Business Management Report: Challenges, Analysis, and Recommendations

This report, focused on the foundations of business management, provides an executive summary outlining the core activities necessary for achieving organizational goals, including planning, organizing, and controlling business operations. The report analyzes the challenges faced by Original Creations, a company involved in product marketing and design, focusing on issues affecting sales performance and product quality. It explores the significance of various departmental activities in driving sales, identifies key external factors impacting the business through PESTLE analysis, and suggests recommendations to overcome these challenges. These recommendations include strategies for inventory management, human resource training, and digital marketing. The report also includes a self-reflection section detailing skills acquired and setting SMART objectives for future professional development.

Foundations of
Business Management

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Business management can be explained as the planning, organising, staffing, directing,
controlling, coordinating, and financing the business activities for achieving common objectives,
goals and aims of the business. Business management is required to achieve the objectives of the
organisation regarding various activities of the business. This report has described various
department activities that can be helpful in developing new products and improving the overall
sales performance of the organisation. It has also discussed various issues that are faced by the
organisation regarding their strategy for improving overall sales performance of the company. It
has provided certain recommendations to overcome those challenges faced by the organisation.

Table of Contents
PART 1 Research Findings..............................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................1
REASONS..............................................................................................................................1
KEY ISSUES FACED BY THE ORGANISATION.............................................................2
RECOMMENDATIONS.......................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................8
PART 2 Self Reflection...................................................................................................................9
INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................9
SKILLS ACQUIRED.............................................................................................................9
SMART OBJECTIVES........................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

PART 1 Research Findings
INTRODUCTION
Business management refers to the planning, organising, staffing, directing, controlling,
coordinating, budgeting and reporting of business activities so that goals and objectives of
organisation can be achieved effectively and efficiently. The sales performance within an
organisation mainly depends on the business management activities in the various departments
and is highly important to generate revenue for the organisation. The following report again
discusses the Original Creations that is an enterprise involved in designing the marketing for
their particular products. Business management is very important for any activity within an
organisation because it helps to succeed the business in the long run (Bamgarner, and et. al.,
2019). This report will be describing various departments of Original Creations and their rules
for developing new products or new methods for improving their sales performance. Moreover, it
will explain about challenges faced by the organisation with its marketing activities along with
the recommendations for improving the performance of its marketing activities.
REASONS
The business case is help of hold to provide strategic directions for its decision makers and
step holders to evaluate various opportunities, risks, cost and benefits associated with the
business. In this case the business has failed many problems regarding its marketing activities
that affect the overall sales revenue of the organization. It was complaint by many customers that
products provided by the company are damaged and of low quality that lower down the quality
standard and effective business operations. Due to this reason organization has to create higher
investment on inventory and improving the product performance in the market (Brocke and
Mendling, 2018). The original Creations have to pay higher attention on the marketing activities
of the company and have to perform better marketing research before launching a product that
will help to increase its turnover and coverage in the market. Business management can be
explained as the planning, organising, staffing, directing, controlling, coordinating, and financing
the business activities for achieving common objectives, goals and aims of the business. Business
management is required to achieve the objectives of the organisation regarding various activities
of the business. For increasing the marketing and sales activities of the organization it is
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important that company should focus on various activities of the organization and increase the
efficiency and moral of the employees. There are various activities that are needed to be
performed for achieving the effectiveness in marketing activities of the Original Creations. There
are various functional areas within the organisation that must be handled effectively and
efficiently for improving the marketing activities of the organisation (Maggioni and Turchetti,
2020). With the help of various departmental activities, Original Creations can improve their
marketing activities for raising the overall sales performance.
KEY ISSUES FACED BY THE ORGANISATION
There are many challenges that are faced by an organisation in today's world. Original Creations
cannot work in a vacuum and are influenced by various external factors that affect their
marketing activities. To understand various external factors such as demographic, natural,
political, economic, cultural and technological forces PESTLE analysis can be done (Lauer,
2020). PESTLE analysis is a framework that helps to understand the external environment
factors that affect the activities of business.
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Figure 1: The company surrounded by its environmental forces: demographic, natural,
economic, political, cultural, and technological
Political factors can be explained as the government controls and influences the
economic conditions and industries working within a country. Some of the government factors
that highly affect the marketing activities of the organisation are, trade/tariff barriers, taxation
policies, fiscal policy etc. The political factors highly affect the marketing activities of Original
Creations because they have a great impact on the political conditions that intervenes the
business activities. The political factors directly affect the people living within a country and it
creates great impacts over the marketing policies of the organisation (Wilson, 2020).
