Executive Summary
Almutlaq Holding Company specializes in the manufacturing and selling of furniture. The vision of the company is to raise the level of performance and increased productivity locally and internationally. In realizing this long-term vision, the company is currently changing some activities in order to be a franchise system. This plan will cover the Gulf region and the Middle East on completion.
There is also a move to include Almutlaq Holding in the Saudi stock market to convert it from a closed-joint holding company into public company (Tong 550). This will enhance participation opportunities and financial securities for the Saudi citizens.
However, in the future, the company plans to choose business areas carefully based on the new and existing economic and social development variables in order to provide quality products and services to the consumers at reasonable costs depending on economic segments of society.
The company’s mission is to “develop the idea of showing, production, sales, and the endless work to raise efficiency and professionalism” (Green and Madison 106) to enhance economic development of the kingdom.
Based on this founding mission accompanied with the strong and professional supportive teams that manage its five vital departments (the IT department, the department of sales and marketing, procurement, accounting, and human resource), it has been registering a steady increase in sales and customers’ satisfaction.
It has also opened new companies, City. W Saudi Arabia, Sudair Furniture Factory, Real Estate Investment, and Almutlaq Co. Ltd to supply international and local furniture. Therefore, the report details the activities undertaken during the internship training at Almutlaq Holding Company.
The company attached its internship students to various departments depending on their areas of study. Having been attached to the accounting department, I had the pleasure to undertake the role of preparing financial statements, routine functions, inventory management, and promotion.
Company Description
Almutlaq Holding,
HQ – Olaya Main St., Opp. Alandalus Market
Having been established under the name of Almutlaq Company Limited by Almutlaq in the mid 1960s, the Almutlaq Holding has been expanding gradually in its mission of manufacturing and selling furniture in the Arab Kingdom and the world at large.
Under the management of commitment, loyal, and hardworking second-generation leaders, the company has gained a great reputation among local and global consumers (Green and Madison 109).
Through the establishment of Real Estate Invest, Sudair Fur Factory, City Saudi Arabia, and Almutlaq Co. Ltd, the company specializes in the manufacturing and selling of home furnishings such as sofa sets and wooden cabinets to employees, retailers, wholesalers, and other manufacturers in the United Arab Kingdom.
Figure 1 represents the organizational chart of Almutlaq Holding. It comprises the top management: the company CEO, CEO office manager, and the internal editor. Below the top management are five departments headed by the respective managers. Accounting department is headed by accounting manager working together with seven accountants responsible for managing the company’s finances.
The commercial operations manager works in collaboration with Almutlaq Co. purchasing manager, warehouse general manager, city warehouse general manager, and the purchasing manager, as well as internal purchasing manager. Under the human resource manager, there are other staffs comprising one personnel manager, two personnel coordinators, and two government relation representatives.
Under the leadership of IT manager are the programmer, ERP, systems and network administrators, and e-services manager. Marketing manager aided by the advertising manager, customer relations manager, and the photographer head the sales and marketing department.
Functions of Different Departments
The accounting department is responsible for routine functions such as recording transactions, reconciling bank statements, preparing interim and annual financial statements, securing the confidential accounting information, and carrying out inventory management (Kessler and Grant 129). The commercial operations department does not directly generate income into the company. However, its role is inevitable.
The department carries out procurement activities, collects company’s support functions of other departments by enhancing collaborative working environment, fosters development, and implements the company mission, policies, and guidelines.
Human resources department does the management of employee population such as “recruitment, training, compensation, employee benefits and relations, communications, and performance management” (Green and Madison 101).
The information technology department in Almutlaq Holding updates its website besides providing IT support requirements to the company.
The sales and marketing department carries out promotional activities as well as product definitions in terms of “color choices, package sizes, feature modifications, and even shifts to a new product line” (Kessler and Grant 130). The department is also charged with the responsibility of modifying the furniture according to preferences and quality demands. Besides, it receives and responds to customers’ feedbacks.
