Analysis of Key Business Functions: Sainsbury's Department Report

This report provides an analysis of the key business functions within Sainsbury's, a major player in the retail industry. It begins with an executive summary that highlights the importance of various functional departments, teamwork, and financial management in organizational success. The report then delves into the specific roles of marketing, human resources, and the finance department, examining how each contributes to overall objectives, such as revenue and profitability. The marketing section covers promotional activities and customer need identification, while the HR section focuses on recruitment, selection, and training. The finance section discusses fund allocation, budgeting, and financial statement preparation. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the importance of teamwork in reducing conflicts and fostering unity, and details financial management practices, including resource control, investment, and cash flow management. Finally, the report explores the significance of reporting, including balance sheets and profit and loss statements, for making informed business decisions and ensuring smooth operations. References are provided to support the analysis.

Report
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Executive summary:
Business organizations there are certain important functions that constitute the overall
organization. There are different roles that are played by various functional units of organization
according to the roles and responsibilities assigned by the top management. Along with this team
work and the interrelationship between such functional departments help in that all these
functions are carried on in a smooth manner. There are different communication channels that
are established so that overall functioning is not interrupted and proper reporting and authority
relationships are been established. Also, there are function of financial management place in
every organization and different types of tools such as profit and loss statement cash flow
statement and balance sheet that help in reporting of present financial position in organization.
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Role of marketing human resource and the finance department in a organisation................3
Team work:.............................................................................................................................5
Financial management:...........................................................................................................7
Reporting:...............................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
Businesses are defined as activities that consist of commercial industrial and professional
activity combined together in one firm or an organisation. Businesses can be of non profit
organisations or profit organisations important for any individual that they are able to identify
different customer need and conditions of market for achievement of success (Sajid, 2016).
There are different types of departments that are part of overall organisation such as human
resource department finance department and type of department contribute in achievement of
overall organisational objectives. Present report is based on sainsbury's that is part of retail
industry and is a supermarket having presence in United Kingdom and other different parts of the
world. This store was founded in the year 1869 and is functioning since then they are having
approximately more than 1500 outlets across world. The report consists of different roles in
market that is functions of departments such as human resource finance and marketing. There is
a discussion of the role played by teamwork financial management importance in organisation.
Lastly, there is discussion of the reporting and how various documents contribute in effective
reporting in an organisation.
Role of marketing, human resource and the finance department in a organisation
There are different types of departments that are part of overall functioning and are involved in
performing various specific operations and functions into their specific goals that have been set
up by leaders and appointed managers for search specific departments (Kyriakopoulos, Hughes
and Hughes, 2016). But all these departments have a common goal that is working towards
increasing the revenue profitability in the long run. Play different roles in organisation and such
functions are discussed below:
1) Role of marketing:
Promotion function:
It is one of the most crucial roles that is played by the marketing department in any organisation.
This function is related with creating in the target market customers informed about different
types of goods and services that are being offered by organisation. There are different types of
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promotional to start adopted by organization such as digital media to, print media application,
electronic promotional tools such as personalized mails, customisation of products, running of
marketing campaigns etc. These are some of the efforts that are used by organisations for
promoting their products and services in the target market (Anderson, Rayburn, and Sierra,
2019). In case of Sainsbury's the organisation is using different types of social media campaigns
for promoting their products and making the target customers aware about different types of
offers that is offered to customers on some special occasions.
Identification of customers needs:
Marketing department of every organisation has to perform another major function that is
identifying the customer requirements so that there can be production according to set specific
customer needs (Jin, Jung and Jeong, 2018). In case of Sainsbury's the marketing managers are
involved in identification of the distance of their target customer needs by use of certain tools
such as questionnaire and market research that can help them in understanding the demands of
their customers and increasing their level of profitability.
Role of human resource:
Recruitment & selection:
It is one of the major roles that are played by human resource managers in every Organisation in
which they have to recruit individuals according to vacancies and select the best candidate
according to the level of competence in an individual (Haugum and Grande, 2017). In
Sainsbury's, the human resource managers are continuously involved in identifying different
sources from where competitive individuals can be attracted and retained for longer duration of
time.
