The essence of enterprise is a resource allocation mechanism, and enterprise and market are two alternative resource allocation methods.
The basic definition of an enterprise: an enterprise is an economic organization that provides products and services to the society for the purpose of making profits and production and operation.
In the category of commodity economy, as one of the various modes of organizational unit, an organic economic entity, according to certain organizational rules, generally aims at profit and takes the maximization of the interests of investors, customers, employees and the public as its mission, and exchanges income by providing products or services. It is the product of social development, and develops with the development of social division of labor.
Only when the definition of enterprise is clear can strategic management and corporate culture be clear. Nowadays, the research on enterprises is becoming more and more vague, and it is not clear what an enterprise is. The development situation has changed, and enterprises in the traditional sense have disappeared. No matter in form or substance, it is urgent to break through the traditional thinking mode of enterprise definition.
First of all, the enterprise is a contract organization.
Secondly, the enterprise is a market organization. As enterprises become more and more market-oriented, in the past, enterprises, as contractual organizations, were responsible by superiors; Now, enterprises are market-oriented organizations, and people are responsible for the market. The degree of marketization determines the profitability of enterprises.
Third, enterprises are learning organizations. It used to be thought that enterprises were manufacturing products, but now it seems that enterprises are manufacturing ideas. There are two value chains within the enterprise. One is the ideological value chain, from information knowledge to ability to thought. The second is the value chain of material form.
Fourth, enterprises are family education institutions. Corporate culture is called a kind of capital, and enterprises are also called a mode of operation. Enterprises are increasingly emphasizing culture and becoming a religious organization, so they must unify their core concepts and values.
Fifth, the enterprise is a virtual organization. Now everyone is talking about virtual production, virtual marketing, virtual transportation and virtual distribution. Everything is virtualized, and the more virtual the enterprise is, the more powerful it is.
Sixth, the enterprise is a borderless organization. It used to be thought that enterprises had boundaries. Later, it developed and became borderless. Later, the enterprise has both boundaries and no boundaries, and the boundaries are blurred, and everything is blurred. Now it seems that the marginal cost of an enterprise is less than the marginal revenue, or the marginal cost is zero if it is multiplied by the marginal revenue. If the marginal revenue remains unchanged, the law of increasing marginal cost and marginal revenue plays a leading role, that is, the boundary can be infinite, which is of great significance to enterprise management.
Seventh, the enterprise is a systematic organization. Nowadays, enterprises are divided into two lines: one is products and services, and the other is the guarantee system for enterprises to have sustainable competitiveness. Generally speaking, successful large foreign enterprises are systematic in operation and pay attention to systematicness.
Eighth, enterprises are networked organizations. The value chain organization is not enough for an enterprise, nor does it necessarily form a circle. To become a network organization and a chain owner, the enterprise and the network owner must integrate the operation of the value chain and make the enterprise a consortium. For China enterprises, it is time to integrate into this network, into a larger value network and more value networks.
Ninth, enterprises are global organizations. In the past, according to the barrel theory, enterprises decided how to improve the profit of the shortest root and make up the shortest root. Enterprises are always at a disadvantage. Now a new barrel theory has emerged, that is to say, instead of making the short one, you can make the one you are best at. Every enterprise has its own advantages, just as everyone does what they are most interested in. Low cost and high efficiency. From the barrel theory to the new barrel theory, according to the global positioning of each enterprise, you do a section, I do a section, global integration, integration into the process of globalization. The final enterprise is a global organization.
Tenth, enterprises are systematic organizations. In the end, turning the enterprise into a system means that ordinary people do extraordinary things. Specific to a person is very common, but it is very powerful to become a system. By establishing this system, management can reach the highest level, that is, there is no management; Make the strategy reach the highest level, that is, there is no strategy. Just like the highway.