Context of Business - SWOT and PESTLE Analysis of Mark and Spencer

This article discusses the SWOT and PESTLE analysis of Mark and Spencer, a British multinational retailer company. It covers the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats faced by the company and how they can use their strengths to overcome their weaknesses and threats. Additionally, it explores different leadership styles adopted by the company.

CONTEXT OF
BUSINESS

INTRODUCTION
A business is that activity in which, it products and services to the customers with the
purpose of profit maximization. This profit is that financial reward which comes from taking risk
of owning a business. Business environment is the collection of some internal and external factors
which can effect a business. To run a business, it need the awareness about government's rules and
regulations. A business should determine SWOT and PESTLE analysis to run business efficiently.
The organisation chosen in this report is Mark and Spencer, it is a British multinational retailer
company that dealing in cloth selling, food products and home products. It was established by the
Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in 1884 and it's headquartered is situated in London,
England. This report will include the SWOT and PESTEL analysis, how PESTEL is influencing
the opportunities and threats, different types of leadership and corporate social responsibility will
be discussed which are adopted and practised by the business enterprises (Dong, 2021).
MAIN BODY
SWOT and PESTLE Analysis of the organisation
It is an important method that is used by the Mark and Spencer to know about their
company's strong and weak parts. They determine their opportunities by reducing their threats.
They also comprise the threats and weakness that the business faces.
 Strength- Mark and Spencer has the strength of a well experience because it made several
partnerships and start their retail journey with the Penny bazaar. They also have a good
reputed image in the market as it offer offer good quality products to their customers and it
is the second most popular super market in United Kingdom. They provide the online and
offline services and has 1463 outlets in the world which has 1035 online UK. M&S has
the strength of offering a large variety of services and products to their customers. They
have a good relationship with the local farmers that helps them to bring fresh product to
serve their consumers (Gupta and et. al., 2021).
 Weakness- Mark and Spencer have many weakness such as because of poor supply chain
and the non-availability of products there is a decline in their sales. Due to this, M&S
faced adverse affects on their company's image and they could not meet the demands of
food and clothings. The another weakness is that it provide service to the older peoples

rather than teenagers and younger. The company faces a high cost as it relies on the
manual operation that is very costly and time consuming. Their another drawback is this
company does not invest sop much in technology.
 Opportunities- Due to their multinational brand and many stores in the other countries,
Mark and Spencer have the opportunity of the global expansion by opening their more
branches in new and different countries. They have the opportunity of increasing their
sales growth in the online stores by bringing a variety of clothes and home ware products.
The use of E-commerce and other advanced technology will help the Mark and Spencer to
attract a large and loyal customer base. This brand can have the opportunity of the market
segmentation by dividing their customers in the market in groups on the basis similar
characteristics and needs. It will help the their company's management and also maintain
cost reduction with maximum profit ( Heimes and et. al.2020).
 Threats- There are various threats in the way of Mark and Spencer, which impact at their
success. These threats are such as a high level competition as the retail market is become
very competitive in UK. M&S is facing tough competition with many big competitors such
as Amazon, Sainsbury and Tesco etc. the other retailer offer many types of discount ,
which become a big hurdle for the M&S. Their another threats is government policies due
to which they faces the situation of unsuitability.
PESTLE Analysis
It is that model which is used by an organisation to analysis the key factors that include a
business. Analysis of this model is very essential and helpful for a business organisation to find
out macro economic factors that impact their business. In context of Mark and Spencer, they have
six factor which affect on the macro level which are given below,(Tafazoli, Gómez-Parra and
Huertas-Abril, 2020)
 Political- In this, it examined the impact of government decisions and policies. Mark and
Spencer is impacted by two political factors that are Brexit and free trade. Brexit increase
their cost of products as the UK decide to leave EU that impact the company in the term of
tariffs and trade regulations. The other factor si free trade that has a positive impact on the

