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Introduction to Business and BCK

Introduction to BCK

Objectives
After going through this chapter, you shall be able to understand the following concepts.

  • Describe the domains of business and commercial knowledge (BCK)
  • Explain the importance of BCK for a Chartered Accountant
  • Enhance BCK Quotient (BQ)
 
Introduction

We humans, on a daily basis, engage ourselves in various exchange of goods and services to earn our livelihood. We work to earn money to be able to afford the articles of necessity such as food, clothing, shelter, etc. Not only we engage in various kinds of social activities, charities and other socially productive work, we also manage our lives between work, leisure, family and society at large. In this chapter we will study about different human activities and how they assist our livelihood, however, before that let us have an understanding of business commercial knowledge and its various domains.
These days, every human being is connected to some or the other business either as an employee or freelancer or as the owner of the enterprise. Even if they are not connected in one of these, they still spend a major chunk of their annual income on buying products and services from various organisations, either by buying directly from the manufacturer or from some intermediary in shape of a retailer or wholesaler.
So, let us understand more about business and business commercial knowledge.

 
Domains of Business and Commercial Knowledge (BCK)

An Overview of BCK Domains
Domains Illustrative List
Activities Manufacturing, Trading, Commercial Services
Scale Micro, Small, Medium and Large Enterprises
Geographic Scope Local, National, Multinational
Ownership Public and Private Sector
Markets Natural Resources, Equipments, Capital, Labour and Product Markets
Stakeholders Entrepreneurs, Promoters, Customers, Investors, Directors, Facilitators, etc
Functions Operations, Marketing, Accounting, Taxation, Human Resources
Focus Particular function or business line or enterprise wide
Concerns Profitability, growth, survival, management, social responsibilities
Mode Traditional, Digital, Physical
Disciplines Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Laws, Philosophy
 
A Domain is nothing but a sphere of knowledge. The sphere of BCK is vast, eclectic, always evolving and expanding.



a. Vast: Business Commercial Knowledge is vast in the sense that it includes all the various activities involved in a business unit which may be manufacturing, trading or service provided by a firm. Take domestic trade for example, it involves a tremendous number of activities which work simultaneously like door to door selling, weekly markets, market areas, nearby shops, malls, online selling, street vendors and malls. Thus, in order to know domestic trade with a clear understanding, one must understand the various forms of this trade and the functions performed by professionals working in this area. Also, for example, the retailers in neighbourhood provide variety of goods in smaller quantities, of different brands; sometimes they even provide facilities for home delivery, monthly credit, etc. Malls, on the other hand, provide an absolutely different shopping experience. Here, you may note that we have only mentioned benefits from point of view of the customers and have not even begun talking about services to the wholesalers as the intermediaries in the chain of distribution. Thus, keeping this into view, we can say that BCK is quite vast in nature.

b. Eclectic (or multidisciplinary): By BCK being eclectic, we mean that the various disciplines such as marketing, finance & accounts, psychology, laws, ethics, sociology, etc. all provide input for BCK such that each of these disciplines have a language of their own which contribute to the world of BCK. BCK adapts lingual of these diverse fields from military to as far from unrelated fields as biology. For example, the word ‘bull’ is adopted from biology which implies the stock traders who raise prices of stock by creating pressures to buy them in the market. However this word is actually derived from the animal ‘bull’ which is well known for throwing its enemy in combats. Some other examples are 'strategy' and 'logistics' from military, or 'bear' from animal world.

c. Always expanding: BCK is always expanding in the sense that it continuously evolves and grows with the changes in the surrounding business world. New ways of doing business emerge every now and then and the old types of businesses closes down. Technology, economy and knowledge is ever growing, hence, we too need to keep ourselves updated with the changing era. The capability to unlearn what is outdated and learn the new techniques is very important for any business to thrive. And so, it would be no wrong to say that a noticeable fact of this evolution is the demise of old businesses and their techniques of work, and emergence of new businesses and newer ways of doing the businesses.
 
