1. The Changing Environment of business

A) The summary based on the textbook
The industrial revolution moved American industry away from a model of small workshops and hand tools to mechanized mass production in factories. Soon thereafter, business has never had a completely positive image in the United States.
The public’s current expectations of corporation are also different from what they were 40 or 50 years. With the bursting of the “dot.com bubble”; the exposure of corporate fraud at large companies such as WorldCom, Adelphia, and Tyco; and the collapse of Enron and its auditor, Andersen, due to fraudulent accounting, American perceived business as actively trying to deceive them.
As Marshall Mcluhan foresaw decades ago, technology has strengthened communication channels around the globe, disintegrating national borders to produce what the creation of a world so interwoven by shared knowledge that it becomes a “Global Village.” Disintegrating national borders, coupled with the liberalization of trade and finance in today’s “Global village,” also have fostered an increase in cross-border corporate mergers and the number of multinational corporations.
Meanwhile, the anti-globalization movement extends beyond traditional union bodies to include young and old customers, concerned parents and vocal student activists alike. Many individuals and communities object to the enormous political clout that large corporations wield today.
Therefore, in order to compete with other companies, managers should recognize that the business environment is constantly evolving.
Most importantly, corporate communication must be closely linked to a company’s overall vision and strategy. Successful companies connect communication with strategy through structure, such as having the head of corporate communication report directly to the CEO.

B) My viewpoint : The changing environment examples in the real-world
In these days, many countries want to sign the free trade agreements (FTAs) with other countries to improve their country’s benefits. I believe that it obviously shows one part of the changing business environment. Thus, the companies should make an effort to overcome the changing environment to compete with competitive firms in various areas.
The global economy is surrounded with extremely competitive business environments. Also, it is sustained by a free trade system, not a protective trade system. The free trade system requires the highly competitive markets to the firms because of ensuring free movement of goods, services and human resources. After all, the companies cannot help seeking the lower-cost places in overseas. This changing business environment results in facilitating the trade with cross-nations.
Another side of the changing business environment is emphasis of transparency on company operation. We remember many business bankruptcy and fraudulent accounting records such as Enron, Auther Andersen, and WorldCom. In the aftermath of these misconducts, ‘Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which introduced a new requirement that CEOs sign off on company balance states so they can be personally and legally liable for accidental of deliberate mistakes found later.’ In a another example, Samsung, electronic company in South Korea, has been investigating by prosecutors due to building illegal tens of billions dollars bribe through money laundering.
As we see the two cases, illegal accounting records might result in destroying of company as well as influencing on bad image about the firm. In this sense, the transparency of company is required of one of the changing business environments.