Key Functional Areas and Skills: IOM Electronics Business Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of the functional areas within IOM Electronics Ltd., a company operating in the electronics industry. The report begins with an introduction to functional areas and their importance in business operations, highlighting the key departments such as marketing, human resource management, customer service, finance, research and development, and sales. It explains the roles and responsibilities within each area, emphasizing the need for employees to possess specific skills to perform their tasks effectively. The report further assesses the different types of skills required for employees in each functional area, including communication, analytical thinking, and customer service skills. The conclusion summarizes the significance of functional areas in organizational success and the importance of employee development. The report is supported by references to relevant literature, providing a comprehensive overview of the subject matter.

Functional areas

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
2.0 Business.....................................................................................................................................3
3.0 Functional areas of business .....................................................................................................3
4.0 Explain the key functional areas of business.............................................................................4
5.0 Determine different functional areas in organisation.................................................................4
6.0 Assess different types of skills needed by employees to be able to work effectively in these
functional areas ...............................................................................................................................5
7.0 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................6
References .......................................................................................................................................8

1.0 Introduction
Functional areas is the area where employees work in order to operate business activities
in systematic manner. According to that functional areas they have to perform their activities in
an efficient way in order to achieve business objectives. IOM Electronics Ltd. Is an organisation
which is run by John individually and operating in two cities which are Manchester and
Liverpool in that they have 200 employees in organisation. This report include the different key
of functional areas and there are various types of skills needed by employees to perform work
effectively in functions areas.
2.0 Business
Business is defined as an organisation or enterprise which is engaged in various activities
which include profession, industrial and many more. The business is established either for profit
or non -profit which means they operate socially or to achieve a mission of charitable trust. In
other words, business refers to an activities where it is operated to produce goods and services
for profit (Freeman, Parmar and Martin, 2020) In context to IOM Electronic Ltd., is operating to
produce electronic products to customer in order to earn revenue in organisation. This type of
business is run by individual person. John is a sole proprietor where they are operating in two
cities which are Manchester and Liverpool and have 200 employees.
3.0 Functional areas of business
Functional areas of business is a business where they have to perform various task in
order to achieve business objectives. Different types of employees are involved in a team who
have similar type of skills and abilities to perform a particular task. There are two business either
small or large; where in small business all activities are carried out such as payments, customer
enquiries and many more whereas in large organisation it become easier because department are
separated and can be identify functional areas (Ali, Warren and Mathiassen, 2017). With the
reference to IOM Electronics Ltd, is a regional organisation where the company is run by an
individual as they perform various activities such as customer must be served, solving queries
and so on which help selected organisation to increase sales and profit of organisation.
4.0 Explain the key functional areas of business
Every organisation have basic knowledge regarding different functional areas where they
are operating as it become help them to operate effectively and efficiently. Without functional

areas in organisation it become difficult for company to implement rules an policies successfully.
The main objectives is of functional areas is to focus on significant activities successfully. There
are various key functional areas such as administration, distribution, customer service, R&D,
sales and many other (Harmon, 2019). They perform business activities like sales and marketing
involve in innovating new product which lead to increase sales in market. In relation to IOM
Electronics Ltd, there key functional areas are Marketing, sales, finance, customer service,
research and development, human resource management and many more.
5.0 Determine different functional areas in organisation
IOM Electronics Ltd have various functional areas to achieve business goals and
objectives in proper manner. The main main to different functional areas is to implement policies
and rules in order to run their business smoothly. Some of the functional areas are mentioned
below:
5.1 Marketing: The selected organisation in this type of functional areas have to have to
retain new customer and satisfy need and requirements. They should research and
monitor market to take feedback regarding what product they are selling to their
customer (Hoerl and Snee, 2020). IOM Electronics Ltd have to distribute and design
catalogues in order to promote products. They can promote through social media and
digital marketing as this also help them to modify product according to needs and
demand of customer.
5.2 Human Resource Management: This is the main functional areas where human
resource manager of IOM Electronics have to recruit and select those candidates who
have proper skills, knowledge and abilities to perform activities such as to tell
customer about product, solve queries and so on. They should also monitor
performance of staff members and give knowledge about policies as what are their
roles and responsibilities in organisation.
5.3 Customer Service: IOM Electronics Ltd have to respond all queries related to
products they are offering and provide them correct information in proper manner
which help them to meet the requirements of customers in market. As they are
operating in electronic industry they should provide after sale service such as
repairing, replacing damaged goods, spare parts of that product (Kuimov, 2017).