Importance of BCK for Chartered Accountants

The Chartered Accountants are responsible for fair accounting of economy’s resources and their appropriate utilization. A lot of Chartered Accountants work in the Business sector, thus making it mandatory for a CA to understand the nuances of the business he is auditing in order to perform the audit reliably and honestly. Each type of business has its own peculiarities. A CA can easily develop helpful notions of cost, profits, revenue, inventory, etc. However, these notions differ from industry to industry. For example, they may be completely different in case of FMCG companies than the hotels and restaurants industry.
BCK is vast and changes rapidly, that leaves us with a question of how to increase our expertise of BCK especially if we are graduates from some other stream apart from commerce. Well, it seems like a herculean task and it is surely difficult to understand where one should begin from. However, BCK is important for a successful career as a chartered accountant. The task of imbibing knowledge of BCK often forces chartered accountants with the dilemma of whether to focus on specialisation in core disciplines like accounting and taxation or diffuse our energy on knowing a topic as huge as business.
 
With this in mind, the following points can help you to enhance your BCK Quotient:
 
  • Self Assurance: BCK can be learned with time as business is all around us and we see numerous transactions happening daily around us.
  • Non-commerce background is not a problem: We can use the eclectic nature of BCK and connect with it by using whichever discipline we are well versed with.
  • Observe better: Nothing teaches like our own daily observations. Like you may visit a mall or read articles or observe through TV commercials about the business commercial knowledge.
  • Practice more and more. Remember the six honest serving men by Rudyard Kipling:
    I keep six honest serving men (They taught me all I knew);
    Their names are What and Why and When
    And How and Where and Who.
    - Excerpted from ‘Elephant’s Child’
  • Take help of business newspapers and magazines like ET, Business Standard, Business World, NDTV Profit, CNBC, etc.

Objectives
After going through this chapter, you shall be able to understand the following concepts.
  • Describe the domains of business and commercial knowledge (BCK)
  • Explain the importance of BCK for a Chartered Accountant
  • Enhance BCK Quotient (BQ)
 
Introduction

We humans, on a daily basis, engage ourselves in various exchange of goods and services to earn our livelihood. We work to earn money to be able to afford the articles of necessity such as food, clothing, shelter, etc. Not only we engage in various kinds of social activities, charities and other socially productive work, we also manage our lives between work, leisure, family and society at large. In this chapter we will study about different human activities and how they assist our livelihood, however, before that let us have an understanding of business commercial knowledge and its various domains.
These days, every human being is connected to some or the other business either as an employee or freelancer or as the owner of the enterprise. Even if they are not connected in one of these, they still spend a major chunk of their annual income on buying products and services from various organisations, either by buying directly from the manufacturer or from some intermediary in shape of a retailer or wholesaler.
So, let us understand more about business and business commercial knowledge.

 
Domains of Business and Commercial Knowledge (BCK)

An Overview of BCK Domains
Domains Illustrative List
Activities Manufacturing, Trading, Commercial Services
Scale Micro, Small, Medium and Large Enterprises
Geographic Scope Local, National, Multinational
Ownership Public and Private Sector
Markets Natural Resources, Equipments, Capital, Labour and Product Markets
Stakeholders Entrepreneurs, Promoters, Customers, Investors, Directors, Facilitators, etc
Functions Operations, Marketing, Accounting, Taxation, Human Resources
Focus Particular function or business line or enterprise wide
Concerns Profitability, growth, survival, management, social responsibilities
Mode Traditional, Digital, Physical
Disciplines Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Laws, Philosophy
 
A Domain is nothing but a sphere of knowledge. The sphere of BCK is vast, eclectic, always evolving and expanding.



a. Vast: Business Commercial Knowledge is vast in the sense that it includes all the various activities involved in a business unit which may be manufacturing, trading or service provided by a firm. Take domestic trade for example, it involves a tremendous number of activities which work simultaneously like door to door selling, weekly markets, market areas, nearby shops, malls, online selling, street vendors and malls. Thus, in order to know domestic trade with a clear understanding, one must understand the various forms of this trade and the functions per…

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