Strategic Management of Marks & Spencer: A Retail House

This essay explores the strategic management of Marks & Spencer, a leading retail house, including its company profile, industry structure, market position, country markets, innovation, and corporate social responsibility.

Strategic Management
(Assessment 1)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Company Profile (Background).............................................................................................3
Industry structure....................................................................................................................4
Market Position......................................................................................................................4
Country markets and size.......................................................................................................6
Innovation and Strategic Innovation......................................................................................7
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)..................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management of an ongoing process involving number of practices and elements
beginning with planning, monitoring, analysing and assessment of all the necessary and
significant requirements of the organisation. The key goal of the strategic management notion is
to meet the organisational objectives by maintaining an ongoing intellectual process which
addresses the changing business environment, needs of people and processes involved in the
operations (Alpkan and Gülsoy., 2019). A major element which encourages the use and
development of strategic management approaches within an organisation is Change and regular
development. The present project is based on such evaluation and dissecting of strategic
environment and management of Marks & Spencer a retail house. Marks & Spencer is
abbreviated as M&S which was founded in 1884 in Leeds, UK and still situated and
headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The company deals in retail sector and the present
project is an essay which reflects upon several aspects in regards to Marks & Spencer as well as
its managerial environment.
MAIN BODY
Company Profile (Background)
Marks & Spencer is a leading supermarket chain and operational organisation of United
Kingdom which was founded in early 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. The
company deals in the retail sector and known as one of the largest and major British
multinational retailers around the globe. The company is a public organisation which means it
raise capital form public in order to complete its transactions and processes involved.
The company deals in certain goods and services beginning form clothing including all
men, women and kids, accessories for men and women both, groceries that are food products
most commonly of its own label, home products etc. According to the information provided by
to the people in regards to Marks & Spencer, it reflects that the organisation is one of the best of
its kind and offers goods with great value, with high quality food and fashionable clothing for
men, women and kids and lastly the home ware (Bolland., 2017). The goods and services of
Marks & Spencer are provided by the firm to millions of customer and people around the world
including target audiences and other people.

Marks & Spencer have around 1400 stores that is its supermarkets in more than 57
countries and holds over more than 50 international websites. The company not only deals in
physical products and services but also renders financial services like credit cards, current
accounts, savings, insurances and mortgages. These all are separate services which are provided
by Marks & Spencer to its customers expect all the supportive services it renders to customer
who make purchases form its stores and supermarkets.
Industry structure
Marks & Spencer is a retail organisation which evident it to be a part of retail industry
and sector. The company is a leading part of retail market around the world where it engages in
retailing clothings, food products and home-ware in its own brand name. It has two segments
Marks & Spencer UK and Marks & Spencer international. In Marks & Spencer UK, its retail
business and franchise operations are involved. In Marks & Spencer international
segment owned businesses in Europe and Asia, and the international franchise operations are
included (Hadrawi., 2018).
Retail sector is one the major dynamic and revolutionary industries in the market and
around the world supported by other industry segments too like technology and others. The retail
business is a growing and rapidly enhancing its pace of development, evolution and revolution to
take place in order to address needs of people and changing requirements of the targeted
audiences. The retail sector of United Kingdom is showing significant increase and have
generated £394billion worth of retail sales and in the year 2019. Retail industry is defined as a
common platform provided to retailers, whole sellers and customers. In retail sector the
businesses dealing in bridges the gap between the goods and the end users of the products by
offering their middle services to customers around the globe. The retail industry of United
Kingdom is known for its stability and innovation in which Marks & Spencer was founded and
form where the company is running its operations.
Market Position
Marks & Spencer has dominated the clothing market of United Kingdom for decades
now, but the company is in threat and in losing its position to Primark in coming future years.
This is because there are number of store of Marks & Spencer which are shutting down and
closure of yet more stores will hurry the decline. Marks & Spencer can retail its market position
unless it shifts the lost sales to its online channel and to its other stores. In order to do so as well

