Detailed Analysis of Business Resources at Mark & Spencer: A Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of the business resources employed by Mark & Spencer, a prominent retail company. The report begins by defining business resources and their significance, followed by an examination of Mark & Spencer's recruitment documentation and the essential employability, personal, and communication skills required for various job roles within the company. The report then explores the physical and technological resources necessary for the company's operations, including buildings, equipment, software, and intellectual property. It delves into the sources of internal and external finance available to Mark & Spencer, such as personal savings, retained profit, and loans. Furthermore, the report interprets the contents of a trading and profit and loss account, as well as a balance sheet. It also demonstrates the use of budgets as a means of exercising financial control and assesses the overall financial state of the business. The report concludes with a summary of key findings and references used in the analysis.

BUSINESS RESOURCES

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTUION........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Recruitment documentation used by Mark & Spencer..........................................................1
P2 Employability, personal and communication skills in a specific job role.............................1
M1 ..............................................................................................................................................2
M2...............................................................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3 Physical and technological resources required in operation of company..............................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
P4 Sources of internal and external finance for Mark & Spencer...............................................3
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................4
P5 Interpret the contents of a trading and profit and loss account and balance sheet.................4
P6 Use of budgets as a means of exercising .............................................................................6
P7 Financial state of business.....................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTUION
Human, financial, physical and knowledge factors that provide a firm the means to
perform its business processes. Business resources are anything and everything that helps a
company operate and do business (Chesbrough, 2010). This can include the use of human
capital, natural, tangible such as property or production machinery, intangible resources such as
brand image and knowledge, financial resources and anything else a particular business may use
to make a profit. This report based on Mark & Spencer is a retailer company that provide the
clothings,home products and luxury food products. Every business resource used to produce
goods or to serve customers has an economic value.
TASK 1
P1 Recruitment documentation used by Mark & Spencer.
If company makes a decision an Appointing employee as Human resources assistance for
their division department to handle the all activities of the staff members. Human resource
manager of company uses method to publishing this job that will used some possible ways like
newspaper, websites, advertisement, as well as employee references.
Subsequent to the vacancy has been publicized, concerned candidates will throw their CV
to the specified address which will affirm their identity, learning requirement, understanding,
profession purpose and anticipation, individual abilities, an individual declaration etc. on support
of the CVs the favoured applicants will be informed by the manager for a meeting (Demil and
Lecocq, 2010). This is the division in which the boss gets to assemble the applicants personally
and have a chat with them furthermore prefer the most excellent fitting person for the job. So
after the candidate will be selected, the Company will inform him through letter or notice. This is
entire recruitment documentation used in Mark & Spencer.
P2 Employability, personal and communication skills in a specific job role
Manager of company will observe the criterion an applicant has and whether this is
appropriate and proper to the available employment (Wild, Wild and Han, 2014). Its also look at
the qualification a candidate and even though qualification is only a part of the requirement an
employees looks at while hiring. Learning ability is only a division of the obligation a manager
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that appointing a new candidate. Having educational qualifications shows that one has placed in
an enormous amount of effort and is concerned for a prosperous future. But sometimes the
qualifications don,t matter depending on the particular job considering this case Mark & Spencer
does not require too much educational qualification rather what they tend to look in to a
candidate is their personal skills as to how they deal with customers as this is their prime work
and on a daily basis they would be dealing with numerous amount of customer and each of them
are variant to the other (Yeoh and Koronios, 2010). So the way they deal and handle customers is
the most important factor to prioritize on. Another vital and effective and quality an employer
loo's for in a candidate is their experiencing in the relevant field. In-fact to some employers this
is the sole requirement to employ a candidate and ignores the fact whether they have much
educational qualification but still a minimum standard is set. In this case what Mark & Spencer
will look into is whether the candidate has experience in working in other departmental store.
M1
Human, physical and technology resources is necessary for a successful organization. In
Mark & Spencer the human resource department has an aim to drive the right behaviour, best
result, create a more social organization increases the new skills and training programs and
providing best services tot he customers. Physical resources are used by the Mark & Spencer on
a day to day basis these resources such as building and equipment. Without these factors
organization would not be able to run market place. Technology resources is important in current
business environment that they provide the new tools and techniques for the business is
expending in the new markets with the new innovative products.
