Business is a large and complex endeavor with many facets that require the most attention. Statistics, however, is the key, and this book is the perfect place to start for anyone who wants to get a better handle on the subject.
The last time I tried to get a sense of the statistics for business, it was a disaster. If you’ve ever tried to figure out the cost of a gallon of milk or other everyday items, you know that the answers can be tricky to parse. So I knew I needed a better introduction to the topic, and I was super-excited that statistics would be the book to do it.
I was a little dismayed that my first introduction to the subject was a dry science text. But then I started reading statistics, and I was like, “Oh, this is great… this is exactly what I wanted.” And I couldn’t be happier.
The 12th edition of the Economics of Business is a great introduction to the book – especially if you are interested in statistics. This book covers topics like: costs and pricing, production and supply, marketing, sales and inventory, and the cost of labor. And in an interesting twist, unlike in the classic versions of the book, you can skip the chapters that discuss the economic history of the U.S. by looking at the data for the last couple of hundred years instead.
As a result, I think the new edition of the book is a great one to start with as a refresher. It’s an even better one if you’re interested in economics, or even just business history.
Hey, I’ve been a business bookworm for almost 35 years, but I think you can skip some of the new sections as well. It gets a little tedious after a while, but is still well worth it.
The new 12th edition has a lot of material from the old book that is just re-written. The new editors did an excellent job of making sure that the old material was still relevant and that some of the material from the Old 11th edition was kept, but the new material was also kept for future use. This is a great thing and will make the book far more accessible than the old one ever was.
The main thing that got a little confusing about the new book was the changes to the chapter headings. First, Chapter #1-6 are now the main headings for chapters, rather than being subdivided into topics. This was not a huge problem for me until I saw a chapter heading with the same title as the other chapters in the book. You know, like the chapter headings in the old book. But now, it makes sense.
Although it is nice to have a main heading for the chapter, it should be kept to just the chapter title. If you have the title of the chapter, that is all you need. And when the book is divided into chapters, each chapter has its own headings. Even better is when you have your own chapter headings, since they will be your own.
For business and economics you have Chapter 12, where you start to have a lot of information. The chapter headings in the rest of the book are all made up, so they don’t really help you at all in the beginning. But of course you don’t need a chapter heading for every chapter. In fact, you should only have one main heading for every chapter, but it should be short.