Strategic Models for Marks and Spencer

This report analyzes four strategic models relevant to Marks and Spencer: mission, vision, and values; the OODA loop; the animation vs. orientation strategy matrix; and cognitive biases. It explores how these models influence decision-making and strategic planning within the organization. The report also discusses the importance of aligning strategies with organizational goals and values, and the impact of cognitive biases on strategic performance. The analysis is supported by academic references and online resources, providing a comprehensive overview of strategic management concepts applied to a real-world business case.

Four Different Models

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1: Mission, Vision, Values...........................................................................................................1
2: OODA – whole and each component......................................................................................2
3: “Good strategy” (animation vs. orientation)............................................................................3
4: Cognitive biases applied to strategy........................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Every organization needs to select appropriate strategies for running business operations
and managing performance in effective manner. There are different types of models which can
be used by companies for selecting appropriate strategies but the use of these models are based
on goals and objectives of the firm. The current research project is based on four basic models
which play important role in managing overall performance of the company. In which, one
specific model is based on mission, vision and values of the company. Along with this, it will
also focus on OODA approach of the business management (Shepherd, Woods and Marchisio,
2013). Including this, result will describe a good strategy for organization. Description about
cognitive biases applied to strategy are also describing in the following paragraphs of the report.
For conducting investigation in specific manner author has been chosen Marks and Spencer
which is one of the leading organization of retail industry of UK.
1: Mission, Vision, Values
Organization develop strategies for a specific purpose. Management committee of the
organization is accountable for establishing and protecting purpose, fundamental values and
ethical principles of Marks and Spencer. Mission, vision and values are generally developed for
incorporating group strategic plan and action plan (Sherry and Mauro, 2015).
Mission
As per this model mission can be defined as a statement which helps in determining the
actual business and key purpose of the organisation. Mission of the Marks and Spencer is to
make inspirational quality accessible to others. Along with this, it mission is providing new
quality goods and services in different sectors such as cloth, food, home and financial services.
Delivering high quality goods is also considered as mission of M&S. Along with this, Marks and
Spencer wants to offer affordable price for customers which can provide appropriate worth to
their purchase money (Ma, Zhang and Zhou, 2014). Therefore, offering good value to customer’s
money is also considered as mission o Marks and Spencer.
Vision
Vision statement of the organization gives a sense of the future and helps in making
appropriate decisions and strategies. It also plays very important role in creating platform with
the same purpose and develop a guideline for the whole operations. Vision of the organization is
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considered as long term change which helps in motivating employees and to contribute in overall
purpose of the organization. Marks and Spencer’s vision is to be the standard which can create
benchmark for other organizations of retail industry of UK. This vision statement aspire
competitors to gain the same level of quality as Marks and Spencer is providing its customers.
Vision statement of the company is to increase the sales and market share in retailing (Dutta and
Jackson, 2013). Along with this, vision of the marks and Spencer to become the world’s most
sustainable major retailer by 2017.
Values
Beliefs and norms of the organization are considered as value of the company. Policies,
objectives and procedures of the organization which play important role in completing different
activities in effective manner. Value of Marks and Spencer is to maintain quality, service,
innovation and trust. Along with this, operations of the organization is based on fair competition.
Along with this, marks and spencer focuses on togetherness of community and compassion. In
addition, this organization focuses on freedom and equality which helps in maintaining liberty
and justice for all (Johnson and et.al, 2013).
Overall, vision, mission and value statement helps in determining goals and objectives of
the company which helps in developing future strategies for the organization. These can also be
considered as a base and platform for completing future operations of the business.
2: OODA – whole and each component
Decision making process is one of the complex task for every organization. Companies
needs to focus on different aspects of organizations at the time of taking decisions. There are
different tools and techniques and strategies which can also be used by Marks and Spencer for
making suitable decisions. Sometimes it is also used by organizations to understand commercial
operations and learnings process of the organization. OODA is one of the important tool which
can be defined as OODA loop (Du and et.al, 2013). It can also be considered as an outline of
four point decision loop that help in supporting quick, effective and proactive decision making.
These four stages of this model are described as under: Observe: OODA decision cycle includes observation stage which focuses on outside
information of the Marks and Spencer such as market position, market share, competition
and substitute of products and services of the organization. Observation of outside
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information plays important role in making appropriate decisions for the organization for
achieving the competitive advantages (Rule, 2013). Along with this, decision making
cycle also observe different information of external and internal environment which plays
important role in making strategies for satisfying needs and requirements of every
stakeholder. In addition, observation stage also focuses on unfolding circumstances and
implicit guidance and control. Overall, appropriate observation of information is effective
for making appropriate strategies, policies and procedures. This stage collect the current
and present information of the company using different sources. Orient: This stage of decision making cycle analyse al information and use these facts for
updating the current reality. Analysis of the collected information play important role in
determining main problems of the organization. It identifies five main influences such as
cultural traditions, genetic heritage, previous experience, ability to analyse and synthesize
and new information coming in (Chyzh, 2014). Basically orientation helps in
interpretation of the situation which plays important role in making decisions in effective
manner. Decide: Above stages of OODA loop observation and orientation help in making
appropriate decisions for Marks and Spencer. Decisions are also based on some specific
hypothesis which can be made by organization using the information of observation and
