Introduction to Business covers the scope and sequence of most introductory business courses. The book provides detailed explanations in the context of core themes such as customer satisfaction, ethics, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing change. Introduction to Business includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations, which feature a variety of individuals. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of business concepts, with attention to the knowledge and skills necessary for student success in this course and beyond. This is an adaptation of Introduction to Business by OpenStax. You can access the textbook as pdf for free at openstax.org. Minor editorial changes were made to ensure a better ebook reading experience. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

People are the most important resource for today′s organizations. Organizations must invest in their employees to sustain a competitive advantage and achieve their strategic objectives. Strategic Training and Development translates theory and research into best practices for improving employee knowledge, skills, and behaviors in the workplace. Authors Robyn A. Berkley and David M. Kaplan take a holistic and experiential approach, providing ample practice opportunities for students. A strong focus on technology, ethics, legal issues, diversity and inclusion, and succession helps prepare students to succeed in today’s business environment.

Better Learning Solutions Through Better Learning Experiences When training and development initiatives treat learning as something that occurs as a one-time event, the learner and the business suffer. Using design thinking can help talent development professionals ensure learning sticks to drive improved performance. Design Thinking for Training and Development offers a primer on design thinking, a human-centered process and problem-solving methodology that focuses on involving users of a solution in its design. For effective design thinking, talent development professionals need to go beyond the UX, the user experience, and incorporate the LX, the learner experience. In this how-to guide for applying design thinking tools and techniques, Sharon Boller and Laura Fletcher share how they adapted the traditional design thinking process for training and development projects. Their process involves steps to: Get perspective. Refine the problem. Ideate and prototype. Iterate (develop, test, pilot, and refine). Implement. Design thinking is about balancing the three forces on training and development programs: learner wants and needs, business needs, and constraints. Learn how to get buy-in from skeptical stakeholders. Discover why taking requests for training, gathering the perspective of stakeholders and learners, and crafting problem statements will uncover the true issue at hand. Two in-depth case studies show how the authors made design thinking work. Job aids and tools featured in this book include: a strategy blueprint to uncover what a stakeholder is trying to solve an empathy map to capture the learner’s thoughts, actions, motivators, and challenges an experience map to better understand how the learner performs. With its hands-on, use-it-today approach, this book will get you started on your own journey to applying design thinking.

This book is for leaders and managers looking to develop themselves and others. It is for training & development professionals, inside or working as independent consultants, who can use the book as a coaching tool, a blueprint for leader development plans, and in other ways .For leaders concerned with their development, dedicated to developing their people for more responsibilities, and committed to organizational sustainability, this book will help in those efforts.

Evaluate leadership development programs all the way to impact and ROI. Globally, a record amount is being invested in leadership development, more than at any other time in history. And that translates into additional accountability for anyone spearheading a new program. Measuring the Success of Leadership Development offers a proven methodology that will help you step up to the challenge. You’ll learn how to begin the leadership development process with the end in mind and show return on investment to key stakeholders. Renowned ROI experts Jack and Patti Phillips have joined knowledge organization expert Rebecca Ray to support you every step of the way. This essential guide outlines each step of the proven ROI Methodology and explains how to apply it to driving leadership development program performance and evaluating results. Case studies show the methodology in action across seven successful leadership development programs. If you’re leading the charge, it’s crucial that you create and track metrics for your program’s success. In this book you will learn: how to begin the leadership development process with the end in mind what data to collect to show return on investment to key stakeholders best practices in measurement and evaluation strategies.

In response to budgetary constraints, satellite offices, and advances in computers and software, training and education is evolving. For all organizations, technology-based training has become a viable option to traditional instructor-led training. This book allows professionals to survey the available options and make reasoned decisions about when technology-based training is or is not useful. The CD-ROM is packed with useful tools, ask-the-author sessions, and links to Web-based resources.