Marks and Spencer Corporate Social Responsibility

Marks and Spencer corporate social
responsibility1
MARKS AND SPENCER CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
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Marks and Spencer corporate social responsibility 2
Summary
In the modern world of business, consumers do not only look for high quality when buying
products and Services. For the company to survive in this modern world of business, it needs to
take a social stand. Users will always consider a company that gives back to the society. In a
study by cone, communication revealed that 87% of consumers would buy a product from a
company that supports an issue they care. Marks and Spencer (M&S) adopted various CSR
procedures. Its products are improved with no artificial colour and no flavourings. The company
is involved in community support programs, and it is working on eliminating waste and reducing
pollution.

Marks and Spencer corporate social responsibility 3
Marks and Spencer corporate social responsibility
Introduction
Mark and Spencer plc (M&S) is a global multinational retailer in British with their
headquarters situated in London city. In 1984, Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer formed a
partnership and started M&S Company (Farrell 2016). Currently, M&S Company has 1,433
stores across the world where it has specialised in the selling of clothing, food products, and
home products (Marks and Spencer Group 2016). The company has employed 85,000 people in
its outlets across the globe. M&S is approved by the London Stock Exchange where their main
trade associates are Euro commerce, the Confederation of British industry, and British Retail
Consortium. It emerged to be the leading retailer in entirely three carbon trust values, waste and
water, along with certification to the ISO 50001 energy management standard in 2014 (Farrell
2016). In 2017 the corporation emerged as the top in the Confederation of British industry
retailer and ranked second greatest company overall, in the initial corporate human rights
standard (Khan 2013, pp. 12). In the year 2007, M&S launched a plan A which was targeting to
reduce pollution and eliminate wastages (M&S 2015). The company achieved most of its
commitments and engendered a yearly profit of $105million from plan A (Marks and Spencer
Group 2016). Every corporate body must protect the interest of the society as a whole. CSR
creates an expectation for every corporation to participate in societal development (Harvey
2017). This report will provide CSR strategy for M&S Company
CSR in different national contexts
There are six main features of CSR which acts as the crucial features that hold the meaning of
the concept of practising CSR activities (Belal 2016, pp. 13). They include:

Marks and Spencer corporate social responsibility 4
Figure1: six core characteristic of CSR (Belal 2016, pp. 15)
Voluntary
These are corporate social responsibility activities that go beyond that prescribed law.
The activities help the company to maintain and survive in the market (Hannington 2016, pp.
15). M&s has used the strategy, and it has helped the company to keep and stand in the market.
Employment is one of the problems facing the young generation; in 2016 the company launched
a program which helped 5,000 youths get employed. Together with their neighbour social
network created better connections with local charities in 2015. It introduced M&S spark card
for their customers who had nominated a charity. More than 5.6 million customers received the
cards which helped to raise a total of $24million (Farrell 2016). The company launched a