5.4 Finance: Finance is the key functional area where they maintain invoice and
regularly check payment which are received so that there is no overdue of payments
(Monden, 2019). In relation to IOM Electronics Ltd, they monitor all department and
allot budget so that any department do not overspend in useless resources. They
should maintain fair and true accounts and provide account each year as they should
forecast cash flow.
5.5 Research and Development: In relation to selected organisation as they are operating
in electronic industry so they have to make sure and identify new technology in
market which help them to retain in market for long period of time.
5.6 Sales: This is the last functional areas where IOM Electronics Ltd. Sell their good
through their stores. They should prepare catalogues with prices so that customers can
easily identify which type of product is needed by them. They can offer discounts,
coupons and many more to attract them.
6.0 Assess different types of skills needed by employees to be able to work
effectively in these functional areas
6.1 Skills needed by Marketing employees: The skills needed by employees of IOM
Electronics Ltd is that they should have skills revenue driven marketers. The another main skill
is that they should know market and target audience which help them to promote goods or
services in market. There are some other skills such as build experience of customers.
6.2 Skills needed by Human Resource Management employees: The skills needed by
employees of HR department of IOM Electronics Ltd. Which are communication, administrative,
giving direction and training or development to new as well existing employees in organisation.
The important skill is they should have communicate skills so they can interact with employees
to solve their problem and motivate them so they can put efforts in order to achieve business
objectives (Ranta, Aarikka-Stenroos and Mäkinen, 2018).
6.3 Skills needed by Customer Service employees: To give better services to customer,
employees should have proper skills which lead to attract them. Skills needed by customer
service skills include persuasive speaking skills, adaptability, clear communication skills, use
positive language to give better services to customers, patience skills and many other. In relation
IOM Electronics Ltd should have proper skills to give high quality service to customer which
help them to achieve business objectives in an efficient manner.

6.4 Skills needed by Finance employees: In context to IOM Electronics Ltd, the main skills
which is needed by finance employees is that they should have basic knowledge of accounting,
high level of proficiency in Microsoft excel, analytical ability, interpersonal skills and many
other (Rendon and Snider, 2019). If these all skills is retained by finance employees then it help
organisation to set budget according to requirements of key functional department so that money
is invested in useless resources.
6.5 Skills needed by Research and Development employees: In research and development
they employees of selected organisation should have analytical thinking skills, reasoning skills,
development skills, teamwork skills and many more which help employees to research the new
technologies and innovate more electronics product in market. This not only only increase sales
and revenue rather it enhance development and growth of organisation.
6.6 Skills needed by Sales employees: The sales in organisation is the main department of IOM
Electronics which help to increase sales in order to earn revenue and market growth. The skills
needed by sales employees in selected organisation is listening skills, communications skills,
collaboration, negotiation, presentation skills and many more (Shams and et. al., 2019).
7.0 Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is concluded that types of functional areas are dependent on
which type of organisation they are operating. Human resource department helps organisation to
select and recruit talented employees who have proper skills and abilities so that employees are
developed according to changes in business environment. The another functional area is finance
where they identify and monitor in order to keep low price because to enhance their productivity
level and increase profitability in organisation. The key functional area of production means
setting goals in relation to maintain high quality and produce product on set standard. To perform
this employees should have proper skills in order to perform activities effectively.

References
Book and Journals
Ali, A., Warren, D. and Mathiassen, L., 2017. Cloud-based business services innovation: A risk
management model. International Journal of Information Management, 37(6), pp.639-
649.
Freeman, R. E., Parmar, B. L. and Martin, K., 2020. BUSINESS AND ETHICS (pp. 129-140).
Columbia University Press.
Harmon, P., 2019. Business process change: a business process management guide for
managers and process professionals. Morgan Kaufmann.
Hoerl, R. W. and Snee, R. D., 2020. Statistical thinking: Improving business performance. John
Wiley & Sons.
Kuimov, V., 2017. A Contextual-Functional Analysis of the Enterprise
Performance. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research.
Monden, Y., 2019. Toyota management system: Linking the seven key functional areas.
Routledge.
Ranta, V., Aarikka-Stenroos, L. and Mäkinen, S. J., 2018. Creating value in the circular
economy: A structured multiple-case analysis of business models. Journal of cleaner
production, 201, pp.988-1000.
Rendon, R. G. and Snider, K. F., 2019. Management of defense acquisition projects. American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc..
Shams and et. al., 2019. Cross-functional knowledge management: The international landscape.
Routledge.
(Ali, Warren and Mathiassen, 2017)(Harmon, 2019)(Hoerl and Snee, 2020)(Kuimov, 2017)
(Monden, 2019)(Ranta, Aarikka-Stenroos and Mäkinen, 2018)(Rendon and Snider,
2019)(Shams and et. al., 2019)