BSAD 130—BUSINESS AND SOCIETY (CRN 2028)

Spring 2008 David W. Crain, Ph.D.

Tuesday and Thursday, DH 118, 1:30—2:50 (9048) Phone: 562-907-4894 (o)
626-991-7773 (c)
Office Hours: HV 116, Tuesday and Thursday, 10:00 to 11:00 and e-mail: dcrain@whittier.edu
4:30—5:00 & By Appointment davidwcrain@aol.com

An introduction to business and management in America. Exploration of the interrelationships of

technological, economic, political, and social forces within business enterprises and of management’s
ethical obligations to owners, employees, customers, communities, and society.

READINGS AND TEXTS

1. Text: Gitman, Lawrence J. and McDaniel, Carl, The Future of Business, the Essentials, 3d Edition
Thomson Learning (2008). ). This is an electronic, on-line textbook. The printed textbook is
optional.
2. Book: Drucker, Peter F., Post-Capitalist Society, Harper Business (1993).
3. Selected Harvard Business School cases, available from www.study.net. (You need to register on
Study.Net and find this course under David Crain. Type “study.net” into Google or use the URL:
https://www.study.net/default.asp) You may need to use the password “whittier” to access the
course cases. You may download these cases throughout the semester, so you don’t need to
acquire them all at once. The College has made arrangements that make these cases available
at 33% less than acquiring them directly from Harvard.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
1. To introduce students to the fundamentals of business and its various disciplines such as finance,
accounting, law, human resources and marketing.
2. To learn the language of business and its various terminologies.
3. To develop communication skills and apply them to analysis of business situations and ultimately to
the achievement of successful outcomes in business.
4. To understand the role business plays in society, politics, education—in short, in civilization.
5. To develop an understanding of business ethics and how personal and social responsibility impacts
the well-being of society, the nation and the world.
6. To introduce students to business cases and the manner in which cases are used to learn complex
interrelationships between business and its various environments: social, economic, regulatory,
technological, financial and political.

GRADES
Grading standards are:
93-100 = A 76-79= C+
90-93 = A- 73-75= C
86-89= B+ 69-72= C-
83-85= B 60-68= D
80-82= B- <60 = F
Only truly exceptional work that is free of errors and shows great depth of thought, effort, and originality
will receive A grades. If you expect to receive an A or B in this course, you should plan to spend a great
deal of time and effort outside of class. Final grades are based on 100 points and will be composed of
the following elements:

Attendance/Participation 20%
Thursday Homework 40%
Cases (2 x 10%) 20%
Final Paper 20%
Total points 100%
If, at any time, you feel that you have been graded unfairly you may, within 1 week your work is returned
in class, request, in writing, that it be re-graded. Include in your request any important points you feel
have been overlooked. BE AWARE! Thorough rereading can lead to an adjustment of your grade either
up or down.

ACADEMIC HONESTY
Any form of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. If faced with evidence of academic dishonesty I
will seek to administer the harshest possible penalties allowed under the College’s policy. Of particular
concern is the use of someone else’s work and representing it as your own. If you do not understand
these rules, it is your responsibility to talk to your instructor about it.

CLASS PARTICIPATION AND ATTENDANCE

Success in life as well as in education depends upon your level of participation. Opportunity to advance
in business is directly correlated to the degree to which you are perceived to be participating.
Participation in this class will be assessed by attendance, the thoughtfulness of questions asked, and the
quality of contributions made to class discussion. Factual misstatements, comments that demonstrate a
lack of adequate preparation, or comments that come late in a discussion that distract the class and
indicate that the student has not been actively listening will be noted as “negative” course participation as
will engaging in e-mail and other social networking activities during class. Students often find it hard to
vocally participate. Some choose not to participate, and some find themselves intimidated into remaining
silent. Either way, such is not participation and will be noted and graded.

Your instructor places a premium on class attendance and attentiveness. Absences as well as
inattentiveness will be noted and recorded. In order to receive an excused absence, you should inform
your instructor of any expected absences before they occur and, sometimes, excused absences can be
restored to full attendance credit with an outside work assignment. The scope of the make-up work
requirement should be discussed with your instructor. Habitual lateness, and/or leaving class early, for
whatever reason, will be noted as evidence of low course commitment and will be penalized.

Some of our class time will be used for discussion of current issues, theories and concepts. Participation
is its own reward as your grades in other parts of the course will benefit from regular participation.
Homework and other assigned readings are likely, so come to class prepared. Also, it is important you
understand that you are responsible for announcements made in a class that you miss. It is your
responsibility to learn what you may have missed in class lectures and discussions.

CHAPTER HOMEWORK
Homework covering the Text chapter just completed are available through our class website. Each
chapter homework is due to be submitted (hard copy) on Thursday with the exception of Chapter 16,
which is due at our last class meeting, a Tuesday. The Homework consists of 10 fill-in-the-blank short
answers, usually one or two words. The homework is open book, so it shouldn’t be difficult for those who
focus (i.e., pay attention) on reading each chapter.

