Analysis of HR and Financial Management Strategies at The Body Shop

This report examines the HR and financial management strategies employed by The Body Shop, a British cosmetics company founded in 1976. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of these strategies and evaluates their contribution to the organization's success. The HR strategies focus on recruitment, training, development, and rewards, with an emphasis on shared culture, aligned leadership, and team performance. The company's open hiring policy and focus on employee training are also discussed. The financial management section details the company's use of financial forecasting, including T accounts and percentage of sales, to maintain a strong financial position and gain a competitive advantage. The report includes a SWOT analysis, identifying the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of a strong financial position and skilled employees in achieving profitability and productivity.

Introduction to
Business Studies

Table of Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................1
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................1
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References ......................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
Task 1
Covered in PPT
Task 2-
Covered in Poster
Task 3
Management is the process of directing, controlling and evaluating a group of individual
or an business organisation to accomplish desired goals and objectives and leading to enhance
overall performance of the business effectively (Klaß, 2020). There are various functions
involved in the management needed to be carried out effectively such as marketing, finance,
human resource information technology and so on. For this report The Body Shop is taken into
consideration. The Body Shop is a British cosmetics, skin care and perfume company. It was
founded in 1976 by Dame Anita Roddick, at present company offers range of 1000 products in
around 3000 stores. This report highlights the strength and weaknesses of the HR and financial
management strategies along with the evaluation of the strategies contributing to the success of
the organisation.
Main Body
Management strategies allows the business organisation to smoothly and effectively carry
out their work and lead to enhance their overall performance and profitability. There are various
management strategies that are taken into consideration by the organisation in order to smoothly
carry their task (Umarand Sun, 2018) (Laskar, 2018). In case of The Body Shop, the company
effectively focus on their HR and financial management strategy to accomplish their goals and
move towards goals and objectives. In case of company the information on the company's HR
strategies and financial management is mentioned below:
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Information on the HR strategies:
HR strategy involves various strategies adopted by organization aiming to integrate
organization's culture, employees and system by coordinating a set of actions to achieve
organisational goals. It involves two basic strategies which are divided into overarching
strategies and specific strategies. The HR strategies involves recruitment, training and
development rewards. The strategy determines how the HR department will run and how it will
assist and contribute in achievement of organisational goals. It is important for all aspects in an
organisation. It also determines how the process of HR will run. It involves various aspects
which involves culture, norms, values and beliefs that becomes the standard of organization
affecting strategies. The HR strategy refers to the organisational structure. The culture and
organization affects HR people to work on HR system which includes recruiting, training and
development. It need to consider people based on their skills . The HR department evaluates the
whole aspects and step by step work accordingly
In context to The Body Shop, it focuses on key outcomes of business and delivering through
main key strategies which involves shared culture, aligned leadership, team performance,
simplified and accountable organisation. The company launches a global HR shop and
rebranding its global HR function. As part of the HR strategies three terms came across the HR
function, by building the HR shop they are aligned to core business of retail and project. The
company announced new open hiring policy that involves hiring of the first person who applies
for a position or retail role without any reference or any background check.
The company is adopting open hiring approach through which 44-year-old chain will hire those
candidates that apply for roles in distribution centres and warehouse. Moreover, the company has
expanded its interviewing concept to entire retail chain. The Body Shop HR department has a
direct impact on its working environment and they rate their employees and ask regular
feedback. These strategies involves creating alignment around organisation's philosophies,
people and process. It includes a method to position strategic human resource management for
amplifying organizational goals and ability to define and achieve objectives. A business strategy
involves how a organization achieve its objectives in both near and long term.
It also helps in simply putting strategies to goals or objectives. In order to set a process there are
four key levels which involves culture, people, organization and HR systems. The business need
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to promote these strategies and drive a specific business need to drive performance with leaders
and enablers. The company is focusing on providing some of the best training methods to
employees at stores as compare to their competitors. They focuses on improving their working
environment and culture by focusing on groups to improve overall working of the organisation.
It also emphasis on welcoming fresh talent and individuals irrespective of their gender and other
demographics. There main objective is to simply hire right people, as they believe that this will
