Summer Session II 2003
Loyola Marymount University College of Business Administration
Business/Government Relations
MBAB/MBAH-698-01 Course Syllabus, Rev. Instructor: Wesley B. Truitt, Ph.D.
Office: Hilton 203
Office Contact: (310) 338-7792 [email protected]
Classes: Monday/Wednesday, 7:10 p.m. - 10:10 p.m.
Course Purpose
This is a new course. Its focus is on the role government plays in the life of an
entrepreneur at the start-up of a business and throughout its lifetime. Information will be provided as to governments’ (federal, state, and local) impacts on a business from both a positive and negative standpoint. The positives include providing assistance with the start-up, financing, and possibly markets. Negatives include licenses, regulatory requirements, taxes, and other impacts on the firm’s operation. The specific purpose of this course is to equip an entrepreneur with information needed to initiate and sustain a business in compliance with governmental regulations and requirements and possibly with governmental assistance, and to provide information on how to interact with government.
Introduction
All businesses face opportunities and threats from their external environment. They seek to optimize the opportunities and minimize the threats. Other than competitors, the most important source of threats in the external environment is government. Business is more impacted--both positively and negatively--by government than any other factor in its external environment with the single possible exception of its industry rivals--regardless of the type and nature of the business, its size, and stage of development.
How to identify these sources of opportunity and threat and how to deal with them is the purpose of this course. Business needs a clear grasp of the role and importance of government in the daily life of the firm. This understanding is increasingly vital in the 21st century because the role of government in the economy continues to expand. There is little distinction today between the public and private sectors, and few if any
Government affects a firm in many ways:
• Macroeconomics: government’s monetary and fiscal policies influence national economic growth, taxation, inflation, employment, interest rates, and international currency relationships.
• Regulations: government establishes and administers the regulatory environment in which the firm operates, determining the “rules of the road” for all business, whether highly regulated monopolies or privately-held small companies needing business licenses to operate in a local municipality.
• Confidence: government sets the tone and atmosphere inspiring or undermining consumer and business confidence, and its policies of many types improve or undermine labor markets, supplies of various labor skills, and overall employment opportunities.
• Technology: government R&D and tax policies, federal purchases, international opportunities and competitive threats expand or contract technological growth. • Business operations: government rules and regulations impact businesses directly
with respect to hiring and firing, the configuration of the work place, social-cultural factors in the workplace, and ethical conduct.
• Profits: government tax policies directly impact a firm’s growth and investment strategies and the firm’s profitability.
All of these issues and more will be discussed in the course from a federal, state, and local governmental standpoint. At the end of the course the entrepreneur will have a clear road map for charting a course through the governmental and regulatory
environment, being alert to opportunities and threats. The course will include very practical suggestions for dealing with various aspects of government at all levels--from how to obtain a business license, to how to lobby the Congress, and how to market to government agencies.
Course Approach
The course will follow a lecture/case format. Approximately half of each class meeting will be devoted to lecture, and the second half will be a class discussion of the case assigned for that session. To maximize the learning experience, each student will come to class prepared for discussion, having read the Weidenbaum textbook assignment for that session and the case assignment. Class discussion, especially of the cases, will be a major portion of the student’s final grade. Each student will prepare a Project Report that will be turned in near the end of the course, and each student will take a final
examination.
Course Assignments
There will be a Project Report and a final examination covering the entire course material. The Project Report will be on a topic of the student’s choosing, but it must be approved by the instructor. The Project Report deliverable will consist of a written report (not-to-exceed 20 pages, double spaced, plus exhibits) addressing one or more rules,
the entrepreneur’s viewpoint. Late papers will not be accepted.
The Project Report will (1) describe and summarize the selected rule, regulation, or law, (2) show how it/they will impact the start-up business, (3) address how the entrepreneur will deal with this rule, regulation, or law in the start-up of the firm, and (4) the report will also address how the entrepreneur may make representations to government regarding this rule, regulation, or law--to mitigate it, change it, or to nullify it. Make your case in the paper for how you would go about doing this.
Required Readings
Textbook: Murray L. Weidenbaum, Business and Government in the Global Marketplace. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2004.
Cases: Selected cases from the Harvard Business School (HBS) case collection are used to illustrate each topic in the course, as shown below on the schedule.
Class Schedule
Session 1: Introduction to Business/Government Relations; Class Assignments June 30 Weidenbaum, Chap. 1, Powers of Government and Business
Session 2: The Growth of and Rationale for Regulation
July 2 Weidenbaum, Chaps. 2, Rationale; 7, Traditional; 9, Terrorism HBS Case No. 9-902-068: Guhan Subramanian and Michelle Kalka, “Price-Fixing Vignettes,” January, 2002, 8 p.
Session 3: Government Impacts on Parts of the Economy
July 7 Weidenbaum, Chaps. 3, Consumer; 4, Environment; 5, EEO; 6, Workplace
HBS Case No. E118: Terry Anderson and Susan Mackenzie, “Applied Sustainability LLC: Making a Business Case for By-Product
Synergy,” February, 2002, 15 p.
Turn in proposals for Project Report
Session 4: State and Local Laws and Regulations for Business I July 9 SBA Packet of Readings to be Distributed in Class
HBS Case No. E122, Charles A. Holloway and Andrea Higuera, “Gordon Biersch: New Challenges and Opportunities,” May, 2002, 10 p.
