Business Operations and Management: Case Study Analysis of Marks & Spencer

BUSINESS OPERATIONS
AND MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Key functions of business operations..........................................................................................1
Mark and Spencer operational management decisions................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Business operations are defined as the set of activities which aims at accomplishing and
smoothening business objectives. There is variety of business operations which are performed in
alignment with each other to conduct business activities. This report will discuss the case study
analysis of Marks & Spencer; a leading British retailer which has gained immense success on the
basis of its effective functional abilities. The report will discuss different business operations and
their functions. The study will also evaluate the operational management decisions of the
organisation and how they have contributed in global success of company.
MAIN BODY
Key functions of business operations
Different tasks or activities of business operations are performed on routine basis so that
they can provide stability and profitability to business. In addition to the individual functional
roles each of the business operations is also dependent on the other. The scope and extent of
business functions vary from one business to other depending upon size and nature of business,
nature of consumers and long term objectives of business. These functions are as follows:
Accounting:
Accounting function is used to summarise and measure the business activities in
quantitative form so that performance can be analysed by statistical facts and figures. This
function interprets the financial information so that their result can be informed to management
and better decisions can be taken by the other functions (Maheshwari and et.al., 2017). In order
to evaluate the performance of business and other functional units it is very important that each
and every functional aspect is measured by accounting team. The outcomes of this function are
crucial in evaluating the effectiveness of decisions. The analysis of firm’s profitability is directly
reflected by the accounting report. In order to grow and to plan successfully about the future
business strategies of firm it is required that firm uses more advanced and accurate accounting
methods which deliver precise results.
Finance:
Another significant function is financing which is often overlapped with accounting. The
primary function of finance is to ensure the availability of all resources so that business can be
expanded and operated. The financial function involves budgeting, tax compliances, actions to
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raise the finance capital and strategies to safeguard the assets of company (Bustinza, Vendrell-
Herrero and Baines, 2017). Financial function is very important as it allow organisation to
accomplish its various business activities within allocated fund limits. The ineffective financial
functionality can result in mismanagement or deficiency of funds and thus business may fail to
meet its daily expenditures. Organisations such as M&S are recommended to use advanced
financial methods to analyse and research the productive ways to enhance sources of funds and
to accomplish growth objectives of the company.
Production and operations:
This function aims at producing good quality products or services as per the client
demands and business objectives. For accuracy and quality, it needs a greater degree of
collaboration with the other functional departments such as marketing or sales. Production
function aims at managing inventory or raw material, production process and receiving feedback
about the produced output (Painter and et.al., 2019). These functions aim at making optimum and
efficient use of organisational resources so that quality products or services can be produced. If
production function is not quick or standard, then it can lead to dissatisfaction among customers
and thus it has directly impact upon expected outcomes of organisational performance and brand
value. If production function is not performed with due care and improvement, then it can make
organisational survival very challenging and costly.
Sales:
This function can be considered as bridge between actual profitability and expected
outcomes of the business. It is one of the criteria which can be used to measure the success and
effectiveness of the operations. The fundamental role of sales function is to manage and handle
products or services and to obtain considerable price against it. In addition to encouraging sales
this operational unit also identify the potential customers which can be convinced to buy
products. They also take follow ups from the targeted customers so that sales can be boost up. It
is an important function of the organisation because the profitability and success of company
directly depends upon sales.
Marketing:
This is one of the most important function of business which create awareness among
customers about the organisation or its product. Without marketing function M&S may not be
able to create its identity among potential market or customers (Heikkilä, Kaipia and Ojala,
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