Briefly Describe the Four Primary Functional Areas of a Firm

question 39

Short Answer

Briefly describe the four primary functional areas of a firm. How is operations related to them?
The four primary functional areas of a firm are marketing, finance, operations, and human resources. For most firms, operations is the technical core or "hub" of the organization, interacting with the other functional areas and suppliers to produce goods and services for customers. For example, marketing provides sales forecasts to operations and operations provides marketing with product availability information, lead time estimates and delivery schedules. Operations provides finance with inventory and production data, capital budgeting and equipment requests, and technology plans. Finance provides the capital resources for financing inventory and securing more capital equipment. Operations relies on human resources to meet its personnel needs-hiring, training, and evaluating workers.

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Definitions:

Creditor Beneficiary

A third party that benefits from a contract between two other parties, where the promisor agrees to pay a debt that the promisee owes to the third party.

Donee Beneficiary

An individual who benefits from a contract between two other parties, with the intent that the benefits of the contract apply to this third party.

Acceptance

The act of agreeing to the terms of an offer, thereby creating a binding contract.

Antiassignment Clause

A contract provision that prohibits the transfer of rights or delegation of duties under the contract to another party without the original party's consent.