SWOT Analysis and Porter's Value Chain of M&S

This assignment is a detailed report on the business strategies used by Marks and Spencer, including primary and support activities in Porter's value chain. The report also explores the role of Information Technology (IT) in implementing innovative ideas within the organization. A SWOT analysis of M&S is provided, highlighting their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report concludes that understanding these factors can help organizations like M&S gain a competitive advantage.

Managing Information and
Technology

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
1. Introduction of your chosen organisation...............................................................................3
2. Analyse the competitive environment of chosen organisation by applying Porter's five force
model...........................................................................................................................................4
3. Analyse any two primary activities and two support activities in Porter's value chain and
also evaluate the strength and weaknesses of your chosen business..........................................6
4. Build the understanding gained by the above activities, summarize and reflect on how the
business could deploy IT.............................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Information and technology is said to the use of computer system for making the working
of organisation and individuals easier and faster. It also help them in perform the work in more
perfect manner. This report is based on Mark & Spencer, which is one the leading organisation
of the world, which was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds. This
report will explain the business strategies used by them along with different products and
services (Allsop and et. al., 2015) . Along with this, a discussion will take place on the different
environment which can affect the business of them along with their primary and supportive
activities. In the last a study will take place on the role of IT in different business activities and
how innovative ideas can use IT for more effective performance.
TASK
1. Introduction of your chosen organisation.
In the present report, Marks and Spencer is taken as the chosen organisation. This is a
British Multinational company which deal in relating of clothings, and this was profound in the
year 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. This company is headquartered in
Westminster, London, which is experts in selling clothes and home products. The company
offers luxury food products, clothing and home products. Marks and Spencer had became a
public company. In 1884, a polish retainer opened a market stall in Leads, with the slogan “Do
not ask about the price” it's a penny (Avgerou and Walsham, 2017) . The aims of M&S is what
they are trying to achieve in long term. They have the purpose to maximise the profits every
year. The brand of M&S has been built on core values of innovation, quality and trust. The
company wants to make the brand image by rendering their services and quality products to their
customers. The company also started doing online delivery of food. Marks and Spencer has
opened the online grocery service which will provide the shoppers to have their food delivery
within an hour. The Marks and Spencer hold the customers orders if they are unable to collect on
the day of delivery. The Products of beauty, clothes and home are hold for 7 days.

Identify the current business strategy of chosen organisation.
In the world of huge competition, Marks and Spencer lies in top 10 of the retail industry.
In UK, it's having the 6 position in the market. In 2004, the market share of M&S has been
dropped down to 11% and the main reason for this was the clothing sector of the company,
because the peoples want to buy the clothes products at low prices. The strategy applied by the
Marks and Spencer is covering broad market share from the rich people only, so it should follow
low cost competitive strategy (White, 2015) . The development of strategy will help M&S to
grab market place and move to new market with market segmentation, development, penetration,
etc. market penetration is the strategy which is used by M&S to focus on selling their existing
products into emergent market for enhancing the growth of company. This strategy also
increases the market share of the company, which is possible by a combination of competitive
pricing strategies. Market development strategy is also used by the M&S in order to sell their
existing products in the new market (Bryson, 2017) . This strategy will be beneficial in gaining
the attention of huge number of customers. Product development strategy is used by the
company to promote its new products into emergent market. This strategy will help in enhancing
the profitability of the company. Lastly, diversification is a risky strategy in which the business
is going to move in the market with no experience. So, before adopting any strategy the company
should know that what they are expecting to gain from that strategies.
Briefly discuss the products and services of your chosen organisation.
Marks and Spencer is a leading retailer company that sells the clothes, food and home
products. After 1963-72, the company had expanded their business globally and had improved
the quality of their food and home products. The main strength of M&S is the diversification of
products, in which the company is dealing in food, clothes, wine, home and furniture products.
Also the services provided by the M&S are good, by this they are gaining the customer
satisfaction. With the financial services, the company has very good cash flow position in the
market. The company also started rendering the online delivery food services. The company had
launched the online grocery service which will render the shoppers to have their food delivery
within an hour. The company also has the strong brand awareness and have the skills to create
innovative new products, which assist in enhancing the productivity and profitability of the
organisation (DeLone and McLean, 2016) .