M&S, by allowing them to import foreign products to sale in their store at a cheap rate and
high profit margin.
 Economic- These factors determine performance of an economy and it has a direct impact
on a business with adverse and the long-standing effects. It can be inflation rate, stability
and the prosperity of a country. In context of Marks and Spencer, all the supermarkets and
even the clothing stores are offering discounts to encourage their customers. Due to this,
there is a situation of the financial crisis in United Kingdom as it also affect the Marks and
Spencer ( Iñiguez and et. al. 2021).
 Social- In this, it find out those factors that influence the social environment of a market
in which a business is working. This factor is very facilitative in making the improved
strategic plan for an organisation by identifies the demands and needs of their customers.
Marks and Spencer has a long standing brand reputation in the market, because customers
are associated with them from the past which can become less trendy brand for customers.
 Technological- This factor is related to the technology advancement and an innovation
impaction on the organisation's performance that includes the factors of artificial
intelligence, automation and other etc. in case of the Marks and Spencer, they provide the
facility of self-checkout to their customers in the stores by using technology. With the use
of latest technology, it can also offer their products such as foodstuffs, clothings and home
products through the online by creating a strong e-commerce presence.
 Legal- The factors include the certain legal laws which have an impact on the business
organisation as they are ever-changing considering the factors of legislation, laws related
to the employees safely etc. Marks and Spencer continuously conducted some training
sessions in which it provide the health updates. This company was also affected with a
change in the trade laws of British (Jacob, and et. al.2022).
 Environmental- This factors are related to the surroundings in environment that affects
ecological aspects of an organisation such as the waste disposable laws, Environmental
protection laws, sustainable development, etc. Marks and Spencer is now becoming more
sustainable to maintain their brand image by the acquisition of clothings, food products
and home ware items through the carbo emissions from the manufacturing and
deforestation to farming land as it also introduce own green policy.

Changes in PESTLE that can create the opportunity and threat
Political- Brexit
 Opportunity- It it boost the development of Marks and Spencer and make enable them to
grow their business beyond the European Union.
 Threat- Trade restriction has become a hurdle for them as the import and excise duties
increased. It leads to increasing cost and also affect their sales (Kasai and et. al. 2020).
Economic- Inflation rate
 Opportunity- The rise in product's price offered an opportunity to the Marks and Spencer
to grow their revenue and profit margin.
 Threat- After COVID-19, this brand has lost their many customers and due to their high
price, customers are not ready their products (Spencer and Xu, 2021).
Social- Change in lifestyle
 Opportunity- After observing the new trend, changing lifestyle and customers demand
Marks and Spencer have gain the opportunity to develop their product and modified them
according to the customer's need.
 Threat- Their other competitors were also in the same field of retail industry and giving a
tough competition to the M&S by offering same products.
Technological- Machinery
 Opportunity- Use of latest and innovative technology give Marks and Spencer the
opportunity of creating unique and different types of pattern in clothing to attract more
customers.
 Threat- The use of advanced technology made it very difficult for the M&S to manage
their financial resources like rise in production cost which lead to higher price of products.
Legal- Employment safety laws

 Opportunity- By taking some essential precautions and following the government
regarding employees safety, make enable the Marks and Spencer to attract more
employees and help to increase their workforce ( Kaur and Singh, 2020).
 Threat- If the company does not follows the government's rules and regulations then they
have to face the legal actions and destroy their image in the market.
Environment- Sustainable development
 Opportunity- The Marks and Spencer's exercise of sustainable development for
environment build a good image of that company in the market and help to attract more
customers.
 Threat- The production and manufacturing procedure of the company is very helpful for
the environment and also generate the carbon footprint which is unhealthy for
surroundings.
How company can use its strengths to overcome the weakness and threats
The Marks and Spencer has a strong cash base which helps them to maintain their
liquidity and offered opportunities for more investment in the projects. It helps them to handle the
pressure of local distributors. Marks and Spencer has several strength such as quality products
and good brand image. The company can minimize their weaknesses by using their opportunities
of expand their business at the global level or worldwide. M&S can uses their some finance to
promote their products effectively. They can also offer their customers new schemes and discounts
to attract them. It will allows and help them to bring some new innovation into their products and
services which are very rare to find out in other competitors. It will leads to enhancing their sales
growth and also improve their probability. Marks and Spencer is to need to increase their contact
with more supplier to overcome from the weakness of their poor supply chain to meet t the sales
demand. M&D does not invest so much in the techno9logy, due to this, it has an adverse and
negative impact on their ability to grown in the competition by introducing new modern
techniques into their business operation. But using new manufacturing methods, they can reduce
their production cost with hight profit margin. But Marks and Spencer's habit of using same
techniques makes it challenging to adopt the new modern technologies ( Khan, 2020).

