For this assignment I’ll be describe how two business of my choice (transport for London (TFL) an organisation in the transport industry, and One touch Leisure centre) organise themselves in-order to achieve the businesses’ purpose – the business’ reason for existence.
In-order for any to achieve its purpose or to make progress, planning is essential to ensure success, strategic planning is planning that is generalised to the whole organisation, it is therefore central to the organisation as it provides direction, by the setting out of the business’ aims and the methods as well as resources that will be used to achieve it.
As transport for London (TFL) hopes to provide the best service possible to its customers, and One touch Leisure centre – making profits and leading the market, they both have aims and objectives as a result of strategic planning to ensure success.
Transport for London (TFL) One touch Leisure centre
Aims:
To employ a more diverse workforce as London is one of the most diverse cities in the world.
Develop high frequency services to all customers (Londoners).
Provide a higher quality of customer services.
Substantially reduce crime rate (damage to TFL property and assault to customers).
Ensuring that all customers can easily get around London. To increase profit and use of one touch in community

Promote one touch leisure centre within the community

To get more people more active, more often.

Objectives:
Provide a greater human presence to provide information; giving a perception of a safer travelling environment.
Install a higher density of CCTV in locations with high levels of street crime.
Providing assistance if required for less able customers.
Increasing accessibility for all in-spite level of ability e.g. increase the number of step-free access station and stops.
All these aims and objectives aid TFL to provide a higher quality of service to their customers. Working together with the community, local schools, and other agencies to promote fitness and regular use of leisure centre therefore increasing profits.
Host tournaments, events and leagues and associate to the leisure centre.
Hold a minimum of 4 promotions in the Centre during the next trading year.
Ensure membership contracts are enforced.

All these aims and objectives of TFL aid to provide a higher quality of service to their customers. In contrast to TFL, One touch is more profit driven and their aims and objectives reflect this, as it works to increase profits within one touch.
As well as strategic planning the business mission and values are also important factors while organising the business, this is because the mission of the business set out the business’ purpose and operating means, allowing relevant business aims to be set including methods on achieving success. (Sets out what a business will do to achieve where it wants to be). The business’ value statement similarly sets out the business’ core values – what it stands for and what it believes in.
Transport for London (TFL) One touch Leisure centre
Mission statement
To deliver a world-class service ensuring London's transport system excel among global cities, providing access to opportunities for all its people and enterprises and to achieve the highest environmental standards and leading the world in its approach to tackling urban transport challenges of the 21st century. To provide a pleasing, enjoyable and affordable experience of leisure that offers a variety of different activity to meet the needs of all members of the community.
Values
Selflessness – TFL should take decisions only based on public interest.
Integrity – TFL should be upright morally.
Objectivity – TFL should be objective in making choices and be uninfluenced by prejudices.
Openness & Honesty – TFL should be as open as possible about all the decisions they take and state any private interests relating to their public duties. Fun-loving – One touch should provide a fun and warm atmosphere for leisure for the community.
Inspiring – One touch should be an inspiration to members of the community to be healthy and take responsibility for their health.
Respectful – One touch should have a respectful attitude toward all members of the community.
Community- One touch should have a sense of responsibility and contribution to the community.

A mission statement and values can be considered as the viewing glass or perspective through which a business can view and asses itself and its activities. A mission statement also helps a business state and communicate to the public what the business is all about ‘giving the overall philosophy’ of the business, and could be important in strengthening a business’ image and reputation. The business’ value is a promise of value of service to be delivered to customers and helps the business’ customers reaffirm trust in the business.
In both TFL and One touch there are organisational structures that helps to shape the business, these structures are important as they aid the business to work with increased effectiveness, best meeting the needs of all their stakeholders.

