Defining Business

Now that we have an understanding of “holocognics,” let’s explore what a “business” is.

Obviously, Microsoft is a business, and so is the neighborhood dry cleaner. But, is a ten year old’s lemonade stand a “business” if it is only intended to last the weekend?

I consider any undertaking for value a “business.” That’s a very broad definition, but one that will be important in the future. Using that definition, an employee is a self-contained business.

Many people would take issue with that: the employee doesn’t pay “business taxes” or “business expenses.” Sure, an independent contractor does, but not a full time employee.

My response is: every individual makes decisions based on their perception of what is in their best interest. Thus, the very act of attempting to survive is a business since survival is an undertaking for value. The study of business holocognics can be applied broadly (and would overlap Economics in many instances).

Too broad a definition is not useful, so the following question must be asked:
What are the basic stages of an “undertaking for value” or “business”?

Here are what I consider the stages of a business:
1. Startup
2. Change
3. Exit (or end or implementation of an exit strategy)

Each of these stages can, and will, be broken down further and defined. Doing so will provide a complete and detailed understanding of “business,” or “undertakings for value.”

The definition of “value” will be the subject of a future post.

Cheers,
Aaron

What is Holocognics?

Since this is my first blog post, I thought I would explain what this blog is about and what the word "Holocognics" means.

The purpose of this blog is to explore the methods by which business succeeds. I want to share the practices developed by myself and my partner in our roles as consultants working with entrepreneurs, startups, and larger businesses. Hopefully some of the information will be interesting and useful.

If you read something that makes a difference in your business practice, please email me and let me know. Also, if you have any comments, please email them to me. It is true, I am a lawyer, but I like to think I am a personable and approachable lawyer. Also, feel free to visit the Chandler & Shechet, LLP website to learn more about me, my partner, and our business.

When thinking about the approach we take in helping businesses grow, I realized that although we represent clients in court, provide advice regarding our client's rights, register trademarks, etc. we serve a function beyond "lawyer." We help our clients with brand development (I will discuss that term in a later post), create lean processes and systems (for a later post), develop business models (later post), and draft business plans (later post).

But the legal work we do and our role as advocates make us more than just "consultants."

There is a lot of cross-over between these roles, and that is what makes our practice unique. If we were to teach our methods in an academic setting, what courses would we teach? Would it be law school with business classes or business school with law classes? I don't know, so I came up with a word for the interdisciplinary study.

Holocognics is a new word made up of the following: "holo," "cogn," and "ics."

Holo is the root for "whole" or "entire."
Cogn is the root for "know."
Ics is a suffix which means "things having to do with." Think of "optics" meaning "having to do with opt (roughly translated 'opt' means 'seen')."

So, holocognics is "things having to do with a whole knowing" or, roughly, "regarding a whole understanding."

As the blog title would suggest, I will explore a whole understanding of business -- what makes it function, what makes it profitable, what makes it valuable (different than profitable), how to make business "work." This is a pseudo-academic, pseudo-practical undertaking which necessarily will involve discussions of Economics, Politics, and Marketing, as well as many other subjects.

I hope that you, as an entrepreneur, CEO, COO, and/or "other" will find such discussions interesting, but more importantly, useful. If you work for someone, I hope you will gain some insight into the function of business (and how business functions) and why some of the requests your boss makes of you seem random. Perhaps you will even be inspired to start your own business.

I understand that although I may enjoy discussions of how the second-derivative of a supply curve affects the price of oil, and delving into an analysis of why calculus helps explain that, others may read math equations and ask "but what does that have to do with the price of gas in Egypt?"

So, I will try not to get too technical. I hope most of my posts will be significantly more interesting than this one.

One other aspect of this blog that you should be aware of: I plan to occasionally review other blogs. If you need an excuse as to how that fits the theme of my blog, I am sure I can come up with something. But, to be honest, I enjoy breaking things down into their basics and learning what works and what doesn't, and the proliferation of blogs makes them an easy thing to evaluate.

Hey! That fits in the theme!

Until next time,
Aaron