Strategic Management: A Case Study of Marks & Spencer

This report explores the strategic management practices of Marks & Spencer, including its background, methods of development, leadership style, change management, and sustainability strategy. It provides insights into the company's vision and mission, as well as recommendations for future sustainability.

Strategic Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
M&S Background information...................................................................................................1
Methods of development.............................................................................................................2
Leadership style..........................................................................................................................3
Change Management...................................................................................................................4
Sustainability...............................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management is the continuous planning, observing, determining and evaluating
of all necessities a business entity require to meet its goals as well as objectives. This concept
mainly based on the organization mission and vision for where it requires to be in future. For this
procedure requires proper strategic planning in different manner and allocated resources as per
the requirement (Adegbile, Sarpong and Meissner, 2017). This report based on the case study of
Marks & Spencer which is a British multinational retailer organisation that established by
Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in the year of 1884. In this report consist of background
information of M&S, methods of development used by the company. Along with determine the
leadership styles that adopt by different person and apply change management in order to
analysis of strategy in M&S. At the end of the report analysis future sustainability strategy for
M&S and provided recommendations.
MAIN BODY
M&S Background information
Marks & Spencer is the biggest multinational retailer that situated in United Kingdom.
The company has long history in the UK market and established first store in the year of 1884. In
the year 2020, company have 1038 stores that are located in United Kingdom and remaining 481
stores situated across the world. The company conducted their business operations at world wide
level and recruit about 75 thousand peoples, the majority of female.
 Vision: It helps the organisation to achieve its goals effectively and efficiently. It helps in
the decision of the company like what are the goals which the company has to achieve in
future and how company can perform their task.
 Mission: This statement reflect on the business activities and what key purpose is there.
Marks & Spencer are to develop inspirational quality accessible to others.
 The clothing and home items in business still essential part of business activity and
collect sales 3.9 billion.
 In the year of 2016, online sales figured out to approx 20% of total clothing and sales of
home utility sales in regard of 40% at the similarity positioned British retailer John
Lewis.

Methods of development
ANSOFF MATRIX
Marks and Spencer is the top retailer company in UK it is famous for the products like
clothing,home products, food products etc. (Ramly and Syukur, 2017).
Mark and Spencer operates in the high functioning environment so it has to plan
strategies to improve its business activities. Because if the business will run according to their
old strategies then their growth in the market will never be achieved. Ansoff matrix is used for
business expansion and business growth in the market this matrix was developed by H.Igor
Ansoff and was published in the Harvard business review in 1957 (Strategic
management,2021)With the help of ansoff matrix an organization can easily know about the
strength and weakness of the organisation to achieve any business goal planning a strategy is
very important so for any business to grow fast in the market we need to plan strategy and work
accordingly.
Market Penetration:It basically helps the organisation to increase the sale of the product in the
same market with the same product Mark and spencer can increase the sell by putting more
efforts in the products like they can include more varieties in the same product which will
automatically increase the sale of the particular item in the particular market.
Market Development:This strategy basically helps the organisation to earn profit with the same
product but in different market because any organisation can never earn more profit in the same
market they have expand their business to earn more profit. Mark and Spencer will never be able
to expand their business if they will remain in the market forever they need to change their
market place so that the customer can get aware about the product and services of the company.
Product Development:It basically focuses on development of new and innovative product in the
same market so that the customer can get some change in the products and services of the
organisation and sale can be increased and profit can be earned every business has to under go
some changes to achieve the target if they will not follow change according to the market then
they will never be able to satisfy the need of the customer.
Diversification:It basically means development of new product in the new market like how
business can expand in the new market with the new product. Mark and spencer wants to earn
more and expand their business globally then they have to adapt a change and this strategy will

