Strategic Management Analysis of Marks & Spencer

Running head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
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Executive Summary
The report is based on the analysis of strategic position of an organization in the industry.
The company that has been taken into consideration for this analysis is Marks & Spencer,
which is a fashion retail based organization with its origin in the United Kingdom. The
strategic position of the company has been analysed in the report. The external environment
of the company has been analysed with the help of PESTEL framework and the industry has
been analysed with the help Porter’s Framework. Strategic capabilities of the company have
been analysed in the report based on which the strategic direction is decided. The success and
failures of the company has also been an important part of the report.

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Corporate Strategy.........................................................................................................4
Goals and Objectives..................................................................................................4
Mission and Vision....................................................................................................4
Strategy of the firm....................................................................................................5
Analysis of the strategic position of Marks & Spencer..................................................7
Analysis of external environment using PESTEL.....................................................8
Analysis of the fashion industry of UK....................................................................10
Strategic capability of Marks & Spencer.................................................................12
Competency Framework..............................................................................................13
Strategic group analysis...............................................................................................14
Critical review of the strategic direction of Marks & Spencer....................................15
Progress to be made by the company in a period of six years.................................16
Critical discussion of successes and failures of Marks & Spencer..............................18
Strategic Objective Plan...............................................................................................19
Recommendations to achieve competitiveness........................................................20
Conclusion....................................................................................................................21
References....................................................................................................................22

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Introduction
Marks & Spencer plc which is also known as M & S is fashion retail organization of
the British origin which has its operations all over the world. The organization is listed in the
London Stock Exchange. Marks & Spencer mainly specialises in the sales of products based
on clothing, food based products and home products as well. The company was established in
the year 1884 by Thomas Spencer and Michael Marks. It began the sales of branded products
in the year 2008.
Marks & Spencer currently has more than 900 stores all over the United Kingdom.
The company went on to become the first retailer of British origin to register a pre-tax profit
of more than 1 billion dollars (Marksandspencer.com. 2018). The organization had seen
sudden loss after the year 1998 which was quite surprising for the shareholders and the
customers of the organization as well.
The clothing-based sales of the organization has decreased in the recent years due to
the economic issues in UK. The sales of the company based on the food products has
however increased in the recent times. The report will be mainly based on the analysis of the
environment in which Marks & Spencer has its operations. The external environment will be
analysed with the help of PESTEL framework. The industry will be analysed in an effective
manner with the implementation of the Porter’s Five Forces Model.
The analysis of external environment will thereby be helpful for the discussion of the
ways by which the organization can develop strategies which be helpful for its operations in
the future. The recommendation based on successful operations in the future will also be
provided in the report. The sustainable operation of Marks & Spencer is thereby dependent
on the ways by which the company is able to operate with the proper usage of its resources
for different purposes (Marksandspencer.com. 2018).

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Corporate Strategy
Goals and Objectives
The goals as well as objectives of an organization form the base of it and thereby
makes it crucial that the company is headed towards a certain achievement level. The goals
and objectives of Marks and Spencer’s can be stated to be as follows:
1. The Marks and Spencer’s organization aims to improve its employee positioning as
present in the firm and aims to ensure that the firm is successfully able to manage the
different employees as present in the workplace and see to it that this staff is
successfully able to fulfil the goals of the company at large. Hence, Marks and
Spencer’s aims to ensure that the firm will successfully be able decrease the employee
turnover rate by 20% by the year 2020.
2. Other than this, Marks and Spencer’s aims to ensure that it is successfully able to
manage the different operations of the business and that it is able to regain its
leadership with respect to which it has been losing out. Moreover, Marks and
Spencer’s wants to translate this scale and ensure that it is able to make goods of
superior quality, value as well as appeal of the goods. With this, Marks and Spencer’s
would like to increase its market share by 20% by the year 2021.
3. Lastly, the Marks and Spencer’s can greatly improve upon the sales of the firm and
make more room for the sales per foot. The sales per foot can be taken to be as a good
objective of the company and the firm thereby aims to ensure that , it is able to
increases its sales percentage per square foot by 10% in the next one year.
Mission and Vision
The mission of the Marks and Spencer Company is to provide the different customers
with the different new quality products in areas of food, financial services along with cloths.

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Furthermore, the other aspect is to deliver high quality foods which will be beneficial for the
gaining competitive advantage in the entire market. The products are being sold to the
customers at an affordable rate and which are being received by the different customers and
they will be good value for the money as well. The mission of the organization is being
achieved by the organization through providing inspirational quality to the customers as this
will be beneficial for the overall success of the organization in an efficient manner ( David
and David 2017).
On the other hand, the vision statement of Marks and Spencer is to become the
standard against which the other competitors are being measured. Furthermore, as per the
vision statement of the respective organization, this can be analysed that organizational goals
can be achieved by the companies which will increase the sales along with market share in
the retailing business effectively. Additionally, the vision of the company is mainly into
continuing differentiation strategy which will help them in delivering proper services and
become the largest sustainable quality of goods and services to the customers effectively.
Strategy of the firm
The generic strategies can be rightfully described as those strategies which are
generally followed by the organization in order to ensure that the firm is successfully able to
achieve its objectives at large. The different generic strategies which are available to the
Marks and Spencer’s are as follows:
1. Low cost retailer: In the given type of the strategy, the organization can provide goods
to the different customers at the lowest price as available in the market, so that the
firm is successfully able to gain a leader position in the market (Serrador and Turner
2015). However, this requires economies of scales and the fact that the technology
needs to be applied in the production procedure at large.