Finance – the finance department manage all the money coming in and out of the business. The finance department also deal with, preparing accounts, and paying wages and salaries. Business need to understand this information so they can plan what to do next. The financial department also deal with salaries, and other payments, and may also work with other departments within the business. In small business the owner might look after the financial records. Usually firms pay someone to look after their accounts. In larger business the firm might have full-time staff looking after the finances. Also if the firm is large enough it will employ people to work within the business. There are 3 different types of accountants include; financial accountants, cost accountants and management accountants.
- Financial accountants – usually only larger organisations have financial accountants. The financial accountant has to keep record of how much the business spends and how this has affected the profits of the business. The financial accountants prepare the profit and loss accounts and balance sheets.
- Cost accountants – the cost accountant calculates the costs of the business services and products. By showing which parts of the organisation are efficient the accountant may contribute to haw the business is organised. The accountant is able to show which products are most profitable, this helps the manager decide on what to decide. Their cost accountants may work closely with other departments to make sure that costs are measured as accurately as possible.
- Management accountants – the Management accountant deals with the actual income and expenditure of each of the businesses activities. Departments may be given money to perform their various tasks and are set targets on how much they have to earn, this is a budget. The management accountant may also tell managers how well departments are meeting their budgets.
It is important for Tesco to have a large finance department because it is a big company that has a lot of capital income. If they had a small department they won’t be able to keep record of all the income.
Administration and IT support – Administration and IT support cover a range of tasks such as:
- Clerical work - Collecting and distributing mail keeping records, organisation meetings and responding to enquiries
- Cleaning and maintenance
- Health and safety
- Security
- Support for software applications and electronic communications
Most business gets mail in 2 ways direct delivery and private delivery.
Direct delivery is the most common way to deliver post direct to the firms business address. In larger business, like Tesco the delivery will be to the firm’s reception desk. The disadvantage is that work cannot be done until the post has been delivered.
Private box is when a business can rent a box at a local post office. Each box has a number on it that is part of the firms address. The post is kept there until it is collected by the businesses representative. The representative can arrange a time to pick up the post.
Filing is the most common way to store paper. It can be stored in different orders, Alphabetical, chronological and geographical.
- Alphabetical – is in order of the alphabet.
- Chronological – is in order of date and time.
- Geographical – is when the papers are stored in order of where they came from, this may be in order of county, town or country.
Logbooks are also used in businesses. Logbooks are like diaries. The most common type of log book is probably the post book, this is where Tesco will keep record of the post and the parcels that come in and leave the business. Logbooks are also used to keep record of the visitors to the business. Logbooks are a way of recording actions so information can be tracked down when it is needed.
Administration and IT support also deal with organising meetings, meeting sizes can vary from 2 to a whole company of hundreds. They have to make sure that all the people that need to be there are all there. A disadvantage of meetings is that they can take staff away from other jobs. Most meeting have a chair or chairperson, this person’s job is to make sure the meeting goes smoothly and that everyone gets a chance to contribute to the meeting and the sectary will keep record of the meetings decisions.
Operations – the operations department sometimes overlaps the administration department. The job for the operations department is to make the best use of the resources available. This includes:
- Buildings and land – farmland, shops and offices
- Equipment (vehicles, computers and machinery)
- Staff
- Retail material
Most businesses will use CAD CAM to design their products, but Tesco doesn’t produce the products that are sold in the stores. They buy the products already made and packed.
The operations department also make sure that the quality of the products is all good quality.
The operations department at Tesco will employ people with a large variety of specialists.
If any part of Tesco’s operations department stopped it will have a knock on effect on all the other departments. This is because if they didn’t make full use of what they have Tesco will have to purchase more products including land. This will reduce the amount of income for Tesco.
The operations department for Tesco could use farmland to produce products.
Marketing and sales – the marketing and sales department make sure that the managers understand what the customers want from the business. They can do this by market research, promotion and sales. Before a company can offer a new product they have to make sure that they know what the customers want and make sure that they know what the competitors are offering. They can get this information from carrying out customer questionnaires this is called market research. It will use this information to offer promotion and sales activity designed to reach the people it is aiming to reach.
If Tesco wanted to introduce a new product to the shelves they would need to ask the customers what they think first this is because they need to know if anyone’s going to buy the product and they know what to plan next. They will also need to know what similar products are Tesco’s competitors (Asda, Sainsbury) are offering this will help them gain more profit.
By researching the market Tesco will try to reduce the risk of unprofitable investments in a product. This will help Tesco because they will be able to sell more products and make a higher profit.
Before fully introducing a product the company will test market the product. This is when they offer the product to only one region of the country and keep record of the sales figures. If the product is successful then they will introduce the product to all the outlets.
If Tesco want to introduce a new product to their stores after all the market research they can use different sales techniques which include:
- Free samples – this is when Tesco would give away small packages of the product either on the street, in the shops or house to house. The aim is, once the customer has tried the product they will want to buy more of the same product.
- Free gifts – free gifts are offered to people with club cards.
Customer service – are the services that the business offers to the customer. Customers sometimes ask questions about products that the business sell, and they expect the sales staff to know about the staff. In Tesco a customer might ask about a product that they are considering buying. The aim of customer services is to welcome the customer and to make them feel valued this will create a positive image about the business and they will recommend it to their friends and family. The customer services also help the customer buy the correct product. Tesco has a customer services desk so if the customer needs help they can go and ask them. Tesco also do home deliver. For the home delivery service do provide good customer services as well they can deliver on time and can help take the products in to the house if the person is un able to take it them self. They also need to provide a friendly service to the customers. So the customers feel welcomed and would want to come back. Tesco should provide Payment methods to suite all customers they should provide a range of different ways to pay this is because different customers may prefer to pay in a different way. For example older people might refer to pay in cash because they might not know how to use a credit card.
Research and Development -
SECTION 3
