Analysis of Business Operations and Management for General Motors

This report provides an introduction to business operations and management, defining business operations as activities to improve value and profitability, requiring suitable management. It uses General Motors as a case study, examining the company's operations and their impact on managerial decisions. The report covers the main functions of business operations, including finance, strategy, forecasting, accounting, production, and sales. It evaluates General Motors' operations, focusing on production, supply chain logistics, location strategies, quality control, and human resources, and how these factors influence decision-making within the company. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of these functions for smooth business operations, profitability, and sustainability.

Introduction to
business operation and
management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
An introduction and explanation of business operations............................................................1
Explanation of main functions of business operations................................................................1
Brief description of selected company........................................................................................2
Evaluation of the operations of company on the managerial decisions......................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
Business operations defines the activities in which business involves itself on its daily
activities in order to improve their value and earn more profitability. This activity is useful in
optimising the generating enough revenues. In order to manage business functions and its
concerned operations suitable management is required which is useful in performing things in
suitable manner (Schaltegger, Burritt and Petersen, 2017). To carry forward this report, General
Motors is considered which is an American multinational company headquarter in Detroit and
also become the largest American automobile manufacturer in world. This report is going to
cover basic introduction and explanation of business operations and its main functions. Its brief
description is given of selected company and also evaluate the operations of company which
impacts the managerial decisions. At last, conclusion is provided which is based on the findings
of research.
MAIN BODY
An introduction and explanation of business operations
Business operations is termed as the valuable asset of company which is owned and
managed by business and it can be physical and intangible. Operational activities are the one
which start from the paper and then executed in physical terms. It is also considered as the
business plan which is an important function and provide a rough map to guide business owner
(Wilton, 2016). Its operations evolve growth of business and for this management need to plan
changes from the prevention of bug which arises in the system of company. It is useful in order
to handle the occurring challenges like legal, marketing and other related issues.
Explanation of main functions of business operations
Operations management refers to managing the operational activities and procedures of
an organisation and for effective management there is more accountability and accuracy is
required for the successful delivery of product and project. Its main functions are discussed as
under: Finance: It is considered as the important element as it ensure all the finances and funds
which are utilised in suitable and effective manner and also carried out for the
development of products and services (Ross, 2016). For this, effective use of resources
are important as it helps in satisfying the requirements of consumer.
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 Strategy: It is considered as the important aspect to run business organisation as planning
is an important tactic which helps in optimising resources for the development of
company to achieve competitive edge for business. It include many things with it such as
supply chain configuration, sales, capacity of holding money and so on. Forecasting: It is a process which is useful in order to estimate things in an effective
manner for certain event which occur in future. It is useful in estimating the demand of
consumer as it is correlated with production in order to develop things in accurate amount
which is required at the specific period of time (Ivanov, Tsipoulanidis and Schönberger,
2017). Thus, forecasting plays an important role in the development of production
procedure of company. Accounting: In order to conduct business and run its activities in smooth manner,
accounting plays an important role. For the operations of business and its functions
accounting plays an important role in measuring and summarising the business actions. It
also interpret the concerning information regarding finance and its funds and also
communicate the results to management and other decision makers. Production and Operations: This function has its defined business goals in order to use
the resources of company in an effective and efficient manner in regard of producing and
developing products and services according to the needs and wants of customers. For
this, it handles the procedure of incoming material to the production process regarding
the feedback from the customer (Choi, Chan and Yue, 2016). Moreover, it is also helpful
for making important and required adjustments in order to fit in the needs to customers.
 Sales: This function depends on the production and operations of company as this
function is quite obvious in order to earn profitability and sustainability. Moreover, this
function is not enough to its as it also describe handing over the goods and receiving its
prices. For this sales function needs analysis and identification of potential customers,
promotion of products, actual selling and follow up.
Brief description of selected company
General Motors is an American multinational company headquarter in Detroit as it deals
in designing, manufacturing, marketing and distributing vehicles and its parts. Company was
founded by William C. Durant in 1908 and also provide its services around 15 countries.
Moreover, its core brands include Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and so on. General Motors is awarded
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as the technical prowess and also deactivation technology because of managing its dynamic fuel
in the revolutionary system for the the internal combustion engines. In addition to this, company
holds around 20% stake in IMM and 77% stake in GM Korea. Moreover, it has number of joint
venture including Shanghai in China, General Motors in India and Egypt and Isuzu Truck in
South Africa. Company also operates in mobility division which is called Maven as it operates in
car sharing services in US and also study alternatives to individual vehicle ownership. General
Motors acts in most countries outside the United States via wholly owned subsidiaries but
operates in china with the help of its ten joint ventures. In 2009, company shed various brands
that are closing like Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer and in 2010, it reorganised GM that are made
an initial public offering which is one of the world's top five largest IPOs to date and also
returned to profitability later that year.
