Talk about and describe three functional areas of business

In this report I will talk about and describe three functional areas of business. The three functional areas will be linked with how my chosen business Barclay's. The three functional areas I have chosen include Marketing and Sales, Operations and Customer Services. The above picture is taken from a book called GCSE in Applied Business written by Carol Carysforth, Mike Neild and produced by Heinemann. Marketing and Sales is responsible for making sure customers know about the business.

This may include market research, advertising and sales promotions, the creation and development of a website or web store (although its maintenance may be undertaken by IT support staff). The sales department is responsible for selling the items to the customer and keeping sales records. I think my business Barclays does think of marketing as a separate function. Other businesses consider it as fundamental to the way the business operates. This means that every part of the business thinks about the customer first. Operations is concerned with quality and providing goods or services on time.

In Barclays Plc I think that finance is concerned with following up queries about accounts promptly. Human resources are concerned with recruiting staff. Marketing staff always aim to be ahead. They try to identify the future customer needs, and then other departments try to fulfill these. The following quotation is taken from a book called GCSE in Applied Business written by Carol Carysforth, Mike Neild and produced by Heinemann "A good example of a marketer is James Dyson, who came to the conclusion that vacuum cleaners would be more efficient if they didn't gather dirt into bags. He therefore invented a bag-less cleaner.

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The supermarket chains have responded to customers needs by providing wider car parking spaces for families, baby changing rooms and help with packing shopping". Businesses undertake a range of activities to help meet customer needs including: * Market research - identifies customer opinions on proposed and existing products or services * Promotional activities - to tell customers about the products and services available * Sales - usually undertaken by trained sales staff who advise customers on the best product or service for their needs and keep records to check the type of goods or services which are sold and which customers.

The contribution of marketing and sales to a business is vital for there is no point in producing goods or offering services that nobody wants to buy. The number of sales directly affects the profitability of a company. The above picture is taken from a book called GCSE in Applied Business written by Carol Carysforth, Mike Neild and produced by Heinemann. Operations Operations in Barclays Plc is responsible for producing better services and options to customers by making the best use of resources. In a manufacturing company for example, it may be known as the production, manufacturing or works department. D escribe the size and structure of the food retailing sector

The operations function is responsible for:Obtaining the resources required to produce the goods or provide the service offered by the Barclays Plc Organizing these resources so that they are used in the best way to achieve aims and objectives of Barclays PlcThis means that the main purpose or operation of any business, Wedgwood Plc for example makes pottery; without clay to make the pots or metal for the machines Wedgwood Plc would cease to exist. Take away all the money in the world and Barclays Plc would have no reason to exist either.

In both these cases, the business exists to produce a product or provide a service to a group of people, mainly customers. The above picture is taken from a book called GCSE in Applied Business written by Carol Carysforth, Mike Neild and produced by Heinemann In many companies the key operation is making goods, for example cars, computers, clothing, and food products. These organizations need to buy raw materials and convert them into the finished product. The following quotation is taken from a book called GCSE in Applied Business written by Carol Carysforth, Mike Neild and produced by Heinemann

"A company making jeans, for instance, requires denim, thread, zips and other fastenings. The list is short. For a car or airplane manufacturer, the list would be much longer. All these items need to be available as and when they are needed and this requires skill. The jeans manufacturer doesn't want thousands of meters of denim fabric lying around; this costs money and takes up valuable space. Neither would it want to run out, because production would stop and the company's profits would be affected". The services at and options at Barclays need to be made with as little wastage as possible.

They need to be of good interest to the public, otherwise Barclay's won't make a profit. Finally, Barclays Plc has to make sure they can provide what it offers otherwise they will loose public Interest. In all cases, both managers and the staff at Barclays Plc are responsible for the operations. In a service organization, a large number of staff may be involved in delivering the key operation to customers, for example solicitors advising clients. Any businesses especially Barclays needs resources, whether they provide a product and/or they provide a service.

For example, Barclays needs premises, equipment such as a money counter, money and labour to try and make personal finance easy for any one customer. This type of determination needs to be applied to all the functional areas of Barclays Plc, no matter what type of service is carried out. All businesses-produces of goods and service providers need buildings and land to operate. The following quotation is taken from a book called GCSE in Applied Business written by Carol Carysforth, Mike Neild and produced by Heinemann "A farmer requires farmland and buildings such as a barn or diary.

A manufacturer needs a factory building. Service providers such as distributors need warehouses, retailers need shops, solicitors and accountants operate from offices, estate agents and travel agents usually need offices but some have shops too. A farmer requires specialist equipment depending upon the type of farm, for example milking equipment, combine harvesters. Manufacturer needs complex equipment related to the goods being produced; a distributor needs vehicles; retailers need cash registers and all offices use a range of equipment including computers, fax machines and photocopiers".

The amount of specialist equipment required for any type of business will vary, depending upon the extent to which and process is automated. Automation means that machines do the work instead of human beings.

Examples of automation include the following:

• Robots perform dangerous, dirty, monotonous or intricate jobs. Some industrial robots are just 'arms', programmed to do jobs such as welding, paint spraying, machine loading and basic assembly work. Multiarm robots have been developed to do different jobs simultaneously.

Because they can be very expensive, these are more likely to be found in large organizations. Robots are also used in other areas. In medicine, they can be used to help move patients who are immobilized or paralyzed. They are also being developed to carry out delicate operations, such as brain surgery, because their movements can be precisely programmed and repeated as required.

• Digitized telephone systems - a computer voice answers the telephone and directs customers to select different options depending upon their individual need. This helps to 'screen' calls and directs them to the right person.
• Automated mailroom equipment deals with computer-produced bulk mail- shots. The equipment automatically folds and inserts the documents, seals the envelope, weighs and franks it with the correct postage. Staff at Barclays are required at different levels and with different skills, as you will see managers take responsibility for a particular type of function. Supervisors may be employed to oversee the work of people involved in the actual face to face service of Barclays such as bank teller workers.

Specialists are also required by many organizations, for example a research firm may employ engineers, and an accountant will need tax experts. All types of businesses require materials. Barclays for example needs raw materials such as paper, computers and money to produce the finished goods. A retail store needs stock to sell; in this case the materials will depend upon the type of goods sold from shoes to mobile phones. Barclays also needs packaging materials and help with posting, many businesses in the UK use the Royal Mail postal service. Customer Services

Customer services at Barclays Plc provides information, advice, after sales services and also has to communicate with customers with problems such as complaints. Staff have a responsibility to tell the customer about consumer laws which are designed to protect customer's rights. Customers are essential to every business because their payments are their income, or revenue, of the business. Without customers, a business would not make a profit and would eventually close down. Customers also needs a bank, no member of the public would get paid if there was no where to store there money.

Because of this banks get a two way deal the customer needs the bank and the bank needs the customer, for this the customer gets services and interest in their money and the bank gets a profit on whatever services they provide to the customer. When customers trust their finances with Barclays they expect them to have something in return plus have their money safely and professionally looked after. The more they pay the better quality of services they expect. Added to this, consumers have specific legal rights when they buy a product or service.

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