Engaging, supportive, and relevant. This is the ideal introduction to business offering diverse cases and coverage of the latest issues affecting businesses today to empower students on their course and beyond. With a contemporary approach to the topic, Foundations of Business provides a truly accessible and engaging guide that reflects current business environments and the global nature of business.

Rich with international insights from the real world, this text is your key to gaining a holistic understanding of business and organisations in this modern world. Starting first by exploring the different types of organizations and their structures, you will then move on to explore the core aspects of a business such as marketing, accounting and finance; as well as the more people-centred issues such as leadership and business ethics. In engaging with this text, you will also develop a firm understanding of key external issues such as the competitive environment; and the political, economic, social, and technological contexts in which businesses operate.

Intricately interwoven throughout Foundations of Business is a series of learning tools and features, all of which have been carefully crafted to help you apply theory in practice. Take the opportunity to put yourselves in the shoes of a manager and discuss how you'd approach certain business challenges; develop your skills in analysing business data; examine real-world business challenges from around the globe - and more.

Digital formats and resources

This text is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats and is supported by online resources. The enhanced e-book gives students the flexibility to support their learning in ways that work best for them; embedded resources include practitioner interview videos, author videos which offer pithy explanations of key concepts, multiple-choice questions, a flashcard glossary and more: Find the eBook on VitalSource.

1: Introduction to business
2: Entrepreneurs and start-up planning
3: Marketing
4: Managing operations
5: Managing finance
6: Managing people: human resource management
7: Analysing the external environment of business
8: Strategy
9: Growth and international business strategies
10: Change, culture, and structure
11: Business ethics and corporate social responsibility

Andrew Gillespie, Oxford Brookes University

At Oxford Brookes, Andrew is a lecturer, seminar leader and course developer and has helped assess Foundation programmes for validation at Brookes. He is a very experienced textbook author and has written a number of successful books including 'Economics for Business' (OUP), 'Foundations of Economics' (OUP) as well as other A-level titles for Hodder, OUP, and CIE. In addition to this, Andrew is also External Examiner for Royal Holloway Business and Economics Foundation Course.

The following additional resources are also available to students:

• Practitioner videos
• Career insight videos
• Short (3-5 minute) video explanations of key concepts with further illustrative examples
• Guidance on answering the Business insight questions in the book
• A list of web links to the financial statements referenced in the book
• Skills set
• Exemplar essays, and sample exam answers
• Multiple-choice questions
• Flashcard glossary

Adopting lecturers will have access to the following teaching support resources:

• Case study updates
• Guidance on answering discussion question from practitioner video
• Seminar activities
• Example essay and examination questions
• PowerPoint slides