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Unit 1
Business at Work
My Introduction to Marks and Spencer
A Public Limited Company
This type of business is a publicly owned enterprise in the UK. ...
• The business has continuity, because its survival is not influenced by the personal circumstances of its shareholders. ...
• Anyone wanting to do business with a public limited company can check their annual accounts and report to see if they are financially sound. ...
Constraints
Examples include the virtually all the household names such as Marks and Spencer Plc, ICI Plc, Barclays Plc bank
The company that I am going to explore is Marks & Spencer, which is a large sized business and a Public limited company (Plc). Marks and Spencer is a Public Limited Company because it is easier for the company to invest or raise money into the business that comes from the shareholders. ...
At some point the business needs to identify specific practical targets to accomplish their aims. ... Also objectives are a target of a business, that they hope to achieve, in which are divided into a long-term and short-term objectives. ... Mainly objectives are to provide a focus for the managers and the employees of a business, and ideally they should be involved in setting, or to agree their own objectives.
The way that a business translates its aims into objective, is that the realistic aims are formulated and put into practice by a group, who work in that aspect part of the organisation to which they will focus on that objective e. ...
I will mow give a description of the functional areas that exist in the business, and a explanation on how they help the business meets its objectives
Organisational Functions
All businesses combine ‘Factors of Production’ to produce their products and/ or services. ...
Combining these factors means that the business is able to carry out a range of functions, including the following:
• Finance
• Production
• Human Resources
• Marketing/Sales
• Administration
• Research and Development
Below is a structure of the way an organisation function looks like:
Managing Director
Finance Human Resources Administration Production Marketing/Sales
An organisation that has each of the major functions described above might look something like the structure like the structure above. ...
So the way of getting the various functions to work together to meet the company objective are to pull in the same direction to create a clear set of translated to functional objectives, so which that each of the function is driven by the organisation objective. ...
Below is an organisational function, which is driven by the corporate objectives:
Corporate Objectives
Marketing Objective Production Objective Finance Objective
Administration Objective
Below is the way of how all Marks and Spencer departments try to contribute to meet the businesss objectives:
• Good human relation’s -the people should treat individuals with the respect and
honesty, in which to try an work as a team to meet the business objectives,
especially when we are not doing well. ...
• Good communication of employment - should be opened and honest at all levels
• Personnel responsibilities - having the guideline managers to ensure that they
must apply fairly and consistently, and to ensure that all channels of
communications are good to meet the company’s objectives
• Personnel group services - to provide an operational service of the recruitment,
personnel development, counselling salaries, health care, advice on legislation and
financial services, and the conditions of the work placement, and the personnel
information. ...
Marks and Spencers nowadays especially, after their downfall in making profit, have meetings now in all their departments on a weekly bases to meet and review their programme they had last week, for example if they achieved that idea, how can you improve it to make it even better, or if one of the products they tried out didn’t work on the customer what would they do to make the customer buy it. ...
• A description of the management style and culture of the business
Management Styles
In a persons management style the typical pattern of behaviour will show that he or she wants to know how to carry out a management role over the duration. ... The culture will affect the resistance for change within the business & which therefore have the ability of a new boss to improve his or her style or decision upon subordinates.
There are different types of organisational culture that can be found and built by dominant groups in an organisation, due to the modern business world that have been changing rapidly transforming by a process of managing change. ... However, there are disadvantages part of this culture is that it is an autocratic, where there can be a feeling of suppression & lack of challenge in the work force. ... Also the individuals has he complete freedom to change the direction of the way they work. ...
• A description of the use of ICT for internal and external communication of
the business
All businesses need to communicate with a range of individuals both within and without the organisation, which include the customers, the competitors, and the suppliers, as well as their own employees. Good communication is essential for a business, to achieve their objectives and if they want to operate effectively.
There are four types of channels of communications, which include the following:
• Internal and External (which I will go into more detail below)
• Formal and Informal
• Upward and Downward
• Open and Restricted
Nowadays Information Communication Technology (ICT), has made a dramatic impact and effect the way the business communicates, in which it has made it more easier for a business to meet its objectives. ... a e-business
Together with these links create a network economy, which is vastly improving the potential of a business to connect with the employees, customers, business, shareholders, etc. ...
