What is Modern Business?
Business is an economic activity. It relates to all those activities which are related to the production and distribution of goods and services for earning of profit. Business also includes those activities which indirectly help in production and exchange of goods such as . transport, insurance, banking, warehousing etc.
Now-a-days, the values of the society have changed. People expect more from the business than merely earning of profits. The society expects now from the business that it should play on active role in reducing the ills of society such as environment pollution, unemployments, education backwardness, lack of medical facilities. Profit making, thus, should not be the sole objective of business. Its objective should also be to serve the society. Functions of a modern business in size, number and form with the passage of time. The main functions performed by a modern business, in brief, are as under Production function. The main function of a business is to produce goods and services that satisfy human wants and sell them at profit to the consumers. The process 0 raising crops, removing materials ffem-mrn s, orests, manufacturing raw material into semi finished or finished goods to satisfy the requirements of consumers etc, fall under production. In the present age of mass production and specialization, only that business will survive which makes the best use of resources (in puts) produces quality goods and sells them at competitive prices in the market. Financial function. Another important function of a businessis to secure finance to operate it.
A continuous supply of funds is required to run the business. Basically, there are two sources of raising funds (1) Owner's capital (2) borrowed funds. A business can carry on its operations with its own resources or can avail of both the sources for meeting its working and fixed capital requirements. Nowadays most of the big business is carried on by joint stock companies and they raise their capital mostly through the issue of shares.
based on two elements (1) Individuals should be encouraged to create new idea and (ii) communicate freely and criticise products and goods. Organization Function .A modern business should have a sound organizational structure. Sound organization help, in the elimination of duplicate activities in the business, efficient use of speciallized talent, economic use of equipments, economies in transportation and distribution, encourages product growth and profit of the business. Controlling funcation. The purpose of controlling function is to examine the past and present activities of business. If the manager finds, that the performance in his area of control is falling from a standard, he takes quick action to correct it.
Motivating function. In order to improve the overall performance in a business, it is essential that the efficiency of the employees should be increased. Motivation is an important· factor which encourages employees to give their best performance and help in reaching the business goals. I Risk taking functions. Every business faces risks and uncertainties. Risk is caused by some unfavourable and undesirable events. Some risks are such that they can be reduced but cannot all be avoided. However, some risks can be shared with others through insurance. A business manager, therefore, must determine the risks a business faces. He should then find out the ways to guard against them.
Marketing functions. Marketing is a very important business function of 20th century. Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers. Marketing functions include buying and selling of goods, transportation and storage, risk taking, research, product designing etc.
Social responsibility function. In the late 1980's ·it was discovered that the nations are running out of clean air and water in urban areas due to industrial expansion. It is now increasingly realised that the business should share the social costs of pollution. The business should play an active role in reducing ills of the society
