Introduction to Business Studies

This document provides an introduction to the field of Business Studies, discussing the role of HR, marketing, and finance functions in a business. It also explores collaborative working practices and the role of financial management and reporting in an organization. The case study of Barr Britvic Soft Drinks, the largest soft drinks company in Europe, is used to illustrate these concepts.

INTRODUCTION TO
BUSINESS STUDIES

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
Role of HR, marketing and finance functions.............................................................................1
Collaborative working practices.................................................................................................3
Role of financial management and reporting in an organisation................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Business refers to the privately owned entity which established for profit or not for profit.
It is an entity which establish to produce or sell products and services for their own profit. It is
involved in commercial and professional activities and plays an essential role in shaping the
society. Every business requires some sort of investment and sufficient customers to earn more
and more profitability (Fill and Turnbull, 2016). It is important to analyse the legal structure of
business which is depend on the type of business. As in many countries, corporations type of
businesses are considered as the judicial persons which means that businesses can own their
property and also sued in court. In this report, the role marketing, HR and finance is discussed
and also describe the collaborative working practices. Lastly, it represents the role of financial
management and reporting in Barr Britvic Soft Drinks which is the British Soft drink
manufacturer and also become the largest soft drinks company in Europe.
MAIN BODY
Role of HR, marketing and finance functions
Human Resource:
They carry various functions and tasks which are also performed by other departmental
managers. The expertise of human resources are responsible for hiring, training, induction etc.
and also manages the relationship with employees, their benefits and other related functions.
Roles of HR are discussed as under: Performance management: It is the responsibility of HR manager to manage the
performance of employees because it helps in developing their motivation and boosting
their morale. It is helpful in order to improve the overall performance of employees and
also bring efficiency and effectiveness in achieving the goals and objectives (Ghauri,
Grønhaug and Strange, 2020). It is performed by Barr Britvic Soft drinks because they
put emphasis on their employees and enhancing their performance level which is useful
in improving the productivity of company. Workplace policies: It defines the development of policies and rules which helps in
making sure about the equality and fairness within an organisation. For instance, is
adopted by Coca cola because they believe that employees need to perform in well
defined manner under their developed policies and norms which include policies
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regarding vacation, code of conduct, values etc. and due to these policies the reputation
and image of company is maintained in market.
Marketing:
This department is also important as it helps in promoting and marketing of products and
services and also helps in developing direct contact with customers. Therefore, it is considered
that marketing is not only limited to the selling of products and services but it is a wide concept
and its roles are mentioned as under: Market research: Before launching and entering into new market, marketing department
conduct research because it helps in reducing the element of risk (Brannen, Piekkari and
Tietze, 2017). For this, Barr Britvic soft drinks perform this function before launching
their new products and services in the marketplace as it helps in increasing the possibility
of success of product. Increase in sales and profitability: It is performed by marketing department in order to
increase sales and profitability of company while distributing their products and services
and for this, the marketers has different methods and techniques to increase their
performance. For instance, Happy Monkey Drinks use innovative marketing techniques
such as Internet marketing, word of mouth and many more as it helps in increasing the
sales and profitability of company and also attract new customers towards it.
Finance:
It is concerned with raising funds and money for production and operations of company
and also responsible for taking critical decisions for company. They decide about the expenses
and also include acquisition and use of funds in suitable manner. Roles of finance department is
discussed as under: Utilisation of funds: It is performed to eliminate the waste of resources and also
performed by Barr Britvic soft drinks because it is useful in saving funds and money for
the enhancement of company. It define the adequate and estimation amount of working
capital which is required to set up an organisation (Gaur and Kumar, 2018).
 Budgeting: It refers to planning and scheduling about the expense and spending of
money and for this a plan is made which is considered as budgeting. It is adopted by
Tropicana, as it helps in examining the adequate amount of money which is required to
form a budget and also helps in keeping balance in income and expenses.
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Collaborative working practices
Collaboration refers to working together which represents the efforts which is done by
manager to analyse the problems and helps in getting desired outcome. This practice include
establishing relationship with employees in order to combine and manage the efforts of
employees. It consider the increment of quality of products and services which is provided by
administration and management (Andersson, Cuervo-Cazurra and Nielsen, 2020). Collaboration
leads to developing the bond of employees which helps in increasing the sales and productivity.
