Report on Functional Areas and Essential Skills at IOM Electronics

This report provides an overview of the functional areas within a business organization, using IOM Electronics Ltd as a case study. It identifies key functional areas such as sales and marketing, finance, research and development, human resources, and customer service, detailing their respective roles and importance in achieving organizational goals. The report further elaborates on the specific skills required for employees to effectively perform in each functional area, including creativity and communication for sales and marketing, analytical and business intelligence for finance, innovation and critical thinking for research and development, leadership and IT skills for human resources, and problem-solving and decision-making skills for customer service. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of each functional area and the corresponding skills needed for employees to contribute to the overall success and profitability of the business.

Functional Areas

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................4
What are the different functional areas in the business organisation .........................................4
Describe the Types of skills required by the employees top work effectively for each
functional area ............................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business is an enterprise or any other entity engaged in commercial, professional,
industrial or charitable activities. It involves selling the products and services with a primary
motive of earning profits. It can be a profit or non-profit organisation and may or may not have
separate existence from the person controlling the enterprise. The main motive of businesses to
satisfy the customers needs and wants which results in most of the profits. According to the
modern concept if the customer is satisfied the business exists Here the discussion is in context
of IOM Electronics Ltd. which is well known regional company. It has 200 employees working
in the organisation under two sides which are located in Manchester and Liverpool(Molero-
Simarro, 2017). This report will include the various functional areas of the organisation and the
types of skills needed by the employees working effectively in these areas.
TASK
What are the different functional areas in the business organisation
The business functions is a process or the number of activities that are implemented to
carry out the business mission in order to complete the goals and objectives of the organisation.
The functions are divided into different categories so that the enterprise can run the activities
smoothly and have the coordination between the different tasks that need to be performed within
the organisation. The different functional areas are discussed below:
 Sales and marketing- This function involves in promoting the products and services of
the business organisation to connect with the potential investors, customers with a motive
of building brand awareness and generating revenue. Sales and marketing team of IOM
electronic must ensure that they set right pricing and promotional strategies in order to
attract customers. Also they should adopt the digital marketing strategies for promoting
the product as the customers highly rely on the online platforms(Breitling, 2019).
 Finance – This functional area handles business related aspects such as funding, budgets,
accounting and financial statements. This department process payments of taxes, invoice
customers, distribute employee pay checks and handle tax law. The finance team of IOM
Electronics should able to manage its finance properly. It should be able to predict that
from which investor the company can raise capital. They should also make the budget for

the expenditure of the marketing campaigns so that the company can meet its objectives
and if it wants to expand its business in different city it has that much resources.
 Research and Development- This functional area is responsible for innovation and
development of the products and services. They conduct market research, industry
comparisons, identifying the trend in the market, product development to order to help
the business organisations in developing new product for more growth to generate more
profits. This department of the IOM electronics should have the strong analysis
experience and deep understand of current market scenario for the particular industry in
order to develop the products of the company which will lead to achieve the objectives of
the company(Torres, Sidorova and Jones, 2018).
 Human Resource- This functional area focuses on functions related to employees such
as recruitment, screening candidates, training and development, developing corporate
policies etc. The HR department of the IOM company should make sure that it is hiring
the fresh talent and the skills of the candidate should match the job role required in the
company for the better results. They should also ensure about the proper training is given
to the employees of the company so that they are motivated and perform better. They
should manage and resolve the conflicts which cab arise between the workforce. All the
above aspects will help the company to achieve its goals.
 Customer Service- This functional area manages the relation of the business
organisations with its customers. It is responsible for answering the questions of the
customer in case of any issues or queries related to purchase or return of the products by
the customers. This department of the IOM Electronics should be able to work upon
adopting the new technology and provide the digital platform for its customers.They
should focus on the best experience should be given to the customer so that they are
attracted towards the company.

