Dr. V.E.”Bill” Haloulakos is an AIAA National Distinguished Lecturer and a contibutor to The Business Thinker
Business and modern society are inseparable.
Business causes society to become organized, educated and civilized.
A modern society cannot exist without a business activity as a partner.
American society was built on and by business.
That’s the primary reason that the country progressed so fast to become the superpower that it is. The benefits to the world that originated in the United States are beyond measure. Its business innovations have created many industries whose products are helping the entire world. The technology spin offs from the American space program have changed and are still changing the world and our lives. Most notably, American Agriculture has saved millions of people from famine. Former Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev went to his grave still thinking, talking about and admiring the Iowa cornfields!
EARLY HISTORY
Business and society have been interwoven with one another since the beginning of recorded human history. Obviously business needs society for it needs customers. Similarly society needs business for its products and services it provides as well as the organizational structure that assures a smooth operation. Society has existed from the inception of humans on earth and it is constantly and continuously evolving. At first it consisted of the family unit then it transformed into the tribal unit, then into groups of tribes, nations, empires, etc. From the early beginnings the need to trade and exchange goods and services between the various society groups started an activity that eventually led to the concept of business. It became apparent that individuals and small groups could not efficiently produce all the goods and services on their own and found it more convenient or economical to turn to others for some of their needs and “these others” would likewise get some of their needs fulfilled by this mutual exchange of goods and services. Originally this was in the form of barter trade but as the time progressed money was invented and from then on the concept of business sort of came on its own and this interweaving of business and society took a new form.
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