In both TFL and One touch as businesses work is divided into teams within the organisation also ensure increase in productivity and work ethic the work in both organisations are divided by distribution between departments, (divisions within an dealing with a specific subject), dividing the organisation’s work load into department could mean less confusion. This method of work division contributes to a functional organisational structure within both businesses – grouping employees with the business into department according to their function, the structure also means that the employees are grouped hierarchically (a ranking system according to status or authority within the businesses), managed through clear lines of authority, and reporting the respective manager of each department.
For TFL the department that carries out its key function are: its finance – (which keeps records of financial activity and providing other managers with information in creating plans and this department is supervises by the accounting director), its London underground and London rail – (this department is responsible for the operating services of journeys, upgrades, and major rail projects in London, including London overground. London Rail is also responsible for London overground, DLR and London tramlink and reports to the managing director of the department), there is also the surface transport department which plays a similar role to the department previously mentioned but for a different form of transport and report to a different director, there is also a marketing department among many more which is responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements.
One touch also has various departments e.g. marketing, sales, service delivery, etc. under the functional organisational structure and this structure for both TFL and One touch leads to operational efficiency, but could also lead to a lack of communication between the functional groups of department between both businesses because of the division and may make inflexible if managed properly and inserting lines of control and communication measures.
As seen from the image there is a chain of command and a business like One touch have a short or flat structure as the chain of command is only 2 levels but that the staff performing the duties (the functions) still report to the managers of their respective departments who in turn reports to the president or the business’ CEO who can then make decisions based on presented information. On the other hand in a larger business like TFL, there will a tall structure as the image shows meaning a longer chain of command and more levels of management and multiple levels within the hierarchy which could result in a breakdown of communication.
The span of control is very narrow the reason why I say this is because as we can see that the chart has different type of department and in those departments they have different people who have different responsibilities. For example someone would have few employees that they are in charge of. As its narrow it means not every employee speak to everyone as TFL is a very large business with many different functional area.
In order for any business organisation to achieve its objectives, strategic planning is vital; the objective is broken down further for each functional area to achieve specific segments in-order for the whole organisation to achieve the full objective and I’ll be looking at how each area of One touch leisure and Transport for London (TFL) can aided the respective businesses in achieving its objectives.
One touch Leisure centre’s overall objective of – ‘Working together with the community, local schools, and other agencies to promote fitness and regular use of leisure centre therefore increasing profits’; and various departments within the business will work as one to achieve the general objective.
Specific duties of different Functional areas (department) within One touch in relation to the business’s objectives.
• Marketing: In relation to One touch’s specific objective, as promotion is key, the marketing may bear the brunt of the objective load, and the marketing department will contribute to this objective by heavy promotion in the community, providing One touch with a voice and a presence within the community, conducting market research etc.; the marketing department will also be responsible for working with other agencies and promotion with and in essence doing what the marketing department should be doing and market the business in order to encourage use of the business and aid sales. o Customer service: The customer service department will also contribute to this objective but will do so under the marketing department, having similar role but ensure satisfaction of customers and how improvement can be made and using customer’s, experiences, queries and complaints together with the marketing department to develop method to attract the community into using the business’s services and hence helping to fulfil the business’s objectives.
• Information technology (I.T): The IT department will contribute to this objective majorly because of the technological driven world we now live in, the I.T can aid in making interaction with the public more engaging and therefore prompting interest around the business and its services and also with the use of I.T system it could aid the business in keeping records better almost and improving business performance aiding in realising the business objective.
• Finance: The finance department will have less of an importance for this particular objective but will still contribute to this objective by keeping track of One touch monthly and yearly financial performance to ensure that the business is on track performance wise, and with financial record kept by the finance department, it’s also possible for the business to track usage of the leisure centre and hence the level of achievement of its objective.
• Administration: One touch’s administration department is another example of a function area that could contribute to the achievement of the business objective by keeping good records of the company’s history and assets, it also offers a good ground, an office of general management which is essential as every business to matter how small requires a base making the department crucial for the everyday operation of the business – for all the other department to functional adequately.
Transport for London (TFL)’s overall objective of – ‘Providing a greater human presence to provide information; giving a perception of a safer travelling environment’; and various departments within the business will work as one to achieve the general objective.
Specific duties of different Functional areas (department) within TFL in relation to the objective of the business.
• Administration: As previously explained administration is crucial to business any regardless of size, objectives and targets for a large business like TFL, the administration department is absolutely necessary and so help fulfil the objective, the department duties will include supporting the governor by helping to manage the state budget, job creation a vital exercise as recruitment is necessary for a greater human presence, so this functional area is important in achieving the objective and helping the business run smoothly.
• Human resources (HR): As this objective is to do increasing human presence (of employees of TFL) to provide information, recruitment, training etc. will be necessary and important in contributing to the objective making this department very useful in achieving the objective.
• Marketing: The marketing functional area of the business will publicity and creating the perception of TFL as a safe and traveling environment and option, promoting and raising awareness among all member of the public and therefore encouraging them to use TFL’s services.
I will now be explain how the style of organisation in relation to their chain of command within both One touch and TFL can help control their activities and hence fulfil their objectives. One touch and TFL have differing types of command chains mainly because of the vast difference in size between both businesses. The chain of command refers to the order that authority in a business is delegated from top management to every employee at every level of a business and the downwards flow of responsibility and upwards flow of accountability along a command chain.
Transport for London (TFL)’s chain of command As represent by the image above TFL has a large command chain; showing the chief executive as the head of the organisation which is the Lord Mayor of London then leads down to the directors of each to sub departments within the organisation, this helps the organisations structure in setting everyone in the organisation and everyone having a specific role to play and a person to report to, i.e. For example the accountant director has a responsibility to produce, prepare, develop and analyses management accounting information and provide high quality support service to line managers/officers in the organization and ensure this is carried through integration within the department and ultimately report back to the Lord Mayor of London (the chief executive) of the TFL business.

One touch Leisure centre’s chain of command
• As opposed to TFL for a business like One touch because of the sheer size, the chain of command will be much shorter meaning that the flow of responsibility will be heavier at each level of employee however it also mean that there will be more developments of personal relationships with customers, employees etc.