Functional Areas and Skills for IMO Electronics Ltd. Report

This report analyzes the functional areas of IMO Electronics Ltd., a company with a divisional organizational structure, focusing on the finance and marketing departments. It details the roles and responsibilities within these areas, emphasizing the importance of skills like analytical thinking, budgeting, accounting software proficiency, mathematical expertise in finance, and communication, strategic thinking, influencing, and technological skills in marketing. The report also outlines the necessary qualifications, such as degrees in finance, accounting, or marketing, and relevant certifications. It concludes that effective functional areas are essential for smooth business operations and achieving organizational goals by attracting customers and managing finances. The report references several academic sources to support its analysis.

Functional Areas

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
The various functional areas in IMO Electronics Ltd.................................................................1
The types of skills and qualification needed by employees to be able to work effectively in
these functional areas..................................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
References:.......................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Business and its functions smoothly run by performing various activities according to the
roles and functions which are demand by market to earn profitability (de Sousa Oliveira and
Luce, 2020). These activities are like production, distribution, cash management, research and
development etc. Therefore, to perform these functions by different individuals with different
skill set, teams are developed in an organisation which are named as functional areas of business.
There are various business functional areas such as marketing, HR, finance, R&D, operations
etc. (Crawford, 2020). The report is about the John has little work experience, decided to buy the
IOM Electronics Ltd based at Manchester and Liverpool. The company has 200 employees with
warehouse and divisional organisation structure and marketing and finance department. The
skills and education required for these functional areas are discussed in the report.
MAIN BODY
The various functional areas in IMO Electronics Ltd.
John a 21-year-old boy has decided to buy the IMO Electronics Ltd as he has won the
lottery of £10 million. The company is well known regional organisation placed at two locations
Manchester and Liverpool with 200 employees and a warehouse. This is the electronic company
with divisional organisational structure means company has sorted the functions of business into
the functional areas or divisions. The two functional areas are: Finance department: This functional area is the involve the planning and managing the
capital funds of the company (Gaur, 2019). This area is accountable for making financial
statement related to the internal and external financial transactions to decide the financial
condition of firm. The department focuses on the loans, funds, investors, cash budget and
other financial factors related to firm.
 Marketing department: Marketing department play a role in interacting with the
customers directly and indirectly to recognise their needs and complaints (Grugulis and
et. al., 2019). This department also plays attention in managing the sales and revenue.
Marketing department play role in advertising and promoting the service or product in
market.
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The types of skills and qualification needed by employees to be able to work effectively in these
functional areas
As a consultant of the IMO electronics limited the firm must have employees with skills
and qualification mentioned below:
Finance department
Skills Analytic thinking: This skill is crucial in employee in finance department as this help the
person to review the financial data of the firm to identify figures, discrepancies and extra
funds in the company's account (Mary, 2020). Budgeting: This skill in employee is necessary for planning the large sum of money of
firm to be divide for right time for right activities of the firm. This skill also helps in
maintaining and achieving long term and short term financial goals of the company. Accounting software skills: employee must be skilled and proficient in handling the
software like, Ms- Excel, SAP automation, Oracle etc. as digitalization has created every
data entering and reporting through the software. Mathematical expertise: In finance department the data works on numbers and it is
important for employee to be good in maths skills as accuracy is must in solving statistics
and other financial data (Sanders and Wood, 2019).
Qualifications: A employee in finance department must have a bachelor’s degree in finance,
accounting, statistics or economics or degree in business administration. For higher profession in
this area employee must possess master’s degree in finance and accounting or should have
professional degree like CFA, CA, CPA.
Marketing department
Skills Communication and networking skills: Employee must have the two-way
communication skills for better delivery of message to the buyer and also to understand
buyer needs. Written and verbal communication skills both are mandatory in employee. Strategic thinking: employee must be creative and analytical in thinking the strategies of
marketing for the firm. The methods to advertise and promote the product of firm should
be out of the box (Spychała and et. al., 2019).
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 Influencing and negotiation skills: A employee in this functional area should be high in
this skill as this factor is important in convincing and attracting the consumer towards the
firm. Basically this skill is an ability to bargain with consumer. Technology skills: In this digitalization era employee must be knowledgeable and skilled
in the digital marketing, email marketing, social media campaign, and marketing software
skills.
Qualifications: A employee must be holding a bachelors or post graduate degree in business
administration or certificate course in digital marketing, sociology, marketing and sales, brand
management or social media marketing etc. (Wolniak, 2020).
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above analyses that every business need effective organizational
structure to run company with ease and without any complications. Finance and marketing
functional areas are the key departments of an organization which are useful for handling the
cash and investors and also bring potential customers to generate revenue through sales and
marketing strategies in terms of remaining competitive in market. Hence, the specific skill set
and qualification is must in employees to effectively perform their job role.
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References:
Books and Journals
Crawford, R., 2020. ‘But nobody talks to accountants’: the growing influence of the finance
department in the advertising agency. Accounting History Review. 30(1). pp.89-111.
de Sousa Oliveira, D.M. and Luce, F.B., 2020. Is marketing department important for
companies?. Revista Pensamento Contemporâneo em Administração. 14(3). pp.120-
131.
Gaur, S.S., 2019. Today's world needs graduates with digital marketing skills. The Edge
Malaysia. p.59.
Grugulis and et. al., 2019. Training, development and skills. The SAGE handbook of human
resource management. pp.151-163.
Mary, J.O., 2020. International company human resource management: the modern business-
functional for company growth (Master's thesis, Sumy State University).
Sanders, N.R. and Wood, J.D., 2019. Foundations of sustainable business: Theory, function, and
strategy. John Wiley & Sons.
Spychała and et. al., 2019, May. Competency models as modern tools in the recruitment process
of employees. In European Conference on Intangibles and Intellectual Capital (pp.
282-XIV). Academic Conferences International Limited.
Wolniak, R., 2020. Main functions of operation management. Production Engineering
Archives. 26(1). pp.11-14.
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