help them to achieve their target it is slightly a risky factor but it can also expand the business
business should always adapt changes according the requirement of the market because if
business will not adapt changes the competitive firm will take advantage of it which will give a
bad impact on the organisation.
Leadership style
Steve Rowe and Archie Norman followed a transactional leadership style. This style is
used by the leader to encourage and motivate employees to create changes in the organisation so
that the organisation can fulfil its customer requirement and earn profit. Mark and Spencer was
undergoing through the loss which company has to overcome to maintain its
productivity(leadership,2020). The CEO and chairman of mark and Spencer has planned various
strategies to overcome from the loss which has occurred in the organisation they have planned
several program so that the organisation can fulfil his growth by observing the market condition.
A leader should always ensure high performance in the organisation by motivating their
employees so that the organisation goal can be achieved fast and proper working environment
can also be developed. If the organisation have proper working environment then it helps the
organisation to increase its productivity within the short period of time which will also helps in
the long time survival of the organisation. A good leader motivates its employees to achieve the
business goal of the organisation with the proper use of resources available and so that
employees can work more effectively (Edwards, 2018). A leader should have a proper
knowledge and skill so that proper guidance can be provided to the employees in order to
achieve success leader should be biased with his employees they should treat their employees
equally. Archie Norman created several changes in the top level management so that customer
oriented activities can be performed in the organisation without any conflicts. Archie Normal
appointed Steve Rowe as a chief executive for his support so that organisational strategies can
be planned properly Steve Rowe observed the activities of the organisation and started its
planning according to that he developed the transformation plan in which organisation can adopt
changes according to the requirement of the customer he used several methods to provide
changes to the organisation like use of technology, pricing of the product, developing of websites
etc so that the organisation can achieve its growth and earn profit because the proper will not

take place then organisation can never overcome from the loss occurred in the organisation
which will effect its growth and survival in the economy (Garzella and Fiorentino, 2017).
Change Management
Change management is defined as methods and manners in which define about the
organization changes and apply changes within internal and external processes. In this
management consist of preparing supporting staff members and setting the require procedure for
change and observing pre and post change activities to assure about the successful
implementation (Bosquetti, Fiates and Ponting, 2017).
Due to increasing globalization, advanced technology and changes in present time
become important part of each business in which require to survive in changing business
environment. To handle this change in Marks & Spencer apply the change kaleidoscope model.
This model is developed by the Hope Hailer & Balogun composes of outer ring and inner ring. In
the outer ring focus on the business features that are based on time, scope, diversity, readiness
and power. On the other side in inner ring focus on the design, applying choices that are related
to change path, change start point, change style, change target and changes roles. There are
applying the features and choices in the context of the Marks & Spencer such as:

Organizational contextual features: The company apply the transformational changes in Marks
& Spencer such as:
 Time: It is time in which organisation wants to apply change in the business activities.
These are related with the longer term strategic development normally have more time to
change in Marks & Spencer.
 Scope: The scope is the degree of change necessary in regard of realignment and
transformation. It is mainly utilised to measure how much change affected to business
activities. After the changes in business Marks & Spencer measure the impact of entity
(Rylková, 2017).
 Preservation: It is related to the level of which is required for arrange various ways of
working as well as different aspects of culture. Along with preserve particular
organisational competencies effectively in Marks & Spencer.
 Diversity: In this term degree of diversity among the staff members in which required to
take changes in Marks & Spencer. These departments categorised as, sales, research &
development, divisional culture that impact on the national cultures.

 Capability: It is categorised into three levels such as, individual, managerial and
organisational. These changes based on the different people who cope up with changes
and help to staff members for the change.
 Capacity: It is related with those resources which are available for the investment in
regard of proposed changes that are, amount of money available for investment and
number of people with effective change capability.
 Readiness: This is extent in which staff members of Marks & Spencer aware about the
changes and affianced to making the personal alternation require for them.
 Power: It is amount of power as well as liberty that key changes agents have to apply
change as they want (Thorén and Vendel, 2019).
Design or applying choices:
 Change path: It is consisted of different kinds of changes in regard of extent of alteration
and speed of change that required to undertaken and results to be delivered. When Marks
& Spencer apply changes in business so identify all the results and send to management.
 Change start point: There are mentioned that point where require to apply changes and
developed. Such as, Marks & Spencer apply changes in top down and bottom up for more
combination.
 Change style: For the changes in M&S apply the continuum style that based on the highly
collaborative to participative.
 Change target: For the changes in business target to particular things such as, cultural
activities, interpersonal, technical intervention and political changes (Todorov and Akbar,
2018).
 Change levers: In this term consider those people who take the responsibility of changes.
In M&S Steve Row's take al the responsibility and struggling for investor support.
As per the discussion it is critically analysed that in the Marks & Spencer apply
transformational change in which focus on current operating procedure and technology. For the
changes in the business M&S apply change kaleidoscope model.
Sustainability
The term of sustainability concentrate on meeting the requirement of the present without
sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their requirement. After the ten years

