INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS

by Profs.Raymond E. Glos and Harold A. Baker '23.South-Western Publishing Co., 1947, pp.730, $4-25.

In the words of the authors, "Introductionto Business has been designed to meet the needs of college students who are taking their first course in business." Accordingly, the reader will find simplicity and brevity of treatment predominating throughout the book.

The sections on marketing and finance receive correspondingly more emphasis than the factors of procurement and production, and the elements of industrial relations. The authors have brought together certain mechanisms of management and shown their usefulness in management control. Finally, they have given evidence to the need of understanding the relationships between government and business through their discussion of many different aspects of this problem.

The first five chapters give the setting for the establishment of a business and prepare the way for comprehending the operating problems of a going concern. These cover the procurement and control of materials, different types of production processes, production planning and control, and methods of time and motion study. Other chapters contain practices and methods of personnel procurement and training; theories of wages and methods of payment; and labor-management relationships.

The authors group certain auxiliary functions to suggest that they are pertinent to managing an enterprise and refer to them as managerial controls. They include accounting, statistics and budgets. To these are added business papers. The subject of over-all control is treated in a short chapter entitled "Business Organization and Administration."

In the preface the authors state "Considerable space has been devoted to the relations of government and business because of the current importance of these relationships and the ultimate effects of government regulation and supervision of our economic system."

The first step in acquainting the student with these responsibilities is an explanation of the legal knowledge necessary in business. Then follow references to points of contact with various government agencies. How the Federal Government obtains revenues and governs its expenditures; its attitude toward combinations, interlocking interests and cooperative activities; and the means of enforcing regulation and encouraging competition, are all briefly discussed. In the case of public utilities, their characteristics, measures of regulation, and bases of rate determination are given particular attention. In the final chapter on "Economic Planning," the authors explain the reasons that have given rise to this moot question and give a resumd of the history of such activities to date, together with arguments for and against the proposal.

The book should be of interest, not only to the elementary student in an institution of learning, but to the young man or woman who hopes for advancement and has not had the opportunity to acquaint himself with the problems that face business and some of the principles on which they should be attacked.