result in retention, engagement and performance.
Information on the financial management:
The financial management is defined as the area or functions of the organisation which
deal with ensuring availability of finance in the business organisation and in each and every
department of the company. It deals with profitability, expenses, cash and credit effectively and
efficiently enabling to business to achieve desired goals and objectives as well as enhancing
overall performance of the organisation. It also includes planning, organising , directing and
handling all the financial related activity (Sampath and Rahman, 2019). The financial
department of the company ensures that there is availability of finance or fund in the organisation
enabling business to effectively and smoothly carry out their activity. In context to The Body
Shop, it is an great example of how small business can be transformed into world's biggest
retailers. The company's brand image is recognised across the globe, and the financial
management of the company plays an essential role behind the success and growth of the
company. The company focus on financial forecasting involving T account and percentage of the
sales. This two approaches enabled company to get much profit as dividends of the organisation
were sustainable. The financial position of the company allowed them to gain competitive
advantage in the marketplace and enhance their overall performance (Banfield, Kayand Royles,
2018). The finance department of the company ensures that there is availability of fund in each
and every department of the organisation and they are effectively accomplishing their task. The
constant assessment of the level of sales enables the management to accomplish desired success
in attracting large number of customers. The financial department of the company effectively
focus on the cost inflow and outflow and accordingly determine their demand flow effectively.
The financial position of the company is quite good in the marketplace which enables them to
effectively carry out their operations. The revenue of the company has effectively increased from
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the 2016 to 2019. The percentage sales method helps company to effectively develop a forecast
for all accounts on the income statement and balance sheet to enhance their sale and get profit in
the marketplace. In order to determine the financial position of the company the balance sheet
and cash flow statement is mentioned below:
Cash flow
Balance sheet
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From the above, the cash flow and balance sheet of the company helps in determining
strong financial position of the company in the marketplace. It is analysed that the financial
position of the company is determined through the cash flow and balance sheet of the company.
Through both the statement it is analysed company is doing good financially, there is availability
of fund in each and every department enabling them to smoothly carry out their activity. In
addition to this, through the cash flow of the company it is also determined that there proper
inflow and outflow of cash in the company enabling them to maintain their position in the
marketplace.
SWOT Analysis: It is one of the essential framework used by the business organisation in order
to determine their strength and weakness. As well as also determine various opportunity and
threat present (Kopnina, 2019). In case of The Body Shop, the SWOT analysis is mentioned
below:
Strength Weaknesses
 The Body Shop has a large franchisee
network of around 2600 stores in more
than 60 countries
 Low focus on advertising of products is
considered to be weaknesses for the
company.
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 company has strong brand value with
large large loyal customers including
strong supply network.
 Limited number of retail outlets also
impact the sales volume of the
company.
Opportunity Threat
 Expansion of business into new
emerging market can be huge
opportunity for the company.
 Company can expand into natural and
eco friendly products.
 Increasing competition in the
marketplace can create threat for the
company.
 Changing taste and preference of the
consumers can also create threat for the
company.
Conclusion
From the above report, it has been concluded that strong financial position of the
company in the marketplace and availability of skilled and qualified employees help the
company to smoothly carry out their work and enhance their overall profitability and
productivity. The human resource department ensure that there is availability of skilled and
qualified workers in the organisation and they are motivated and trained towards accomplishing
desired goals. This report helps in analysing that there is availability of skilled and qualified staff
in the chosen company, as well as they are properly trained. It is analysed that the company has
strong financial position in the marketplace which allows them to be successful and gain
competitive advantage in the marketplace.
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References
Books & Journals
Banfield, P., Kay, R. and Royles, D., 2018. Introduction to human resource management. Oxford
University Press.
Klaß, N., 2020. Open innovation in media innovation research–a systematic literature review.
Journal of media business studies, 17(2), pp.190-218
Kopnina, H., 2019. Green-washing or best case practices? Using circular economy and Cradle to
Cradle case studies in business education. Journal of Cleaner Production, 219, pp.613-
621.
Laskar, N., 2018. Impact of corporate sustainability reporting on firm performance: an empirical
examination in Asia. Journal of Asia Business Studies.
Sampath, V.S. and Rahman, N., 2019. Bribery in MNEs: The dynamics of corruption culture
distance and organizational distance to core values. Journal of Business Ethics, 159(3),
pp.817-835.
Umar, M. and Sun, G., 2018. Determinants of non-performing loans in Chinese banks. Journal of
Asia Business Studies.
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