It is significant in various ways which are as follows: Increased efficiency: Collaboration is important as it helps in the completion of
important work on time and include many people in order to divide the work in effective
and suitable manner. While delegating work, it is important for the managers of Barr
Britvic soft drinks to analyse and determine the formation of team as it depends on the
bonding of workforce which can easily improve the efficiency and effectiveness of work
and get desired result.
 Retention of employees and job satisfaction: If employees who has good relations
among each other work together then it leads to increase the value of team and also add
value in work. It is done because of developing healthy and good relation with employees
which leads to retention of best talent within the organisation and also leads to increase
the satisfaction of employees regarding their job (Gray, 2019). For this, the manager of
Barr Britvic soft drinks develop a team in which team members itself motivate
themselves and also continue working for business as it leads to retaining best talent in an
organisation. In addition to this, participation of employees in decision making of
company is also helpful as it makes them feel important within an organisation.
Role of financial management and reporting in an organisation
Financial management:
It is the significant part of an organisation as it put emphasis on equities and debts.
Financial managers do research and on that basis they decide that which type of capital is
required in terms of the assets of company as it defines the effectiveness and efficiency for the
management of funds in order to attain goals and objectives. Effective management of funds in
important for the long term survival of company as it include planning, organising and managing
the financial activities. Some roles of financial management are as under:
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 Financial planning: It is used to conduct planning for financial resources as it is
responsible for the financial activities of an organisation (Doh, Luthans and Slocum,
2016). Managers of Barr Britvic soft drinks use suitable information in order to identify
the requirements and economic condition which helps in developing the budget for an
organisation. Capital management: It is the responsibility of financial manager to determine the needs
of funds and money in an organisation and also examine the structure of it in order to
select suitable source of fund to fulfil the need of capital needs. Financial manager of
Barr Britvic soft drinks they also perform this in order to determine the suitable structure
of capital to manage the use of funds in suitable manner.
Financial reporting:
It represents the standard practices which is used in giving suitable picture of
stakeholders regarding the financial conditions of company which include sales, revenues,
expenses, profitability and many more as it helps in providing in depth insight which is related
with the financial information (Fill and Turnbull, 2016). It is used by the managers, investors,
owners etc. who relies under the board of directors and take important decision for company. Its
roles are as follows: Identification of trends: These reports are useful in identifying the trends of marketplace
by conducting research or analysing the reports of company as it include past and present
records which are helpful in analysing the trends. Financial managers of Barr Britvic soft
drinks determine the present trends before making prediction because it helps in
overcoming the weaknesses by improving them.
 Progress and compliance: It is determined that data which financial report give is
appropriate and helps in achieving success for organisation (Ghauri, Grønhaug and
Strange, 2020). To maintain the progress in business environment, Barr Britvic soft
drinks use information form financial reports which is useful in determining the
opportunities and also improve efficiency of an organisation.
CONCLUSION
From the above information it is concluded that every department of an organisation
plays significant role in its operations and also helps in completion of task on time which leads to
improve the effectiveness and efficiency of company. Additionally, collaborative working
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practices are essential to achieve growth for company and also useful in retaining employees to
improve the performance and productivity of an organisation. Furthermore, demonstration of
knowledge is done in the context of financial management and reporting as both of them helps in
providing appropriate information and vision to take decision which is best for organisation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Andersson, U., Cuervo-Cazurra, A. and Nielsen, B.B., 2020. Explaining interaction effects
within and across levels of analysis. In Research Methods in International Business (pp.
331-349). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Brannen, M.Y., Piekkari, R. and Tietze, S., 2017. The multifaceted role of language in
international business: Unpacking the forms, functions and features of a critical
challenge to MNC theory and performance. In Language in international business (pp.
139-162). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Doh, J.P., Luthans, F. and Slocum, J., 2016. The world of global business 1965–2015:
Perspectives on the 50th anniversary issue of the Journal of World Business:
Introduction to the special issue.
Fill, C. and Turnbull, S.L., 2016. Marketing communications: brands, experiences and
participation. Pearson.
Gaur, A. and Kumar, M., 2018. A systematic approach to conducting review studies: An
assessment of content analysis in 25 years of IB research. Journal of World
Business. 53(2). pp.280-289.
Ghauri, P., Grønhaug, K. and Strange, R., 2020. Research methods in business studies.
Cambridge University Press.
Gray, D.E., 2019. Doing research in the business world. Sage Publications Limited.
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