Business Opportunities at Philip Markham
Philip Markham are considering various business opportunities, for example, e-commerce – so they can provide the high-quality standards over the internet. Philip Markham are aiming to become Britain’s leading supplier for menswear within 2 years of setting up their online service. This is partly due to wanting to keep up to date, but mainly because sales for private customers that want customised clothing from Phillip Markham are falling more and more over the years.
Phillip Markham hopes this will improve sales and that they will be able to successfully delve into the online clothing market and become one of the high-brand leaders.
Functional Areas
Human Resources & Administration
This department is very important to the business, this is as in HR the staffs needs must be met. This may including things like organising training courses for staff, hiring and firing staff, making their working environment more comfortable, or even sorting out absences (this is called administration) and maternity/paternity leave. In HR this is all done by consulting legal experts to find out exactly what action must be taken and in what way it must be done.
Then using the computers, prepared by the I.T. department (which work hand-in-hand with HR) all of this will be documented and planned. Human Resources, in its essence, is looking out for the employees of the company. If HR doesn’t think about the rights, and needs of the staff: then they are not doing their job properly. Human Resources are valued by other departments very highly as they help with such things as finding staff for the departments or anything else they need. Human Resources work with many services within the business, e.g. “central services” such as the switched board, reception, mail room, security, cleaning, building maintenance, and the staff canteen. Human Resources can be thought of as a helping hand for everyone.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and Marketing get the product out there and make it known, whether it be advertising on radio, billboards, posters or TV, or simply producing a catalogue. The three things Sales & Marketing specialise in are watching over the sales, preparing and distributing mail order/trade catalogues, and offering a high level of customer service. Customer service is very important to the success of Sales & Marketing as the aim of Sales & Marketing every year is to increase the number of items sold. If a customer has a problem and you aren’t helpful, then they most probably aren’t going to use your services again. This proves that customer services is very significant to the success of sales and marketing. Sales and Marketing have to work with other departments, to find out exactly what they are advertising, and how they must do it. After this, they will produce a catalogue which will be distributed to clients, giving them the options to buy from the company.
Production
There is a 3-part process to making the shirts & ties. These are:
- Cutting – Placed by the stores. The material is cut then labelled standard, or customised.
- Machining – Passed on to machinists who sew the materials together.
- Finishing – Add the finishing touches like labels and buttons.
At Philip Markham, quality is taken extremely seriously and is kept to a high standard.
Production are responsible for hiring 2 types of staff: Purchasing, and designers. Purchasing are in-charge of keeping high-quality fabrics in stock. The designers keep with the fashion and try to create a new style each and ever year. They have to obtain new fabrics and create new attractive designs that will appeal to their target audience, and while doing all this, work 6 months ahead of the time (so that there is plenty of time to add them into the catalogues and have them printed). Sales and Marketing actually work together at times, as the feedback, and suggestions received must be passed on to the designers so it can be carefully taken into consideration, and changes made if necessary.
Finance
Finance is a small but necessary department, with a team of just 10, this department is always kept busy. Finance is in charge of making sure the business receives all its money that is owed, and makes any payments needed – this includes bills, wages, and items/materials bought. Finance monitors the budget of other departments, while the head of any particular department is in charge of what is spent and what on.
Finance can relay back information to you that is needed about the money of a department, when needed. Finance sort out all VAT and inland revenue (accounts). There will also be one or more staff working on checking if the number of necessary sales have been met, and that production levels are running well. Finance is necessary to the profitable success of the business. Finance works in co-operation with many of the other departments, mainly Sales and Marketing and Human Resources. Finance is critical to success. Many departments will have to work in co-operation with finance to check if what they are buying (and selling if spare materials are not needed) is alright and finance will sort out the money side of it and make sure it goes to the right place.
Job Roles within the Four Functional Areas of Philip Markham
Human Resources & Administration
Catering Manager – This job role involves taking care of the employees needs for food:
Finding out the prices the employees will pay, finding foods they want to eat, making sure they are happy with what and how they are served, check if anyone has any major allergies and taking responsible action from there and just really seeing if the catering service is effective and making sure that the food is able to be served and consumed within the time given.
Sales and Marketing
Mail Order Supervisor – This job will entail such tasks as making sure all mail orders are sent out, maybe working with customer services to work out if there is a problem, checking that there are no oddities in postage prices, making sure that the mail orders are responded to quickly and the requested items are sent through to the customer as soon as possible. This also may include forwarding order details and billing details to the finance department so that they can receive and document the money going in and out.
Finance
Payroll Staff – this job title entails the task of managing all employees wages that must be paid and any other money that must go out to the employees. Payroll staff must ensure that everyone’s wages go out at the right time and that the right amount is being given to everyone. Payroll Staff have to take care of any problems that may occur with an employee receiving their pay. Payroll take into account tax, and national insurance of the employees that they need to take into account. They also take care of any deductions from pay for whatever reason.
Production
Designers – the designers must always be working ahead of the time to create the latest fashions that are ready to be printed by the time all the catalogue’s and leaflets/advertising go out. Designers must research up on the latest fashions and the fashions to come and create good-quality and cutting-edge designs. As well as recruiting new fashions, design aims to create some too, this could mean new fabrics, new items and materials, and cost would have to be worked out. Design works very closely with Sales and Marketing to get the best advertising and appeal out to the customer and to show the item to its finest extent.
