Functional Areas
Introduction:
Functions are used to keep a company keep their records and improve their service by asking their customers their wants and how it could be improved. There are seven function area’s there area’s are;
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Customer Service – provides information advice and after-sales service and deals with customer complaints.
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Operations – is responsible for producing goods and services by making the best of use of resources.
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Finance – is responsible for checking the money going out and in of a business.
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Research & Development –concerned with technological and scientific.
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Human Resources – relates to the people who work for the organization.
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Marketing & Sales – responsible for making sure customers that customer know
about the business.
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Administration & IT support – all businesses receive information daily, in many different ways.
For one of the businesses I have to choose any three functional areas and describe how they are used in that company. So I choose Sony as the business and the three functional areas are Finance, Human resources and Customer Service
Finance
Sony’s finance department manages all the money for the business. This department record’s the financial transaction of a business and helps managers to plan for the future. Tesco is a large company therefore its financial department is quite large. Below are some of the activities of its financial department:
- It prepares the account for the business.
- Record all the financial matters all the business
- Pays wages and the salaries.
- Obtaining capital and resources.
- It prepares the account for the business – this means that Sony has to prepare an account, which summarizes their financial affairs, and legally have to publish their detailed accounts. The most important part of this account is that:
- The balance sheet – which states the both what a business owns and its debts.
- The profit and loss account – which records all the profit and losses made the business within a year
- Record all the financial matters all the business – The record of money spent by Sony on something for the sale of goods or services. It is important that a business keeps these records in order to:
- Help manager to keep the right decision
- Calculate whether the business is profitable
- Pays wages and the salaries – paying wages also involves the finance department is ways like:
- Sony has to deduct money from the employees for the income tax and the national insurance.
- The pension scheme for the employees
- The accurate record of wages
- Obtaining capital and resources –This is when may need some loan or retain profits.
Other finance functions
The finance department also does jobs of other department in the business such as:
- Places orders and pays the bills on the behalf of the other department within that business.
- Advises other areas of the business as to the amount of money available to them.
- Helps senior managers to make major decisions.
Human Resources
Sony says it is the best electronic producers company therefore it has recruited the best employees and to make sure that they work effectively and safely so that the business can achieve its objectives. There are many ways in which Sony is involved with human resource, which are:
- Working conditions
- Recruitment, Retention and Dismissal.
- Training developing and promoting
- Health and safety
- Trade unions
Working conditions: are set when the employees are interviewed. Sony’s working condition relates to how the employees get paid when and which day they would get paid, sick pays, with the holiday entitlement plus if any employee wants to leave they need to tell them before hand so the company can get a recover. The working conditions also relate to:
- Training needs
- Hours of work
- The warmth and cleanliness of the work place
Recruitment, Retention and Dismissal: Sony likes to recruit more of its staff that is experienced from other businesses such as their competitors. Sony looks why an employee leave’s it work and for what reason if it is their fault they try and improve it so other people may not leave. Dismissing staff in Sony is rare cause everyone knows that if they do a mistake they will not be able to work and especially when they are at a good pay.
Training developing and promoting: this is another main function of human resource that uses a number of techniques to provide workers with the skills needed:
- Training workers at the workplace or the training centers.
- Promoting employees to more senior positions
- Plan the jobs for the employees so they can enjoy the new experience and develop new skills.
Health and safety: Sony has a Small health and safety committee because it does not produce food but they still have to secure their working environment to be safe enough. With better and secure environment the employees will work more effectively
“ Sony has given a brief explanation on their health and safety”, which is
Health and safety standards are very important if they want there workers to work hard; the company is committed to providing a good products and working environment for customers, staff and contractors.
The company has established policies, procedures and training to identify and minimize the risks inherent in a retail and distribution business.
The safety of our products carries the highest responsibility and priority. We have established, over many years, a comprehensive due diligence process supported by technical and product development standards and procedures. This assurance covers staff training, providing guidance and auditing suppliers to ensure they supply quality products for the Sony brand.
