Report on Business Functions at Sainsbury: The Graduate Challenge

This report provides an overview of the key business functions within Sainsbury, a UK-based supermarket chain. It highlights the importance of each function, including marketing, which focuses on promoting the business and developing brand image; finance, which manages the company's funds and financial planning; operations and production, which ensures the delivery of goods and services while controlling quality; and human resources, which maximizes employee productivity and manages employee relations. The report emphasizes the role of each department in contributing to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. It also references academic sources to support the analysis of these business functions within the context of Sainsbury's operations.

MG408 THE GRADUATE
CHALLENGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Business functions are the methods of conducting structural activities and tasks by the
people working in the company. They are performed in specific manner to offer products and
services to its customers. Sainsbury is a UK based chain of supermarkets that is run with large
number of people. This report deals with the understanding of various functions involved in the
business of the organisation.
MAIN BODY
A successful business is run with the help of various functional units within the business
that will help in controlling and performing different aspects within the business of the
organisation. These functional areas operate within their area of expertise and thus, assisting in
building efficiency and effectiveness around the whole business. The functions of business
includes:
Marketing: This department within Sainsbury plays a crucial role in promoting the
business of the company and serves as being the face of it (Cagle, Yılmaz, and Doğru, 2020). It
helps in reaching out to customers and investors while developing an overarching brand image.
This function of business is important as it drives the sales and provides necessary research that
will help the company to identify the target market. It seeks different ways to take the products
and services from the company and draw attention of its target customers towards the same.
Marketing helps in various marketing initiatives while creating content and managing the digital
platforms of the company.
Finance:The functions involved in finance includes planning and managing various
funds of company. Finance manager will plan according to the short and long- term needs
regarding the capital required by the company. This department in business functions will
identify the ways from where company can raise its funds and implications regarding any
financial decisions made for maintaining the business. It is important as it will prepare balance
sheets and reports related to the cash flow. Moreover, this department also helps in maintaining
the payroll and various accounts of business (Macchi, Savino, and Roda, 2020). Finance
functions includes controlling the allocation and spending of funds in way that will ensure
effective operations within business.

Operations and production: It is responsible for having proper delivery of goods and
services along with playing an important role in controlling the quality of products and
improving systems for attaining customer satisfaction. This business function is important as it
will plan how the production is done and to identify the need of resources. It will control the
production costs and monitor the quality of products being produced. This department will
convert the inputs in outputs that are in form of goods and services (Heikkilä, Kaipia, and Ojala,
2018). Along with this, it is responsible for controlling supply chain, procurement and logistics.
Human resources: This department within the organisation is made to maximise the
productivity of employees and major role in protecting the company from any conflicts and
issues. The functions includes managing all the departments and develop its employees. It plays
an essential part in increasing the performance of employees. It is in- charge of keeping the
employees of company safe and provide them with working satisfaction. In addition to this,
human resource department will implement protective policies and procedures that will help the
company with solutions regarding any issues.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cagle, M.N., Yılmaz, K. and Doğru, H., 2020. Digitalization of business functions under
Industry 4.0. In Digital Business Strategies in Blockchain Ecosystems (pp. 105-132).
Springer, Cham.
Heikkilä, J., Kaipia, R. and Ojala, M., 2018. Purchasing category management: providing
integration between purchasing and other business functions. International Journal of
Procurement Management, 11(5), pp.533-550.
Macchi, M., Savino, M. and Roda, I., 2020. Analysing the support of sustainability within the
manufacturing strategy through multiple perspectives of different business
functions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 258, p.120771.