Introduction to Business Management

My first day of semester two started with an introduction to business module. This being a 9am lecture, I was trying my best to stay alert. I must have had two or three coffees by the time I sat down within the morning chatter of the lecture hall, waiting for the lecturer to arrive.
His name is Cain. He came in the room with a commanding walk. As he sat down the room went quiet and the lecture began. “Entrepreneurship” said Cain. My eyes lit up as I heard this. “I will teach you how to manage, account, and grow a business” Cain exclaimed. As we went through the lecture I got more and more interested in the module. I had wild thoughts rushing through my mind. I could become a business owner. I could grow a company. The new age Steve Jobs. Then, suddenly, I was shot back into the room.
“... you must complete your analysis by the end of the seminar session”. Oh shit. What did he say? Did I daydream through the whole lecture? What analysis?
As I left the lecture hall, dazed, and confused, I wondered about lunch, and my next module, Information Systems and Databases.

Group project time!!! Does anyone actually enjoy group projects? Well, I don’t particularly like the anticipation of wondering who is going to be in your group. Just hoping that you don’t get stuck with someone who can’t carry their weight or leaves it to the last minute. But other than that, I do rather enjoy the process of making a plan and seeing it execute. Fortunately for us, we get to choose who to work with, so I’ve grouped up with two of my friends with whom I did a group project in the first semester. We will be working together to make a PESTEL analysis of Tesco. This is a great choice for me as I have done quite a bit of research about Tesco from my previous studies at college.
Anyway, I am quickly learning that Cain is a bit strict. He was teaching us about how to make a PESTEL analysis and basically took no shit from nobody. If someone was talking, he would shut them down INSTANTLY. That said, I think he’s a nice guy. As long as you are respectful to him. Which is fair enough.

The world is a big place. Think about it. 8 billion people. Some 40,000km circumference. Imagine, having a 5-minute conversation with a friend. Now image consecutive 5-minute conversations for the next 761 years. That’s how long it would take to have a 5-minute conversation with 1% of the population. That’s wild. The idea that some businesses actually do interact with 1% or more of the global population, is an absolutely ridiculous concept. But businesses are this big. That’s why we learn about globalisation in business. It’s an important thing to understand, especially in large corporations. Global business is complex, it involves global politics, cultural differences, international law, local law, protectionism, and many other aspects.

Let’s talk about entrepreneurs. The great pioneers of innovation. One entrepreneur that has the right idea and the willingness to risk it all can change the world. Look at people like Elon Musk, Tomas Edison, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerburg, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos just to name a few. Many of these people started from humble beginning and grew their empires through countless hours of hard work and creative thinking. They have had massive influence over many markets. Some have even created new markets. An important trait they all share is their openness to failure. They understand that failure is part of the journey, but they must always get back up again and learn from their mistakes.

A gloomy night, down on the sand, the waves crashing, gunshots fired and the smoke slowly clearing. The battle was lost. Most were dead. Many were injured. All were scarred. I saw him laying there. I could see his cold breath in the air. Thank God he was breathing.
I started shouting out to him “Cain. Are you okay? Cain don’t close your eyes. Stay awake. Don’t leave me. Please don’t close your eyes on me.” As Cain slowly drew a breath in, he made the sound of a thousand tiny bats in a deep chasm. And then he exclaimed, “My friend, please tell people my story. Don’t let them forget me. Keep my memory alive.”. I could feel a cold tear running down my face. “I promise I will my brother.” As the dust settled and Cain drew in his last breath, I saw the dark blue light leave his weary eyes. And his story was over.
Okay what have I just written. Like for real what have I just written. Basically, Cain was ill. So, I wrote that. We didn’t do much in today's lecture. But we were meant to learn about how to make a SWOT analysis and stuff like that. Instead, I’m going to just study the content by myself.