Leadership styles
Leadership is an ability to leading and influencing other. A leader in an organisation
inspire the employees and also encourager them to complete their given task to execute their
common goals. Leadership style is a approach that provides an orientation, the implementation of
plans and the motivation to the employees. In context of Marks and Spencer , it uses Daniel Gold
man's leadership style. It conation six leadership style which are given below:
 Coercive leadership style- This is a commanding or directive leadership style. It is used at
the time of to handle an issue very quickly and effectively. The commanding leaders tend
to an exercise full control on everything. It has the negative correlation with the teams
climate and it is particularly detrimental to the concept of flexibility and responsibility in
the team.
 Authoritative style- In this leadership, there is a visionary leadership style. In this, the
leader give directions to their follower to achieve a common gaol. And let them reach this
goal in which ever way they deem appropriate. It bring people together and work
cooperatively towards the same end goal (Lokesh, 2020).
 Pacesetting - In this leadership, the leaders or mentors are obsessed with a perfection
personality. To improve and boost their action or performance outcome, they set a higher
and higher standards to accomplish the goals. It also contributes to team members
resonance by the meeting their challenges and other goals together that gives them a sense
of accomplishment. This style can be extremely powerful mean to achieve the remarkable
net result.
 Democratic - In this, leadership style, the empowered teams members has the right to
participative in the company's decision making process. The workers can bring foreword
their thoughts, ideas and suggestion related to their decisions. It is an effective and
efficient leadership style, but sometimes it is very slow, when there is a requirement of the
quick decision.
 Affiliative leadership- In this, style is all about the peoples. In this, they want a good and
positive work environment or condition for the workers or followers. The team members
very often receives some actionable advice or the corrections. This style also create a right
level of their family feeling with in the teams. it require the emotional intelligence and the
empathy ( Nenn, 2021).

 Coaching leadership- This style concern on the personal level development of the team
members more than the sales goals and their work related quotas. They work to
accomplish the excellency that works well for the employees who are open for their
improvement. It is a time consuming leadership and also require a lot of skill on part of a
leader.
Form this discussion, it is concluded that democratic leadership styles is very suitable for the
Mark and Spencer, as it will allows them for some more efficient problem or difficulties solving
by using an appropriate and potential solutions. The teams members are also expected to comes
up with their new innovative thoughts, idea and some creative solution. In this, there is worker's
or employee's engagement in the decision making which will lead a good and strong relationship
between the organisation and the workers. It also strengthens the bond of a team. this is built on
the premiss that the engagement of employees in the decision making process is a healthy method
for the organisation to run their business. This leadership style, also encourage honesty at the
workplace or within the organisation. Due to this, it is very helpful to increase the moral and job
satisfaction among the team members or employees (Rahman and et. al. 2022).
Corporate social responsibility
CSR is a management concept, in this the organisation integrate an environmental and
social concern in their enterprise business activity and the interaction with their stakeholders. It is
a self- regulating business model that is very helpful for an organisation be socially accountable
for the public and their stakeholders. The CSR activities are performed by companies to enhance
the environment and society. The CSR activities help to build a strong relationship between
employees and the company so that they feel much attached to employees and employers. It is a
management concept that integrates social and environmental concerns into business dealing and
interactions with shareholders (Ross and et. al. 2020).. In the context of Mark and Spencer, it has
always taken responsibility to its clients seriously. It offers the quality of service to its customers.
Marks & Spencer has always fulfil their responsibilities towards the employees, customers,
suppliers, partners and the local communities. A responsible business should conduct their values,
services, quality, innovation and the trust. Nowadays, every organisation take care every sensitive
issue within the society which may be climate change, charity for the society industrial waste
sustainability, health of workers, raw material management and other ethical trade CSR

responsibilities exercise affect the different areas. Mostly business organisations are taking many
steps to improve and enhance the environmental sustainability of their enterprise. They are using
several methods such as installing renewable energy sources and also buying carbon offsets to
manage the supply chains. Marks & Spencer always focus on real needs request from their
employees and customers and whether any disaster has occurred within the region of world. They
have the string links either thorough the suppliers, office and stores. M&S decides that what it will
do for every major disaster on an individual basis. It also share their corporate social
responsibilities by donating the returned clothes and business surpluses to New life charity,
donating to shelter and helps the homeless (Spencer, 2020).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that, for a business it is very essential to conduct the
SWOT and PESTLE analysis to identifies their positive and negative aspects within the
organisation. Thus, they can improve the performance of their business. It helps them to use their
strength and the opportunities to begin a path of their success. In this, there are different leadership
styles which impact the functions of an entire organisation. The Marks and Spencer follows a
participatory leadership style which make enable them to environmental friendly. It also bring an
innovation and advanced technology in the company because it gives importance to the
viewpoints of new generations. M&S pay spacial attention towards their corporate social
responsibilities by carrying out the various activities such as reducing carbon footprints, donate
clothings and other etc. Hence, it is very essential that a company or organisation should consider
all microeconomic and macroeconomic factors to run their business smoothly and in an efficient
manner.

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