Graduate Challenge: Business Functions and Collaboration Report

This report examines the crucial roles of marketing, finance, human resources (HR), and operations/production within a business context, with a focus on the importance of their collaborative efforts. The report defines each function, referencing academic texts to explain their individual responsibilities and contributions to organizational success. The marketing department's role in customer relationship building and generating revenue is highlighted, using Apple as a case study. The finance department's functions in financial planning, forecasting, and analysis are discussed, emphasizing their impact on organizational value. The HR department's role in recruitment, development, and performance management is detailed, alongside its strategic importance in workforce planning. The operations department's responsibility for efficient and profitable production is also examined, using Apple's sophisticated operations as an example. The report emphasizes the benefits of inter-departmental collaboration, including self-analysis promotion, problem-solving, and a broader organizational perspective, with references to relevant academic texts and successful company examples like Apple. The report concludes by underscoring the significance of these functions working together to drive organizational success and competitiveness.

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Role
Marketing
The marketing department is vital for good marketing and sales. It assists a business in
building a relationship with the customers, involves them, and generates income. The
marketing department creates awareness of the products with new business opportunities
(Crawford, 2019). For example, people of the marketing department of Apple works directly
with the designers and engineers as products are advanced (Apple, 2020). The marketing
functions of Apple are so effective that it has become a benchmark for other organizations
that are likely to attain global popularity.
Finance
The finance department carries a wide range of roles to fetch within or outside the company.
The success of an organization greatly depends on how effectively finance is managed
(Gieseking and Grönke, 2019). The products of Apple create value for the customers and the
team generates value for the company and its shareholders. The finance functions at Apple
include financial planning, treasury, forecasting and analysis, tax, internal audit, mergers and
acquisitions and accounting (Apple, 2020).
HR
The HR department undertakes the future needs of the organization. The HR department
shapes to the recruitment and selection, learning and development, performance management
and more. The planning done in HR is similar to workforce planning. The HR department
runs smoothly to make sure that the company runs its operations smoothly (Mayo, 2016).
Apple makes use of different strategic human resource practices to appeal to competent
professionals. The company maximizes the efforts of the employees through investing in
their skills. HR drives the workforce through the development strategy (Apple, 2020).
Operations/production

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The operations department is liable for smooth and profitable production. The operations
department comprises high-quality effective operations. The operations fulfilling the
objectives result in happy customers and profitable businesses (Chowdhury, 2019). The
operations department runs a wide computing system that has nails stretching into the
suppliers of the suppliers. The company knows how many tiny screws are in the warehouses
of the smallest button maker. Due to the omniscient vision, Apple is capable of magnificently
tuning precisely how many products are made each hour of the day to match changing
demand seems in the stores globally (Apple, 2020).
Importance
It is significant for the departments to work together as it assists in:
Promotes self-analysis: The departments working together challenge people to think,
articulate and attain clarity about their competencies. It serves a mirror to the employees in
Apple to offer a sight of their strengths and weaknesses (Ukko and Saunila, 2020).
Results in Problem solving: Different skilled employees of different departments create a
talent pool that is wide and competent. The departments working together can result in
problem-solving even eradicates the requirement for finances and infrastructure.
Makes company look at the bigger picture: When people of different departments work
together, the company can leverage the differences. When a project does not lead the way
Apple wants, then the company collaborates with other departments for assistance. It results
in attaining a great deal. It even speeds up the collaborations.

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References
Apple, 2020. Apple at work. Available at https://www.apple.com/in/business/partners/
[Accessed on 03/03/2020]
Apple, 2020. Corporate functions. Available at
https://www.apple.com/jobs/in/teams/corporate-functions.html [Accessed on 03/03/2020]
Apple, 2020. Marketing. Available at https://www.apple.com/jobs/us/teams/marketing.html
[Accessed on 03/03/2020]
Chowdhury, R., 2019. From Restructuring to Optimisation: Enabling a Sales and Marketing
Function. In Systems Thinking for Management Consultants (pp. 241-267). Springer,
Singapore.
Crawford, R., 2019. ‘But nobody talks to accountants’: the growing influence of the finance
department in the advertising agency. Accounting History Review, pp.1-23.
Gieseking, S. and Grönke, K., 2019. How to Use Robotics Within Finance Functions?.
In Performance Management in Retail and the Consumer Goods Industry (pp. 153-164).
Springer, Cham.
Mayo, A., 2016. Human resources or human capital?: Managing people as assets.
Routledge.
Ukko, J. and Saunila, M., 2020. Understanding the practice of performance measurement in
industrial collaboration: From design to implementation. Journal of Purchasing and Supply
Management, 26(1), p.100529.