Operational activity of the enterprise: essence and features

Enterprises operate in the market, as a rule, in very tough competition. If the company was in the struggle loser, it leaves the market and becomes bankrupt. To maintain a position in the market, a firm needs to continuously monitor any changes occurring in the market environment, develop its own ways of counteracting negative impacts to maintain competitiveness.

Operational activity is the activity of the company, which is the main one and brings the organization a significant part of the income, as well as other activities, with the exception of financial and investment. In other words, this is what the enterprise was created for directly.

The nature of operating activities, primarily, is determined by the specifics and characteristics of the industry to which the enterprise belongs. For most companies, it is based on trade, production and commercial activities, which can be supplemented by financial or investment.

Features of the concept

The operational activities are characterized by the following features:

1. It is the main component of the company's economic activity. A significant part of the company's personnel, a significant share of all the assets being formed, is used to service this activity. Thus, under normal conditions, the profit from it has a significant specific weight.
2. The operational activity of the enterprise is a priority in relation to other types. For this reason, the development of any other directions should not be in contradiction with the operational activities.
3. The intensity of development of the priority activity is the main parameter used to evaluate the stages of the life cycle of the firm.
4. Operational activities are focused primarily on the commodity market, while investment or financial - on the financial market.
5. All business transactions related to operating activities are of a regular nature. According to it, the frequency of operations is the highest.
6. The implementation of priority activities is related to the means that have already been invested in it. The future investment of funds is subject to financial or investment activities. Capital invested in priority activities becomes the company's operating assets. From the composition, speed of circulation, balance and other characteristics of operating assets, the ability of the organization to generate operating profit largely depends.
7. Operating activity consumes a large amount of living labor. In financial and investment activities, the costs of living labor are insignificant. Thus, the firm's ability to generate profits depends to a large extent on the qualifications and professional composition of the staff, the adequacy of the workforce.
8. Priority activity is inherent in specific risks (operational risks). The level of operating profit should be correlated first of all with the level of operational risk.

In the process of implementing priority activities, three types of operating profit are generated:

• Clean;
• Marginal;
• Gross.

Thus, the operational activity plays a major role in the process of forming the profit of the enterprise. It is on the implementation of this type of activity that a significant share of material and labor resources is spent. In the event that the priority activity is ineffective, the enterprise can become bankrupt and will be forced to withdraw from the market.