IBC Handbook - Introduction

You are about to embark on an exciting journey:
The Integrated Business Core (IBC) has been designed to expose you to the world of business and to teach you the skills and vocabulary you need to survive and prosper. We believe that one way to accomplish this mission is to encourage (well, require) you to design and run a real business. Our hope is that this "learning by doing" will inspire you and help you understand business concepts in a way that a traditional course could not.

Your journey will be complicated. Most business activity is much more involved than running your neighborhood lemonade stand. You'll need to learn about the various functional areas of business and how they interrelate. You'll need to learn organizational skills to facilitate your interactions with others. And, you'll need to learn a variety of technical tools which will help you monitor your activities, and make sure your efforts are efficient and produce the results you desire.

Your journey will involve additional sensitivities as well. No longer can business operate in a vacuum. The global economy and renewed emphasis on our limited resources requires us to balance business activities with many social, environmental, and community concerns. We're pleased to report that being a "good citizen" isn't only morally appropriate; it's becoming critical for business success too (see Appendix VI at the end of this handbook for an example of a corporate statement of civic responsibility). With that in mind, you will donate the profits you generate from your business to a community service organization in which you are also actively involved.

Our goals for having you undertake this project are straightforward: We want to give you an exposure to business from a variety of perspectives. We want you to appreciate business's responsibilities to the community and to society. We want to give you the opportunity to apply what you learn in class to actual business practice. And we want to stimulate your desire to learn more while you're at BYU-Idaho to enhance your prospects for a successful and exciting career.

We've written this handbook to serve as a reference guide for your new venture creation project. It will describe the project for the course in more detail and will suggest several things you should consider throughout the year. You will probably have additional questions as you read this material. Your instructors are available to answer any questions you might have.

Project Description

"Tell me more about this business project," we hear you ask. The field project for the course combines running a business, engaging in a community service project, and reporting your efforts and results back to the IBC faculty. Does that sound complex? It should because it is. To help you chart your way, you'll learn about a number of organizational skills, planning techniques, and technical tools that you can use as you go.

Concluding Remarks

This project will be a journey of self-discovery. How well can you manage and work? How good are your organizational and interpersonal skills? Time management skills? Are you prepared to lead when the group requires a leader and to follow when needed? How are your financial, computer and quantitative skills developing? How about your communication skills? Do you listen well? Can you effectively argue your case and persuade others? And, if you discover your skills in any of these areas aren't yet as sound as you'd like, how well can you adapt and learn and grow?

Believe it or not, we also want you to have fun while you learn. We want you to be able to stand back at the end of the semester and feel that you have stretched yourself fully and learned a great deal because you saw the value in doing so.

We know that we are asking a lot and it will take the concerted efforts of you and your classmates for this project to succeed. We, the faculty, stand before you as coaches, mentors and experts prepared to help, but we won't do the work for you. Only you can do that.

Welcome aboard the IBC project! Enjoy your trip!