Functional Areas of Business: Key Functional Areas, Skills of Employees

This report discusses the key functional areas of a business, including marketing, human resource management, customer service, finance, research and development, and sales. It also explores the skills required by employees in each functional area.

Functional Areas

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
Functional areas of business:......................................................................................................3
Key functional areas of a business:.............................................................................................3
Various functional areas:.............................................................................................................4
Types of skills of employee:.......................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business is a set of activities that is done by individual or organisation to earn profit. This
include activities of developing and selling goods. As per the nature of business, it is essential to
make analysis of market sentiments to determine whether business idea is feasible or not . There
are very key functional areas in business organisation. The chosen organisation in this report is
IOM Electronics limited. This report provide the details about functional and operational area of
the company. It also analyse various skills sets which is essential for employee and management
to perform effective and efficient way.
PART 1
Functional areas of business:
 Business: Business is executed by individual or enterprise to make profits. It includes
activities of purchasing or selling of goods to seek earnings.
 Functional areas of business- In human body there are various function that is
performed by various organs. Similarly in context of business various function are
control and regulate by various elements of business (Strandhagen and et.al., 2017). The
Reason for dividing operations of business in various functional areas is to build
expertise and effectiveness of organisation.
Key functional areas of a business:
Functional area are those set of employee who have same set of skill or expertise. For
example company human resource department is one of the functional area and they mainly
focus on hiring best employee. It is important to organise key functional area so that same set of
employee synchronise and put together in particular group (Hassan and et.al., 2020). This will
increase profitability of a company. There are various functional areas of business management
that every business should execute like Management, Finance, Marketing, Costumer Service,
Human Resource, Research and development, Sale, technology equipment, Strategy, Operations
etc. Each function carries various task related to its areas.
The main aim of these function to synchronised all activities of business so that employee
and management will perform effective and efficient way. However the responsibility of all these
function aids in achieving goal of an organisation. Functional area is depend on what type of

work they are carrying on. Sales and marketing will aid in achieve target of new segment that
increase sale. Human resource contribute personal and professional development of employee.
Finance will support in achieving low cost and enhance profitability. Production determine
targets link with quality and achieving predetermine production program.
Various functional areas:
 Marketing: Marketing is all about designing goods or services as per need of potential
consumer. IOM Electronics limited should promote their goods or services and execute
strategy plan of pricing to achieve competitive advantage (Lamba and Singh, 2017).
Company have to analyse internal and external factors before execution of marketing
plans. So that they can easily make changes in existing plans
 Human Resource Management: This is one of important functional areas of business as
employee are essential part of business. Human Resource of this company must appoint
skilled and qualified candidate. They should hire best workers and try to update their
knowledge on regular basis through training and education programs. Because best
employee will increase productivity of company.
 Customer Service: Organisation must pay attention to the enquiry or complaint of
costumer. Costumer service department can handle the all enquires and compliant in
polite way. This will improve brand image and experience of consumer.
 Finance: This functional area prepare or issue budget for all the departments in company.
They have to check invoice and record received payment (Allmendinger and et.al.,
2017). It maintain payroll for staff. This forecast financial report and advise management
on source of funds for expenditure of entity.
 Research and Development: This function will provide proper guidance where company
is lacking and where there is a scope of improvement. Through this function company
can make improvement in existing product range or develop new product. They can also
identify opportunities for organization to introduce their product in new market. It helps
in gaining competitive advantage. Industry have to research internal or external
environment of company.
 Sales: It deals with direct selling of goods or services to end consumer. There is no means
of advanced product if people will not purchase product. In this company must set sales

target and objective so that sales team will act accordingly. Role or responsibility of each
sales staff must be pre defines. Staff should deliver the product in polite and positive way
so that it will provide positive feedback.
Types of skills of employee:
There are various types of skill that employee of IOM Electronics limited must required
to perform effectively and efficiently in these functional areas. These skills will contribute in
achieving organisation goal.
 Skills required by Marketing employee- The marketing employee must understand
needs of buyers and the process of sale. Marketer analyse target audience and motivate
sale force to generate income. They must have strong analytics skills. There are various
software through which they can analyse performance. It helps in decision making. It
should have knowledge of inbound marketing. This is one of the best way to attract and
convert strangers into consumer and promoters of business (Leon and Ishihara, 2018).
They should communicate clearly without jargon. It should have knowledge of basic
spreadsheet skill that helps in understanding trend. Employee must have experience of
digital channels and platform. Critical problem solving skills is needed to provide detail
solution of business.
 Skills required by human resource management employee- Human resource must
have effective communication skills. Through which they can build relation between
employee and management. They have to be expert in administrative duty like leave of
employee, absence records, inflow or outflow of employee, payroll etc. One of the
important skills is recruitment and selection of best employee. Providing training and
development to best employee through education programme (Reimer, Van Doorn and
Heyden, 2018). Coaching skills is reacquire in HR that provide on job and off job
training. It brings integration and resolve conflict among organisation. They should have
intercultural and language skills that help employee and management to contributes
efforts in achieving goal. They must have knowledge of human resource information
system that record all data and aids in decision making.
 Skills required by costumer service employee- Consumer service employee must
have persuasive speaking skills because more effective employee speak will generate
more lead. They must have skills of empathy, it will help in understanding view point

