Chapter 10

THE BUSINESS MOVERS (Human Factors of Business)

This chapter answers the issue of who does what in the business process. Thus, it

provides a thorough discussion of the role and significance of business movers in the

business organization. As active elements, they constitute the agent efficient cause of

business either as internal publics, i.e., the businessmen and their workers; or external

publics, e.g. the customers, the competitors, the suppliers, the community (family, school,

church and organizations), and the government.

Owners as business movers are the individuals who provide the capital of the

business organizations who may or may not be part of the business organization this

usually depends on the form of business organization. Like in the case of a sole

proprietorship, the proprietor is the owner who generally manages his own business and

performs the dual role of owner and manager. Partners in partnerships also tend toward

the owner-manager role. However in a corporation, the incorporators and stockholders in

most cases constitute the policy formulating body either directly by themselves or

through their elected representatives in the governing board. While drawing managers

from the board is not precluded as a practice but the hiring of independent managers who

are not from the board is preferred in certain cases because of the emerging recognition

and acceptance of the professional manager.

In reality a management is viewed as a structure composed of people manning the

various positions of the organization. It embraces the whole range of positions of

command and responsibility from top management through middle management down

the lowest supervisory rank. In addition, it can also be viewed as a process, referring to
the management function which basically is decision making. Such that All the

operational functions of management are undertaken towards the achievement of the

organizational objective. As said, manager is the person responsible in getting things

done and with the authority vested in the manager gives him the power to command and

demand obedience which is considered as the function of leading. This finds support

from the practical definition of management as the process of getting things done through

others, i.e., by leading others towards the organization objective. Managers therefore are

business movers.

Intention in the consumer is the starting point of the whole business process while

operation is the starting point of the producer. Basically it is the producer that acts first to

produce a product and the consumer is at the end point the fact that it receives the

finished output at the end of the process. To keep the business going, goods and services

are produced in the operations of the business. Producers are all those who engaged in

the production of goods and services. They are the entrepreneurs who manage and the

production workers and service provides who as stated the extension s of the production

managers and therefore categorized also as producers. In relation to who does what in

the business process, producers are therefore business movers.

On the other hand, marketers are also considered as business movers within the

purview of this chapter. The major players in the market arena are the following: set of

sellers and the buyers who are directly involved in the actual exchange act and cause the

movement of the product into and within the market. The marketing producer is a first

stage of marketer as he is the one who decides to sell or distribute the products. Or the
other way around he may be a middleman who stands between the producer and the

consumer to effect the sale either as a merchant middleman or agent middleman..

Another business movers are the workers. They are the labour group, the workers

or employees that constitute the basic components of the organization and have a greater

part in the structure. Their role is crucial both in the organization and the society. They

work to achieve the objectives of the business because they are the ones directly engage

in the production of the company’s goods and services.

In addition, external publics of the business are the customers (or the clients), the

competitors, the suppliers, the community (family, school, church, community

associations) and the government.

Customers falling under the external publics as business movers are essentially in

two (2) positions within the business act, first as an efficient cause of business and

second, as the objective of the business act. Customer as an efficient cause buys the

product without him exchange process would not be possible. As compared to

businessman he is much a mover of business process since he does not only buy the

product but also dictates what goods must be produced and sold, purchasing goods and

services provides motivation for businessmen to keep going. He dictates the mode of the

game on how it should be played. The customer is more than a business mover for he is

also a receiver of the business act and therefore its indirect object to whom the business

act is directed and to whom the business object (product) is given.

Consumer and a customer is further distinguished and general distinctions are

provided. A consumer is one who consumes or uses a product and always exists. It has a

need for the product, uses or consumes it without having the capacity or authority to buy.
Since everybody has the need to use or consume products for the satisfaction of human

needs, everybody is a consumer. While a customer is one who buys and is a customer

only for the products he prefers at the moment. It is an individual or institution with a

need for a product, the capacity to buy, the authority to buy and who actually buys.

Hence, not everybody is a customer because it is the felt need that makes a person a

customer. By not having the capacity to buy but desires to acquire is a want. It is true

that a want is a need in potency but what is potency remains unsatisfied and cannot be

satisfied until the need is actualized. Unless the want is reduced to a need the individual

is a consumer. However, a customer can also be consumer in two ways: first, a person

who has needs to be satisfied and therefore necessarily consumes products to satisfy

those needs and secondly as a customer who buys a product for somebody else for

consumption. In a more specific distinction, they vary on how it is viewed or by

orientation. Consumer is one with a social orientation while customer is one with

economic orientation.

Consumer viewed with a social orientation is one where every individual as

human being is recognized to have rights that society should uphold and protect. An

individual is a member of the society whose existential development towards perfection

is a primary concern of the society. He is a social being that gives rise to the legislation

of the concept of consumerism. Meanwhile a customer with economic orientation is

anchored on the belief that how the products needed to satisfy human needs is a matter of

economic rather than mere personal considerations. Both the consumer and customer

collectively constitute the customer market.

 Another business movers are the competitors. A specific game of competition is

being played among sellers vying for the ultimate advantage in the rivalry for the

customer’s purchasing decision, dominance of the market. Each is a reference company

to which all other seller relates as competitors, and each has the objective of doing better

than the others. With this role the competitor is a major component of a free enterprise

system and therefore a business mover. The element of balance is provided by him in the

exchange process between the buyer and seller, between a firm and its client in the

business arena.

Suppliers are also business movers in view of its role in the business process.

Situation says that every businessman is a supplier in a sense that producers are suppliers

of the good they produce and marketers are suppliers of the goods they sell. The

complexities of the modern business has grown and compels the need for

interdependence among businessmen as there is no business undertaking that can produce

everything it needs but must depend for most or part of its supplies and materials on those

who specialized it. Therefore, suppliers have become an integral to every business and

are essential to the need for mutual complementation among competing suppliers.

Lastly, the community. It is where the business firm is and where it operates. It is

the general public of the business organization and is composed of the people around the

business site, the family, the church, the school and the existing civic organizations. It

constitutes a rich market, actual and potential for the attainment of business objectives.

Indeed, business movers are the ones who keep business going and basically does

the what in the business process.