company unveiled Plan A 2020 a new and sustainability strategy that develop on the
organisation's previous success at the time of addressing a communication gap that exists in
between brand and customers.
As per the strategy report takes a three pillar approach to the future, mainly concentrating
on clients and well as staff members well-being and transforming lives and communities for the
planet. According to this sustainability strategy requires to business bid to become a truly
sustainable by key actions in which targeting of every focus area like sustainable sourcing,
increasing £25 Million for charity and having food waste across its operations by 2025. Plan A
2025 will also see a continuation of M&S shopping of clothing recycling initiative and the
business has committed with at least use of 25% that reused material in at least a quarter of
clothing is sells by 2025. The Plan A of 2025 is plan for future which is effectively sustainable in
partnership with customers as well as stakeholders have positive effect (Trigeorgis and Reuer,
2017). It will force us to identify questions in which required to give all answers and meet with
others because drive true changes across client with good industries. For the achievement M&S
said it:
 Make all M&S packaging broadly recyclable by 2022.
 Assure for one quarter of all M&S clothing and utility items will be developed on 25%
recycling material by 2025.
 Deduct green house gas emissions through 80% as compared to 2007levels its own
activities by 2030 and at the time of cut emissions in its supply chain by 13.3 tons.
As part of 2025 the main aim of the M&S also committed to be clear and transparent and
motivate to live more substantially:
 Company become more transparent and add further food and clothing & home supply
chain details by 2019 and raw materials by 2022.
 By the year 2019, set up and launch a mechanism items that meet with particular
sustainability criteria (Vitkauskaitė, 2017).
CONCLUSION
As per the above report it has been concluded that strategic management consist of
setting objectives, determining the competitive atmosphere, assessing the inner organisation as

well as analysis different strategies in order to assure about the management roles across the
business entity. It is recommended that to accomplish Plan A 2025 require to follow all the
procedure in effective manner and become transparent.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Andersen, T. J., Torp, S. and Linder, S. eds., 2019. Strategic Responsiveness and Adaptive
Organizations: New Research Frontiers in International Strategic Management.
Emerald Group Publishing.
Bosquetti, M. A., Fiates, G. G. S. and Ponting, J., 2017. Strategic Management at Mormaii-the
Brazilian Surf Industry Leader. Brazilian Business Review. 14 (Special Ed). pp.110-129.
Edwards, J., 2018. Mastering Strategic Management: 1st Canadian Edition.
Garzella, S. and Fiorentino, R., 2017. Synergy value and strategic management. Springer.
Krzakiewicz, K. and Cyfert, S., 2017. Dynamic capabilities in strategic choice processes within
organisations. Management. 21(1). pp.7-19.
Ramly, A. T. and Syukur, D. A., 2017. Strategic Management of Organization Development and
Civil Service Based PumpingHR Model at Ibn Khaldun University Bogor.
Rylková, Ž., 2017. Municipal strategic management and performance. Journal of Public
Administration, Finance and Law, (11), pp.49-57.
Thorén, K. and Vendel, M., 2019. Backcasting as a strategic management tool for meeting
VUCA challenges. Journal of Strategy and Management.
Todorov, K. and Akbar, Y. H., 2018. Strategic Management in Emerging Markets: Aligning
Business and Corporate Strategy. Emerald Group Publishing.
Trigeorgis, L. and Reuer, J. J., 2017. Real options theory in strategic management. Strategic
management journal. 38(1). pp.42-63.
Vitkauskaitė, I., 2017. Strategic management of independent film production
companies. Chinese business review. 16(6). pp.259-277.
Online
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