Entrepreneurship: Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3: SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, ETHICS, AND STRATEGIC PLANNING

• Explain the relationship between social responsibility, ethics, and strategic planning
• The social responsibility and ethics of your business are the commitments you make to doing what is right
• Strategic planning is the process of deciding where yo want yout busienss to go and how it will get there.
• All three concepts work together to form the foundation on which your entire business rests.

• Name the level of social responsibility
• You have an economic responsibility to make your business profitable. Without profit, your business cannot contribute anything to society
• Your legal obligation to obey the law describes the minimal behavior expected for your firm to be part of society
• Your ethical responsibility covers your obligation to do what is right.

• Discuss how to establish a code of ethics for your business
• a code of ethics offers a way for you to communicate your ethical expectations to everyone involved in your business
• The code should represent your ethical ideals, be concise enough to be remembered, be written clearly, and apply to everyone in the organization

• Describe each step in the strategic planning process, and explain the importance of competitive advantage
• The strategic planning process includes defining your mission statement, conducting an environmental analysis (internal and external, or SWOT, analysis)
• Analyzing the competition and defining your competitive advantage
• Identifying strategic alternatives, setting goals, and establishing systems to measure effectiveness
• A competitive advantage is the facet of your business that gives your company an edge over the competition
• The strategic planning helps you to identify and establish competitive advantage by analyzing the environment and the competitive landscape