Business Environment: Overview of Marks and Spencer

BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT

Table of Content
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
(A) Overview of the organisation................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Importance of Pestle analysis for business..................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
(A) PESTLE framework..............................................................................................................6
(B) Impact on business................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
Online........................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Business environment traditionally consists of multiple factors, all of which tend to
influence the operations and functioning of a business or organisation in one way or other
(Schaltegger and Wagner, 2017). There exist factors which tend to directly influence the
operations, behaviour and functioning of a business organisation, on the other hand others
indirectly influence the business environment. Hence the business environment is highly
convoluted and complex multi-dimensional playground for businesses which is highly dependent
on multiple individual factors which decide the productivity and efficiency of the business
operating in the market (Hamilton and Webster, 2018). Here we evaluate the business
environment of Marks and Spencer, a British multinational retailer, situated in London, UK.
Having been in operations since 1884, for a whopping 136 years Marks and Spencer has been
able to expand its operations and business globally.
TASK 1
(A) Overview of the organisation
Marks and Spencer is a British multinational retailer located in London, UK. It has
continued its operations since its founding in 1884, running for a surprising 136 years as of now
and has expanded its operations, functions and customer base into various distinct markets for
example the food products, premium clothing and home utilities. Marks and Spencer functions
on a flat style of organizational structure as its management has evaluated that this style of
organizational structure to be best for their operations. As the flat organisational structure
provides finite levels of management to Marks and Spencer's administration and employees, it
effectively encourages the participation of Marks and Spencer's employees in contributing
towards the administration's decision making process (KHAN and et.al., 2017).
History: M&S was founded in 1884 when a Polish refugee Michael Marks opened a market stall
in Leeds in. Later in 1894 Marks started a partnership with Thomas Spencer which resulted in
opening of first M&S shop in 1904 (A Short History of Marks & Spencer, 2020). In the initial
years the revolutionary policy of organisation of purchasing directly from suppliers helped
organisation to soon become a public company and popular venture among people.
Present overview: By current data estimates, Marks and Spencer business operates close to 1043
individual distinct stores in the UK. Marks and Spencer organisation also operates 444 stores
internationally, expanding the organisations business into foreign markets. On the whole, Marks

and Spencer employs around 79,000 employees for conducting its operations amongst which
close to 71% of employees are female (Marks and Spencer - Statistics & Facts. 2019.). As of
2019, Marks and Spencer's administration has also noticed a marginal raise to its previous year's
profit which has resulted in an increase in the profits of Marks and Spencer before taxes of 84.6
million British Pounds (Marks and Spencer - Statistics & Facts. 2019.). As the details of the
exact changes to government rules and regulations post Brexit are still mercurial, Marks and
Spencer's administration has no choice but to wait for the government to notify the public of the
extent of the modifications being made to international trading laws etc. in order for the Marks
and Spencer's administration to develop an appropriate business strategy. Having been in
operation in the clothing market for more than 100 years, Marks and Spencer enjoys very high
brand value in the market when compared to its competitors. Through its efforts Marks and
Spencer has been able to identify and capture a large base of global customers who stay loyal to
Marks and Spencer because of their great brand perception in the market. Marks and Spencer
(B ) Governance in company
Board of directors
Board of directors are only applicable in case of management structure of business
organization. Board of directors are hired and elected individual or group of individuals who are
accountable to all the stakeholders. As these are the decision-making body of Marks and Spencer
and provide analyse market to grow business organization with higher profits and also satisfy
stakeholders simultaneously. There is annular general meeting and short interval meeting in
Marks and Spencer to evaluate the performance of company and review the performance of past
decisions on efficiency of activities to compete in market effectively. Board of directors also
provide better support to different operation department by solving all the internal issues and
maintain healthy working environment effectively (GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK, 2020).
The company uses hierarchical structure to increase the potential effectively. The company have
8 different directors including one CEO and one chairman. There are 5 non-executive directors
in the board of directors of Marks and Spencer which provide effective decision-making.
Chairperson of Marks and Spencer
The chairperson of Marks and Spencer is Archie Norman, and he was appointed in
September 2017. Chairperson has large experience in retail business as he had successfully