Sustainability Approach of M&S to Business Strategy and Management

INDIVIDUAL REPORT
AND REFLECTION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
Sustainability Approach of M&S to Business Strategy and management..................................3
Different Approaches to CSR of Micro, SME and corporate business.......................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
PART 2..........................................................................................................................................11
Reflective report........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Sustainable approaches like planning for a eco and ethical programmes must be
developed by focusing on the customers which can support more than 1000 people and
communities along with ensuring the healthier and happier life of the individuals. Developing
plans become the best sustainable approach which decides a certain timeline for its
implementation and evaluation. There must be a systematic strategy and approach which needs
to be present in an organization so that they can achieve their objectives and targets on time. The
competition in the market is increasing which is why businesses must analyse the functioning
and operations so that there is going to be a better result overall. There has to be a good futuristic
approaches which businesses must find for themselves so that there are going to be lesser risks
which are going to be present. Marks & Spencer belongs from the retailing industry and the
products of the organization are food items, clothing, energy, bank, etc. The headquarters of the
business is in London, United Kingdom which was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and
Thomas Spencer. There are a lot of strategies which M&S have used in the past and are still
moulding it according to the customers so that there can be a better functioning. The ethics and
approaches of CSR and other factors would be discussed in the report so that there is going to be
an advantage and better functioning for the organization.
PART 1
Sustainability Approach of M&S to Business Strategy and management
Sustainability mainly focuses on fulfilling the present needs of the people such that it
does not have to compromise with the future needs (Jones and Comfort, 2018). This concept
basically focuses on the 3 pillars that are economic, social and environmental which are also
known as profits, planet and earth in easily understandable language. Along with strong relations
and good intentions, the companies must respond more on acting upon the Corporate Social
Responsibility.
Marks & Spencer (M&S), being a well-known retailer multinational company which deals in
selling its own labelled clothes, food and home products is focussing more on the approaches of
sustainability which can be adapted by it to increase its goodwill and to gain competitive
advantage. For this, it is planning many strategies in all its sectors whether food products or
clothing or any other to be implemented now and in the coming years to make its environment

and the operations completely sustainable by realizing the need of Corporate Social
Responsibility.
The company has even set a five-year plan for achieving its New Eco and Ethical ambitions. Its
main objective behind this customer focused sustainability plan is to support 1,000 communities
and helping more than 10 million people to live a happier and healthier lives by converting the
company into Zero-waste business.
Marks & Spencer planned to make all its packaging widely recyclable. It started giving all the
products whether food or clothing in the packets which are biodegradable and does not harm the
environment and completely restricted the use of plastic in all its stores for the employees and
the customers as well. It has also raised the amount of approx. £25 million for charity groups
and organizations which tackles the diseases like Cancer, Heart diseases, issues regarding the
mental health and many more (M&S launches plan A 2025 – an ambitious, customer focused
sustainability plan, 2017). So, in order to make the workplace completely sustainable, the
companies can minimize the use of non-biodegradable materials and donate some amount to the
needy ones.
The company encouraged majority of its employees to perform community volunteering which
reached to a number of 1 million till now and is continuing at a rapid pace. All the raw materials
which are used by Marks & Spencer come directly from the sustainable sources (M&S launches
plan A 2025 – an ambitious, customer focused sustainability plan, 2017). It ensures that the
products do not have any content which can harm the environment when thrown away. This
made its half of the sales of food to come from the healthier products.
The Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer, Steve Rowe, said that the company is leading in
various aspects since 133 years and it planned to continue making the sustainable future till
2025. In this plan, it will engage all its 32 million customers, almost 85000 colleagues and
around 200,000 shareholders who all will together support in bringing sustainable changes
(M&S, 2020).
There are many challenges for the company to bring changes in areas like supply chain, food
waste, wage of living, packaging and many more and the expectations for the company are
increasing rapidly.