Economic factors have a direct impact on a company's long term prospects in the market
and they affect the marketing activities of the company. The prevailing economic conditions
within a country are major influencers of prices of the products, customer demand and the
profitability of the organisation. Some of the economic factors such as inflation, foreign
exchange rates, economic growth, employment scenario, income levels, interest rates etc. The
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economic environment affects how a company prices their products or influences the supply and
demand model through its marketing activities (Routledge. Kasemsap, 2018).
Social factors, such as culture, demographics, religion, tradition, ethics, consumer habits
etc. can easily affect the industry environment and customer demands. The understanding of
social factors brings the focus of marketing activities towards the society and helps the
organisation to frame suitable marketing activities (Narus and Anderson, 2020). The social
factors affect the date and preference of the customers towards the products and services of
Original Creations.
Technology factors may have a direct or indirect impact on the activities of an
organisation. The rapid changes in technology have affected the choices of customers and the
marketing activities across the world. Marketing activities have become more dependent on
digital methods such as social media, digital platform, website etc. (Hinsch, 2019). Original
Creations have also witnessed a rapidly shifting world towards the technological grounds that
affects the marketing activities of the company.
Legal factors are the compulsory laws such as employment laws, consumer protection,
environmental regulations, regulatory bodies and industry specific regulations that must be
followed by the organisation. The marketing activities of the organisation are highly affected by
the legal and regulatory policies and procedures. Without proper obligations with the existing
laws, norms and regulations an organisation cannot perform its activities effectively and
efficiently.
Environmental factors consist of those physical environment and general environment
protection laws that must be followed by the organisation to carry out their activities without
hindrances. Some of the environmental factors that affect the marketing activities of the
organisation are climate, weather, environmental offsets, consumer and stakeholder values, and
geographical location.
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Weighted scoring model can be explained as a systematic approach that is helpful in
selecting the best method for the marketing activities of the organisation. The model mainly
focuses on identifying the strategies and evaluating those strategies for selecting the best
alternative available in the market.
Downsizing the logistic department could lead to the lowering down of morale of the
employees and their work performance at the workplace. Downsizing of the department may
lead to increased redundancy costs that will increase the burden on management of the company.
Human resources will require training for improving the overall marketing activities that may
also lead to increase in the training costs for enhancing the skills of the employees. The
employees lacking in the marketing might lead to lower productivity of the staff members in
other departments therefore it is required to enhance their performance by training in
development. Maintaining an inventory level can help to minimise the overall loss that may
occur due to the lower level of production within the organisation. With the help of a high level
of inventory the production within the organisation can be enhanced and benefits of economies
of scale can be obtained by creating greater sales. This has its own consequences such as high
level of dependency on the suppliers which will require effective planning for maintaining a
desired level of stock.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Project time scale and may be explained as a list of series in which the event should take
place that is perfectly arranged in chronological order and provides a specific schedule to
complete a task. It is helpful in maintaining smooth flow of operations and maintaining a track
record and breaking down the goals in smaller bites for achieving them effectively and
efficiently.
 Planning strategy will include the decreasing of inventory through sales promotion in the
first week of the schedule (Mayer, 2018).
 Downsizing the logistic department by switching the manufacturers and operating locally
by changing supply chain will be done in the second week.
 By training the human resources the changes can be brought within their performance and
their effectiveness can be enhanced in the third week.
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 In the 4th week activity the quality control of the products and services can be improved
by working on the product development by the company.
 By recruiting more staff for increasing the technical support and focusing on the
marketing research in the Fifth week.
 In the sixth week the Original Creations can define their marketing strategies by focusing
on the digital markets to improve their coverage across the market.
There are various activities that are needed to be performed for achieving the effectiveness
in marketing activities of the Original Creations. There are various functional areas within the
organisation that must be handled effectively and efficiently for improving the marketing
activities of the organisation (Atrey, 2020). With the help of various departmental activities,
Original Creations can improve their marketing activities for raising the overall sales
performance.
 Human resource or people management: It is the responsibility of human resource
managers to ensure that necessary skills and capabilities are present within the
organisation for running the business effectively and efficiently. There are many
activities performed by the human resource managers such as staff planning, recruitment,
selection, training and development, performance management process and developing
succession planning for advancement and replacement. The human resources are
responsible to develop standards and norms for improving the performance of various
people within the organisation. The human resources are also responsible to handle the
marketing professionals and their performance at the workplace. Without the proper
human resource activities the performance of the marketing professionals will lower
down and this will lead to the lower level of performance of the employees. With the help
of effective people management activities Original Creations can easily enhance the
marketing performance of the organisation.
