Samantha Sampson retired a few years ago at the age of 55. Because she is bored with retirement and still relatively young, Samantha has considered starting a business of her own. However, she doesn’t know anything about business. As a result, Sam has hired the consulting firm for which you work to give her a brief tutorial on business and finance. To begin her lesson, Ms. Sampson has asked you to answer the following questions:
a. What is finance, and why is it important to understand finance to run a successful business?
b. What are the major areas of the finance discipline?
c. How has finance changed since the beginning of the twentieth century?
d. What are some of the financial trends that are currently of interest to businesses?
e. What is value, and how is it determined?
f. What does it mean to maximize value?
g. What is sustainability, and how is this concept related to finance?
h. What is lean manufacturing? How is the goal of value maximization related to lean manufacturing?