2. Analyse the competitive environment of chosen organisation by applying Porter's five force
model
Mark & Spencer is one of the leading organisation in the world, they use to provide their
products and services in the retailing sector of cloths and food beverages. There are several
factors which can affect their performance and profitability. For identifying different factors on
which they have to work, the analysing team of M&S have to analyse some factors, which are as
follow :-
1. Bargaining power of buyers : This is one of the most important factor for an
organisation, as it plays an important role in success and failure of an organisation. Mark
& Spencer is one of the biggest organisation in UK, and they use to provide their
products and services in retailing of foods and clothing. There are ample number of
national and international organisations in this sector which provide their products and
services in market. This help customers to have many options from which they can buy
the products and services (Fuller and et. al., 2017) . This leads the organisation to make
strategies and plans according to the demand of customers. This all is because the
bargaining power of customers for Mark & Spencer remain very high.
2. Bargaining power of suppliers : This is an area where organisation have to make proper
study so that they can get knowledge about the power of suppliers in their organisation.
As Mark & Spencer is one of the leading organisation in the world of retailing sector of
clothing and food. Therefore, it is very required for them to make a proper grip over their
supplier and get additional benefits which their competitors do not have. As they use to
buy raw material at huge amount and each and every supplier in the world want to
connect with them, and also they have to healthy list, which have name of supplier which
can provide raw material to them at their conditions. This help organisation to make
additional pressure on the suppliers, which lead to lack in bargaining power of supplier in
M&S.
3. Threat of new entrance : In modern era of business, competition and new entrance has
become very common, as UK is business country and people there always want to be an
entrepreneur rather then an employee of a company. Therefore, new entrance is very
common in business environment of UK. But Marks & Spencer use to provide products
and services at very huge level. Where as, is not very much easy for any organisation to

provide products and services at that level in the initial phase of their business (Huh, Cho
and Kim, 2017) . Along with this, it for providing the products at very vast level, it is
required for organisation to have proper permission so that they can produce products in
effective manner and taking permission in UK for this level project is not very much
easier. Along with this, a huge amount of investment is also required for an organisation
so that they can give competition to M&S, and investing this much of amount in initial
stage is very big risk. Therefore, the threat of new entrance for M&S is very low.
4. Threat of substitutes : Substitutes are the products which are available in the market,
which is similar to that original product or can have capability to take over the product. In
clothing and food sector, there are ample number of products which can take place of one
product or can be used in the place of initial product. Therefore, it is very important for
M&S to provide products which cannot get replaced by any other product. But doing so
not very much easy for any organisation, that's why the threat of substitutes for Marks &
Spencer is very high.
5. Rivalry among existing competitors : Business environment of UK is known as very
friendly environment for any business, as they use to promote and also help them in
growing their at very good speed. Marks & Spencer use to provide products and services
at different parts of the world, where they have to face competition form the local as well
as some international organisation which are performing their activities in same business
environment. When it come to competitors of M&S the huge name like ZARA, H&M,
TESCO are top in the list (Laudon and Laudon, 2015) . These organisation use to provide
the products in food and clothing sector, and also the pricing range of these organisation
are all most same. This has increased the competition level all these organisation.
Therefore, M&S have to face tough competition form their existing rivals.
3. Analyse any two primary activities and two support activities in Porter's value chain and also
evaluate the strength and weaknesses of your chosen business.
A value chain is a set of activities that a company operates in a specific industry performs
in order to deliver a valuable product or services for the market. Porter's value chain consists of
the number of activities which are primary activities and support activities, which are as follows-
Primary Activities : These are the activities which have an immediate effect on the
maintenance, production, sales and support of the products and services which are to be supplied.

The two elements of Primary activities are :
1. Inbound Logistics – This is the process of internal distribution of the goods and services
within the organisation. This process has the relationship with the suppliers. This includes
all the activities which are required to receive and store (Porter's Value Chain, 2019) .
2. Outbound Logistics - This is the process in which the activities are related to deliver the
products and services to the customer. This process has the relationship with the
customers. This includes all the activities which are required to store, collect and
distribute the end product.
Support Activities : These are the activities which support the above primary activities. The
elements of support activities are as follows -
1. Human-Resources management : This is all about hiring, recruiting motivating and
training the employees. The individuals are the key source of business, so this can create
a clear benefit by using certain good HRM practices. For example – All the activities
related to training and development staff, recruiting staff and compensating staff, etc.
2. Technological Development : This element of support activities is all about managing and
processing the information. This also protects the knowledge base of the company. This
is related with the development of the products and services of the company. For
examples – IT, technological innovations and development of the new products which are
based on new technologies, hardware and software, etc.
SWOT analysis of Marks and Spencer
Strength - In Today's times, M&S has become
the large and best retailer company in the UK,
only because of the best quality they are
providing in the last previous years. The
quality of products is the main strength of the
company to enhance their business in the
market. The company also has the strength of
market experience, as this has worked with big
partners in UK and abroad. M&S is also
providing best customer services, this help
them to build a good and strong relationship
Opportunities – Expanding the business at
international level is the biggest opportunity
for the M&S as the company has already
reached in the biggest countries like India,
Japan, Russia and Europe (Swot Analysis of
Marks and Spencer, 2019) . This can help an
organisation in enhancing the growth of
organisation and by this they can easily attain
their goals and objectives. The company also
has the opportunity of enhancing their business
through online marketing, the online presence

