MG408 Graduate Challenge: Business Functions and Unilever Report

This report, submitted as part of the MG408 Graduate Challenge, examines the interconnectedness of various business functions within an organization. It defines the roles of marketing, finance, operations/production, and human resources, emphasizing their importance in achieving organizational objectives. The report uses Unilever, a UK multinational consumer goods company, as a case study to illustrate the practical implications of these functions working together effectively. It highlights the collaborative efforts between departments like finance and marketing, production and marketing, and the role of human resources in supporting all other functions. The report concludes that the synergy between these functions is crucial for organizational growth and success, supported by references to academic texts and journals. The report demonstrates core academic skills of evidence-based writing and Harvard referencing, as required by the assignment brief.

MG408 GRADUATE
CHALLENGE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Inter-relations of different functions in organization..................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
The file is a report on how different functions work in a business organisation. The different
functions like marketing, finance, operations and human resources all are inter linked with each
other. The functions have also been related with an organisation Unilever which is a UK
multinational consumer goods company to show their efficacy.
Inter-relations of different functions in organisation
There exist different functions which exist in the organisation, each having different way of
operations but having same organisational objectives to achieve. The finance function prepares
the budget for the organisation, thus it speaks with the marketing head and takes information of
the costs which will be needed in the marketing campaign (Jarvis, 2019). The marketing head
sits with own team to get an estimate of all the costs which can go in marketing campaign and
also send the sheet or document to finance containing the previous year costs. Unilever finance
team and marketing team have always worked together which can be gauged by the average
expenditure done by marketing team of Unilever per year. It has a niche in spending over
marketing campaigns (Sienkiewicz-Małyjurek, 2017).
Similarly, the production team sit down together to compute different material costs,
costs of machinery to be added, cost of labour needed for specialised functions and send the
report to finance. They will also get in touch with marketing team to take their specifications as
to how the product being manufactured can be made changes to make it more attractive to the
customer. The company Unilever is known for its product innovations in the past decades. Thus,
it can be stated that there has been an interaction between the two departments to make the
product affordable as well catchy.
The marketing and operations also work together as in operations, there would be
marketing too of the product to the customer. If the departments converse and make each other
clear how the product can be pitched, then only customer will be able to make decision regarding
purchase (Trushkina and et.al., 2020). Also, the file work done in operations is also shared with
finance department for their own records. The company Unilever has various departments
keeping liaison with each other like marketing, supply, logistics which can be justified with its
products reaching timely and conveniently to customers over such a large network range.

Human Resources work together with all the departments as they are the recruiters for all
the departments. They remain in touch as to how much manpower is needed in different
departments. Besides, people required for specialised functions in production or operations is
also monitored by HR. Necessary expertise is thus provided by this function to the remaining.
Unilever has got the right expertise be it in sales, operations, finance as the job descriptions say a
lot about getting quality candidates who can serve for a long period of time in the company. This
shows the efficiency of HR function in the company (Jarvis, 2019).
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that all the functions have to collaborate with each other to achieve the
organisational objectives. Their unison will lead to the growth of organisation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Sienkiewicz-Małyjurek, K., 2017. Inter-organisational collaboration in the public safety
management system. Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar.
Jarvis, A., 2019. Power and coordination in the multinational company: a post-heterarchical
perspective (Doctoral dissertation, Lancaster University).
Trushkina, N. and et.al., 2020. Digital transformation of organizational culture under conditions
of the information economy. Virtual Economics. 3(1). pp.7-38.
Islam, M.S., Tseng, M.L. and Karia, N., 2019. Assessment of corporate culture in sustainability
performance using a hierarchical framework and interdependence relations. Journal of
Cleaner Production. 217. pp.676-690.
Pietrucha, J. and Żelazny, R., 2017. Interdependence of innovations and institutions:
consequences for GDP growth. Ekonomista. 5. pp.537-543.