25 Entrepreneurs Share the Worst Advice They Ever Received
"If you decide to make the leap and launch a business, the people in your life — from family and friends to investors — will all have opinions that they will gladly share with you, sometimes whether you ask them to or not.
"The fact of the matter is, you can take in all the advice in the world from the most respected sources, but if it doesn’t feel right to you, you have to trust vision and conviction enough to go your own way."
Which Company Is the Biggest in Almost Every U.S. State?
"Giant public corporations are major players in the American economy, and their headquarters are scattered across the states.
"Every year, Fortune publishes a list of the 1,000 largest publicly-traded US corporations by revenue. The most recent list is based on revenues from the 2018 fiscal year.
"The above map shows the top company from the list that has its headquarters in each state. Seven states — Alaska, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming — had no Fortune 1,000 headquarters."
The 25 Major U.S. Companies with the Happiest Employees
"While you can find ways to be happy in your job even at terrible companies, some places are just better to work for.
"Job-listing site Comparably just released its annual ranking of the 25 large companies with the happiest employees. Comparably analyzed anonymous employee feedback on their website to measure fair pay, perks, benefits, and work environment."
7 Examples of the Worst Financial Advice We’ve Heard
"Between television, radio, the internet and well-meaning but presumptuous friends and family, we’re inundated with unsolicited advice on a daily basis. And when it comes to money, there’s a ton of terrible advice out there. Even so-called experts can lead us astray sometimes.
"Have you been duped? Here are a few examples of the worst money advice advisers, bloggers and other personal finance pros have heard."
15 Cities Where Earning $100,000 a Year Isn’t Nearly Enough to Live Well
"In most of America, earning $100,000 a year could be considered a sign of success. But in many cities, someone making $100,000 a year will just be scraping by.
"New data from GOBankingRates looks at what a family needs to make in America's most expensive cites in order to live comfortably there. And, in these 15 cities, a household making $100,000 per year will be just barely scraping by."