Report on Functional Areas and Skills for Business Success

This report examines the critical functional areas within a business, including Human Resources, Operations, Marketing and Sales, Finance, and Research and Development, emphasizing the skills required for employees to perform efficiently in each area. It uses a case study approach, referencing John’s IOM Electronics Ltd., to illustrate the importance of skilled personnel in various departments. The report highlights specific skills such as communication, decision-making, problem-solving, technical proficiency, and management expertise necessary for each functional area to contribute effectively to the overall success and revenue generation of the organization. Ultimately, the report underscores the need for businesses to invest in employee training and development to ensure optimal performance across all functional areas.

WORLD OF WORK
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Functional areas of business........................................................................................................3
Type of skills that is needed for the employees to carry out efficient work under the functional
areas.............................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business is all depends over its relevant strategies and functionalities which makes it
successful in its market areas (Shao, 2019). Management comes as the initial level under the
functional area which controls all business activities and make sure better carrying out of an
operation. Following study covers the case study where it states that owner of organisation does
not have potential experience and skills regarding running the business. Thus this study aims to
develop the knowledge that can be useful in smooth running of business. It will highlight the
discussion over the functional areas and type of skills which is required for the workforce in
order to work efficiently within the functional areas.
MAIN BODY
Functional areas of business
Human resource Management
Human resource management is a major function required within a business. This
function mainly focuses on the human resource present in the organization (Mathis. And et.al.,
2016). As per the IOM electronics Ltd. The company currently has 200 employees within the
organization. This function basically focuses on recruitment, selection, training, developing,
directing, leading and overall managing the personnels within an organization. The organization
requires to have efficient and proficient employees to achieve the goals of the organization who
are also devoted towards the organization. The human resource managers also take care of the
environment of the organization so it is not pressurizing and work friendly for the employees.
Operations
Operations management is mainly concerned with conversion of the raw materials and
the labour into the products and the services in the most efficient as well as effective way
possible (Finch, 2022). This function generally is also known as the production function in
several organizations. It mainly focuses on the procedures, resources and time required to
convert the raw materials into the finished goods or services that are going to reach the end
consumer or the buyer of the product. The operation or the production function is considered to
be the heart of the company because the basis of all the activities of a business is to offer the
product or service.
Marketing and sales
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This function performs all the activities related to the marketing and the sales of the
company (Baines Fill and Rosengren, 2017). The function mainly focuses on the identification of
the needs and requirements of the consumers and providing the products and services in
accordance to meet those requirements and needs of the consumers. The function also ensures
that right products are offered at right price in right place through right medium. This performs
activities like, identifying, communicating, creating and delivering the value to their customers.
Finance
This function by the name itself suggests that it focuses on the most essential aspect or
area of the organization, finance. No business can ever operate successfully without the adequate
and required financing. This function is precisely responsible for the planning, obtaining and
management of the funds or finances of the company. The finance function of an organization is
also responsible for the collection of finances, recording of financial and quantitative
transactions and evaluating the financial activities that are conducted within a business.
Research and development
The research and development function of the business focuses on the collection or
gathering of the information or knowledge for the creation of new products or for discovering
new ways for the purpose of improving the existing goods and services of the company. This is
not only necessary for getting the information regarding the products or the services of the
company rather the external factors present, like, political, environmental, legal, economic,
social and technological factors that may affect the business are also recognized and evaluated by
this function. This is basically done for improvisations in the company and for overall
development.
Type of skills that is needed for the employees to carry out efficient work under the functional
areas
Skills is the ability which makes individual to find solution for every problem, it is the
expertise which is essential in order to incorporate with the goals and objectives. In business
environment every organisation aims to acquire the greater market share and to increase their
business value, it all depends to employee productivity, as workers are the prominent and major
key role player in the success of the organisation (Alt and Reinhold, 2020). Therefore, it is
important for the firm to provide the skill and knowledge development training to their