Training and development:
It is necessary for organisation to provide different types of training and development
opportunities to their employees so that they are able to enhance the present level of competence
and skills. in Sainsbury's, the Human Resource Department is involved in organisation of
different types of training programs for their newly hired employees as well as present level of
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workforce so that employees are able to increase their skills and also contribute more towards
organisation objectives.
Role of finance:
Allocating funds:
Finance department has to perform the most important function of allocating the financial
resources across different departments so that all the functions can take place monthly according
to required amount of finance. In Sainsbury's, the financial managers possess the responsibility
to identify the financial requirements of different functional departments whether it is marketing,
selling, production, research and development or human resource department (Kirova, 2017).
Each department has some Specific financial requirements that has to be fulfilled by finance
department of Sainsbury’s and these finances are very important for such specific functional
departments in order to perform their functions in a correct and appropriate manner.
Budgeting:
Organisation has some Limited financial resources that have to be used across all the
function departments and different levels. So in case of Sainsbury's, resource managers have to
make adding budgets that have to be specified in the starting of every financial year so that each
department has been allocated a specified financial budget and they plan their operations and
functions according to that Limited budget only.
Team work:
It is very essential tool in any organisation as it helps in providing business opportunities to
employees so that proper inter-relationship that is maintained among different functional
departments of an organisation.
Importance of team work:
1) Leads to reduction of internal conflicts: When several different types of individuals who
belong to different background and believes are working together then there is that conflicts can
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arise while employees are willing to achieve same objectives. But if there is presence of
teamwork that is high level of coordination is expected from employees then it leads to reduction
of the internal and small conflicts that arise in course of employees performing their functions. in
case of Sainsbury's, there is proper coordination that is maintained between the Human Resource
Department and the other different functional departments that help them in smoothly team
towards organisations objectives (Syam and Sharma, 2018). Such as, there are requirement of
competent individuals that are good at communication skills then such needs have to be clarified
to the Human Resource Department of the organisation and then they plan the recruitment and
selection process according to search specific needs of the marketing department. So, there is a
strong team that is built between the marketing managers and the human resource manager
which together collaborate towards achievement of a similar objective that is higher productivity
in Sainsbury's with the limited availability of resources.
2) Ensures a sense of unity and harmony: When in organisation a large workforce is working
towards a common objective then it is an essential requirement to have higher amount of
harmony and Unity among them so as to contribute towards achievement of such objectives in
the specified period of time (Pushkar and Pandey, 2019). In Sainsbury's, all the functional
departments such as human resource marketing Finance, research and development are having
higher amount of harmony and coordination among them such that each department is willing to
contribute towards weakness of other department. Such as, if the finance department has limited
budget for any specific project then marketing department is assisting them by ensuring that
there is high amount of cost effectiveness in their functioning so that all the functions can take
place with the Limited amount of financial resource only.
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Financial management:
Financial management very important function of every organisation as it is related with
management of overall finances that are available with any organisation (Deac, Dobrin, . and
Gîrneață, 2016) . Financial department is basically concerned with recording of all the monetary
transactions and maintaining of such financial resources that can help in survival of an entity in
the long run. In Sainsbury's, several roles that are played by financial department that increase
the importance for any organisation and such roles are mentioned below:
1) The financial department of sensibilities has to exercise and maintain control over all the
financial resources and how these resources are being utilised in different functional units. there
Is a complete check on how and where such financial resources are being used there is a surety
that has to be made by the financial manager that no resource of organisation is wasted and has
to be used only for productive purpose.
2) Financial department has the responsibility of allocating and optimum utilisation of available
financial resources and their proper investment so that available opportunities are not wasted by
the organisation.
3) The financial department possess the authority to prepare the overall financial statements that
are very important part of overall functioning of organisation as future decisions are dependent
on the received revenue and prospective of more profitability that can be gained by in a coming
financial year.
