This is our first class to introduce the course Fundamentals of Financial and Management Accounting. The purpose of the course is to introduce the basic concepts which are related to both financial and management accounting. But actually before introducing the concepts which are related to accounting, we need to start from the background for something which is the reference schema and the reference element for the entire course, which is represented by the company. So actually during this first class, we will focus on what is a company? How we can represent the company? What is the objective of a company, and how we can measure the value that is generated by the company? So let's start from how we can represent a company. Actually, we can represent a company by using an input-output model. So starting from these model, we have our company, which can be represented as a black box. If we have a black box, this means that whatever activity is realized by the company, this is just something that we do not care, and the company realizing its activity, delivers some outputs. So basically the company aims at realizing some outputs which can be product, but they can also be services. So we can say that if a company is aimed to realize these output, which can be the delivering of a service, or the realization of a product. In order to do this, the company needs some inputs and these input can be of three different types. So we can have human resources, which we can represent as HR that stands for human resources. These are people, like Managers and employees that provides that activities inside the company. Then we have the technology. Technology can be represented by something like, for example, software instruments, we can have something like Lanza Instrumentation. So all of the technical elements that support the transformation of raw material into final product or services. Finally, we have one last element which is represented by financial resources. This is really important because the company needs money in order to realize the output. So basically, if we want to synthesize a company or any kind of company can be represented by using these model. So the company aims at realizing an output by using these three different categories of input, and the company is producing value if the value of the output is higher with respect to the value of the input. Actually, whatever kind of company can be represented by using this model. But during the course we are focusing on a specific type of company which are called profit company. So we need to understand more in detail what is a profit company and how we can represent this profit company. If we have a profit company, the objective is to maximize the value that is delivered to the shareholders. So we need to introduce a distinction between shareholders and stakeholders. Let's start from the shareholders and try to understand who they are. If we have shareholders, they are those that own the company and the reason why, is because they have the shares of the company, that is to say that actually they provide the capital to the company and we can represent the capital as capital at a certain moment of time. So they own the share, which means that they own a portion of the company, and finally if the company is performing well, what they will receive back will be a dividend. Again, a dividend at a certain moment of time. In contraposition to the shareholders, we have also other categories of factors because the company interacts also with several other actors. We can identify. First of all banks, so we have that the company has some relationship with banks and the reason why is because if the capital provided by shareholders is not enough, the company can ask banks for some money. So the company will receive loans and provide bank the same loan plus the interest. Moreover, we can have some relationship also with respect to governments and local authorities and the reason why is because the company is contributing. Let's say, to the development of the local area and at the same time the company is paying taxes. So again, we have other interaction between company and government. Then we have some interaction, as you can imagine with the clients and the reason why is because the company needs to understand what customers want and depending on what they want, the company will deliver the best product for the clients. Then we have the employees. Because of course, employees interact also with the company, and we have both managers and we have also workers because they provide the competencies and they execute inside the company itself. Finally, we can have something like, we can call it as general environment because depending on the country in which the company is operating, we can have also like the culture and then the attitudes of a certain country that will influence the activity of the company itself and let's say that all of these categories of factors through which the company interacts with can be defined as stakeholder. So this is another key word that we should take in mind, it is stakeholder. Basically to sum up, what's the difference between shareholders and stakeholder? If we have the shareholder, he owns a portion of the company because he has the shares, so he put the capital inside the company and receive back the dividend if the company is performing well, while stakeholders do not own the company, but they are just interested in how the company is performing because they have some relationship with the company itself. Now we say, "Okay, we have our company this is a profit company and the objective of a profit company is to deliver value to the shareholders." Now we need to understand how we can measure the value that the company can generate for the shareholders.