 Operations/production: All the companies require converting their raw materials,
labour, money, information, and other things into the furnished products to be sold in the
market (Dumas and et. al, 2018). The tangible or intangible products or services that are
developed by the organisation are the main reason for its marketing activities and
enhancing its overall profits. Original Creations must improve its operating activities for
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transforming their raw materials into the furnished products that can be marketed
effectively and efficiently. It is the responsibility of operations managers to ensure the
products and services of high quality so that marketing activities can be performed
effectively. In many organisations their operations management activities include the
management of supply chain that is helpful in controlling the delivery of raw materials
and distribution of finished products into the market. With the help of effective placing,
segmentation and targeting the marketing activities can be enhanced and market coverage
by the Original Creations can be enlarged.
 Accounting activities: Managers within the organisation require timely financial
information that is mainly provided by the accounts department. The account departments
maintain a complete summary of financial and managerial information of the organisation
regarding the financial matters. The accounts department activities are mainly divided in
two segments that are financial accountants, which prepare financial statements to help
the users as well as the stakeholders within and outside the organisation that is helpful in
assessing the financial strength of the firm. Managerial accountants prepare information
on the costs that are incurred on the internal activities of the business such as
procurement of raw materials, production process etc. With the help of accurate
accounting data the marketing activities can be improved and financial control can be
leveraged within the organisation.
 Finance activities: Finance function includes the plan of the organisation to acquire
finances from different sources such as owners’ capital, shareholders fund, bank loans
etc. (Boix, 2020). It fulfils the criteria of money requirements by the business in various
activities of the organisation from its initiation to wind up or death. The finance
department mainly is responsible for handling the financial aspects within the business
and maintaining adequate flow of investment in finance for carrying out their activities of
the company. The financial management is very important for the organisation because it
helps to acquire finances for various activities of the organisation. Finance activities are
similarly important for the marketing activities within the Original Creations because it
helps to create suitable marketing activities for the organisation for achieving higher
profits. For carrying out the marketing activities the requirement of finances must be
fulfilled.
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 Information technology and data analytics: Information technology and use of digital
data are the critical assets in every business organisation that exists in today's era. With
the help of information technology and data analysis the organisation is able to reach the
maximum number of customers and develop a network infrastructure and applications
and interfaces for their customers. Original Creations have a high level of integration
within their business technology and various departments such as finance, marketing,
human resource, operations etc. With the help of information technology, Original
Creations can easily develop interfaces to connect directly with their customers, receive
information from other companies, suppliers, customers etc. By the use of data analytics
Original Creations have more data about their customers, competitors and the market that
can be helpful in optimising their marketing performance, decision making and increase
their return on investment of the business. With the help of information technology and
digital data the organisation can easily market its products and services to huge numbers
of customers.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded that an organisation should focus especially on developing their
marketing strategies by advertising and social media platforms and moving towards digital
technology. The digital technology is like advertisements on social media and websites will be
helpful in providing greater recognition to the organisation. This report has been describing
various department activities that can be helpful in developing new products and improving the
overall sales performance of the organisation. It has also been discussed that various issues that
are faced by the organisation regarding their strategy for improving overall sales performance of
the company. It has been providing certain recommendations to overcome those challenges faced
by the organisation. Moreover, it has been understood that a company requires performing
various operations for enhancing its marketing activities. Along with this, the local
manufacturers with lean production can create many convenient and cost effective marketing
activities by maintaining a positive growth in the market. Finally, it has been understood that an
organisation should pay special focus over the product development and customer care for
getting higher advantages in the market and increasing sales exponentially.
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PART 2 Self Reflection
INTRODUCTION
The project of developing a business management for the original Creations I learnt about
various abilities, skills and knowledge that would be required for developing the business (Béres
and Fook, 2019). The completion of the project has helped me to understand the topic and
sending issues in regard to the project development activities and various solutions that can be
helpful for developing better business activities. This assignment was a great opportunity for
enhancing my skills such as research, numeracy, ITC, problem solving, teamwork,
communication, etc. In this part of the report I will be discussing my experience regarding
various skills and knowledge that I acquired through the module.
SKILLS ACQUIRED
I learnt various valuable skills from conducting the research and this course work. A
personal reflection is provided in order to understand about the various skills that I have obtained
from the various activities during the course work.
From week 6 to week 10 I went through various learning programs that helped to
understand various skills that I had acquired from these activities. Mainly these skills were learnt
by me during various activities such as the human resource management activities by which I
was able to understand the teamwork activities. The various skills that I acquired by the learnings
are given below.
 Communication skills: With the help of activity during the 9th week I developed the
communication skills where I was required to recap whatever I have learnt and
understood during the class work. With the help of this activity I developed better
communication because we need to share everything with others in a group that I have
learnt through the module.