4) Financial department in Sainsbury actually process the responsibility of ensuring that there is
supply of working capital that is required in day to day functioning of the organisation and
effectively handling all the necessary requirements that can arise in situations of emergency and
uncertainty that are part of organization. There is also a strong requirement to ensure that there is
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sufficient cash flow and liquidity position that has to be maintained in order to perform all the
operations and functions in effective manner (Basu, and Dey, 2019).
Above discussed are some of the important functions of financial department of any organisation
and at least two importance of financial management.
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Reporting:
Reporting is a very important activity in every organisation as it helps the business organisation
to make decisions related to different activities, planning future activities so helping in
appropriate functioning of all the functional units of an organisation (Adebisi, Adejuyigbe and
Amos, ., 2020). There are basically two types of reporting that take place in every organisation it
consists of financial reporting that is mainly for all the stakeholders of the organisation. Another
is reporting that is basically done for the internal management of any organisation. Both the
types of reporting are very important in order to ensure smooth functioning of every organisation
and financial reporting has many different aspects that actually help in providing information
related to financial position and different changes in the financial position in enterprise that is
useful for different users in making various economic decisions.
Balance sheet: Balance sheet is basically a financial document that helps in providing a basic
idea related to overall financial position of organisation. It actually helps in making
discrimination about available Assets and liabilities for organisation such as it helps in
identifying the current liabilities such as current assets fixed assets. All these information are
very helpful in understanding needs to be taken care of to minimise the losses and enhance the
overall profitability of an organisation by various finance managers who advise financial
decisions in Sainsbury's.
Profit and loss statement: Profit and loss statements are very important for any Organisation in
understanding the management in organisation about the net income. Profit and loss statements
are generally prepared just before the balance sheets are being prepared and actually help in
determining the specific elements that are leading to profit or and the amount of gross profit and
loss & the net profits or loss can be easily identified.
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Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discussed points that there are different types of financial
resources in every organisation and all these are very important and there are different types of
functional departments in organisation that help in smooth functioning such as human resource
marketing Finance that lead to smooth functioning of the organisation. Are different reporting
tools such as balance sheet profit and loss statements that help in reporting of the overall
financial position of a organisation.
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Reference
Books and Journals
Sajid, S.I., 2016. Social media and its role in marketing.
Kyriakopoulos, K., Hughes, M. and Hughes, P., 2016. The role of marketing resources in radical
innovation activity: antecedents and payoffs. Journal of Product Innovation
Management, 33(4), pp.398-417.
Anderson, S., Rayburn, S.W. and Sierra, J.J., 2019. Future thinking: the role of marketing in
healthcare. European Journal of Marketing.
Jin, B., Jung, S. and Jeong, S.W., 2018. Dimensional effects of Korean SME’s entrepreneurial
orientation on internationalization and performance: the mediating role of marketing
capability. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 14(1), pp.195-215.
Haugum, M. and Grande, J., 2017. The role of marketing in local food networks. International
Journal on Food System Dynamics, 8(1), pp.1-13.
Basu, A. and Dey, S., 2019. Role of Marketing in Tribal Entrepreneurship: A Study.
Adebisi, A.E., Adejuyigbe, A.S. and Amos, D.D., 2020. Consumer-Related Corporate Social
Responsibility and Brand Switching Behaviour of Subscribers of Mobile Network
Providers in Akure Metropolis, Ondo State, Nigeria. American Scientific Research
Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS), 66(1), pp.35-46.
Deac, V., Dobrin, C. and Gîrneață, A., 2016. Customer Perceived Value-An Essential Element in
Sales Management. Business Excellence and Management, 6(1), pp.43-55.
Pushkar, B.K. and Pandey, S., 2019. Role of Promotional Strategies in Rural Market.
Syam, N. and Sharma, A., 2018. Waiting for a sales renaissance in the fourth industrial
revolution: Machine learning and artificial intelligence in sales research and
practice. Industrial Marketing Management, 69, pp.135-146
Kirova, V., 2017. Exploring the role of strategic marketing department. Journal of Marketing
Development and Competitiveness, 11(2).
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