between customers and the organisation. For
example, when a customer want some thing in
clothing’s, shop assistants will help them in
measuring their size (Laudon and Laudon,
2016) .
of M&S is good, the company should pursue
online growth, and recently M&S has decide to
move towards a third of clothing and home
sales online for a digital future.
Weaknesses – M&S is having Bad publicity as
because of non trendy products, the company
has the drawback that it provides the products
which are out of fashioned and which are not
in trend (Schwalbe, 2015) . There are many
rumours in peoples that, the branded clothes
which M&S providing to them are not for
teenagers and adults, that are outdated and are
for old age peoples, this myth has affected the
sale of the company.
Threats - Strong rivals is the major threat of
M&S, the competitors like ASDA, TESCO,
Sainsbury,etc., provide not only the best
quality products but also these at cheap cost.
The clothes provided by the rivals of M&S are
branded and trendy, as customers are crazy
about the trend so through this the competitors
are having the highest growth as compared to
M&S.
4. Build the understanding gained by the above activities, summarize and reflect on how the
business could deploy IT.
From the above activities, this is analysed that Porter's value chain is a model which have
certain set of activities and operate a specific industry in order to deliver the goods and services
to the customers. This model consists of two activities namely primary and support activities. In
primary activities, the immediate effect is done on the sale and production o0f the products and
services. In this, they have the relationship with the suppliers and they consists of various
elements, from which two are explained and mentioned in the current report, which named as
Inbound and Outbound logistics (Lv and et. al., 2016) . This Inbound logistics have the internal
distribution of good and services in the organisation. Along with this, the outbound logistics is
related with the activities of store and collect. This has the relationship with the customers. On
the other hand, Support activities are those which support the primary activities in order to
enhance the growth of the company. This activities consists of various elements, from which two
are elaborated above in the report, which are named as Human-Resources management and
Technological development. The technological development id used to manage and process the

information and this factor also protects the knowledge base of the company. The main aim of
these activities of value chain is to strengthen the competitive advantage. By analysing the
primary activities the organisation can ensure this that the value which is created exceeds the
cost to create that value (Martin, 2017) . On the other hand, by analysing the support activities,
the organisation will render the goods and services to their customers in an effective time frame.
By this the organisation can deploy IT and by following the above strategies and by applying the
innovative ideas the business can improve its business processes and can enhance its competitive
positioning.
Reflection : From the above report it is clear that Marks & Spencer use different primary
and support activities, in this they use In bound and Out bound activities as primary, and Human
Resource Management and Technological development. Information and technology can be used
by organisation so that, they can improve the performance of these activities. Following is the
manner in which M&S can deploy IT in their activities :- Inbound logistic : It is a process which is concerned to the receiving, storing and
distributing the material which is helpful for organisation in producing their products and
services. M&S use to buy and take input of raw materials which can help them in making
products of clothing and food. M&S can use several Information and technology which
can help them in easing their work and also help them in completing the work with more
speed (Noe and et. al., 2017) . They can use software which can help them in keeping
record of material which come in and also maintain a record of material which has been
used for manufacturing. This will lead them in maintaining a proper inventory of their
good. Outbound logistic : This the activities which is associated with the elements outside the
organisation, for example customers. M&S can use Information and technology for
improving the experience of their customers with them, so that their customer loyalty get
increased. They can use various technologies for rendering their products, delivery of
their products and in other areas also, by which the experience of their customers get
improved. This will lead them in improving their market presence. HRM : Human resource management is known as one of the most important field for an
organisation. As they help them in managing the work force of the organisation.

Introducing technology to HRM department will lead the M&S to ease their work and
also help them in applying different approaches in their work, so that they can perform
some effective task in organisation (Orna, 2017) . By using technology, they can maintain
a proper record of their employees and also help them in gaining knowledge about the
requirements of their employees.
 Technological development : This is the activities which is used by organisations, so that
they can improve their performance by involving some innovative technology in their
functioning. M&S use to make new products for improving the customer satisfaction
along with this they can also make some change in their technologies, so that the
customers experience get improved (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta, 2016) . This also
help them in making some innovative changes in their organisation.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report it has been concluded that, there are various business
strategies which are used by M&S for producing and selling their products and services. Also the
different factors help in gaining knowledge about the strengths and weakness of organisation.
Along with this primary and support activities used by them in Porter's value chain get
explained. And in the last roles of IT get discussed, that how implementing them in innovative
ideas can help organisation.

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Online
Swot Analysis of Marks and Spencer, 2019. [Online]. Available through :
<https://www.scribd.com/doc/46757269/SWOT-Analysis-for-Marks-and-Spencer>./
Porter's Value Chain, 2019. [Online]. Available through :
<https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_66.htm>./