Session 5: State and Local Laws and Regulations for Business II July 14 SBA Packet of Readings to be Distributed in Class
HBS Case No. 9-703-426: Michael E. Porter and Kala Miller, “The State of Connecticut: Strategy for Economic Development,” January, 2003, 32 p.
Session 6: Deregulation and Regulatory Reform
July 21 Weidenbaum, Chaps. 8, Deregulation; 10, Reforming Regulation
HBS Note No. 9-302-100: Joseph L. Bower, “A Primer on Politics and Government Management in the United States,” February, 2002,
8 p.
Session 7: Government as a Market; Government Promotion of Business
July 23 Weidenbaum, Chaps. 14, Credits & Bailouts; 15, Market; 16, Tax Policy HBS Case No. 9-203-005: Mihir Desai et al., “Tax-Motivated Film Financing at Rexford Studios,” November, 2002, 12 p.
Session 8: Business Participation in Government
July 28 Weidenbaum, Chaps. 17, Biz-Gov’t.; 18, Issues Management; 19, Politics HBS Case No. 9-803-015: Lynda M Applegate and Susan Saltrick, “Oklahoma VISION Project,” September, 2002, 25 p.
Session 9: Global Marketplace
July 30 Weidenbaum, Chaps. 11, Globalization; 12, International Commerce; 13, Global Geopolitics of Energy
HBS Case No. 9-703-019: Huw Pill et al., “The Welfare State and Its Impact on Business Competitiveness: Sweden, Inc. For Sale?” Oct. 2002, 27 p.
Session 10: Corporate Activists & Outlook for Private Enterprise
August 4 Weidenbaum, Chaps. 20, Challenges to Governance; 21, Future of the Firm
HBS Case No. 9-702-427: Michael E. Porter and Orjan Solvell, “Finland and Nokia,” January, 2002, 23 p.
Session 11: Course Summary and Management Challenges for the Entrepreneur August 6 Turn in Project Reports
August 11 Project Reports Returned
Grading
Final grades will be determined using the following criteria:
To earn an A or A-, your work must be clearly superior. B grades represent performance that is average.
C grades represent performance that is below average. D grades represent performance that is barely acceptable. F represents failing performance, distinctly unacceptable.
Honest, regular feedback is very important. You can expect it from this instructor. You will be asked to give the instructor your feedback, including suggestions for
improvement of course content or delivery. If problems develop, these should be identified and the instructor informed at an early date.
The following is the relative weighting of the final grade:
Class attendance and discussion 20%
Project Report 40%
Final Examination 40%
Total 100%
Suggested Optional Readings/References
David P. Baron, Business and Its Environment. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
Gene E. Bradley, “How to Work in Washington: Building Understanding for Your Business,” Columbia Journal of World Business, Spring 1994.
Robert J. Calvin, Entrepreneurial Management. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. Peter F. Drucker, Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles. New
York: HarperBusiness, 1985.
Theodore J. Eismeier and Philip H. Pollock III, Business, Money and the Rise of Corporate PACS in American Elections. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1988. Willis Emmons, The Evolving Bargain: Strategic Implications of Deregulation and Privatization. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000.
Robert S. Frey, Successful Proposal Strategies for Small Business: Using Knowledge Management to Win Government, Private-Sector, and International Contracts. 3rd ed. Boston: Artech House, 2002.
Stephen Goldsmith, “Can Business Really Do Business with Government?” Harvard Business Review, May-June 1997.
Robert D. Hisrich and Michael P. Peters. Entrepreneurship. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2002.
Cornelius M. Kerwin, Rulemaking: How Government Agencies Write Law and make Policy. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1999. Charles S. Mack, Business Strategy for an Era of Political Change. Westport, CT:
Quorum Books, 2001.
Alice H. Margos, ed., Small Business Financing: How and Where to Get It. Chicago: Commerce Clearing House, 1998.
Thomas G. Marx, “Integrating Public Affairs and Strategic Planning,” California Management Review, Fall 1986.
Benjamin W. Mokry, Entrepreneurship and Public Policy: Can Government Stimulate Business Startups? Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1988.
Patrick D. O’Hara, SBA Loans: A Step-by-Step Guide. New York: Wiley, 2002. James Post, Anne Lawrence, and James Weber, Business and Society: Corporate
Strategy, Public Policy, Ethics. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2002. C. W. Roney, Assessing the Business Environment: Guidelines for Strategists.
Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1999.
Kim Ezra Shienbaum, American Shockwave: Entrepreneurial Capitalism and Its Global Impact. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002.
George A. Steiner and John F. Steiner, Business, Government and Society: A Managerial Perspective. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2003. Fred S. Steingold, Legal Guide for Starting and Running a Small Business. 7th ed.
Berkeley, CA: Nolo Press, 2003.
Wesley B. Truitt, Business Planning: A Comprehensive Framework and Process. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 2002, especially Chap. 4.
Michael Watkins, “Government Games: Understanding the Role of Government in
Business Strategy,” Harvard Business School Note No. 9-902-222, June 28, 2002. James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It.
New York: Basic Books, 1989.
_____, “The Corporation as a Political Actor,” in Carl Kaysen, ed. The American Corporation Today. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Shawn Zeller, “K Street’s Top 10: The Shifting Lineup,” National Journal, October 20, 2001.
