Unit 1: Businesses, Competition, and New Ideas
The world of business — how businesses are organized, how they compete, how ethics shape decisions, and how external PESTEL factors affect viability. Introduces the entrepreneurial process and the language of business.
Topics in this unit
1.1 What Is a Business?
Define what a business is, distinguish customers from consumers, and differentiate value creation from value capture.
1.2 Markets and Competitive Advantage
How markets set prices, what competitive advantage means, and how businesses pursue it through differentiation, low prices, or barriers to entry.
1.3 PESTEL Factors and the Business Environment
Political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors that shape market viability and individual career opportunities.
1.4 How Do Business Ideas Originate?
Entrepreneurial design thinking: identifying and validating customer problems, developing solutions, and testing minimum viable products.
1.5 Vision
Core values, core competencies, vision and mission statements, and the goals of businesses, social enterprises, and nonprofits.
1.6 Business Ethics
How and why businesses encourage ethical behavior, and how leaders respond to ethical dilemmas using stakeholder analysis.
1.7 Organization, Roles, and Responsibilities
Major types of business organization (sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, corporation), roles within them, and specialized departments in larger firms.
1.8 Supply Chains
Production processes and supply chain plans, and how a business's competitive advantage strategy shapes supply chain decisions.
Free, CED-aligned tools
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