Functional Areas, Employee Skills, and Business Success: A Report

This report delves into the functional areas within a business organization, emphasizing their importance for achieving organizational objectives. It uses IOM Electronics as a case study, identifying key functional areas such as finance, human resources, product development, manufacturing, supply chain, sales, marketing, information technology, and customer service. The report further evaluates the essential skills required by employees to work effectively in these areas, including budgetary, communication, decision-making, leadership, creativity, and technical skills. It highlights how the human resource department plays a crucial role in recruiting and developing employees with these skills. The report concludes by emphasizing the interconnectedness of these functional areas and the skilled workforce in driving business success and achieving productivity.

FUNCTIONAL AREAS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.......................................................................................................................3
1. Determine the functional areas in business organisation..........................................3
2. Evaluate the skills needed by employees in an organisation to work in the
functional areas..............................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Functional areas are determined by the different functions of the business which
is required to be carried most effectively to accomplish business objectives. On the
other hand, employees need to have the competent skills and knowledge required to
carry these business functions. It requires division and delegation of organisational
goals and objectives to the employees, it also requires a formal structure to pass on the
information to different functional areas. The manager and leader in an organisation
have the strictly monitor these business activities and identify different approaches in
order to attain productivity and business success. In the context of IOM Electronics
which is a leading small and medium electronic business delivers electronic equipment
to its customer, including computer parts, electrical home appliances and other
electronic equipment. Based on the case study, this report covers all the functional
areas needed to run and operate a business activity and all are the skills required by the
employees in order to work effectively in these functional areas. (De Oliveira and et.al.,
2016).
MAIN BODY
Determine the functional areas in business organisation
In order to run the business in the most effective manner, the managers and
business executives in IOM electronics company divides the organisation in different
small units by delegating different roles and responsibilities to each functional unit. The
functional areas of IOM electronics Company are as:
Finance: Finance acts like blood in business which is needed to carry business
operation right from the capital requirement to cost incurred for production activities.
Finance plays an important role in for accomplishing organisational objectives and
achieve business success. IOM electronic limited company should have a finance
department and deploy the finance manager who will be responsible to identify the
sources of funds and allocate them in the business activities.
Human resource: Human resource manager in an organisation is responsible to
manage the human capital of an organisation and monitor their job to ensure that

functions are carried in accordance with the predetermined organisational objectives.
Human resource manager in IOM electronic limited company have to shoulder different
roles and responsibilities in order to recruit a highly skilled and knowledgeable
workforce in the organisation and giving them regular learning and development
opportunities to maintain the pool of highly efficient workforce (Feng, Morgan and Rego,
2015).
Product development and engineering: It involves formulation of product
development of ideas and technique of producing the product. While developing the
product, the research and development department have to make sure that the product
matches the business objectives and current market demand. It involves engineering,
which is required to find out the best possible technique and sources of designing the
product. It involves using innovative business ideas and less cost incurring techniques.
Manufacturing: The manufacturing department is responsible to develop the actual
product. It requires different resources and tools to carry out the manufacturing
activities. The manufacturing department have to closely work with the supply chain
department in order to avail all the raw material required to conduct the manufacturing
process and with the research and development department to understand the real
objective of product development and different techniques involved to produce the
product most efficiently (He, Sun and Chen, 2016).
Supply chain department: Supply chain department is needed in order to manage the
supply chain which involves acquiring the raw material needed for product development
and delivering the product to the selling points. IOM electronics company must select
the suppliers who deliver the raw material at right time with minimum cost incurred.
Sales department: The sales department is department is needed to find out the target
market and identifying the different approaches in order to attract the target market for
purchasing the market offerings of the company. The sales department is also
responsible to take the timely feedbacks from the target market for market offerings, it
helps to evaluate the effectiveness of the product offered. The sales department in IOM
electronics have to formulate and implement different strategies of boosting the sales
performance and penetration in new markets (Huemann, Keegan and Turner, 2018).

Marketing department: The marketing department is responsible to find out different
strategies that will help to influence target customer for purchasing the products of the
company. The marketing department in IOM electronics evaluates the best possible
marketing campaign in order to develop strong market positioning in the minds of the
customers. The marketing department is responsible to communicate with the target
market and convey the marketing message to them. Marketing department coordinates
with the research and development department to determine new innovative product
development ideas with its pricing policies and identification of the target customers.
Information technology: The information technology department in IOM electronic
company have to find out the new emerging technologies in the market and deploy
them in the organisation. Adopting new technologies in organisation helps to function
different business activities most efficiently.
Customer service: The customer service department is responsible to take and
address all the customer issues and concerns in order to improve customer relationship.
Customer service department IOM electronic company maintains customer relationship
by informing and them about the new market offerings of the company and addressing
their feedback to evaluate the effectiveness in the market offering (Jenkins and
Williamson, 2015).