Describe the Types of skills required by the employees top work effectively for each
functional area
To manage the functional area it requires skills and knowledge for the person working in
that specific area. So here below is the discussion of the skills needed for the employees to work
effectively in their functional areas:
The sales and marketing teem of the IOM company will require the employees with
creativity and communication skill. If the employee has creativity skill which means the ability
to think in a different way and can generate the attractive ideas for the advertisement campaigns
which will attract the customers and this will help the company to increase its sales by its
marketing strategies. The sales person of the company should have good communication skill so
that the customer is able to understand the product quality. They should be able to communicate
with the clear and proper information to its customer.
The finance functional area of the company will require the employees having analytical
and business intelligence skill. If the employees of the finance department has analytical skill
which means ability to think in logic and order and have the accurate data solving. Also it
requires business intelligence skill which means to have the knowledge of the finance terms and
the ability to maintains the budgets for the company which will help the organisation iin a
situation where it thinks to expanding its business or to introduce any new product with the new
technology and innovation for the growth of the business(hang and et.al., 2021).
The research and development area need the employees with having innovation and
critical thinking skills in order to work effectively to achieve goals of the business organisation.
If the employees have a innovating skill which means ability to have a innovative thinking and
new ideas to develop the product with new technology to attract customers. This department also
requires their employees to think critically this means the ability to analyse the accurate facts and
figures to form a judgement which will help the company in analysing the good market research
and it will improve the productivity of the business(Smith, 2019).
The Human resource functional area of the IOM Electronics limited need the employees
with leadership and IT skills if the employees having the leadership qualities the department
will able to manage the conflicts between the employee. The employees of this department need
to give the proper guidance to its subordinates and should motivate its employees so that they
can work effectively and efficiently in the business organisation(Bendig and et.al., 2018). The

HR of the company is also requires the It skills to maintain the key performance of every
individual and the other data of the employees in the excel sheet and should have a knowledge
the monitoring and controlling tools to be used for the employees.
Customer service department of the company need the employees with problem solving
and decision making skill to work effectively in order to achieve the organisational goals. If the
employees have the problem solving skill it will be much easier for the department to maintain
its relationship with its customer. As the Customer service department every consumer requires
proper attention and if in case he/ she receive the defected product so there should be proper
access so that the customer do not feel cheated from the side of the company. The employee
should able to make quick decision in solving the problem of the customer and able to provide
the best service and customer experience should be the top most priority for the company. This
will result in creating the brand value and attract more customers(Cousins, 2018).
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it can be concluded that there business organisations exists to
create vale and earn profit. To run the business there are various functions that need to be
performed and they are divided into different categories. For the smooth functioning of the
activities each department has its different goals and objectives and help each other to meet the
goals of the company. The different functional areas are sales and marketing, human resource,
research and development, customer service, finance. Every functional area is important for the
organisations to perform its activities. For this functioning the employees needed certain skills to
work effectively in their specific areas. For example the sales and marketing department requires
the people with communication and creativity skills where the research and development
dep[department need employees with critical thinking and innovation skills so that they work
effectively in order to achieve the objectives of the company.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bendig, D. and et.al., 2018. Performance implications of cross-functional coopetition in new
product development: the mediating role of organizational learning. Industrial
Marketing Management, 73, pp.137-153.
Breitling, T., 2019, April. Inter-functional coordination of purchasing and logistics: impact on
supply chain performance. In Supply Chain Forum: An International Journal (Vol. 20,
No. 2, pp. 71-88). Taylor & Francis.
Cousins, B., 2018. Design thinking: Organizational learning in VUCA environments. Academy
of Strategic Management Journal. 17(2). pp.1-18.
Molero-Simarro, R., 2017. Inequality in China revisited. The effect of functional distribution of
income on urban top incomes, the urban-rural gap and the Gini index, 1978–
2015. China Economic Review, 42, pp.101-117.
Smith, D., 2019. The measurement nightmare: How the theory of constraints can resolve
conflicting strategies, policies, and measures. CRC press.
Torres, R., Sidorova, A. and Jones, M.C., 2018. Enabling firm performance through business
intelligence and analytics: A dynamic capabilities perspective. Information &
Management. 55(7). pp.822-839.
Zhang, P., and et.al., 2021. Does functional specialization affect collaborative development?
Evidence from four Chinese metropolitan areas. Environmental Science and Pollution
Research, pp.1-18.