CW1: Business Functions Analysis of The Body Shop International

This report provides an overview of The Body Shop International Ltd, focusing on the roles and responsibilities of its human resources, marketing, and finance departments. It examines how the HR department manages the workforce through rewards, training, and performance management. T...Read More

Introduction to
Business Studies

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
The role of HR, Marketing and finance functions within organisations................................1
Role of HR within the Body Shop.........................................................................................1
Role of financial functions within the body shop...................................................................2
Role of Marketing within the body shop...............................................................................3
Collaborative working practices.............................................................................................3
Management and leadership style in the body shop:..............................................................4
Financial management and reporting within the BodyShop..................................................4
Profit and Loss Account.........................................................................................................4
Balance Sheet.........................................................................................................................4
Cash Flow Statement..............................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Business is the commercial activity of producing, distributing and selling products or
services with the objective of making profit. They provide high quality goods and services to
serve the customers better and provides employment opportunities to the people which can
generate income and improve the quality of life. The goal of the business is to make
maximum profits by offering products and services that satisfy the needs of the customers.
This report is of THE BODY SHOP INTERNATIONAL LTD which is incorporated in
1967 and has its headquarter in London, UK. It was founded by Anita Roddick, specialises
in offering exotic cosmetic products. This report gives an overall view of the roles and
responsibilities of human resource, marketing and finance department of the company.
MAIN BODY
The role of HR, Marketing and finance functions within organisations
Role of HR within the Body Shop
Human resource department is responsible for maintaining the workforce of the company.
It ensures the smooth functioning of the organisation. It starts with formulating the policies
for the job requirements and ends with the growth of the business (Al Issa, 2020 ).
Rewards and compensation : Managers are responsible for structuring the workforce. This
department will reward or punish the employees on the basis of their performance. They
keep a regular track of how the employees are performing and regularly provide them the
trainings as per their requirement.
Training and development : It is the duty of the human resource department to give the
trainings to the employees for the purpose of skill enhancement. This is done to accomplish
goals of the organisations. In relation to body shop international ltd is regularly providing
the trainings to its employees to reduce employee turnover. This will boost the morale of the
workers and improves the productivity of the organisation.
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Employee performance management : This focuses on the team performance, the department
and the organisation as a whole. This includes developing a proper job description, then do
the selection process to hire employees , providing right training to them and then,
conducting the performance analysis (Savolainen, and Collan, 2020).
Role of financial functions within the body shop
This department manages the financial books of the organisation. Additionally, this
focuses on recording, classifying and summarising the statements and communicating the
results with the top level management of the company. They analyse the current financial
position of the company which will further help in framing the corporate strategy. The
body shop international Ltd is using these data to take various decisions.
Planning and budgeting : As in this finance department take various decisions regarding the
fund usage. And from which source fund should be raised. This will help to get the overview
of the current financial condition of the concern.
Internal audit – As per this finance department is responsible to check all the records are
properly maintained in the books. It is the duty of the managers to check that there is no
misreporting of accounts, omissions or partial entries in the statements.
Communicating the information : This department gives the information regarding which
project should company invest in for future growth. As well as the information gathered
from this department will be further communicated to the internal or external users.
In context to The Body Shop company, it leaders need to focus on various areas of generating
investment. All these divisions helps in expanding the organisation in various parts of the world
for long term growth as well as for the success and smooth business operations.
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Role of Marketing within the body shop
Marketing department’s main role is to promote the products and services of the
organisation in order to enhance the overall sales of company’s products. In context to The
Body Shop, its marketing managers need to perform various roles:
Advertising : It involves making strategies related to advertising of the brand and several
marketing in order to enhance the sales of products. The major role marketing department is
to contribute in increasing sales revenue.
Market Trend : It involves concentration on examining and evaluating the trend of particular
market area. It also analyse the needs and demand of customers related to product of the
organisation and achieving organisational goals and objectives and accomplishing sales. In
context to the Body shop, the company has to concentrate on various duties of department in
order to achieve organisational objectives and aims for long term success (Wyrwich, 2019).
Collaborative working practices
