Functional Areas of Business: Key Areas and Required Skills

This report discusses the different functional areas of business and their importance in achieving organizational objectives. It also covers the key skills required by employees to work effectively in these areas. The report uses IOM Electronics Ltd. as an example to explain the various functional areas of business.

BSc (Hons) Business Management with
Foundation
BMP3004
World of Work
Functional Areas
Submitted by:
Name:
ID:
Contents
1

1.0 Introduction p
2.0 What is a business? p
3.0 What is Functional areas of business – Definition
p
4.0 What are the key functional areas of a business?
P
5.0 Description of the various functional areas in business
organizations p-p
5.1 Marketing p
5.2 Human Resource Management p
5.3 Customer Service p
5.4 Finance p
5.5 Research and Development p
5.6 Sales p
6.0 Description of the types of skills needed by employees
to be able to work effectively in these functional areas
p-p
6.1 Skills needed by Marketing employees p
6.2 Skills needed by Human Resource Management employees
p
6.3 Skills needed by Customer Service employees
p
6.4 Skills needed by Finance employees p
6.5 Skills needed by Research and Development employees
p
6.6 Skills needed by Sales employees p
2

7.0 Conclusion p
References p
3

1.0 Introduction
Functional areas of the business facilitate in permitting each department in
order to operate within its particular area of the expertise. These areas help the
organization in maximizing the level of its efficiency as well as effectiveness across
the business as a whole. In this report, IOM Electronics Ltd. is taken into
consideration as an organization which is located in UK dealing in designing, testing
and manufacturing elector-mechanical as well as hydraulic actuation systems
(Ackah, 2019). Within this report, different functional areas of the business are
explained. Along with it, various types of skills that are required by employees in
order to work effectively in functional areas will also be discussed as well.
2.0 What is a business?
Business is referred to an enterprise, organization or an entity that is engaged
in conducting industrial, commercial or professional activities. There are different
kinds of businesses such as profit organizations and non-profit organizations.
Business is considered as an occupation or trade along with sale as well as
purchase of services and products in order to maximize the level of profits (Ai and
et.al, 2019). IOM Electronics Ltd. is a profit based organization whose core motive is
to maximize the level of profitability within the business.
3.0 What is Functional areas of business - Definition
Functional areas are defined as areas that are performed as well as
controlled within the business with the help of various parts of organization. Better
understanding of different functional areas of business facilitates the organization in
attaining its objectives and goals in an effective and efficient manner. The main
objective of this is to ensure that the crucial activities of the business are carried out
efficiently. This is very important for a business to meet its aim as well as objectives
(Chang and et.al, 2020). key reasons for eliminating the operations of business into
functional areas is to permit each in order to operate within its expertise area along
with developing efficiency as well as effectiveness throughout the business as a
whole. Within IOM Electronics Ltd. there are various functional areas such as,
finance, HR, sales, customer service, research and development, etc. All these
4

functional areas facilitate respective organization in carrying out its business
activities in an effective manner.
4.0 What are the key functional areas of a business?
There are various kind of functional areas of the business and some of the
key functional areas of the business involve management, operations, marketing and
sales, accounting, finance, research and development and many more. Within a
complex organization, it is generally convenient to recognize separate functional
areas as human resources within an organization work together in different
departments (Guo and et.al, 2018). And, each department operates the business
tasks that are associated with its specific area. Understanding of the various
functional areas of the business is a primary knowledge that an entrepreneur is
required to get. Without these different business departments, an organization would
not only fail to execute its policies and rules but also fail to operate it in a successful
way.
5.0 Description of the various functional areas in business
organizations
5.1 Marketing:
Marketing department within the business helps in preparing the materials
that are used by the sales function like price lists and brochures and maintain
external advertising as well as promotional activities. Within IOM Electronics Ltd. the
function of marketing plays a major role in identifying the needs and requirements of
the electronic products along with their designs which fulfill those needs. This
function also helps the organization in promoting its products and related services
and the best process of delivering its goods and services to its potential customers
by making effective marketing and promotional strategies (Knippschild and Schmotz,
2018). This helps the company in capturing a large number of target market and
gains competitive benefits over rivalries that are available in the market-place.
5.2 Human Resource Management:
5

Hiring human resources within an organization is the most well-defined task of
business department and ensures that right candidate is recruited for the right job at
the right time. Organizations have to ensure that manpower who is hired has right
and appropriate skills, experience as well as qualifications that are on the basis of
the requirements and needs of the business. Within IOM Electronics Ltd., the
function of HR is to provide effective training and development sessions,
compensation and other benefits, employee and worker relations and development
of organization (Kurek, Wójtowicz and Gałka, 2020). The functional area of HR is
considered as the most crucial asset for IOM Electronics as the success of business
lies in the hands of its people.
5.3 Customer Service:
Customer service department within a business is considered as the in charge
of conducting interactions with its potential customers. It can consist of answering
the queries of market share regarding products as well as services, processing of
orders along with addressing the concerns and complaints of the target market. This
functional area is the initial line of contact with the general public for many
organizations. Within IOM Electronics, the key responsibilities of this type of
department is to develop and strengthen the relationship of business with its
customers (Long and et.al, 2021). This functional area within respective organization
is able to create, maintain as well as retain relationship of its business with its target-
market.
5.4 Finance:
This functional area includes planning for obtaining and managing the funds
of an organization. Finance managers within IOM Electronics plan for short-term as
well as long-term financial capital requirements and also evaluate the influence of
borrowing on well-being of organization. This functional area helps the business in
getting funds through different sources and understanding the process of capital
formation for the long-term health of business by framing well-informed financial
decisions (Ma and Long, 2020).
5.5 Research and Development:
6