Cain was back today, and he was teaching us about strategic planning and SWOT analysis. We are going to have to do a SWOT analysis for our next assignment. I’m going to do it on Tesco which shouldn’t be too hard because of my previous experience writing about Tesco.
During this lecture Cain started talking about ChatGPT and how we shouldn’t copy and paste from it, obviously. Then, he went on to say that if he found out you were using it, he would write a letter about you saying that you had committed academic fraud or something like that and that if you were an apprentice, he will contact your company and try to have you removed from the apprenticeship. Some wild stuff really. But here’s the kicker, the way he was testing if some text was chatGPTed was by using some untested and uncertified software. The websites even say on them that they are not completely reliable and can have false positives. So of course, I had to challenge him on this one. He did not like that. I think he might have taken it personally, which obviously I did not intend. But seriously, how are you going to say that you’re going to cancel someone off their course or out of their apprenticeship based on the information from a self-declared unreliable software.
Just as an aside, I do not condone any kind of plagiarism in academia, including copy and pasting AI generated content.

I’m convinced that Cain has some sort of agenda. He doesn’t seem to give two shits about teaching business and the way he always brings up political issues and frames them as if there is only one right side makes me doubt his academic neutrality when it comes to politics. It’s almost as if he thinks that everyone in the room will be in complete agreement with him on political issues and states them in a way that the only answer a student could give is “Yes I completely agree” or “No I completely disagree”. He will say something like “Brexit was a terrible decision, wouldn’t you agree?”. This phrasing leaves little room for conversation. Instead saying something like “What were the pros and cons of Brexit?” is much more open ended and allows for discussion.
Anyhow, in the lecture we were learning about leadership styles, models, and theories. And in other news we finished our PESTEL analysis project. Check it out!

What is Cain doing man? Like why does he hate this lecture so much? He seems like he would be a great lecturer if he enjoyed himself a bit. But he just doesn’t seem to care about business. Which is a real shame. Here’s what he said today during the lecture when some students were chatting among themselves. “Hello there. When I talk here, if you continue to talk, I’m going to kick you out from now on. If you are not interested guys, tap your card and leave, seriously. I don’t care. I’m going to get my salary anyway. You are the one paying for it. If you are not interested, just tap your card and leave.”. So yeah, that happened. Have a listen to the audio clip if you like. It’s just frustrating because people are only chatting because he’s just reading what’s on the board right back to us. It’s like there’s no point going to the lecture if I can just read it online. Interestingly, the module evaluation survey has landed on the exact same day, so I suppose we will see how that plays out. I’m hoping that Cain gets some feedback, and he can try to improve his teaching because it’s a shame for those of us that do actually want to learn something from him.
In the lecture we were looking at e-business and e-commerce. Apparently, there are 6 types of e-commerce. Business-to-consumer, business-to-business, consumer-to-consumer, consumer-to-business, business-to-administration, consumer-to-administrator. I’d really like to get into the e-commerce space. Maybe try drop shipping with Shopify.

Today was a pretty chill lecture. Not super eventful which isn’t bad at all. We have switch from general business to finance and accounting. Looking into the difference between the two and how they help business proceedings. Cain said that this information is really useful for anyone looking to start their own business, which is fantastic for me as I’d really like to do that in the future.
To be honest, maths is not my strong suit but fortunately for me most the calculations you need to do in terms of accounting can be automated with spreadsheets and other software.
We were also looking into what assets, liabilities, equity, income, and expenses are. I believe Cain did a really good job at distinguishing each part from the other, while making it clear that the first three will be used in a balance sheet and the last two are used in an income statement.
Good lecture today. Very happy.

Submitted the SWOT analysis a couple days ago. Got 8% similarity score which is good so now just waiting on a grade. Also, waiting on a grade for the PESTEL analysis. In the lecture today we were looking at balance sheets, different types of assets and liabilities, and depreciation. It’s very interesting actually. I had a conversation with one of my friends after the lecture about machines used in car manufacturing and about how even with the depreciation of the asset, it still is more cost-effective than labour in the long-term.
I’ve also been thinking about investing and specifically in investing in assets that appreciate over time. As far as I can tell, most assets depreciate rather than appreciate. The few that don’t are property, rare items, paintings, etc. Generally, things that hold some kind of history that someone else is interested in, or an asset that continues to be improved based on external factors, like real estate. This is important to understand because it can really shift the way you look at how you are spending your money.