Although there were developments in the societies in the twentieth century, business has remained more or less the same throughout the ages. The changes were mainly in management practices, information technology and elimination of barriers for free trade in the world.
Management practices have changed during recent years. These changes have affected businesses and communities. Some have got utmost benefit from new management practices. Some have failed in exercising the same or similar practices.
In the last quarter of the century new improvements in information technology had much impact on societies and business. Computers are now widely used in business and homes. This has created new businesses and new techniques in doing business. The effects of computer use in business has changed the products, their cost structure and also the plants, machinery and equipment in the production process.
The use of computers especially in connecting the world has made way for the Internet age. Some 200 millions users worldwide are connected through Internet. Many businesses have World Wide Web (www) pages. Most of these sites enable people to interact with companies or institutions. Anybody may receive information or pictures simply by downloading.
Another development is electronic mail. In other words, e-mail simply enables people to send their messages to each other through Internet links. E-mail allows documents, files to be forwarded through this link. More than 7 trillion e-mail messages are expected to be sent in a year.
The use of www sites and e-mail encourages e-commerce. People are now « able to do their trading through Internet links without physically seeing each other.
The world is now considered a global town. The old paradigm about frontiers has changed. The old traditional separating line between countries is now seen as a connecting line between neighbors. Countries encourage free trade between nations. Goods and services are moving more freely in today’s world. Competition emerges as a new challenge for all companies of the world. The barriers to free track; are being eliminated one after another, II is assumed that in the next two decades there will be no barriers in global trading.
The effect of change in management practices, information technology and trends for free trading in the world are issues that will always be kept in mind as we discuss the business topics in the upcoming messages
