BMGT 313: Understanding Business PowerWeb

Dr. JoAnn Rolle	Welcome to the first module of BMGT-313, Women as Entrepreneurs. In this session we will discuss Understanding Business PowerWeb.
	First, let's discuss why we have included the PowerWeb in your course material. In the real world, as in the class, there's a great diversity of skill among your classmates—from the novice, those of you who have not had any business courses, to those of you who've actually started and ran your own business. The PowerWeb is a tool that will help those who are just beginning, and those who have extensive knowledge and want to build on that knowledge.
Slide description	Let's start our agenda for this session. We will: give you an overview; give you the location of the understanding business PowerWeb within the text; talk about the logon procedures; talk about some of your PowerWeb resources; give you a demonstration and illustration of some of those resources; talk about PowerWeb's uses within the course, and give you a summary of the session.
Slide description	Let's start with an overview of the Understanding Business PowerWeb. It's a business tool and a resource to help you develop business acumen. For those of you who are novices, start by using the definition and the terms. We will actually demonstrate those functions within this session. For those of you who are more accelerated users of business terms and theories, we actually have news and current events available to you in this tool. You will also be able to do special research on topics that are of interest to you, and link to special business sites that might be related to the industries as well as the companies that you are specifically interested in.
	Let's turn to the location of the PowerWeb within your text. On the left-hand part of the panel you will see a Table of Contents. The very first link is the link to PowerWeb.
	Double-click on that link, it will bring you to the login page. At the login page you merely put in your user name and the password and it will give you access to the PowerWeb. If for some reason you don't know your user name and password, double-click on Look Up User Name and Password. If you continue to have problems accessing the PowerWeb, please contact your instructor for help with the publisher.
	Now, let's look at some of the resources that you will find on the Home Page once you get into the PowerWeb. The readings, articles, links, interactive exercises, updates, current events, searches, and resources that will be available to you (but we won't talk much about in this demonstration) are student resources: study tips, Web research, research links, and special career tools and guides for you. I encourage you to access and use these tools even though we won't talk about them in this demonstration. And they won't be required in the course, but they are useful for you.
	Let's start with the interactive exercises. Double-click on Interactive Exercises. Now, go to the bottom of the page, and double-click on Interactive Glossary.
	Here, for the novice, if you have a question on a specific term or definition that we're using (in either the case study or some of the other articles that you're reading, or just other information that you'd like to know more about), click on the letter that the term begins with and you can find all of the terms, or put the word in there. For example, if you did not know the definition or the business meaning of advertising, it is specifically cited here in this example.
	Now, for those of you who may have some more advanced knowledge and you may already have an idea of what businesses you're interested in, let's go to Researching Business Topics by PowerWeb Units. Let's double-click on Select a Unit, Unit 2, Business Ownership, Starting a Business. Here you will find articles that appear in both PDF and HTML formats that talk specifically about specific business topics that may be of interest to you. We will also look at quizzes that could be asked of you either in the course or for your own self-assessment.
	Let's now go to Researching Business Topics by Discipline. Some of you may find you have specific interests in management, accounting, finance. You can go to those specific topics. In this example you see accounting. Select articles within that specific discipline and actually get More Info.
Slide description	Let's now talk about how we will use PowerWeb in the course. You see there's a wealth of information and I encourage you, on your own, to actually evaluate the tool. But let's talk about how we will use it. First, it will be used in your Harvard Business School case studies. We will give you 10 case studies which we expect you to actually do research and analysis on the industry, on the firms, using the PowerWeb. In your entrepreneurship interviews we would ask you to go out and look at the industry, the firms, to do research on the entrepreneurs that you would like to interview before you actually do the interview. But the heart and soul of this course, and the heart and soul of the use of the PowerWeb for you is in business plan development and analysis. You should use the PowerWeb to actually go out to the industries and the businesses that you think that you would like to develop a business plan on and do your research on those businesses well in advance of us actually starting to write the business plan. Also, you can use the PowerWeb for your own personal and professional development by using the career tools that I mentioned to you earlier.
Slide description	In conclusion, the PowerWeb is a source of information to you to help guide you through the world of business and to help you in professional and career development. Use the tool to your benefit, and your teams and your individual work to help you be successful in the course. Thank you.