What Is a Company?

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 373.

Текст 2

You've probably seen ads in magazines and on television sponsored by names such as Lenovo, Nokia, Samsung and Acer. These are huge companies that hire thousands of workers to produce goods or services for you, the consumer. Thousands of companies make products or provide services for you. A company is an organized group of people doing business.

Every company is in business to sell products and to make a profit. Remember that one resource needed to make things is money, or capi­tal. In order to get a company started, someone has to invest (put in) money to start the company. Then, once the company is organized, you have to have some way to run it. There are different ways to manage (run) a company.

A proprietorship is a business owned by just one person.The owner has complete control over everythingand gets to keep all the profits.

A business owned by two or more people is a partnership.

A corporation is a company organized and owned by stockholders. A stockholder is anyone who buys a share in a company. While you own the stock, you will also receive what's called a dividend. A dividend is a payment you get as part owner of the company. Сorporations have a very structured organization because there are so many people involved.

The corporate structure includes the following:

Stockholders: people who have bought shares in the company. Stockholders hold an annual meeting. At the annual meeting, they elect the board of directors for the next year.

Board of Directors: board members are elected. They set com­pany policies and determine the main company goals. They report how the company is doing to the stockholders. The board also hires a company manager or president to run the company.

Management: these people run the company.

Administration.

Human Resources: in some companies, this department is called Personnel.

Research and Development Department (R&D).