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Six Greatest Financial Necessities
of Business Life
Introduction
Good business comes from innovation, risk and customer satisfaction. But we do
need a simple measure to keep control. Whilst it is possible to be a sales manager with
a less than rudimentary knowledge of, say, production, it is not possible to be an
anything manager without a good passing knowledge of finance. This section outlines
those basic great ideas that allow finance to be an enabler and encourager of business.
The concept of money and interest (Idea 39) leads through limited companies
(Idea 40) and double-entry book-keeping (Idea 41) to the all-important financial
ratios that determine the health of a company (Idea 42). Finally, we come to the best
way of estimating the financial future of projects and proposals (Idea 43). But we
start with a short nightmare.
Idea 38 – Even Turing Idea 44 needed Arabic numerals
If Arabic numbers had not been developed, the chances are we would still be count-
ing in Roman numerals. Have a go at these simple sums without resorting to Arabic
numerals:
1 MDCXXI + LCCIV
2 DIV – CCCVII
3 CCCVI × XI
The answers are given in Appendix 1.
