Sources of internal information
Financial
The finanacial department’s responsabilities include keeping track of the income and
expenditure to make sure the business operates efficiently as well as maintaining the
financial records, paying the staff salaries, Planning, organising and controlling the financial
resources. Moreover, they need to make sure all information is accurate, and they need to
ensure the profit is achieved. Their responsibilities also include budgets and forecasting,
payment and transaction investments. Apple is a large business, so it needs a separate
finance department for organising the finances of the company such as recording the money
the company receives daily. Apple sells millions of products each year such as iPhones,
IPads, Watches, Mac laptops, computers etc.
so the finance department has to record all the income and expenditure within the
company. They do this by keeping in contact with the sales department, who work closely
with the customers and deal with the purchases and receive information about the Apple
devices sold. The finance department at Apple produce financial statements, balance
sheets, profit and loss, and Cash flow that are used to make important decisions. For
example, if Apple is deciding to reduce their expenditure, they would need the cash flow
from the financial department so they know what expenditure is the highest. The finance
department at Apple make sure that all the information that they produce is accurate,
because the decision making is affected if they make any errors with any of their
calculations.
Marketing
The promotion and marketing department is responsible for promoting the business and
make it grow. They do this in many different and useful ways such as advertising using
posters, leaflets, using social media, using Television and online ads. Other ways they
promote the company’s’ products is by giving a discount, this draws customers in and then
the product is slowly spread, and the business gains success. Their responsibilities include
identifying the future customers of a particular company. They try to get as much feedback
as possible, from carrying out primary research such as surveys etc. so they know what is
going well and what needs to be improved. The marketing department keeps track of the
competitors to find out what they are doing, what price they are using for the products etc.
They do this because they want the customers to come to their business instead of their
competitors. Another responsibility of this department is that they keep the website up to
date, maintain it as much as possible and design and style in a way to attract new
customers.
In Apple, the marketing department comes up with many ways to promote the new
products. For example, if the company launches a new iPhone, the marketing team is the
one to put it out there. They will create advertisements in a way that it will attract the
customers’ attention, such as using music, showing the unique features of the design,
showing what new details they have added and what colours the iPhone is available. The
marketing department carry out research and produce information on the customers wants
and needs and other statistics that the management may need to make important decisions,
