Why OM? - OM as an integrated concept

Background:

To create goods and services, all organizations perform three functions: Operations, Finance, and Marketing. These functions are the necessary ingredients not only for production but also for an organization's survival. These functions must cooperate and coexist in a successful firm. As a a manager you will find yourself interfacing with each of these functional areas.

1. Operations - creation of the product or service

2. Finance - tracks and accounts for organizational fiscal performance

3. Marketing - generates demand and/or takes orders for a product or service

Questions for Thought:

1. Can you think of ways the three functional areas are linked in a manufacturing company? In a service based company?

2. Why would a company's financial managers need to know anything about what a company's operations managers does? What about a marketing manager?

3. Can you identify the three functional areas of a firm in the video clip from The Hudsucker Proxy? How is pricing accomplished and by which functional area? How is naming the product accomplished and by which functional area?