M2
It is very important for a candidate to up bring their skills and capabilities qualification
ans experiences to the employer when they are called for during recruitment. As for retention#
showing the proper use of these qualities in a consistent manner is also very important for a
employee in order to prosper and attention a higher rank from his exist in gone (Folkman, 2013).
Based on business organisation a departmental store such to focus on a vital and crucial point
while recruiting and reviewing current staffs and that is their communication skills and the
mannerism in which they deal with customers.
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TASK 2
P3 Physical and technological resources required in operation of company.
Physical resources- At Mark & Spencer the building they use essential towards that day
to day running of the firm (Yunus, Moingeon and Lehmann-Ortega, 2010). In order fort he
business to provides products and services to its customers they will need different in house
resources to facilitates the smooth running of the business.
 They need material such as many display items, freezers for keep the food product are
safe, tills, lighting, computers for administration department and many other resources
are used by company.
 Security is big issues for companies like Mark & Spencer this is because people find
many independent shops that they hire security staff for the company. Its also using
cameras for security and security tags to facilitates the work of the safety guards.
Technology resources- Mark & Spencer uses many software that is loaded on to all their
technology. The software that tells the technology items such as tills to loaded the all barcodes of
the items the store sells which mean employee can quickly and easily scan items.
 Experience and skills are necessary for organization to work as a business, skills are
required for the higher up jobs in the business such as management.
 Intellectual property needs to keep secret as it is required for Mark & Spencer to ensure
that new ideas they come up with to improve the store will not be stolen and used in other
storages.
TASK 3
P4 Sources of internal and external finance for Mark & Spencer.
Internal Sources
Personal savings- This is most often an option for small businesses where the owner has
some savings available to use as they wish (Doz and Kosonen, 2010).
Retained profit- This is profit already made that has been set aside to reinvest in the
business. It could be used for new machinery, marketing and advertising, vehicles or a new IT
system.
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Working capital- This is short-term money that is reserved for day-to-day expenses such
as stationery, salaries, rent, bills and invoice payments.
Sales of assets- There may be surplus fixed assets, such as buildings and machinery that
could be sold to generate money for new areas (Baron and Warnaby, 2011). Decisions to sell
items that are still used should be made carefully as it could affect capacity to deliver existing
products and services.
External Sources:
Shares- Mark & Spencer could look to sell additional shares, to new or existing
shareholders, in exchange for a return on their investment.
Loans- There are debenture loans, with fixed or variable interest, which are usually
secured against the asset being invested in, so the loan company will have a legal shared interest
in the investment. This means that the company would not be able to sell the asset without the
lender’s prior agreement. These may be considered a little more flexible than debenture loans.
Overdraft- A bank overdraft may be a good source of short-term finance to help a
business flatten seasonal dips in cash-flow, which would not justify or need a long-term solution.
The advantage here is that interest is calculated daily and an overdraft is therefore cheaper than a
loan.
Hire purchase- The company will have exclusive use of the item for a set period of time
and then have the option to either return it or buy it at a reduced price. This is often used to fund
purchases of vehicles, machinery and printers.
Credit from suppliers- Mark & Spencer can take the maximum amount of time to pay
and use the money in the interim period to finance other things (Harmon, 2010). This method
should be treated with caution to ensure that the invoice is still paid on time or else the firm
might risk upsetting the supplier and jeopardise the future working relationship and terms of
business.
TASK 4
P5 Interpret the contents of a trading and profit and loss account and balance sheet.
Mark & Spencer Balance-sheet-
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Balance-sheet is a snapshot that company produces of their assets and liabilities at a point of time
to see how much of business is worth at any time (Dahan and et. al, 2010). Its show the current
assets and liabilities such as building, stock, money in the bank, debtors and business owns bank
loan, mortgage, investors etc. is purpose is to clearly show information about organization
financial position at any time, it summarised information in clear layout. It can show
information and financial condition of the company and its current assets and liability.
Income statement of Mark & Spencer
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A income statements can be defined as an account that highlight a business financial
performance over a given of one year which includes the sales revenue, cost of sales, gross
profit, expenses and net profit of the organization (Cosgrove and Rijsberman, 2014). Turn over
can be defined as the amount of revenue or money generated from sales of Mark & Spencer. The
turnover for the company in 2013 was 10026.80 and 2012 the figure was 9943.30 , the difference
between the two accounts for the Mark & Spencer is 92.5. Mark & Spencer may have less
customer as it had just introduced itself and may have been focusing on another aspect of the
business which was to get through the first year. In second year the business got a higher
turnover because it had been established for one year in the location thus people from the area
were well known.