We have conducted a comprehensive risk analysis of products, suppliers and factories upon which our audit programmer is based. Auditing is carried out on both a routine and unannounced basis.
Supply chain risks can include, for example, a failure of standards relating to product safety, quality, and worker welfare.
We review regularly our technical, due diligence and crisis management procedures in the light of the latest scientific research and expert opinion, to ensure that these risks are managed effectively.
We use in-house experts as well as external advisors to look for and analyze emerging issues so that appropriate action can be taken.
Trade unions: the human recourse department discusses and agrees pay and the working conditions with the trade unions. Trade unions usually help the employees to get their right amount of pay and are also involved with the health and safety issues and improvements in the business.
Customer Service
What does customer service do?
- Provides information advice and after-sales service and deals with customer complaints.
Customer service is the main part of Sony’s business because it provides them complaints which they like to improve on so that’s why each and every Sony has a customer service area for which their customers can go and give their complaint. Once a complaint is made Sony try’s to improve that complaint even if it is small or big.
Sony is said to be the Worlds largest electronical goods retailer, which has acknowledged that one way it competes with the other electronical goods retailer is by offering higher standards of customer service. Customer service is involved in many other duties that are:
- Offering fair prices, good quality products with reliable delivery
- Delivering goods is another main part of Sony’s customer service because the customer service should know what time a delivery should be done cause if it is late customers will phone the customer service and if they do not know about the delivery and why it is late they may loose customers like that.
- Responding to enquiries about the business or its products
- As Tesco now have started with non-food items it has now offered after-sales service such as repair or replacement of faulty products or parts
What kinds of staff are employed for customer service in Sony?
In the customer service department the staff needs to have high levels of training to deal with a wide range of customer enquiries, the ability to communicate easily and provide the customers with advice and information plus an excellent interpersonal skill with the abilities to calm down a very upset customer and also keep them satisfied.
What areas does Customer service communicate with so Sony can achieve its aims?
- The finance department for offering customer credits
- The operations department to advice on their faulty products
Marketing department to provide back the customers feedback of the views and opinions on the business
How Sony communicates
There are four types of communications than a business communicates with whish are:
- Oral Communication
- Written communication
- Video communication
- Graphical communication
Sony uses oral communication in some several ways that are a telephone conferencing that holds several people to communicate without traveling to a meeting, telephone conversation which places an order with another business and finally meetings which helps Sony’s board of directors to communicate face-to-face.
Written communication is used for memos which can be written for the appointments of an employee, letters these are usually when Sony writes to each and every customer to announce its new product or special offers at that particular time of the year, all PLC companies have to publish their annual reports and emails which can be the records of the recent meeting there has been.
Video conferencing, here Sony may use this quite rare cause they would really have an oral communication but when the UK Sony wants to talk to another countries Sony it uses video conferencing so it can be easy to communicate.
Graphical communication is very important for Sony cause it needs to communicate through all the graph of what the business has done in the previous year and what has it done this year and to check if they are in profits or loss.
External influences
Introduction
What are external influences?
- External influences are factors outside the control of a business that affect its ability to achieve its objectives. Examples include the actions of competitor firms and changes in interest rates
There are five main external influences within a business, which I will include for both of my businesses. The five external influences are:
- Making products competitive
- Local, national and international competitors
- Changes in the economy
- Management of the economy
- Controlling pollution
Making products competitive is when a business is competing another business for example: - A company will make sure that its products are price competitive, making the products available to as many customers as possible
Local, national and international competitors are how a business is competing with another business. Local competitors are usually competing within a few kilometers, national competitors are businesses for the same customers and international competitors are businesses competing internationally.
Changes in the economy are the change between the interest rates, the rate at which prices are rising or the value of the pound can give significant effect on the business.
Management of the economy is how the government has used Fiscal policy and monetary policy with it they have three main aims, which are:
- Price stability
- Steady and sustained growth in the economy
- A low rate of unemployment
Controlling pollution: all businesses can pollute the environment in a number of ways such as air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution and wasteful use of resources that’s why all businesses have laws against these pollutions.