This function is associated with the development of new products or services and the
improvements within existing goods or services of an organization. Respective
business is making innovation within its existing products as well as services
because of market research or the feedback from customers. Within IOM
Electronics, aim of this functional area is to accomplish the work with designers in
order to develop a usable electronic product which can be manufactured at
reasonable cost, sold at competitive price and is safe to use.
5.6 Sales:
The main aim of the functional area of sales is to close the income that is
required by an organization for operating the business activities in a profitable way
(Naimabadi, Gholami and Ramezani, 2021). Relying on the nature of market and
size of IOM Electronics, this functional area can vary in approach as well as
structure. The function of sales department is to exploit outcomes generated by
marketing and activities created by sales force itself.
6.0 Description of the types of skills needed by employees
to be able to work effectively in these functional areas
6.1 Skills needed by Marketing employees:
Marketing employees are required to have various skills that would help the
organization as a whole in achieving its productivity at high level (Shams and et.al,
2018). There are different types of skills that are needed by marketing manager and
some of them are communication skills, creativity skills, problem-solving skills,
interpersonal skills, leadership skills, writing skills, data analysis and analytic skills,
etc.
6.2 Skills needed by Human Resource Management employees:
There are various kinds of skills that are required by employees of human
resource management and some of these skills are organizational skills,
technological skills, negotiation skills, ethical actions skills, patience and many more.
6.3 Skills needed by Customer Service employees:
Persuasive speaking skills, empathy skills, adaptability skills, self-control
skills, responsibility skills, effective communication skills, patience skills are some
examples of skills that are needed by customer service employees.
7

6.4 Skills needed by Finance employees:
Finance employees are required to possess accounting skills, analytical and
critical thinking skills, business intelligence skills, financial modeling and reporting
skills, cash flow management skills, financial management skills, etc.
6.5 Skills needed by Research and Development employees:
There are several types of skills that are needed by the employees of
research and development and some of these skills are excellent verbal
communication skills, analytical thinking skills. Some other skills are thinking and
reasoning skills, to be thorough and pay attention to detail, math knowledge, ability
to use initiatives (Siu, Lin and Chung, 2019).
6.6 Skills needed by Sales employees:
Communication skills, active listening skills, product knowledge, rapport-
building skills, organizational skills, time management skills, problem solving skills,
social media skills, technological skills. Some other skills that are concerned with this
are customer relationship management skills, information gathering skills,
collaborative skills, conflict management skills, prospecting skills and many more
(Wang and et.al, 2020). These are the skills that are required by employees of sales
department within an organization.
Conclusion
From above explanation of the report, it has been concluded that various
functional areas of the business help the organization in meeting its objectives as
well as gals in an effective and efficient manner. In this report, different functional
areas of the business have been explained that helped the organization in
maximizing the productivity as well as profitability of the business. Moreover, skills
required by employees of different functional areas also have been discussed in this
report that facilitated the organization as a whole in capturing more customers and
achieving the success of the business.
8

References
Books and Journals
Ackah, M., 2019. Soil elemental concentrations, geoaccumulation index, non-
carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks in functional areas of an informal e-
waste recycling area in Accra, Ghana. Chemosphere. 235. pp.908-917.
Ai and et.al, 2019. In vitro bioaccessibility of potentially toxic metals (PTMs) in Baoji
urban soil (NW China) from different functional areas and its implication for
health risk assessment. Environmental geochemistry and health. 41(2).
pp.1055-1073.
Guo and et.al, 2018, July. Urban functional regions using social media check-ins.
In IGARSS 2018-2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Symposium (pp. 5061-5064). IEEE.
Knippschild, R. and Schmotz, A., 2018. Border regions as disturbed functional areas:
analyses on cross-border interrelations and quality of life along the German–
Polish border. Journal of Borderlands Studies. 33(3). pp.371-391.
Kurek, S., Wójtowicz, M. and Gałka, J., 2020. Population growth in functional urban
areas. In Functional Urban Areas in Poland (pp. 33-50). Springer, Cham.
Long and et.al, 2021. Contamination, sources and health risk of heavy metals in soil
and dust from different functional areas in an industrial city of Panzhihua
City, Southwest China. Journal of Hazardous Materials. 420. p.126638.
Ma, S. and Long, Y., 2020. Functional urban area delineations of cities on the
Chinese mainland using massive Didi ride-hailing records. Cities. 97.
p.102532.
Naimabadi, A., Gholami, A. and Ramezani, A. M., 2021. Determination of heavy
metals and health risk assessment in indoor dust from different functional
areas in Neyshabur, Iran. Indoor and Built Environment. 30(10). pp.1781-
1795.
Shams and et.al, 2018. Strategic innovation management: A cross-functional vision
to be materialised. In Business Models for Strategic Innovation (pp. 1-10).
Routledge.
Siu, A. M., Lin, Z. and Chung, J., 2019. An evaluation of the TEACCH approach for
teaching functional skills to adults with autism spectrum disorders and
intellectual disabilities. Research in developmental disabilities. 90. pp.14-21.
Wang and et.al, 2020. Spatial distribution of pollution characteristics and human
health risk assessment of exposure to heavy elements in road dust from
different functional areas of Zhengzhou, China. Environmental Science and
Pollution Research. 27(21). pp.26650-26667.
9