please give a conclusion for:

Controlling:

Controlling involves implementing corrective actions to address deviations from planned performance, ensuring continuous improvement and enabling timely interventions, thereby preventing potential issues from escalating. Control systems are critical to an organization's effectiveness, providing a framework to monitor, evaluate, and regulate various business aspects. They help set benchmarks and standards for performance, establishing clear expectations and measuring actual performance against these standards. Control systems are designed to align the organization's activities with its goals and objectives, contributing to overall success. They assist in the decision making process by providing real$-$time data and feedback, allowing management to make informed choices based on accurate, up$-$to$-$date information. This helps organizations adapt to changing circumstances and make strategic adjustments to stay on track. Control systems monitor resource allocation and utilization, helping organizations identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement. This ensures that resources, including finances, personnel, and time, are utilized effectively, leading to increased productivity and cost$-$effectiveness. With control systems in place employees and departments are aware of performance expectations, understand regular evaluations, which results in a culture of responsibility, transparency, and accountability. This motivates individuals to perform at their best and align their efforts with organizational goals. Control systems assist in detecting potential problems and addressing them before they escalate, thereby minimizing risks.

What areas will TFG and JD Sports need to control:

$$ Physical resources such as inventory are the most important to control in retail. Without the right product at the right time, there would be no business. TFG are using the RFID $($radio frequency identification$)$ tracking system, which allows them to track their products through each phase of production, through shipping and logistic in the warehouse and into the store. They know what is going to be on$-$time, late or even stolen. Both companies will definitely have quality control checks in place through the supply chain system, so that the goods arrive as ordered and are not substandard. As sustainability is an important strategy for both companies, TFG actually calls it out with their ESG $($environmental and social governance$)$ strategy, they will monitor where goods are being produced, who is producing them and how this impacts the environment and society.

$$ Human resources $($HR$)$ will need controls for their selection process and placement of candidates, as well as training, personal development, performance appraisals, and remuneration. This department will be tasked with developing these controls and feeding back to senior management. HR usually has a candidate selection process used in all hiring. They will implement an individual performance process to access staff, usually on an annual basis, but in the case of this new franchise, would probably be moved up to a quarterly review of performance and development.

$$ Information systems $($IT$)$ will be monitored from the get$-$go to ensure accurate market and economic forecasting, and correct environmental scanning is being accomplished. Incorrect data will create incorrect decisions.

$$ And most importantly, financial resources will be scrutinised. Financial budgets, in terms of cash flow as well as capital expenditure will be analysed for efficiency. Operational budget which are represented by the franchise deal KPI$$s will be analysed and reworked where needed to achieve the required performance. And lastly, there will be controls for non$-$financial budgets, which is capital used in business. Some examples of this will be the staffing budget, for the number of employees required in different departments, or stores, based on expected foot traffic. The marketing budget, ensuring the resources for marketing activities, such as the number of campaigns, types of promotions, and distribution of marketing materials are in line with the plan. IT budget, used for the implementation and maintenance of technology systems, such as point$-$of$-$sale systems, inventory management software, and the e$-$commerce platform.

The areas of control as established above, will lead to the first action in the control process TFG and JD Sports would have taken, which would be to establish standards, goals and objectives for all of the above, at the planning stage. This would have been done through analysis of existing data from both TFG and JD Sports, across all functional areas of the business. This is usually presented at meetings between middle and top management, where middle management will get sign off on the plans. With this new franchise venture, this should have already taken place, potentially more than a year before the launch of the first store, as retail timelines