P6 Use of budgets as a means of exercising
Fixed cost = 5600, variable cost per unit = 9 , selling price per unit = 20
Contribution= selling cost – variable cost
20-9 = 11
Break even point = fixed cost/ contribution
5600/11= 509.09
According to the data of Handy ltd. which generally deal with cars whether they are new
or old. According to their data it get identified that fixed cost is 5600. It is a such type of cost
which do not get varied and remain stable in long run purpose of a business. Their variable cost
per unit is 9. this cost get varied according to the situation of production (Johnson, 2010).
Although their selling price is 20. this type of price is that on which an organisation sale out their
products. The break even point is that condition when a firm lead not to produce more than that.
So as per the analysis it get measure that break even point is 509.
P7 Financial state of business
The money related clarification is about the survey of the salary decree of a referred to
association by considering all the critical crude numbers . In the pay of Mar & Spencer
association toward the beginning they have 53 however toward the complete of the
year they have only 14 which exhibits the absence of store due to the achieved of various
expenses. In a general sense wage verbalization depicts the general exchange contributed out the
association income driven growth by considering all the inward and external factors.
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Beside this budgetary announcement exhibits the certified rate of benefit for the wander
with the help of various other little expenses and supportive approaches (Wirtz, 2011). Pay go
about as an amazingly steady gadget and methodology while setting up a yearly spending
arrangement since it takes care of various expenses and furthermore advantage which was earned
by the association. On the other hand Mark & Spencer is especially worried over their money
related enunciation in view of their fruitful part in a business. Beside this it furthermore helps in
evaluating exact need of spending arrangement in finishing their associations focuses as fast as
time allows by diminishing botches and oversights. In conclusion pay clarifications is greatly
helpful while organizing process.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of this report it concluded that the business resources are very important to
run the organization. Mark & Spencer use the many types of resources like human, finance,
physical and technology resources use for run their business. This report content includes a
documentation for recruitment and selection of new human resources assistance. Identifying the
physical, and personal skills of the employees in different job tasks. And determine the
technology and physical resources are help in the running business resources.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Baron, S. and Warnaby, G., 2011. Individual customers' use and integration of resources:
Empirical findings and organizational implications in the context of value co-
creation. Industrial Marketing Management. 40(2). pp.211-218.
Chesbrough, H., 2010. Business model innovation: opportunities and barriers. Long range
planning. 43(2). pp.354-363.
Cosgrove, W.J. and Rijsberman, F.R., 2014. World water vision: making water everybody's
business. Routledge.
Dahan, N.M. and et. al, 2010. Corporate-NGO collaboration: Co-creating new business models
for developing markets.Long range planning. 43(2). pp.326-342.
Demil, B. and Lecocq, X., 2010. Business model evolution: in search of dynamic
consistency. Long range planning. 43(2). pp.227-246.
Doz, Y.L. and Kosonen, M., 2010. Embedding strategic agility: A leadership agenda for
accelerating business model renewal. Long range planning.43(2). pp.370-382.
Folkman, S., 2013. Stress: appraisal and coping (pp. 1913-1915). Springer New York.
Harmon, P., 2010. Business process change: A guide for business managers and BPM and Six
Sigma professionals. Morgan Kaufmann.
Johnson, M.W., 2010. Seizing the white space: Business model innovation for growth and
renewal. Harvard Business Press.
Wild, J., Wild, K.L. and Han, J.C., 2014. International business. Pearson Education Limited.
Wirtz, B.W., 2011. Business model management. Design–Instrumente–Erfolgsfaktoren von
Geschäftsmodellen, 2.
Yeoh, W. and Koronios, A., 2010. Critical success factors for business intelligence
systems. Journal of computer information systems. 50(3). pp.23-32.
Yunus, M., Moingeon, B. and Lehmann-Ortega, L., 2010. Building social business models:
lessons from the Grameen experience. Long range planning. 43(2). pp.308-325.
Online
5 Resources Need to Succeed to Start a Business. 2017. [Online]. Available through.
<http://smallbusiness.chron.com/5-resources-need-succeed-start-business-23.html>.
[Assessed on 6th June 2017].
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