Harrow Management Consultants have short-listed students for a trainee management position in their company. They are concerned however that their managers may be getting out of touch with sensible business proposals produced by people of student age. They are therefore considering recruiting a team of business advisers who will be able to look at the proposals they receive from a younger perspective. In preparing for the interview, the students have been asked to present and discuss a business investigation, which the students have conducted for this. I am going to select two businesses, which I am interested in.

These should be different from one another in ways I should explain. Identify also what you think are the stated or probable purposes of each organisation. Describe fully the aims and objectives. Then describe how the organisation’s activities meet the stated business purposes, in addition, explain the contribution of my selected organisation’s business activities towards the achievement of the business purposes. One of the businesses, which I have selected, is TOPSHOP. It is a commercial, private and retail sector that a clothing company based in the UK.

The Arcadia Group, which is the second largest clothing retailer in England, owns the brand TOPSHOP. Arcadia Group is formerly known as Burton, a Lithuanian immigrant to the UK founded this in 1900 by the name of Sir Montague Burton. The company became the leading multi-tailor organisation in the UK when primarily focusing on tailored suits. Burton was in innovator, and in no time, the company had expanded, merged and acquired several other clothing retailers. A man named Peter Robinson originated it in the mid 1960’s. His own design ideas has set and maintained its reputation for “putting new ideas on the high street first. ”

Primarily, TOPSHOP carries clothing however accessories also account for a large portion of the company’s sales. Products are sold at the local TOPSHOP store as well as on the website by product or trend categories. They include Fashion tops, Basic tops, Trousers, Skirts, Jeans, Dresses jackets, Coats, Beachwear, Accessories and Specialty items (plus/petite sizes). The company also manufactures clothing for men, but the men and women’s divisions are operated separately. There are many processes involved in the retail industry. First and foremost is the implementation of the design talent to create a superior and unique product.

The next process worthy of mention is the production of the clothing. When discussing TOPSHOP’s retail stores, they take into account the process by which the clothing and accessories arrives at the store. The final process involved in the retail industry is that customer service and follows up in the event of any problems with errors in shipment, etc. The market clothing of TOPSHOP is primarily towards young women, ages ranging from teenage through 20-somethings. Especially, it is suitable for the fashion conscious woman as well as the fashion risk taker, as the style is innovative funky, electric and risky.

And the key aims for TOPSHOP is to get profit maximization, survival and growth. Profit maximization means the process of trying to raise profit to its highest possible level. This is often achieved by rising sales in situations each additional unit a product sold brings in a surplus of revenue over unit cost. TOPSHOP can raise sales by improving the quality of the clothes, the style of the clothes, having successful promotion and advertising, enter the market into new countries, producing new clothes ranges, such as more expensive clothes. Another way of rising profit levels is to lower costs per unit.

TOPSHOP can lower its costs per unit by buying raw materials from cheaper sources, paying less for resources such as staff or material, producing more efficiently, for example by generating less waste, and increasing output in order to benefit from economies of scale. As TOPSHOP is part of arcadia group, the annual report of arcadia group will show the finance of TOPSHOP. In the last year, the sales gained 9. 4% during the 19 weeks to 5 January compared with a year earlier, and the gross profit was up by rising 1. 1%. In order to achieve profit maximization, the company reduces its retailing space by 3.

5%, removed unprofitable stores. Therefore, in the past one year, TOPSHOP has made a huge gross. Survival and growth is another key aims for TOPSHOP. Business organizations can be threatened in many ways. Competitors can take market share by introducing new products which are more attractive, of better quality or cheaper. TOPSHOP can therefore be threatened by anything that might reduce its income. If the sales revenue falls, because of competition or a move by consumers away from a brand, profit will also fall. Profit can also fall because of a rise in costs, such as staff wages.

In order to make growth, TOPSHOP has grown in this natural and ‘organic’ way. For example, TOPSHOP has also opened many stores in China and Japan. A key risk in doing this is the possibility that the successful formula cannot be repeated elsewhere. As TOPSHOP is part of arcadia group, the group has been running the clothes business over 100 years. Therefore, it obviously shows that TOPSHOP has survival successfully and make a growth rapidly. In order to remain at the head of the fashion industry, the company analyse its competition to make sure product differentiation, competitive pricing strategies, etc.

