Introduction to Business Studies FY021: HR, Marketing & Finance Roles

This report provides an overview of the critical roles of Human Resources (HR), marketing, and finance within a business context, using The Body Shop as a case study. It examines how HR contributes to talent management and employee development, the functions of marketing in promoting products and building brand image, and the importance of financial management in budgeting and resource allocation. The report also delves into the benefits and potential drawbacks of collaborative working practices, highlighting how teamwork can enhance problem-solving and innovation but may also lead to conflicts. Finally, it describes the role of financial management in ensuring the financial stability and success of the organization through effective planning, resource utilization, and risk management. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide range of study resources for students.

FY021 INTRODUCTION TO
BUSINESS STUDIES

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Presenting the role of HR, marketing and finance within the firm..............................................3
Develop an understanding of collaborative working practices....................................................4
Describing the role of financial management in the organization...............................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Business can be defining as the commercial activity of manufacturing, buying and selling
the products with the motive of earning the profit.
The present report is based on The body shop which is a British company that produce and
sell skin care, cosmetic and perfume to their customer. Moreover, the organization sell their
services worldwide with the headquarter locate at London, UK as well as have 3000 stores (The
Body Shop., 2021).
Furthermore, the study will discuss on role of HR in the finance and marketing function of
the company as well as how collaborative working practice can be developed. Lastly, the
organization will analysed about the role of financial management within the firm.
MAIN BODY
Presenting the role of HR, marketing and finance within the firm
Human resources plays an important role in enhancing the ability of the form in the
competitive market. Moreover, it manages the whole administration of the company that
contributes in increasing the performance of the firm and maintain the healthy work environment
within the organization (Cvetić and et.al., 2017). There is various role that have been played by
the HR manager of the Body shop that are explained in details below:
 Talent management: This the fist and the most important role of the Human resources
management for recruiting the talented people as it will contribute in accomplishing the
goals of the organization within the limited frame of time. The HR of Body Shop
conduct an interview for the vacant job and only graduated and experience people are
hired by them. Training and development: This is one of the integral role of the HR team for
conducting various activities in order to train and develop the skills of their employees
(Momin, 2018). Moreover, Body Shop HR manger conduct various activities such as
mentoring, coaching, on job training for the fresher and for the internship students.
Along with this, it creates direct impact on the success of the organization.
Marketing function: The role of marketing manager is to promote the products in the
competitive market in order to earn profit and building brand image of the company in the
business environment (Nafisa and et.al., 2019). There are 7 functions that has been followed by

Body shop in order to advertise their products such as promotion, selling, product management,
market information, pricing, budget and distribution. Moreover, the company promote their
goods and services through digital marketing or direct marketing that contributes in selling also
likewise online website of the firm. Along with this, Body shop maintain the quality of the
products in order to meet the customer satisfaction as well as take the data of the market through
online survey or traditional method that will contribute in identifying the needs and taste of the
consumer. In addition to this, the pricing of the products is a complicated process and Body Shop
has made their pricing according to the income of their customer and premium products cost is
high (Ali, Shaban and Al-Zubi, 2017). Furthermore, marketing helps in generating revenue and
sales through marketing and Body shop have large sales in local and international market that
contributes in earning more and more profit. Last function of marketing is distribution and Body
shop sell their products through online website and local stores.
Finance function: The two main function of this sector is to make appropriate budget for the
organization so that it can identify the profit and loss of the company. Moreover, it helps the
company in investing in new business venture or new department so that company can more
effectively and efficiently (Kalyanpur and Newman, 2017). The another important function is
support the business planning and contributes in decision-making
Develop an understanding of collaborative working practices
Body shop is successful British cosmetics company that was able to achieve the height
of great success through continuous efforts and team building. Moreover, it focuses on
developing cruelty-free products that are not tested on animals. Further, while working in group
improved the problem solving of the workers of body and thus it ensured that all products that
are made can be fully recycled (Burlingame, McClendon and Yang, 2018). Also, cultural
awareness was also improved and thus they were able to develop those products that are
according to the current needs and wants of the customers Moreover, for the quoted firm critical
thinking of the group was also enhanced that help the firm to develop those marketing tools that
would help in communicating the business ideas to the world and thus helped in gaining
popularity and develop better brand image of the organization against its competitors.
Moreover, working in groups helped the firm to enhance the motivation levels that
would force them to deliver better results in short period. Body shop employees has also
developed the self management skills that has helped in solving complex problems without