The Department of Business Administration wants you to read the textbook; therefore, all material in
assigned chapters is fair game for Homework, whether they were discussed in class or not. To make
allowance for personal emergencies, the lowest Homework grade (including a zero for a missed
Homework) will be dropped for each student at the end of the semester.

CASES
Cases are discussed in class each Tuesday of the semester per the Syllabus schedule below. We will
usually introduce each case with a video clip related to the case on the Thursday prior to the subsequent
Tuesday’s case discussion. Beginning with the Merck (A) case, you may select any 2 cases to write-up
and submit at the beginning of Tuesday’s discussion, between the Merck (A) case and the last case of
the term (JetBlue). Cases present a unique and real business challenge that needs to be resolved. Your
case write-ups will require understanding of the material presented in our Gitman and McDaniel TEXT as
well as discussion of the case through the lens of Drucker’s BOOK, exploring the business and societal
aspects of the business situation presented in the case. Case write-ups and the final paper (to earn a 90
or above) must include specific attributed citations to relevant commentary and insight found in Drucker’s
BOOK.

You may choose to do your case write-ups by yourself or with one other member of our class. Papers
done collaboratively divide the effort and provide the opportunity to develop your thinking jointly with
someone else who is studying the same situation. As in business and industry, collaborative thought
usually leads to superior results. Collaborators will receive the same earned grade for the case. Case
papers should be three to five pages long. All cases must be submitted at the beginning of class on the
Tuesday scheduled to discuss the case. (The one exception is the JetBlue case which occurs over the
Thanksgiving recess, see Syllabus below). All students must be prepared to discuss the case in class
(including the first 4 cases) whether they have written them up or not.

FINAL PAPER
The final paper will address a topic of your choosing pertinent to our course topic, namely “Business and
Society”. The paper will be, nominally, ten pages long (including exhibits) and will integrate class
readings into your thesis. As with the cases, your final paper may be done in collaboration with one other
student. You should expect to have three to seven cited sources for your paper, one of which would be
Drucker’s BOOK. We will discuss and develop your final paper’s topic over the course of the semester.
Topics in past semesters have included illegal immigrants in the workforce, environmental responsibility in
the automobile industry, satellite radio and Howard Stern/Don Imus, violence in video games, Wal*Mart
lawsuits, McDonald’s and child obesity, the blood diamond trade in Africa, and the like.