Evaluation of the operations of company on the managerial decisions
Operations management decisions becomes the turnaround for company as it enables the
organisation to become more flexible and also survive in the financial crisis without taking
government bailouts. For this, many things of operations management includes various
management teams and objectives as it is a multi disciplinary field which put emphasis on
managing all the factors of the operations of company (Penn and Pennix, 2017). In regard of this,
company carries out many functions which impacts the decision making of company. Operations
management put emphasis on offering products and services in order to make sure the quality of
products and also apply the ideas and technologies which leads to increase in productivity,
reduces extra cost and enhances the flexibility of rapidly meeting the changing needs of
customers. For this, various functions which impacts the decision making of operations
management are as follows: Production: This department is useful in defining the production related functions which
tends to describe the strategies that are opted at the time of producing products which
they want to offer to their potential customers. Production is considered as the most
significant part by which company take entry in the market and also face problem
because of this concerning the choice of offering products to customers (Carrión and et.
al., 2016). In relation with General Motors, their production and development of goods
depends on the preferences and demand of customers as it is the only factor by which
company attain success in the dynamic business environment and also survive for the
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longer period of time. In addition to this, at the time of producing goods wastage and
usage of resources is also determined by company as it helps in saving extra cost and
expenses. Supply Chain Logistics: Supply chain management is the systematic approach in order to
manage the distribution of goods from raw material to final products. It also impacts the
manufacturing of company in many ways such as availability of required inputs in
production process, cost and profitability of the manufactured products. It impacts the
daily operations of company from strategic viewpoint as it is important for all the
managers and entrepreneurs of an industry (Wood and Logsdon, 2017). In relation with
General Motors, it impacts the reliability of inputs as it make sure that raw materials are
consistently present at the production in order to facilitate the further activities on time.
But it also make distribution cost very low as it is the important function for the cost
effective because it reduces the overhead and direct sales of cost at the same time. For
General Motors, proper functioning of this unit and department is important as it helps in
helps in processing the functions in systematic manner and also handle the procedure to
lower supply chain to boost the profitability to company.
 Location Strategies: Location and venue of company and its production impacts the
overall corporate strategy as for this, company strives to become the leader of market and
also telecommunicate its equipments. For this, they consider the development of
warehouses and plants in proper region in which they can keep their stock with the help
of consistent strategy that are optimally located to provide services to global customers
(vom Brocke, Zelt and Schmiedel, 2016). In relation with General Motors, various factors
are involves in formulating the location strategy which are as:
 Facilities planning regarding determining the required space for company for the short
and long term objectives.
 Evaluation of logistics in the options of transportation and its concerning cost for the
manufacturing and warehousing facilities. Another function include risk and regulation of government which can impact the
operations and decision making of company as expansion in other countries consider risk
factor and to avoid it location strategy need to be developed.
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 Quality Control: Management of quality is an act of overlooking and differentiating
activities within an organisation in order to make sure the goods and services which are
offered to customers and also meant to achieve them. In order to run an organisation in an
effective manner with minimum wastage quality should be analysed and controlled to
achieve and maintain the required level of quality in the operations and production of
products (Myers, 2019). In terms of General Motors, this factor impacts the decision
making of company as it make plans to ensure quality and make improvements in them.
Moreover, it also uphold the integrity of procedure and reliability in order to achieve the
desired result and also provide sufficient reliability to specific products and service in
order to meet the requirements.
 Human Resources: Human resources are the significant aspect of company as it leads to
influences the decision making of company regarding the hiring and recruitment of
employees in an organisation. For this, they are the one who decide suitable and skilled
candidate according to the requirements of various departments as the smooth
functioning of company depends on the right candidate at right place (Schaltegger,
Burritt and Petersen, 2017). In relation with General motors, their HR team is more
competent and skilled enough in order to recruit desirable candidate as because of skilled
candidate within an organisation, the productivity of company take speed. Moreover,
somehow it negatively impacts the operations as if HR manager recruit wrong candidate
in company as it tends to delay in the operations and functioning of company.
CONCLUSION
Thus, it is concluded that in order to run business functions and operations in an effective
manner it is analysed that company require many functions which helps them in smooth
functioning of company. For this, company has many functions and departments that plays an
important role in the operations of business such as finance, forecasting, sales, production and
operations and many more. From the above discussion and findings, it is determined that various
departments of company impacts decision making of company in both positive and negative and
also describe factor which leads to enhance and boost the chances of earning profitability and
sustainability. As its various units include supply chain, location strategy, Human resources and
so on as these departments plays an important role in improving and developing the
sustainability for company.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Carrión, G.C and et. al., 2016. Prediction-oriented modeling in business research by means of
PLS path modeling: Introduction to a JBR special section. Journal of business
research. 69(10). pp.4545-4551.
Choi, T.M., Chan, H.K. and Yue, X., 2016. Recent development in big data analytics for
business operations and risk management. IEEE transactions on cybernetics. 47(1).
pp.81-92.
Ivanov, D., Tsipoulanidis, A. and Schönberger, J., 2017. Global supply chain and operations
management. A Decision-Oriented Introduction to the Creation of Value.
Myers, M.D., 2019. Qualitative research in business and management. Sage Publications
Limited.
Penn, I.A. and Pennix, G.B., 2017. Records management handbook. Routledge.
Ross, D.F., 2016. Introduction to e-supply chain management: engaging technology to build
market-winning business partnerships. CRC Press.
Schaltegger, S., Burritt, R. and Petersen, H., 2017. An introduction to corporate environmental
management: Striving for sustainability. Routledge.
vom Brocke, J., Zelt, S. and Schmiedel, T., 2016. On the role of context in business process
management. International Journal of Information Management. 36(3). pp.486-495.
Wilton, N., 2016. An introduction to human resource management. Sage.
Wood, D.J. and Logsdon, J.M., 2017. Theorising business citizenship. In Perspectives on
corporate citizenship (pp. 83-103). Routledge.
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