The Impact of ICT on A Business
Organisations are becoming increasingly reliant on the power of IT. ... This has forced organisations to restructured in the way the work, thus includes the following:
• Delayering- making the organisation more layer, flatter and flatter, into adaptable
to change, with the impact of IT companies are allowed to obtain information
much faster and in more detail, therefore reducing the need for lots of layers of
management. ...
• Introducing a flexible work force- it has made people work at home rather than
going to their normal work place in order to do their job.
Business are using the latest technology in many ways:
1. There are so called business to business application, in which thus a company
might try to control its supply chain- in which are linked together (the supplier and
the customer). ...
Companies do this nowadays so that if the business wants to buy goods quickly or wants to replace it without any hold-up- this is the most efficient way of doing it.
2. ...
• A clear explanation of how the production process and quality
assurance/control system employed by the business help it to add value to its
product or service
The production process is the process of organising resources in order to meet a customer’s requirement. ... A business needs to require by having:
• Excellent links with the supplier- because a business needs to make sure that it
gets inputs of the right quality, at the right price at the right time. ... Here, the workers make sure that all areas in the business meet high standards. ... There are group of workers and the management who work together to make the production process better.
Example: Workers and the management work together to ensure that no biscuits are broken or of poor quality. ... In recent years the business organisations nowadays have been using a Japanese management style known as Kaizen, which translates as continuous improvement. ... Then building a team sprit is important, so which they can solve the company’s problems activities which do not have to be work related as well as work related. ... An example in a business sense for instance in Volvo, which introduced this type of management changed:
1. Responsible for the product
2. ... In which when a business is help to add value to it product or service, it is a process that requires considerable imagination and skill. In which this the one of the most important business activities. Coca-Cola is a prime example of how a business is helped by adding value to it. ...
Marks and Spencer tries to drive quality- to which it cause all the functions in the business to work together.
This done by:
• Trying to get it right first
• Workers meeting up weekly in each section of the business, in which they discuss
review their quality programme. ...
Marks and Spencer regard their customer’s s the most important person in the business. ... The business depends on their technologist workers to be redefining quality and expending on availability. ...
This enables Marks and Spencer to:
ź Improve the efficiency of operations
ź Improve the quality of products by providing better information for suppliers
ź Reduce the cost-base for operations and reflect the benefits by improving value
for customers
• Judgements about how successfully the business is meetings, its objectives
During the Christmas period Marks and Spencer’s re-establish themselves as one of the biggest and best retailers (page 3 on the newspaper outing section- dated 15th January 2002). ... This was due to the customers demanding, and to customer’s
flexibility, and to boost the economy to make staff work extra shifts during the Christians period. ...
• Analysis of how the organisational structure, culture and management style of the business affect its performance and operation and help it to meet its objectives
Marks and Spencer have continued to run their business in the culture of tradition structure that has been successful in achieving the company objectives for many years. ... This is due to Tesco introducing a new policy to their business is called Human Resources Management (HRM). This makes everyone in the business work together as a team to perform and help meet their objectives. But Marks and Spencer are still sticking to their old style of business keeping the British management style i. ... To try and improve understanding between employers and employees
2. ... Having regular meetings between members to improve has a function between departments to enhance performance
Marks and Spencer culture has started to move with the times and has helped the performance of the company by:
Information Technology with the tills, Electronic Point Of Sale, to improve the supply chain which used to be 4 to 5 months, but has gone down now due to technology, but for instance Zara has a supply chain of 1 to 2 weeks. ... Marks and Spencer did not get feedback from these customers, resulting in a lot of dissatisfied customers taking their business elsewhere. ... They did this by starting to work together was the way as a team , and the introduction of ICT was important in improving their customer service. ... This is due to the fact that they want to maintain the traditionally British way of running a business. ... Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS)
2. ... It allows users and developers to work at every stage- resulting in higher quality application delivered quicker, and getting things right the first time.
Approximate Word count = 9152
Approximate Pages = 36.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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