BSAD 130—BUSINESS AND SOCIETY

Spring 2008 Syllabus
Homework/Case
Major Divisions/Week Topics Write-Up
The Business Environment
Week 1: Feb 7 Course Introduction
BOOK Introduction—The Transformation
Week 2: Feb 12 TEXT Chapter 1—Understanding Economic Systems
and Business
BOOK Chapter 1—From Capitalism to Knowledge
Society
Feb 14 Case 1—Howard Schultz and Starbucks Coffee Chapter 1
Company (9-30-2005) Harvard Business School Case
#9-801-361
Week 3: Feb 19 TEXT Chapter 2—Making Ethical Decisions and
Managing a Socially Responsible Business
BOOK Chapter 2—The Society of Organizations
Feb 21 Case 2— Hitting the Wall: Nike and International Labor Chapter 2
Practices (9-15-2000), Harvard Business School Case
#9-700-047
Week 4: Feb 26 TEXT Chapter 3—Competing in the Global Business
Market
BOOK Chapter 3—Labor Capital and Their Future
Feb 28 Case 3—Costco Companies, Inc. (7-12-1999), Harvard Chapter 3
Business School Case #9-599-041
Business Ownership
Week 5: Mar 4 TEXT Chapter 4—Forms of Business Ownership
BOOK Chapter 4—The Productivity of the New Work
Forces
Mar 6 Case 4—Merck Global Health Initiatives (A) (1-26- Chapter 4
2001), Harvard Business School Case #9-301-088
Week 6: Mar 11 TEXT Chapter 5—Entrepreneurship: Starting and Merck (A)
Managing Your Own Business
 BSAD 130—BUSINESS AND SOCIETY
Spring 2008 Syllabus
Homework/Case
Major Divisions/Week Topics Write-Up
BOOK Chapter 5—The Responsibility-Based
Organization
Mar 13 Case 5— Body Shop International (7-13-1995), Harvard Chapter 5
Business School Case #9-392-032
Managing Organizations
Week 7: Mar 18 TEXT Chapter 6—Management and Leadership in Body Shop
Today’s Organizations
BOOK Chapter 6—From Nation-State to Megastate
Mar 20 Case 6— Wal-Mart Stores’ Discount Operations (5-10- Chapter 6
1989), Harvard Business School Case #9-387-018
Week 8: Mar 25 TEXT Chapter 9—Motivating Employees Wal-Mart
BOOK Chapter 7—Transnationalism, Regionalism, and
Tribalism
Mar 27 Case 7—Wal-Mart in 1999 (8-30-1999), Harvard Chapter 9
Business School Case #9-799-118
March 31 --- April 4 Spring Break
Week 9: Apr 8 TEXT Chapter 10—Creating World Class Operations Wal-Mart in 1999
Management
Apr 10 Case 8— eBay (A) The Customer Marketplace (5-30- Chapter 10
2003), Harvard Business School Case #9-602-071
Marketing Management
Week 10: Apr 15 TEXT Chapter 11—Creating Marketing Strategy to eBay
Meet Customer Needs
BOOK Chapter 8—The Needed Government
Turnaround
Apr 17 Case 9— Google, Inc. (5-9-2005), Harvard Business Chapter 11
School Case #9-804-141
Week 11: Apr 22 TEXT Chapter 12—Distributing Products in a Timely Google
and Efficient Manner
BOOK Chapter 9—Citizenship Through the Social
Sector
Apr 24 Case 10—This Case Sucks: Beavis, Butt-head, and TV Chapter 12
Content (A) (1-15-1997), Harvard Business School
Case #9-395-053
Technology and Information
Week 12: Apr 29 TEXT Chapter 13—Using Technology to Manage Beavis &
Information Butt-head
BOOK Chapter 10—Knowledge: Its Economics and Its
Productivity
May 1 Case 11—JetBlue Airways: Starting From Scratch (10- Chapter 13
29-2001), Harvard Business School Case #9-801-354
Week 13: May 6 TEXT Chapter 14—Using Financial Information and JetBlue
Accounting
May 8 BOOK Chapter 11— The Accountable School Chapter 14
TEXT Chapter 16—Understanding Financial
Management and Securities Markets
Week 14: May 13 BOOK Chapter 12— The Educated Person Chapter 16
Course Wrap Up and Course Evaluations
May 19 Final Paper due in the Business Administration Final Paper
Department before 4:00 PM
COMMUNICATION AND FEEDBACK
Feedback is a critical part of any learning experience, both for the student and the instructor. You may
communicate with your instructor in a number of ways--before and after class, during office hours, and
by appointment—to talk about any aspect of your work, either individually or in groups. You are also
welcome to call your instructor during the day, leave a voice mail message, or make an appointment for
another time. One sure way to make contact is via e-mail.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

If you have a specific disability which qualifies you for academic accommodations, please
contact Disability Services for a letter of accommodation.

ABOUT YOUR PROFESSOR

David Crain has more than 25 years’ experience managing marketing, strategy, and engineering
functions in a corporate setting. He was Director of Markets and Strategies for Fluor Corporation which,
at $12 billion in revenues, is the largest engineering and construction firm in the world. While at Fluor,
Dr. Crain managed a staff of 6 market researchers (all with MBAs) performing analysis of the
engineering & construction industry: the marketplace, competitors, partners, merger-and-acquisition
targets, and related economic, business and political conditions around the world. He advised Fluor on
strategy issues such as branding, mission/vision formulation, market research and segmentation, and
geographical positioning and related strategies.

Prior to joining Fluor, David Crain managed competitive analysis and strategic planning for Los Angeles-
based Pacific Enterprises (now Sempra Energy), a $3 billion energy-services conglomerate. There, he
helped shape Pacific Enterprises' international diversification objectives, and established that
organization's competitive-intelligence function. Earlier he managed the engineering-design department
for Pacific Enterprises' principal subsidiary, the Southern California Gas Company, progressing to
manager of a staff of 70 professionals and an annual budget of $50 million.

In earlier professional activities, Dr. Crain was with the United States Naval Research Center in San
Diego where he was responsible for development of microelectronics for anti-submarine warfare
systems. It was there, while working on undersea television exploration technology, he conceived and
received the first patent on what became the “1st and Ten” concept introduced on ESPN football
telecasts in 1998, now widely used in network sportscasting.

For more than 20 years, David Crain was a Lecturer and Adjunct Professor at Cal Poly Pomona and
instructed graduate and undergraduate students in electronics and computer sciences. In recent years
at USC and Pepperdine, he has taught business strategy formulation and market research to graduate
level business students. He is past President of the California Chapter of the Strategic Leadership
Forum—an international organization dedicated to fostering the art and discipline of strategic planning in
business—and he recently co-founded a new organization, the Association for Strategic Planning, for
which he served as its president (1999-03 and 2004-05).

David Crain presently consults to large corporations in marketing and business strategy. He received
his Ph.D. in Engineering from USC where his dissertation focused on semiconductor materials
development for flash memory applications some 25 years before commercialization of the technology.
His interests are varied and include video technology and movie-making, collecting motion-picture
soundtracks, fitness, hiking, and golf. He has two grown children and resides with his wife Sheila in
Hacienda Heights.