employees so that they will incorporate with their desired goals and objectives. For the John’s
IOM electronics company, it is important to develop understanding regarding functional areas
and to make sure to select the candidates in functional areas based on their skills and knowledge.
It is common that all employees should have decision making, communication and problem
solving skills then John will be able to run their business and to generate revenues for it.
Human resource department: HR resource is the most important resource of organisation, where
the employees make sure to control the organisational resources in a better manner. For that it is
important for them to have the management knowledge and other reasoning knowledge in order
to make effectual decisions. It is important to have communication skills which is must for the
HR team in order to deal with stakeholders (Mikulskiene and et.al 2018). They should have the
administration knowledge as how to run and how to make best utilisation of the resources. it is
important to have decision making skills therefore for John’s company HR team will be able to
make right choice regarding hiring of the candidates. Other skill which is required is training and
development skill, as within workplace it is major responsibility of HR team to analyse the
requirement of such trainings and to provide it to employees for sharpening their knowledge.
Other knowledge is required in excel to monitor HR matrices.
Finance: Finance department is most prominent to every organisation as, they are responsible for
controlling and managing organisational assets, therefore it is important for the employees to
have the relevant skills that helps them to manage the expenditure and assigned the budget in
order to eliminate the capital loss chances (Stonebraker, 2020). Finance Employees must need to
have analytical, problem solving skills both these skills help in making strategic decision where
it involves the big data, information technology knowledge. Other skills are adeptness regarding
use of logics, numeracy, persuasiveness, financial planning, budgeting. Hence for the john’s
company it is important to provide trainings for developing this skill in their employees for the
easy going of finance functions.
Marketing and sales: For marketing employee must need to have communication skills and
negotiation skills, it is also important that employees should possess good technical knowledge
in order to deal with the technologies. creativity, interpersonal, leadership, data analytics and
leadership skills are must require for the employees in order to incorporate with the marketing
activities. Therefore, it is up to the CEO john to selects their employees for carrying out the
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marketing activities, their skills and knowledge will helps them to maximise the sales of their
offering for generating revenues.
Research and development: They are the major role player who ensures to provides the
competitive benefit to the firm. Future growth of firm is relying over the R&D department; hence
it is important for John to have the workforce to run this functional department in order to
achieve success in their business. It is important that these departmental team should have the in
depth knowledge, writing skills, communication skills, management skill, complex problem
solving skills and time management skill in order to provide better research information to
organisation that aims to create better values for the business.
Operation: Operational departmental people handles the production process and other
management process, workers ensures to manage the supply chain, coordinates operational tasks,
forecasting, product designing (Hill, 2018). Therefore, they play an significant role in success of
the organisation. hence it is important for the employees to have the technical skills in order to
design product and regarding procurement process, inventory management. Operational workers
should have excellent command over the communication skills in order to communicate
throughout the running of any operational task for the business. Time management, active
listening, planning and work arrangement all are the relevant skills which is required for carrying
out the efficient task.
Therefore, above has discussed the relevant communication, time management, decision
making skills which the John need to focus on developing in their employees. It will help them to
run their business with the aim to generate the maximum revenues.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been evaluated that for running the business it is important to
have key role player within every functional areas of business. Above report have discussed the
case study where it highlighted the requirement which is needed in order to smooth running of
business. Above has discussed the functional areas of business where it highlights the finance,
human resource, marketing and sales, operation and research and development functional areas.
Further report has illustrated the range of discussion over the skills which is required in working
within the specified functional areas.

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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Alt, R. and Reinhold, O., 2020. Social CRM: Tools and Functionalities. In Social Customer
Relationship Management (pp. 57-80). Springer, Cham.
Baines, P., Fill, C. and Rosengren, S., 2017. Marketing. Oxford University Press.
Finch, B., 2022. How to write a business plan: win backing and support for your ideas and
ventures (Vol. 1). Kogan Page Publishers.
Hill, I., 2018. How did you get up and running? Taking a Bourdieuan perspective towards a
framework for negotiating strategic fit. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development. 30(5-
6), pp.662-696.
Mikulskiene, B. and et.al 2018, September. Transformative Demands for ERP Functionalities:
Knowledge Management in Customized Manufacturing. In European Conference on
Knowledge Management (pp. 563-XXIII). Academic Conferences International Limited.
Shao, Z., 2019. Interaction effect of strategic leadership behaviors and organizational culture on
IS-Business strategic alignment and Enterprise Systems assimilation. International
journal of information management. 44. pp.96-108.
Stonebraker, I., 2020. The down-ballot librarian: experiences running for public office. The
Political Librarian. 4(2). p.4.