Business Analysis of The Body Shop: HR, Marketing, and Finance Roles

This report provides a detailed analysis of The Body Shop, a UK-based cosmetics and skincare company. It examines the roles of the Human Resource, Marketing, and Finance departments, highlighting their key functions and responsibilities. The report delves into the company's organizational culture, exploring factors that influence it and collaborative working practices. Furthermore, it demonstrates financial management and reporting within The Body Shop, including the importance of the Profit and Loss account, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings, offering insights into the company's business operations and financial strategies. The report covers the introduction, the roles of HR, Marketing and Finance, collaborative working practices, organizational culture, management/leadership styles, and financial management and reporting, including the Profit and Loss account, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement.

INTRODUCTION
TO BUSINESS
STUDIES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report consists of a brief study on the business of The Body Shop UK which is a
UK based organization that deals in cosmetics and skin care products. The report consists of
the various roles which are performed by the Finance department, Marketing Department and
Human Resource Department of the Body shop. It also explains the organization culture and
the factors affecting the organizational culture in an organization. The organizational culture
of The body shop is also explained in brief. The report also consists of the role of financial
management in the organization.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................4
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................4
The Role of Human Resource, Marketing and Finance functions performed at The Body Shop...........4
Describe the role performed by the Human Resource Department of the Body Shop.......................4
Describe the role performed by Marketing Department at The Body Shop.......................................4
Describe the role performed by Finance Department at The Body Shop...........................................5
TASK 2.................................................................................................................................................6
Determine and explain the collaborative working practices at the Body Shop......................................6
Explain organizational culture of the Body Shop..............................................................................6
Describe the Management/ Leadership styles at The Body Shop......................................................7
TASK 3.................................................................................................................................................7
Demonstrate the Financial Management and reporting within the Body Shop......................................7
Explain the importance of Profit and Loss account in The Body Shop..............................................7
Explain the importance of Balance Sheet in The Body Shop.............................................................7
Explain the importance of Cash Flow Statement in The Body Shop.................................................8
CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business Studies is referred to the study of the management of the individuals which
help in maintaining the collective productivity in order to accomplish a specific innovative
and productive goal or objective with an aim to incur profits. Business Studies is referred to
the study of economics and management. It is associated with monetary issues and
management of the business. The word business is referred to an economic activity which is
performed with an aim of earning profits. It can be an individual or a social work performing
with a commercial purpose.
The Body Shop is a UK based brand which deals in cosmetics, perfume and skin care.
The Body Shape was founded by Anita Roddick in the year 1976. The organization, The
Body Shop has its Headquarters in London, UK which deals in over 1000 of product range
and has approximately 3000 stores in over 65 countries across the world (Coviello, 2015).
TASK 1
The Role of Human Resource, Marketing and Finance functions performed
at The Body Shop
Every organization comprises of various departments. Similarly, The Body Shop
consists of three departments namely, Finance, Marketing and Human Resource. Each
department performs its own individual functions in the organization.
Describe the role performed by the Human Resource Department of the Body Shop.
The HR department is referred to a group of people in an organization who are
responsible for managing the tasks like Hiring, recruiting, termination, training and
development of the employees and their employee benefits in an organization. The Role of
HR in The Body Shop is explained below-
 Recruitment- The HR department of The body shop deals with recruiting the potential
candidates for the organization in order to fill the vacant position (Forsgren, Holm and
Johanson, 2015).
 Hiring- The HR departments of the body shop focuses on hiring right people at right
time for the right job.
 Payroll processing- The HR personnel is responsible for processing the payroll in the
organization.
 Disciplinary actions- The HR department needs to formulate and monitor the
disciplinary actions in the organization.
 Maintaining employee records- The HR department needs to maintain the record of
the employee details and keep them confidential.
 Updating policies- The HR needs to keep updating the policies of the organization on
a timely basis.

Describe the role performed by Marketing Department at The Body Shop.
The marketing department of an organization plays a crucial role in promoting the
business of an organization. The Body shop has a huge base of its loyal customers and it is
possible due to the products that are offered by the brand. The Campaign “Enrich and Not
Exploit” of The Body Shop had become quite famous. The role of marketing department at
the Body Shop is explained below-
 Introduction and management of the brand- The marketing department is held
responsible for introducing the brand in the market and maintaining its image
(Maresch, and et.al, 2016).
 Conducting campaigns- The marketing personnel needs to conduct campaigns in
order to promote their brands.
 Creating content for websites- The marketing department needs to create content
which needs to be posted on the organization website.
 Monitoring and managing the social media- The marketing personnel needs to
monitor and manage the social media accounts of the organization.
 Facilitating intra organizational communications- The marketing department conveys
the information regarding the brand to the employees.
 Conducting research related to market and the customer- The marketing department
is required to conduct the market research in order to determine the market and
customer needs (Nambisan, Zahra and Luo, 2019).
Describe the role performed by Finance Department at The Body Shop.
Finance Department performs various functions in an organization. The various
functions performed by the finance department are financial planning, business strategies,
investments, planning merger and acquisitions, cash management, Risk management etc. The
various roles performed by Finance department at The Body shop are explained below-
 Book keeping- The book keeping involves having track of all the monetary
transaction in the business which is to performed by the Finance department of the
body shop (Olalla and Merino, 2019).
 Cash Flow management- The finance department is also responsible for managing the
cash inflows and outflows of the business.
 Long term Financing- The finance department ought to plan the long term financing
of the organization.
 Management Accounting- The finance department needs to keep track of the
management accounting of the organization.
 Forecasting budgets- The Finance department needs to forecast the budgets of the
organization.