The organisational culture of the body shop is known for offering beauty and cosmetic goods. It
involves
Concentrates on the niche market – In order to sustain growth in the market the
managers concentrates on the niche range. The most essential thing is that all the goods of
this company has their own creative ideas, human right and ecological elements.
Maintaining a good quality product or service – For brand loyalty company usually try to
manage the quality of their products or services. Company also tries to assist various
community trade, encourages self esteem, works on the betterment of the planet and also
works for well being of the people and avoid any type of testing on the animals. They works
on the traditional revenue making way in a appropriate manner by concentrating on the
values.
Concentrate on the social ingredients – For the betterment of the community, firm
concentrate on the ecological aspects and encourage their workers, customers and outside
stakeholders. Company focuses on the differentiated organisational strategy by providing
different and unique offerings in their products( Banerjee, 2019).
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Management and leadership style in the body shop:
With current fluctuating and competitive economy, a leader need to be very much flexible
with all types of leadership styles and need to adapt various methods of leadership in
accordance to the fluctuating circumstances. In order to implement organisational changes in
the broad range organisation like The body shop utilises democratic leadership approach in
its operations.
It is a leadership approach that refers to the decision making of the leaders which are
based on over all ideas and opinions of each of its employees. Everyone has all the rights to
convey their thoughts, and the final decision are taken by the leaders with participation of
employees. This method is one of the most effective leadership style as it permits minimum
level employees to execute the authority that need to be utilise appropriately.
It is essential to understand the approach of the leadership which can equally match the
objectives of the body shop with the expectations of the company. A democratic leadership
method is the optimal utilisation for the company that considers opinions of the employees
as crucial as the decision of the management that only enhances the creativity in the
company but also motivates the employees (Cao and Shi, 2021).
Financial management and reporting within the BodyShop
Profit and Loss Account
It is a income statement that involves financial statements of a company and shows a company’s
expenses and revenues within a particular period. In context to The Body Shop, the profit and loss
statement is very important as it helps in taking business decisions and provides a clear picture of
company’s operations and helps company to take corrective actions whenever required.
Balance Sheet
It is a financial statement that helps in reporting a company’s liabilities, assets and shareholder
equity. The balance sheet is important financial statement which is used in business for the purpose of
evaluation. The balance sheet helps to provide a snapshot of the company’s finances. In context to The
Body Shop , it is important as these documents helps in letting banks know regarding whether the
company qualifies for additional credit or loans. It helps potential and current investors in better
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understanding of funds. It also helps in providing a picture of the business or financial health at a
particular moment in time.
Cash Flow Statement
It is basically a financial statement that helps in providing aggregrate data about all the cash
inflows that a organisation receives from its external investment sources and ongoing operations. It
involves all the cash outflows that are involved in investment or business activities during a specific
period. In context to The Body Shop, the cash flow statement helps in providing vital information
regarding an entity and also shows the cash movements in and out of a company and helps shareholders
and investors in order to understand the money a company is spending and making. It is also important as
it helps in inforeming the reader about cash position of a company. A successful business requires
sufficient cash at all times as it need to pay bank laons, expenses , purchasing new assests and paying
taxes (Julien, 2018). The cash flow statement determines whether a organisation has sufficient cash in
order to fulfil all its expenses.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it had been concluded that business activities is very much
essential for fulfilling the needs of the owners as well as needs and wants of its consumers.
Various business departments plays essential role in the growth and success of the
organisation and because of the successful functioning of various divisions of the company
such marketing, human resource and finance and various other, these departments are also
the reason for the growth of any organisation. Moreover to this, company is following its
organisational structure with offering several beauty and cosmetic products. Respective
organisation is following democratic leadership style that assist the company in motivating
their workers.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Al Issa, H. E., 2020. The impact of improvisation and financial bootstrapping strategies on
business performance. EuroMed Journal of Business.
Banerjee, S., 2019. Foreign direct investments: Examining the roles of democracy, corruption
and judicial systems across countries. The Journal of Applied Business and
Economics, 21(6). pp.2-46.
Cao, Z. and Shi, X., 2021. A systematic literature review of entrepreneurial ecosystems in
advanced and emerging economies. Small Business Economics, 57(1). pp.75-110.
Julien, P.A. ed., 2018. The state of the art in small business and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Savolainen, J. and Collan, M., 2020. How additive manufacturing technology changes business
models?–review of literature. Additive manufacturing, 32, p.101070.
Wyrwich, M., 2019. New KIBS on the bloc: the role of local manufacturing for start-up activity
in knowledge-intensive business services. Regional Studies, 53(3). pp.320-329.
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