Internship activities
Working under the accounting department gave me a lot of impeccable experience to complement and apply my theoretical college knowledge into the real life situation. Having been ushered into the company by Ehab Dwedar, the accounting manager, and guided through by a team of professional accountants led by Abuobaidah Ahmed (my supervisor), I was at total ease carrying my specific tasks.
I have the greatest pleasure to acknowledge the experience gained from Almutlaq Holding Company as diverse and very vital for my future career.
I have experience in inventory management, recording transactions in the invoices, bills and vouchers, keeping bills and vouchers, collecting and monitoring debtors, reconciling bank statements with the company’s bank account, preparing trial balance, revenue statement, and balance sheet (Kessler and Grant 136).
Through the help of Reda Zeid as the e-services manager, I have also gained experience in social media business promotions. In Almutlaq Holding Company, motivation of employees through training, offering transportation services to customers, giving warranties, evaluating customers’ needs and preferences, printing, and social media promotions enable the company to be more effective and efficient.
How Al Yamamah University prepared me for the internship
At the university, I have gone through a vigorous training in finance. The course enabled me to specialize in entrepreneurial finance and financial management, learning financial statement and ratio, investment analysis, valuation and sources of finance, venture capital, and business angel financing (Tong 534).
Therefore, I developed knowledge of financial planning, investment and financial analyses plus income and cash flow statements, and balance sheets, which enabled me to effectively undertake and implement internship duties and responsibilities. Moreover, having learned how to prepare financial statements using secondary data at the University, I was able to relate my theoretical experience to the work at hand.
An assessment of the internship
My main responsibility at the Almutlaq Holding Company was to prepare the company’s financial statements such as trial balance, revenue statement, and balance sheet.
However, to broaden the capacity in my field of study, I took the initiative of supplementing the role with other responsibilities. I was also charged with the responsibility of recording transactions in the invoice, bills, and vouchers as well as keeping, collecting, and monitoring debtors, reconciling bank statements with the company’s bank account (Kessler and Grant 126).
Besides, I was given the role of making and keeping stock of furniture, maintaining inventory books such as stock transfer and physical stock register. Working under accounting department gave me a lot of impeccable experience to complement and apply my theoretical college knowledge into real life situation.
I have the greatest pleasure to acknowledge the experience gained from Almutlaq Holding Company as diverse and very vital for my future career. I have a firsthand experience in inventory management, business promotions, as well as preparing and managing financial statements, which are needed in business organizations.
Conclusion
Internship training is very vital in exposing a student to the real work environment because it does not only give experience to an individual. Rather, it supplements practical skills with skills, which I will not be able to acquire in classroom. The training also exposes one to more accounting and financial challenges thus providing relevant solutions that lead to a more technical expertise in the field of finance.
During my financial training at Almutlaq Holding Company, I got a chance to work with its co-branches, City Saudi Arabia, Sudair Furniture Factory, and Real Estate Investment. Therefore, I was exposed to several activities within the financial discipline such as company routine functions, inventory managements, and preparing interim financial statements (Green and Madison 100).
The skills and experience I acquired can enable me to work in any business venture. In addition, I acquired communication, organizational, leadership, and analytical skills, which have enabled me to realize that, at work, non-technical skills are equally very important.
Most significantly, I experienced various activities associated to my career and professional development because I was able to apply my theoretical knowledge to accomplish practical tasks effectively.
Works Cited
Green, Brian, and Roland Madison. “An Exploratory Study of the Effect of Professional Internships on Students’ Perception of the Importance of Employment Traits.” Journal of Education for Business 86.2(2011): 100-110. Print.
Kessler, Lara, and Rita Grant. “Internships as a Beneficial External Learning Environment: A Survey and Case Study of Accounting Interns and Employers.” International Journal of Learning 16.8(2009): 125-140. Print.
Tong, David. “Negative Opinion of Company Environment Mediates Career Choice of Accountancy Students.” Education & Training 54.6(2012): 534-557. Print.