Business Voyages

We Are All Floating On A Quick Voyage In The Current Of Infinite Time And Space. An American Indian Chief Once Remarked That Life Is Like The Flash Of A Firefly In The Night. People Who Study And Do Business Have Been Caused To Sail Through Life In Business Ships With Other People. This Book Includes The Voyage Of Richard John Stapleton Who Was Caused To Work For His Parents In Family Businesses, Start Some Businesses Of His Own, Earn A Phd In Business, And Teach 35 Years As A Business Professor. The Book Includes In The Author'S Judgment The Most Relevant Concepts And Techniques In The Business Field For Entrepreneurial And Small Business Success; Transactional Analysis Concepts And Techniques Relating To Entrepreneurship And Family Business; The Results Of A National Study Of Family Business Owners Showing Their Opinions About How To Manage Family Businesses; An Explanation Of The Case Method Asserting The Case Method Is The Best Method For Teaching And Learning Business; 18 Cases Presenting Business Problems And Opportunities For Discussion; Three Exercises Showing How To Create Creativity, Construct Business Plans, And Get On With It; And A Summary Essay Discussing The Plight Of The Global Economy And What Might Happen. A Major Refrain Of The Book Is That People Perceive Their Worlds As They Do And Do What They Do Because Of Schemata And Scripts Read Into Their Brains From Birth Onward. Scripts And Schemata Are Cognitive Structures Stored In Brain Memory That Cause People To Recognize Certain Objects, Problems, And Opportunities In Their Worlds And Ignore Others And To Think, Feel, And Act In Certain Ways. Scholarly Articles Are Cited Explaining The Nature And Significance Of Schemata And Scripts. Business Success Sometimes Requires Learning New Schemata And Scripts. Too Often People Are Taught To Deal With Trees Rather Than Forests. Teachers Have A Tendency To Only Consider Problems That Fit Their Tool Kits, Especially In Business Schools. Teachers Have A Tendency To Teach Only What Is In Their Textbooks And Quite Often Students Are Given Little Training In Analyzing And Dealing With Problems And Opportunities As They Exist In The Real World. A Major Assertion Of Business Voyages Is That Many Business People Need More Case Method Training To Analyze Whole Situations And To Discover Relevant Aspects And Interrelationships. The Case Method Process Is Simple: What Is The Problem, What Are The Alternatives, And What Do You Recommend? It Is So Simple It Seems Anyone Could Do It. But, No, It Rarely Happens Anywhere. In Group Encounters Leaders And Their True Believers Generally Control The Communication Process In Such A Way That Most People Are Unable To Express Their Opinions Regarding Whole Situations, To Preserve The Authority And Prestige Of The Leaders And To Maintain The Status Hierarchy. Only The Boss Can Say What He Thinks Is The Problem, Etc. Business Voyages Shows How To Break The Pattern By Randomly Selecting Leaders To Say What They Think Is The Problem, What Are The Alternatives, And What They Recommend. The De-Gaming Random Selection Device Explained In The Book Can Be Used To De-Game Games In Various Organizations And Groups And Can Increase Creativity And Power Among Members. An Article Published By The Author In The Transactional Analysis Journal In 1979 Explaining The De-Gamer Is Reprinted In Business Voyages. He Used A De-Gamer In All His Classes Since That Time At Georgia Southern University. The World Has Always Been A Screwed-Up Place And Humans Have A Long Way To Go To Co-Construct A Good World For All Passengers Aboard Spaceship Earth. The Author Presents Several New Ideas For Making This Happen, One Of Which, Science Fiction At Present, Entails Using Linear Programming To Schedule The Production And Distribution Of Basic Necessities For All Humans, Leaving Everything Else To Be Scheduled And Distributed By A Market System.