Best Answer
Depending on the approach to business management that you study, there can be four to seven functional areas of business. We favor a business management approach that highlights six functional areas of business: strategy, marketing, finances, human resources, operations, and technology and equipment. To pick which ones to include in a paper you need to write, we would look at what each functional area does and pick the three areas where we had the most subject-area competency. However, if the paper was a research paper, intended to teach us more about business operations, we would actually take the opposite approach and pick the three areas where we had the least competency.
Strategy refers to your business goals, why they are your goals, and how you think you will accomplish them. Marketing does not just refer to trying to pitch your product ideas to the public, but also the market research that you should be doing before committing to a product. Is there an existing market for your product; if not, how do you create that market? If you cannot answer those two questions, then the business is almost destined for failure. Finance is a critical part of any business venture, and does not refer only to the startup capital you need to start a business, but also to the profit margins that are needed to make the business profitable. How much money do you need to make and when do you need to start seeing a profit? Human resources is important- what type of employees do you need to improve your business and are you located in the right place to find or attract them? What do you need to pay them to attract or retain critical employees? In non-technological business, many people want to skimp on the technical services, but in a modern e-commerce world every business needs a strong technological background. Operations refers to how the business is going to function. What does your business need to do in order to provide goods or services to your customers or clients?