 Numeracy or analytical thinking: With the help of group activities during the eighth
week I was able to develop the analytical thinking and ability to interact with the numbers
in easier ways. This was not easy and I had to work very hard to achieve these skills
(Körkkö, 2021).
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 ITC skills: during the 7th week lesson I started to learn about the use of information
technology communication for preparing my CV with the help of various digital tools.
During the 8th week I went through a very complex situation while critically
understanding computer based information systems that were among the most difficult
activities during the course work.
 Problem solving ability: I think that my problem solving ability was very poor as
compared to the others because I was not able to resolve the conflicts of the people while
performing the human resource management activities during week 7. I understood that I
have to examine and identify the causes for problems in order to resolve them or create
specific solutions.
 Teamwork or working with others was learnt by me during the 9th week activities
where I needed to work with the group members and colleagues for sharing the ideas with
each other and obtaining greater results in our work. The main focus of developing the
team work was to enhance the optima of performance and achieve desired performance
levels (Rolfe and Freshwater, 2020).
SMART OBJECTIVES
SMART is a mnemonic acronym that is helpful to guide the setting of goals and objectives
for an individual, to achieve its specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound
objectives. The SMART objectives that are required to be achieved are as follows:
S (Specific) M (Measurable) A(Attainable) R(Realistic) T(Time Bound)
Communication
skills refer to the
ability to interact
with the people
effectively and
efficiently to
deliver certain
messages in
precise manner.
The ability of
communicating
with the fellow
mates and
interacting with
them effectively
and efficiently
provides the
better
measurement of
To be achieved
by undertaking
the group
discussion
activities, team
work and open
communication
for enhancing the
communication
skills (Francis
Discussing with
the other people
about the ways
those who could
provide
feedbacks and
suggestions for
improvement.
Achieved within
8th week
continuous
communication
activities.
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the performance
at the activities.
and O'Brien,
2019).
Problem solving
ability refers to
the abilities of an
individual to
inspect the
problem and
identify the
critical solutions
for that problem.
The abilities to
take part in the
decision making,
team activities
and resolving
conflicts among
the team
members,
employees, staff
etc. so that
effective work
performance can
be achieved.
Improving the
critical thinking
and analysis of
the problems for
facilitating
solutions that are
designed to
create better
situations and
improve
coordination.
Understanding
the needs of
individual
focusing over
their viewpoint
to understand
their
requirements and
resolving their
problems
accordingly.
Achieved within
the learning
activities of the
7th week.
Team work can
be explained as
these skills of
managing
activities of the
business so that
the performance
and optimum
results can be
achieved.
Taking part in
the management
activities of the
firm and
evaluating the
management
practices and
abilities by
indulging in the
activities of
manging people
and operations
within the
organisation.
The activities of
the group work
and group
discussions
learning
discussion and
performing the
group activities.
Taking feedbacks
and suggestions
from the
managers,
seniors and
leaders about my
performances
and the places
where need for
development is
required.
Practiced and
achieved within
the 9th week
duration.
Numeracy and
Conceptual
Evaluating the
work activities,
Applying those,
theories,
Evaluating the
performance of
Learnt through
the activities of
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knowledge of
the various
models, theories,
strategies,
principles and
practices for
innocent war
capabilities of an
individual at the
workplace.
discovering the
best suitable
principles,
methods
procedures, by
applying suitable
theories and
models that can
help to enhance
the optima of
work.
principles,
frameworks and
concepts in the
real world
situations at the
workplace.
these theories,
models and
frameworks in
the real work
dynamics at the
workplace.
7th week where I
needed to
participate in the
team work
activities.
ITC or
Technical skills
about the ways
fields and
various
departments
within the
organisation
manage the
activities
effectively and
efficiently
through the
understanding of
technology,
software
computer
systems, etc.
Understanding
the computer
processes, taking
part in the
technical
discussions,
innovations and
workplace
technologies for
achieving the
results on time.
Understanding
the concepts of
digitalisation and
helping out with
the digitalisation
activities.
Using the
computers and
the technological
aspects such as
Computer IS,
smartphones,
digital platforms
and Information
technology
communications.
The use of
technologies like
data platforms,
digital networks,
smartphones,
information
technologies,
Computer IS,
social media and
information
technology
(Rappa and
Ledger, 2022).
Achieved by
taking courses
Computer IS and
computer class
programme
during the 8th
week and 9th
week learning
programme.
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CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that a person requires various skills and
knowledge for performing their activities effectively and efficiently. This report has helped to
identify certain skills such as communication, numeracy, information technology
communication, problem solving and team working or working with others. It has been obtained
that these skills are very crucial for performing various activities in a business and gaining a high
level of professional development. Finally, a SMART objective framework is provided to
achieve these skills effectively and efficiently.
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