It is well and fine, and critical, to learn what the Finance discipline’s intellectual landmarks are, but the student certainly wants to know how Finance fits into the actual corporate (business) context, which is the focus of this text. Here we shall see.

The corporation will have both an “organizational structure,” detailing the manner in which the firm actually operates and a capital structure, which is depicted on the Balance Sheet. We will get to the Balance Sheet soon. First, the organization.

There are four-six basic business functions in the organization: