Functional Areas in Business and Employee Skills Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the functional areas within a business organization, using IOM Electronics LTD as a case study. It defines key areas such as management, operations, marketing and sales, human resources, finance, and research & development, detailing their respective roles and responsibilities. The report further analyzes the essential skills required for employees to perform effectively in each of these functional areas, emphasizing communication, planning, analytical thinking, creativity, and teamwork. The analysis highlights how these skills contribute to the overall success and efficiency of a business. The report concludes by summarizing the importance of these functional areas and the skills needed for employees to perform their duties.

FUNCTIONAL
AREAS(BMP3004)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Explaining the functional areas that are related to business organization..................................3
Analysing the skills that are needed by the employees to work in different functional areas....5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Functional areas are the team of employees that have similar expertise and skills. These
functional areas involve various business strategy that can be related to marketing, human
resource, finance, sales and research & development. The chosen firm of the report is IOM
electronics LTD which is the local company that deals in selling and producing goods. The study
will explain the various functional areas that are needed in the business organisations. Along
with this it will also evaluate the skills that are needed by the employee to work effectively in
that functional areas.
Explaining the functional areas that are related to business organization
Functional areas are used by the company to operate within the area of expertise, building
effectiveness and efficiency across the business.
The various functional areas of a business are (Functional Areas of Business, 2021):
Management: It is termed as administration and coordination of tasks to achieve the goal of the
company. This administration activities include building the organization strategy and
coordinating with the efforts of the staff to complete the objectives at the available resources.
The main role of the managers in the business is to supervise other peoples performance.
 Planning: These activities is used by the manger to plan the long-term goals of the
business along with short term strategies to complete that goals (Sycheva and et.al.,
2018).
 Organizing: The manager of the company is responsible for organizing the operations of
business in efficient way by allowing them to use the resources.
 Controlling; Mainly the time of manager is spent on controlling the activities within the
business to make sure that company is on the track to achieve goals. When the people of
the company are not in the correct path then manager is the first person to notice that and
take corrective actions regarding this. Leading: In the company it is very important for the manger to motivate its employee to
perform all the objectives in productive manner.
Operations: In this functional areas all the factors of production are converted into goods and
services. This function performs as the heart of the business that pump out good and services in a
quality that meets the need of the customers. These operational function control the supply chain
that include logistics and procurement (Pan, Lu and Lei, 2018).

Marketing and sales: It is the main functional area for the business as it is related to identifying
needs, design and services that are related to customers. This function also includes promoting
services and goods to see how goods will be delivered and by developing pricing strategy to
capture the market and to be one step ahead from competitor. Marketing are related to:
 Price: This is related to how to charge for the product and factors like should company
can reduce the price to attract large number of customers.
 Product: it is related to satisfying the needs of the customers by fulfilling their needs.
 Promotion: In simple words it is used for spreading the information about the products,
services or any issue.
 Place: It is related to where to sell or distribution of products. It is mainly concerned with
physical and channel of distribution.
Sales it is the crucial function of the business. It is very important for the business to set the aim
and objective to achieve the sales targets. In the company the main responsibility of handling this
is of sales staff and team. Sales performs various functions that includes sales promotion, giving
response to customer inquires, providing technical advice, it will also help the company to keep
the records of its customers (Nawaz and Koç, 2019).
Human resource: It is the main and important function for any business because it is related to
recruiting new employees and making clear that all the vacancy under the organization are filled
with right person. Human resource make sure that that business have retained experiences and
good staff that will result in achieving targets in good and productive manner. Human resource
helps the business in monitoring working conditions, ensure that company pay rates are
competitive and fair. Human resource make sure that company is working according to laws and
staying up to date with all the legal changes and developments.
Finance: It is the part of financial management. That is concerned with the activities that is
controlling and planning of resources. In organization it involves the utilization of funds and
acquiring it necessary for efficient operations. Functions includes forecasting cash outflows and
inflows, raising funds, effective use of funds, financial planning and allocation of funds (Li and
et.al., 2017). Usually this function is performs or head by the vice president of finance or chief
financial offices who later on report all the information about this to the president.
Research and development: It is very important function for the manufacturing business.
Research and development helps the company by providing the knowledge and ideas to keep

them one step ahead from their competitors. Technological in advance through R & D not only
affect our lives but also the ways in which businesses operate. This function is used by the
organization for new product development as well it is used for improving existing products or
product line. R & D faculty aim to work with designers to create a usable product that can be
manufactured at a reasonable cost that can be sold at a competitive price, and is risk-free or safe
to use.
Analysing the skills that are needed by the employees to work in different functional areas
Skills is the power to use one knowledge in effect and promptly in carrying out business
performance. Communication skills: It is the important skill that is needed by the employee in every
function whether it is human resource, management, marketing or sales (Hu and Han,
2019). In management it is related to flow of information within the organization that can
be in formal, informal, verbal or writing that facilitates the smooth functioning of the
organization. In human resource it is used to determine whether the people of the
organization are comfortable, confused or dishonest during the presentations or
conversations. In sales it functions as the people of the organization makes sure that they
understand the product and services that are related to promoting and supporting. In
marketing it functions as communicating with the people in professional way that is
reading why they should buy the product of the company. Planning skills: In management is performs as making strategy that are used for
achieving the goals and targets (Management Skills, 2021). In management it is very
important for the person to have planning skills that will result in identifying and setting
achievable goals, outlining the tasks, schedules and developing necessary strategies
related to how to set goals. In human resource these skills is important to ensure that it
avoids surplus and manpower between the job and employees. Analytical thinking: to work in marketing it is very important for the employee to have
analytical skills that is research to determine what the audience wants and needs. Also,
they have to perform different functions that are related to consumer survey data,
completing the analysis of competitors, conducting market and media research and doing
SWOT analysis of the company (Foltête and Vuidel, 2017).

 Creativity skills: An important skill that is needed by all the candidate that want to work
under the company that is related to bring new and innovative ideas that will make the
business one step ahead from their competitors. The marketer must have this to think new
and exciting ideas regarding their client or to target the demographics. In human resource
it is based on personal conviction that is regarding developing and reflecting attitude.
Employee must have the creativity so that it can solve the problems that are regarding the
new ways that are made to accomplish tasks and run the business in efficiently manner.
 Teamwork: These skills are important for the individual to perform a have the ability to
work together with partners towards achieving the common vision and goals. All the
functions' employee have to work together by accomplishing organizational objectives. In
marketing the employee must have the skills that is how to design the product that will
meet the customers specifications. In human management this skill is needed to support
managers and teams regarding the issues and other decision making (Aithal, 2017).
CONCLUSION
By summing up the above report it has been concluded that functional areas are the team of
business that have to perform in various manner under the organization with proper expertise and
skills. The above studies have reflected that there are various organization function that are
needed by the business that are related to human resource it is related to recruiting new
employees and making clear that all the vacancy under the organization are filled with right
person, marketing, sales very important for the business to set the aim and objective to achieve
the sales targets, finance and management. By the evaluation of above report communication,
planning and team work are important skills that the employees must have to work under
different functional areas.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aithal, P. S., 2017. Industry Analysis–The First Step in Business Management Scholarly
Research. International Journal of Case Studies in Business, IT and Education
(IJCSBE). 1(1). pp.1-13.
Foltête, J. C. and Vuidel, G., 2017. Using landscape graphs to delineate ecologically functional
areas. Landscape Ecology. 32(2). pp.249-263.
Hu, Y. and Han, Y., 2019. Identification of urban functional areas based on POI data: A case
study of the Guangzhou economic and technological development
zone. Sustainability. 11(5). p.1385.
Li, H. H., and et.al., 2017. Pollution characteristics and risk assessment of human exposure to
oral bioaccessibility of heavy metals via urban street dusts from different functional
areas in Chengdu, China. Science of the Total Environment. 586. pp.1076-1084.
Nawaz, W. and Koç, M., 2019. Exploring organizational sustainability: Themes, functional
areas, and best practices. Sustainability. 11(16). p.4307.
Pan, H., Lu, X. and Lei, K., 2018. Lead in roadway dusts from different functional areas in a
typical valley city, NW China: contamination and exposure risk. Environmental Science
and Pollution Research. 25(1). pp.523-532.
Sycheva, I. N., and et.al., 2018. Economic potential and development prospects of small
businesses in rural areas.
Online
Functional Areas of Business. 2021.[Online]. Available through:
<https://www.iedunote.com/functional-areas-of-business>
Management Skills. 2021. [Online]. Available through:
<https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/soft-skills/management-skills/>