In addition, to ensure that the website is interesting and easy to navigate, the information manager always keeps the website up to date. The company keeps a detailed inventory and accounting system must be kept on the database, so that the company can keep track and reorder when appropriate so to prevent the unnecessary and often times extensive shortage costs, which shows TOPSHOP is trying to make the maximization profit. In order to satisfy the customers and expand this company, TOPSHOP sets up its own website.

TOPSHOP’s website has a good selection of items available for purchase. It also makes online purchases easy, as the forms for billing and shipping information are standard and straightforward. There are several features about this website. An online magazine that shows the user the monthly outfit with the fashion expert advice. The magazine also shows the beauty information and local events. In general, TOPSHOP’s website had good content and it was easy to use. London underground was set up in 1985; however the world’s first underground railway was opened in London at 1863.

Today, serving 275 stations over 408 km (253 miles) of active lines, there are three million passenger journeys made a day by using London transport. Since 2003, the tube has been part of Transport for London (TfL), which also schedules ad lets contracts for the famous red double-decker buses. Previously London Transport was holding company for London Underground. The London Underground is a public transport network, composed of electrified railways that run underground in tunnels in central London and above ground in the city’s suburbs.

The London Underground is usually referred to as either simply “the underground” by Londoners, or (more familiarly) as “the tube”. There are twelve lines of tube: they are Bakerloo line, Central line, Circle line, District line, East London line, Hammersmith City line, Jubilee line, Metropolitan line, Northern line, Piccadilly line, Victoria line and Waterloo City line. Not all underground stations are accessible by people with mobility problems. Many have some of the 408 escalators and 112 lifts. Harry Beck designed the tube map in 1931. See Tube map for an in-depth analysis of its history topological nature.

London Underground intends to deliver the best possible service to all of the passengers. In order to achieve this aim, the organisation is going to provide a quick, frequent and reliable train service, a welcoming and safe clean station environment with up-to-date information and courteous, helpful staff, so that the company has to have a continuous, demanding program of improvements to meet rising expectation. In addition, to drive and measure these improvements, performance targets covering many aspects of the service have been agreed with government as part of the Citizen’s Charter program.

The mission statement is to exceed customer expectations by continually improving the quality of their response to customer queries, and using customer feedback to drive improvement in service across London Underground a TfL (Transport for London). In this task, I am going to identify and describe a variety of functional activities in the organization of TOPSHOP, also to identify and describe connections between these activities and the achievement of aims and objectives. In addition, I am going to provide an in depth analysis of the contribution of the different functional activities to the achievement of the aims and objectives.

In a modern company a large proportion of the staff may work directly with, or have access to, computer terminals. In order to achieve the aims and objectives (The market clothing of TOPSHOP is primarily towards young women, ages ranging from teenage through 20-somethings. Especially, it is suitable for the fashion conscious woman as well as the fashion risk taker, as the style is innovative funky, electric and risky. ), the company selects the most famous designers to design the clothes for the company.

Every year, there is a big competition between these designers, who designs the clothes that sold most would win the price. In addition, to ensure that the clothes is suitable for the fashion conscious, the age of the designers are becoming younger and younger, therefore designers can follow the young fashion and lead the young fashion. The general marketing plan of the TOPSHOP Company is to identify clothes that lead the fashion and be popular among the young women. In addition, TOPSHOP sets up the customer care and service, dealing with customer complaints and problems.

In order to fulfill these responsibilities, the marketing department will have to work closely with the finance, purchasing, production and transport departments. There needs to be a mechanism for investigating and correcting failures in the administration system so that if a breakdown in communication/administration occurs. Many of the information used by the marketing department is now on databases, for example, the price lists, customer details, retail outlets or sales data, etc. The objective of TOPSHOP Company is to advertise the TOPSHOP’s fashion clothes to a global audience.

In order to satisfy the customers and expand this company, TOPSHOP sets up its own website. Its website has a good selection of items available for purchase. It also makes online purchases easy, as the forms for billing and shipping information are standard and straightforward. There are several features about this website. An online magazine that shows the user the monthly outfit with the fashion expert advice. The magazine also shows the beauty information and local events. In general, TOPSHOP’s website had good content and it was easy to use.

To have a good image among young women for TOPSHOP, the function of production is to change inputs into outputs, i. e. produce the fashion clothes and services that are to be bought by customers. The objective is also to research and develop new fashion clothes and to mass-produce the latest fashion clothes. In order to achieve this point, TOPSHOP’s stores are set up in every shopping centre; therefore, people can easily find TOPSHOP instead of going to a particular store to shopping. The company also analyzes its competition to make sure product differentiation, competitive pricing strategies, etc.