and sentiments. This aids in enhancing consumer satisfaction. Adaptability is essential
skills which employee include because each consumer is not of same nature. They
should use positive language while solving enquiry or complaints of costumer. There
must be clear communication while tackle all query. Costumer service employee must
listen effectively and provide all the information patiently. They have to be very
attentive so that scope of misleading will decrease.
 Skills required by finance employee- Budgeting is one of the important skills that
have to be planned and release funds as per the requirement of company. Firstly they
have to listing all expense and income, then issue budget accordingly. Negotiation is
also another skills that finance employee must have during buying and selling. Risk
bearing is crucial skill that help in making high profits. But risk must be taken after
analysis of its consequences (Makhele and Barnard, 2020). Employee of finance
department must always in search of investment. Through smart analysis they can find
out way to invest in most preferable source. Skill of forecasting helps in improving
financial position of industry.
 Skills required by research and development employee- To become effective
employee of research and development, it is essential to have clear vision from start to
end project. They should have ability to supervise and attention in every development
process of brand-new product segment. Leadership and communication skills aids in
managing all the level in an organisation. Creativity and innovative skills brings new
idea to business problems. These skills provide clear version for company, which area
they have to develop new product or new market.
 Skills required by sales employee - To succeed in sale, these are some master skills
that every sales person should include. The major skill is active listening. By active
listening employee can understand problems of costumer. Through effective
communication they can clearly deliver product and improve relationship with client.
Public speaking must be very confident and appealing so that sales employee easily grab
the attention of costumer (O'Dwyer and Gilmore, 2018). Sales employee have to
undergo through various tough condition. So they have to be adaptable which help them
in changing as per costumer situation.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that there must be a business plan before
starting a business. Planning will provide whole direction of business that help in the execution
of business. There are various key functional areas that business must perform in organisation
and must synchronise their efforts. Company have to analyse internal and external factor while
execution of these function. For enhancing profitability, productivity of employee they must
have certain skills that improve brand image of company. It is analysis that skills of marketing,
finance, human resource, sale employee need to be improvised for betterment of company
performance.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hassan, K. and et.al., 2020. Functional inks and extrusion-based 3D printing of 2D materials: a
review of current research and applications. Nanoscale. 12(37). pp.19007-19042.
Lamba, K. and Singh, S.P., 2017. Big data in operations and supply chain management: current
trends and future perspectives. Production Planning & Control. 28(11-12). pp.877-890.
Leon, A. and Ishihara, K.N., 2018. Assessment of new functional units for agrivoltaic systems.
Journal of environmental management, 226. pp.493-498.
Makhele, L. and Barnard, B., 2020. The Impact of Business Acumen and Startup Skills on
Entrepreneurial Development. IUP Journal of Entrepreneurship Development. 17(1).
O'Dwyer, M. and Gilmore, A., 2018. Value and alliance capability and the formation of strategic
alliances in SMEs: The impact of customer orientation and resource optimisation.
Journal of Business Research. 87. pp.58-68.
Reimer, M., Van Doorn, S. and Heyden, M.L., 2018. Unpacking functional experience
complementarities in senior leaders’ influences on CSR strategy: A CEO–Top
management team approach. Journal of Business Ethics. 151(4). pp.977-995.
Allmendinger, R. and et.al., 2017. Surrogate‐assisted multicriteria optimization: Complexities,
prospective solutions, and business case. Journal of Multi‐Criteria Decision Analysis.
24(1-2). pp.5-24.
Strandhagen, J.O. And et.al., 2017. Logistics 4.0 and emerging sustainable business models.
Advances in Manufacturing. 5(4). pp.359-369.