Evaluate the skills needed by employees in an organisation to work in the functional
areas
Human resource manager in IOM electronics company recruits highly skilled
workforce in the organisation. The human resource manager recruits the employees by
matching their relevant skills with the job requirement. Thus, the human resource
manager judges the performance of the employees and recruits the candidates on the
basis of these relevant skills which is necessary for the functioning of the business
units. These skills are as:
Budgetary skills: The financial manager in the finance department in IOM electronics
evaluates the performance of the employees by checking the budgetary skills are
required to calculate the funds required for operating the business activities. Budgetary
skills are crucial for a finance manager and the employees in the finance department to
evaluate and determine the sources of funds and allocate them in the different business
activities. It is also required to calculate the cost incurred and profit earned. Budgetary
skills also help the financial manager to prepare the financial statements of the
company and determine the transparency in business operation. Budgetary skills are
important to calculate the revenue generated and profit incurred and take different
measures which accomplish the profitability goals of the organisation (Kasaev,
Petrovskaya and Kasaev, 2019).
Communication skills: Communication skills are important for a human resource
manager in the organisation in order to communicate the business objectives to the
employees. The human resource manager in the IOM electronics company promotes
effective communication in the organisation so that the right information is conveyed to
the employees communication skills helps the employees to work in accordance to the
organisational objectives. Further it helps to promote employee engagement and
relationship in the organisation as employees effectively communicate their opinions
and views in the organisation. Communication skills are crucial in order to convey the
flow right information in the organisation. Communication also helps the employees to
express their opinion on different issues and concerns to their managers which promote
employee relationship in the organisation.

Decision making skills: Decision making are crucial for all departments in IOM
electronics company in order to render solution to different business challenges. Where
managers and leader have to formulate important decision that how to operate and
manage business function in the most effective manner. Employees also require
decision-making skills in order to formulate decisions which are important to determine
that how to perform the different task assigned. Decision making skills helps to take
important decisions pertaining to different challenges in the business environment
(Nalawade, More and Bhola, 2019).
Leadership skills: Leadership skills and important for manager and leaders in IOM
electronics company in order to coordinate the efforts of the individual into a specific
direction. Leadership skills helps the managers and leaders in the organisation in order
to guide the employees and communicate the clear organisational message to the
employees.
Creativity: Creativity skills are important for the employee working especially in the
research and development and marketing department of the IOM department in order to
formulate innovative business ideas and market offerings. As when the market offerings
of the company are innovative it helps to attract customer and helps to acquire a
position in the marketplace (Shams and et.al., 2018).
Technical skills: As IOM electronic company which delivers technical business solution
to its customers, good technical knowledge is necessary for every employee in the
business in order to rightly function the business objectives. Technical skills are
required for employees in the company to have the latest knowledge about the use of
the latest technologies, technical skills further help to achieve business efficiencies.
Technical skills include cloud computing, artificial intelligence, scientific computing, UX
designs, blockchain, sales, research and development, design etc. Technical skills are
required by the employees in order to adopt the technology in the organisation and
corrective use of the technology will help the organisation to improve its efficiencies
(Wang and Miao, 2015).

CONCLUSION
Thus, this report reflects that all are different functional areas that help the
business to run and operate smoothly. In order to carry these functional areas, the
business needs to have a highly competent and skilled workforce in order to carry
functions of the business. Different business functions involve marketing, sales,
information department, human resource and other related departments. Human
resource manager recruit employees in the organisation based on the skills required for
these functional areas. The business should coordinate each of these functions in a way
in order to achieve productivity in business operation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
De Oliveira, E. A. and et.al., 2016. Integration through cross-functional teams in a
service company. European Business Review.
Feng, H., Morgan, N. A. and Rego, L. L., 2015. Marketing department power and firm
performance. Journal of Marketing. 79(5). pp.1-20.
He, Y., Sun, H. and Chen, Y., 2016. How cross-functional management influences new
product development: a socio-technical perspective. Technology Analysis &
Strategic Management. 28(9). pp.1095-1107.
Huemann, M., Keegan, A. and Turner, R., 2018, September. Human resource
management in the project-oriented organization. Project Management Institute.
Jenkins, W. and Williamson, D., 2015. Strategic management and business analysis.
Routledge.
Kasaev, B. S., Petrovskaya, M. V. and Kasaev, M. B., 2019. Innovative approaches to
business managing functional areas in a territory. Industrial Engineering &
Management Systems. 18(3). pp.440-453.
Nalawade, R. K., More, D. K. and Bhola, S. S., 2019. Employability Skills Required for
Functional Areas of Management. IUP Journal of Soft Skills. 13(1).
Shams, S. R. and et.al., 2018. Business models for strategic innovation: Cross-
functional perspectives. Routledge.
Shams, S. R. and et.al., 2019. Cross-functional knowledge management: The
international landscape. Routledge.
Wang, G. and Miao, C. F., 2015. Effects of sales force market orientation on creativity,
innovation implementation, and sales performance. Journal of Business
Research. 68(11). pp.2374-2382.

Zhao, L. and Huchzermeier, A., 2015. Operations–finance interface models: A literature
review and framework. European Journal of Operational Research. 244(3).
pp.905-917.