TASK 2
Determine and explain the collaborative working practices at the Body
Shop.
Organizational culture is referred to the collection of values, practices and
expectations that guide and inform the actions of all the team members that enlighten and
inform the efforts of all the member or employees. There are various types of organizational
culture, namely- Clan culture, Adhocracy culture, Market culture and hierarchy culture.
There are various factors that affect an organizational culture. The factors are as follows-
 Nature of the organization- The organizational culture is affected by the nature of the
organization whether it is of manufacturing nature or service (Stahl and Tung, 2015).
 Company value and beliefs- Employees develop the beliefs of the organization like its
principles and policies which affect the organizational culture.
 Recruitment and selection- Recruitment and selection have a huge impact on the
organizational structure of the organization as it is dependent on the type of
employees in the organization.
Charles Handy Model of Organization culture
According to Charles Handy there are four types of culture that an organization
follows-
 Power- There are organizations where the power possess in the hands of a few people
and only they have the power to take decisions (van Hoorn and Maseland, 2016).
 Task culture- Organizations where the teams are formed with an aim to achieve the
work targets they follow task culture.
 Person culture- The organizations where the people are more concerned about
themselves rather than the organization, follow a person culture.
 Role Culture- The organizations where the employees are delegated roles and
responsibilities, such organizations follow a role culture.
Explain organizational culture of the Body Shop.
The organizational culture followed at The Body Shop is explained below-
 Maintenance of the quality of products and services- For high brand loyalty, they
generally attempt to keep up great quality items and administrations. They likewise
make an endeavor to secure the planet, support different local area trade, rouses
confidence, make moves for basic liberties, and avoid animal testing.
 Focuses on the social ingredients- For a superior society, they focus around social
friendly ingredients or ecological and rouse their employees, stakeholders and
consumers.

 Focuses on the niche market segment- In order to sustain in the market, The Body
shop focuses on the niche market segments (Yoke and Ngang, 2017).
Describe the Management/ Leadership styles at The Body Shop.
There are various types of leadership styles. The leadership styles are explained below-
Autocratic leadership- The autocratic leadership is where the subordinates follow as the
superior says.
Democratic leadership- This type of leadership is referred to the leadership where the sub
ordinates opinion is also brought into consideration.
Laissez faire style- The Laissez faire leadership style refers to free rule in the organization.
The leadership style followed at The Body Shop is Democratic style of management
leadership.
TASK 3
Demonstrate the Financial Management and reporting within the Body
Shop.
There are various types of documents such as Trading and Profit and loss account, Balance
sheet, cash flow statement etc. which are brought into consideration while Financial
Reporting in the organizations like Body shop.
Explain the importance of Profit and Loss account in The Body Shop.
The P&L account shows the strength and the earning capacity of an organization over
a period of time. The importance of P&L in The body shop are explained below-
 It helps in the decision making process of the organization.
 It helps in meeting the statutory obligations of the organization.
 The account helps in coping up analyzing with the fund requirements.
Explain the importance of Balance Sheet in The Body Shop.
A balance sheet helps in ascertaining the financial position of the organization as on a
particular date. It includes all the assets and the liabilities and is prepared for a financial year.
The importance of Balance sheet for the body shop is as follows-
 It helps in analyzing the liquidity position of the organization to the stakeholders.
 It helps in inter firm and intra firm comparison.
 It has significance in obtaining the business loan.
 The balance sheet might help the body shop in ascertaining the sources for company
funding.

Explain the importance of Cash Flow Statement in The Body Shop.
Cash Flow Statement helps in identifying the inflows and outflows of the cash in an
organization. It is mostly used in short term planning. The importance of cash flow statement
in the body shop is as follows-
 It helps forecasting the cash incomes of the organization.
 It helps in internal management of to be adapted in the financial policy to be adopted
in future.
 It helps in revealing cash position of the body shop.
 It further reveals the result of the cash planning in the organization.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the report that Business is impacted by various factors.
Business Studies is referred to the study of economics and management. It is associated with
monetary issues and management of the business. The report consists of the various roles
which are performed by the Finance department, Marketing Department and Human
Resource Department of the Body shop. It also explains the organization culture and the
factors affecting the organizational culture in an organization. The organizational culture of
The body shop is also explained in brief along with the role of financial management.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Forsgren, M., Holm, U. and Johanson, J., 2015. Knowledge, Networks and Power—The
Uppsala School of International Business. In Knowledge, networks and power (pp. 3-
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Maresch, D. and et.al, 2016. The impact of entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurial
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