Finance department:
The finance department are responsible for:
- Obtaining capital and resources,
- Preparing accounts,
The finance department makes decisions about how the money should be spend by producing and setting budgets for each individual department. This helps M & S to achieve the aim of making profit as they help reduce costs and keep other departments spend less money. The finance department also helps achieve the aim of increasing market shares as they produce financial accounts which benefit the shareholders and other stake holders in the business. The finance department is closely linked to other departments as they need to pay all the staff their wages and also the finance department needs to monitor the other departments’ budget and check if they are spending above the budget or below. The finance and the sales department are linked as the sales department asks the finance department to produce invoices for their customers when they buy the goods from M & S. Also the purchasing department and the finance department work together as the purchasing department needs money to buy resources for other departments so they will ask the finance department to provide them with the money so that they can buy raw materials for other departments. This helps to achieve the aim of expanding and making a profit because if invoices are sent out quickly to their customers the business will get their money faster meaning that they can then invest the money into other buildings.
Sales and Marketing department:
They are responsible for:
- Market research
- Promotions
- Sales
- Advertisement,
These activities help M & S to achieve aim of making profit, to expand, to increase market share and also the attract customers, this is so because they help to carry out market researches which helps to identify their target market and their needs so then the business will be able to provide their customers with what they want meaning that they are making a profit as sales will be taking place, then if sales are taking place it means that at a stage the business will be making a profit meaning that they can expand, if the business expands then shareholders are interested as this means that the business is doing good and then the they will buy shares meaning increase market share. The marketing and the sales department are linked to other departments as they need to tell the production department what to make and how many to make so that they are able to sell those goods. They also are linked to the finance department as the finance department has to give their staff wages in order to keep the staff motivated so that they are working towards achieving the business targets. The human resource department are also linked with these departments as they need to train the staff for them so that the staff can do their tasks correctly and know what they are doing which would help in satisfying the customers meaning that these department help achieve the aim of attracting customers.
Production
They are responsible for:
Producing goods help achieve the aim of making a profit because if they make products that are of good quality but at a cheaper price many customers will buy the product and it will also help to attract customers. This will help M & S to gain a market place and they will start to make a profit as they will become a familiar face in the market (good image).
The production department is involved with the research and development department as they need to give each other the designs of the product to produce and then the production departments designs their products and then monitor those designs to see if they are what they are looking for. After investigating M & S can then identify other possibilities to make the product even better and also improve the quality of the products. If M & S do not think that the product design is not going on good then they can ask the research and development to redesign the product image. This is done to achieve making a profit and to gain more customers as if the production department produces products that the customers want then they will buy it meaning that the business will be making profit. Also the Production department and the Purchasing department are linked closely together as the production department needs to inform the purchasing department of what materials they would need to produce the goods. Then the Production department asks the sales department how many goods they want the production department to produce.
Purchasing:
They are responsible for:
- Providing other departments with raw materials
If the purchasing department helps provide other departments with raw materials at a good price then they business will achieve its aim of making a profit as the products will be produced of a high quality with a good price. Also the business can expand because not much money will be spending on raw materials and can be saved to help invest the money into opening new stores. The purchasing department is closely linked with the production department as the production department needs to product goods and need a lot of raw material of cheap prices but of a high quality so that they are able to work towards achieving the businesses aim of making a profit. So the production department tells the purchasing department what they need and then the purchasing department buys those raw materials; this makes the purchasing department to be linked with the finance department as well as the finance department will need to give the purchasing department the money to go and buy the products; this helps the business to achieve the aim of attracting customers as they are helping the production department to produce quality goods which the customers will want to buy.
R&D:
They are responsible for:
This helps M & S to achieve the target of making profit as the designs of the products will be attractive and will help the business to sell those products meaning that they will be making profit. The Research and development department and the production department are linked together as they need to give information to each other on how to create the designs so that it can be sold and also the Research and development department needs to guide the purchasing department to design the product when producing them. The research and development department are also linked to the finance department as the finance department need to pay the research and development staff good wages because they are the main team that help increase sales and if they are paid good then it will hep to motivate them and they will work towards achieving the aim of attracting customers by making the designs more attractive.