orientation. Therefore, this stage is appropriate for making suitable decisions for the
organization. Overall, this stage is one of the important aspect for making suitable
decision for the organization (Chan, 2014). Act: After making decisions about the different requirements of the organization in this
stage Marks and Spencer wants to implement this decisions in the form of action. After
making implementation M&S needs to go back to the observation stage again which will
help in determining the effects of the action. It has also reflected that action influence the
rest of the cycle. Overall, this stage is helpful for making the final decisions and its
impact on overall performance and different activities of the organization (OODA Loops,
2016).
3: “Good strategy” (animation vs. orientation)
Cummings and Wilson has introduced a matrix of orientation and animation which helps
in assessing the degree to which strategies can motivate employees of organization and orient
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them to focus on attaining goals and objective sin effective manner. This model plays important
role in determining that strategies are motivating employees or not. Including this, strategy is
also help in orienting people to right goals. This matrix is also effective for strength the strategic
planning process of the Marks and Spencer. It is also effective tool that helps leadership teams
assess whether a strategy is engaging everyone in attaining goals and objectives in effective
manner. This matrix is also effective for focusing on right action that will help in making
successful implementation of the strategy (Ivkovic and et.al, 2015). This tool is also effective for
motivating and animating people in sufficient manner.
Orientation strategy helps in making differentiation of products and services form
existing competitors. It is generally formulated by specialist which helps in making specific
strategy for attaining a specific purpose. But on the other hand, animation strategy is generally
used by Marks and spencer at the time of emergence situation. Along with this, strategy is
developed by line manager for managing an emergency situation in specific manner. Along with
this, orientation strategy is generally followed by a visionary leader and help in divergent
thinking (Shepherd, Woods and Marchisio, 2013). But, Animation strategy is used by an
orchestrator leader and it uses divergent and convergent thinking. Along with this, orientation
strategy help in making revolutionary changes but animation strategy plays important role in
making evolutionary changes. Orientation strategy is generally fixed and after making
appropriate decision it is communicated to the bottom level of management. But on the other
hand, animated strategy is a continual adaption from below. Therefore, both strategies are quite
different from each other organizations can use these strategies as per the needs and
requirements. In the case of emergency situation animation strategy is good but in case of
differentiation M&S should use orientation strategy (Dutta and Jackson, 2013).
4: Cognitive biases applied to strategy
There are number of individual’s personality and behavioural characteristics which can
shape the decision making process of the organization. Subjective biases can affect the overall
decisions in positive or negative manner. There are some common cognitive biases which
include confirmation, anchoring, halo effect and overconfidence. These are considered as major
obstacles of the decision making for Marks and Spencer. Confirmation bias occurs due to the
beliefs and evidence which have disclosed by others in past (Johnson and et.al, 2013). Anchoring
is also considered as another biases which helps in making judgement about a specific situation.
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Including this, set anchor on any situation can reduce the limit the ability of Marks and Spencer
to interpret new, potential and relevant information. Therefore this types of cognitive biases can
affect the decisions of the primary information. Halo effect is known as perception of the
observer about the person, company, brand and products which can influence the decisions of the
company in positive as well as negative manner.so, perception about that aspect can affect the
decisions. Sometimes such types of decisions can affect the overall decisions in negative manner.
Overconfidence is also another cognitive bias which can occur due to the overestimation about
the actual reliability. Therefore, all these have negative impact on decision making process as
well as also influence strategic performance of Marks and Spencer (Cognitive Biases as a
Barrier to Decision Making, 2016).
CONCLUSION
The current research project has concluded that for making suitable strategies Marks and
spencer needs to considered different models, tools and techniques in effective manner. First
model has reflected that mission, vision and values of Marks and Spencer focuses on improving
quality of products and services. Along with this, OODA is one of the important decision making
cycle which also help in making suitable decisions for organization. Further, animation strategy
is good for managing situation of emergency. On the other hand, orientation strategy is based on
making differentiation from products and services. Study has also found that cognitive biases
include confirmation, anchoring, halo effect and overconfidence which can create barrier in
decision making.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ivkovic, D. and et.al, 2015. Boyd OODA loop and Wilcoxon rank sum test in diagnostic
procedures after major disasters with lung involvement. European Respiratory Journal.
46(suppl 59). p.PA1596.
Shepherd, D., Woods, C. and Marchisio, G., 2013. Combat hardened strategy: Doing the OODA
loop. University of Auckland Business Review. 16(1). p.48.
Du, L. and et.al, 2013. The Research of a Decision-Making Model based on OODA Loop for
Emergency Evacuation in City.
Ma, L., Zhang, M. Z. and Zhou, Z. W., 2014, May. The OODA loop robustness evaluation based
on OSOS combat network. In Information and Communications Technologies (ICT
2014), 2014 International Conference on (pp. 1-5). IET.
Sherry, L. and Mauro, R., 2015, April. Mitigating functional complexity failures: Designing the
operator inside the vehicle OODA-Loop. In 2015 Integrated Communication, Navigation
and Surveillance Conference (ICNS) (pp. J2-1). IEEE.
Chan, E., 2014. Enabling enhanced OODA loop with modern information technology. Ontology
Summit 2014 presentation.
Rule, J. N., 2013. A Symbiotic Relationship: The Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) Loop,
Intuition, and Strategic Thought. ARMY WAR COLLEGE CARLISLE BARRACKS
PA.
Dutta, B. and Jackson, M. O. eds., 2013. Networks and groups: Models of strategic formation.
Springer Science & Business Media.
Johnson, G. and et.al, 2013. Exploring Strategy Text & Cases. Pearson Higher Ed.
Chyzh, O., 2014. Can you trust a dictator: A strategic model of authoritarian regimes’ signing
and compliance with international treaties. Conflict Management and Peace
Science. 31(1). pp.3-27.
Online
OODA Loops. 2016. [Online]. Available through: <
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_78.htm >. [Accessed on 19th
November 2016].
Cognitive Biases as a Barrier to Decision Making. 2016. [Online]. Available through: <
https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/
decision-making-10/barriers-to-decision-making-80/cognitive-biases-as-a-barrier-to-
decision-making-384-6858/ >. [Accessed on 19th November 2016].
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