much need of the superiors and also helped them to share ideas and discussions openly to large
group of audiences. However, working in groups may have certain disadvantage that have to be
faced by the company such as it may create problems of conflicts in the working style of any
individual and as such some major tasks may remain unfulfilled or may be done in inappropriate
manner that may add unnecessary costs to the operations of the company (Bakker and Albrecht,
2018). However, collaborative structures in the group place helps in better work division among
the body shop members as tasks are made little easier.
Thus, it is affective as company is always involved in large projects and as such breaking
up the responsibilities in small portions work can be carried out in faster and better manner.
Also, due to this morale of the employees of body shop improved that help the business to
generate good opportunities for the future (Mathieu and et.al., 2017). Therefore, more positive
relationship and trust among the body shop workers can be seen at the workplace. Also, group
working helped the quoted firm to improve the delivery time of various products as each worker
focused on their strengths that help to improve the quality of work.
Further, more of working groups in the quoted firm may result in assumption of workers
that some individuals have leadership roles and there are chances that multiple workers may feel
the same. Hence, tension would be created among the individuals that would lead in disapproval
or contradicting statements among the group members. Also, when groups are formed
(frequently) than they may tend towards the idea that is made by the strongest member of the
team and thus group thinking is affected on large level. Also, personal interactions may be
reduced if group members connections are poor or limited as lag time may reduce the
productivity of the employees. Further, some people may resist in avoiding certain tasks if lot of
introvert are present in the single group, and they resist in giving suggestions.
Describing the role of financial management in the organization
Financial management can be describing as the process of planning, directing, organising
that contributes in managing the financial activity as well as overall management of the company
(Lagoarde-Segot and Paranque, 2018). Moreover, the function includes allocation of financial
resources and utilization of fund in the various activity of the department and business venture.
Along with this, it contributes in the success of business by providing the organization with

profit and loss of the firm. The major role of financial management is making an appropriate
budget plan for the company that includes the profit and loss of present and previous year, other
expense, total sales of present and previous year. In addition to this, it helps in identifying the
market position of the firm as well as maintain the financial stability of the firm in the
competitive market. Another function of financial management is to manage the capital of the
firm that includes day to day expense, capita structure of the firm and the sources of funding that
are required for meeting the needs (KHOMUTENKO and KHOMUTENKO, 2020). It also
makes sure that company has enough cash flow for meeting the emergency and distant need for
smooth functioning. Furthermore, it helps in identifying the balance between the assets and
liability of the firm. It also eliminates and reduce the unwanted expense that contributes in
enhancing the financial health of the company in the competitive market.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that Human resource, finance function and
marketing plays crucial role in improving the productivity of the firm in the external market. It
has been summarized from the above study that HR manages the administration of the
organization by fulfilling role of hiring the talented people and developing the training programs
for them. So that it can contribute in enhancing the functions of the firm.
Moreover, the marketing functions helps in advertising the business at local as well as at
international market. Along with this, the finance function contributes in maintain the budget
of the firm so that it can contribute in investing. Lastly, the study has depicted on the financial
management that refers to planning the overall finance of the company.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Ali, N. N., Shaban, O. S. and Al-Zubi, Z., 2017. The Effect of Implementing Integrated
Marketing Communication Systems on Improving Marketing Function" A case study on
OFFTEC Company". International Research Journal of Applied Finance. 8(4). pp.186-
194.
Bakker, A. B. and Albrecht, S., 2018. Work engagement: current trends. Career Development
International.
Burlingame, G. M., McClendon, D. T. and Yang, C., 2018. Cohesion in group therapy: A meta-
analysis. Psychotherapy. 55(4). p.384.
Cvetić, T. and et.al., 2017. Quality and human resources in function of business excellence in
production organizations owned by women entrepreneurs. JWEE. (3-4). pp.84-93.
Kalyanpur, N. and Newman, A., 2017. Form over function in finance: international institutional
design by bricolage. Review of International Political Economy. 24(3). pp.363-392.
KHOMUTENKO, A. and KHOMUTENKO, V., 2020. Efficiency of state finance management:
theoretical and methodological approaches to evaluation. World of finance. (4 (61)).
pp.67-82.
Lagoarde-Segot, T. and Paranque, B., 2018. Finance and sustainability: From ideology to
utopia. International Review of Financial Analysis. 55. pp.80-92.
Mathieu, J. E. and et.al., 2017. A century of work teams in the Journal of Applied
Psychology. Journal of applied psychology. 102(3). p.452.
Momin, M. M., 2018. Role And Relevance Of Human Resources Management In Contemporary
Profit-Centric ERA. Sinergi: Jurnal Ilmiah Ilmu Manajement. 8(1).
Nafisa, S. and et.al., 2019. Integrating Internal and External Marketing Function for a Services
Management Marketing Model in Iran. Religación, 4, pp.233-237.
Poniatowicz, M., 2017. Transaction costs in the context of the requirements of effective finance
management for local government units. Ekonomia i Prawo. Economics and Law. 16(3).
pp.325-341.
Online references
1

The Body Shop., 2021. [Online]. Available through <
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2011/nov/21/brief-history-of-body-
shop >
2