Company phases

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The phases of a company shape the genetic structure of business administration . They can also be referred to as life and development phases. According to this structure concept, which is based on a certain "life cycle of a company", the entire life cycle of a company is divided into the foundation or establishment phase , the sales or operation phase and the dissolution or liquidation phase, occasionally also as foundation, development and Called the crisis phase.

The individual phases of corporate development do not have to be modeled in operational practice. There are cases in which the development passes from the start-up phase without an operating phase directly into the liquidation phase.

Foundation phase

As a pioneer phase, the start-up or establishment phase is the first phase of a company. A foundation is to be understood as the establishment of a functioning company in a market economy, with the idea (possibly vision) of the company founder (s) to be realized at the beginning. In the founding phase, the following decisions by management are in the foreground:

  • The target system as a whole of the individual targets to be striven for, e.g. B. monetary goals (profit, sales and cost goals) or non-monetary goals, such as increasing market share or improving product quality.
  • The range of services as an expression and framework of the company's planned range of services, which varies depending on the industry and can include, for example, production, banking, insurance, trading or transport services.
  • The legal form as the “legal dress” of an individual business administration, which can be, for example, a sole proprietorship , a partnership , a corporation or another company, e.g. B. a cooperative .
  • The organization as a structured totality of the organizational structure planned at the beginning , which delimits tasks, competence and responsibility areas, or the planned process organization , which is also referred to as process organization .

In addition, personal and factual requirements must be observed in the context of a foundation, initial contacts to be made, actions relating to business development or the company and its entry in the electronic commercial register , bank details to be opened and business premises with the corresponding technical requirements to be rented.

Operational phase

After it is founded, a company can develop very differently in the operating phase. The company management has to make comprehensive decisions that relate to the goods, finance and information management processes . The specific tasks of the company management include market development , diversification , acquisition, cooperation with other companies and restructuring measures, such as the search for new strategies or reorganization.

The decisions made in the founding phase often have to be revised or supplemented by the company management because unplanned influencing factors influence the company's development. These can be of different types. They can act as positive influencing factors on company development, e.g. B. low procurement costs, pleasantly short delivery times , increasing purchasing power of consumers, high operational liquidity and favorable credit terms.

On the other hand, negative influences can cause a company to lose its balance in the operating phase, for example due to excessively high procurement prices, very long delivery times, considerable scrap production, insufficient equity capital and considerable government regulations. These disruptive factors in corporate events can trigger corporate crises and bring a company into great distress.

Of insolvency is used when acute insolvency entering a company (§ 17 InsO), insolvency threatens (§ 18 InsO) or over-indebtedness is given (§ 19 InsO). An operational crisis can lead to recovery or the dissolution of a company. In this context, reference should be made to the reorganization , the insolvency procedure , the insolvency plan and the liquidation .

Dissolution phase

In the dissolution or liquidation phase, the last phase of operational development, all parts of a company's assets are sold. In the case of sole proprietorships , the transfer to private assets is also possible instead. A sale of the company as a whole, i.e. a company takeover , on the other hand, does not belong to the liquidation phase, but rather to the operating phase, since the company continues to exist legally and in fact.

The cause of this development can be the voluntary dissolution (e.g. if the business purpose is fulfilled, lack of successors in partnerships , etc.) or a forced dissolution (e.g. due to insolvency ). With the dissolution the employment of the company will be put to an end. The individual sale of the assets has the consequence that the company is broken up as an organizational unit.

According to the currently available research results, a large company in Germany has an average lifespan of 75 years. But there are also individual companies that are several hundred years old.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Günter Wöhe , Ulrich Döring : Introduction to General Business Administration . 24th edition. Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-8006-3795-9 , pp.  45 f .
  2. ^ A b Jean-Paul Thommen : Business Administration (BWL). Internet article. Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon , accessed March 15, 2015 .
  3. Knut Bleicher : Organization - strategies, structures, cultures . 2nd Edition. Wiesbaden 1991, ISBN 3-409-31552-7 , pp.  793 .
  4. ^ Jean-Paul Thommen , Ann-Kristin Achleitner et al .: General Business Administration . 6th edition. Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-8349-0366-2 , pp.  55 .
  5. ^ A b Dietmar Vahs , Jan Schäfer-Kunz : Introduction to business administration . 5th edition. Schäffer-Poeschel , Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-7910-2661-9 , pp.  7 .
  6. ^ Klaus Olfert, Horst-Joachim Rahn : Introduction to business administration . 10th edition. Herne 2010, ISBN 978-3-470-45300-2 , pp. 93-117 .
  7. Günter Wöhe, Ulrich Döring: Introduction to General Business Administration . 24th edition. Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-8006-3795-9 , pp. 275 .