the organisation needs to stay focused and has to start growing total non food sales to stem and
support the overall decline. Marks & Spencer has been losing huge number of its share for more
than two decades now. In 1997 the entity reaches to its peak of its clothing market share with
13.5% in the United Kingdom. Its position seemed inviolable, but since then the market share of
Marks & Spencer has been on a declining trend (Jemelka and Chramcov., 2017).
(Source: Marks & Spencer to lose its decades long status as the number one clothing retailer to
Primark, 2018)
The graph above exactly shows the decline of Marks & Spencer, in 2018 Global Data
forecasts presented by Maureen Hinton showed its shares will be 7.6% in clothing, virtually
reducing and reaching to half in two decades. This is despite it opening more full line clothing,
Illustration 1: Marks & Spencer to lose its decades long status as the number one clothing
retailer to Primark, 2018

home and food stores and adding more space during the period. In contemporary time the
company is now considering closing at least 100 stores the numbers increase by 40 than first
announced and this will significantly impacts its share yet further and faster. them to other stores
and importantly start to grow its non-food business. Marks & Spence, have to be focused and
convert these stores lost sales and revenue units into online sales, transfer them to other stores
and another aspects is to importantly start to grow its non food business (Kalnins., 2018).
Over the past decade Marks & Spencer has lost 2.2 ppt market share as it is fighting
solution for keeping people happy and satisfied by finding a relevant offer for the modern
consumer. Amongst the top 20 retail houses of UK only one organisation that is the Arcadia
Group has lost more share -3.1ppts and it sold the BHS chain during this period. Marks &
Spencer certainly does not need to have so much space and so many stores to deliver its current
non food revenue. The best example to showcase is of John Lewis with 49 stores generate
virtually the same revenue of Marks & Spencer with half the space plus its online business.
But is Marks & Spencer needs to make its space more productive the organisation has to
produce a compelling offer showcased in an inspiring environment which will be addressing
number of customer groups and wider population segment of the company around the globe. The
one solution which is found out by Marks & Spencer is of closing its stores which will make the
available space of the entity more productive and help to improve profitability. In case of the
problem of top line growth the company have to be more critical and needs to find out some
better solutions and options explore (Kasemsap., 2017).
Country markets and size
Marks & Spencer is a leading brand which is operating in United Kingdom and holds a
significant position in different markets as well around the globe. The company has its
operations in began in 1884 in United Kingdom and since then company have become the
leading international brand of retail sector. In 1973 Marks & Spencer moved to Canada and
expanded its operations holding around 47 stores in Canada. Then Marks & Spencer moved to
France in 1975 by opening up shops in Paris. Moving along with passing time the entity moved
further in French and Belgium markets by opening more shops fro acquiring larger market share.
Today, Marks & Spencer has around 1400 stores in the world with a large market
presence not just in domestic market but also in international markets as well. Marks & Spencer
has 80,000 employees today with strong place in the market and the world. India is known as a

new emerging market for the brand where the company recently moved but have been
developing a strong position and making the best of the resources provided and presented in it
(Laureiro‐Martínez and Brusoni., 2018).
Innovation and Strategic Innovation
Innovation is a process which reflects upon the practices and activities of the
organisations and businesses to make and offer something new to the customers and the
population in order to grab their loyalty and lock it with the brand. Innovation takes place in
businesses by adding new features in existing offerings and bringing new products to in front of
the public and addressing their specific requirements and needs (MacKay and McKiernan.,
2018).
Strategic innovation is a more critical process which takes place within an organisation
when the company itself is trying to bring innovation in its strategies rather than its production
services. In simple words strategic innovation takes place within an organisation then the entity
plans to bring changes in its strategies and to work innovatively in the market with new
inventions of different approaches to work upon.
Marks and Spencer is a brand which is being operating in the Retail industry from years
and decades. The company was initially established through a small retail shop and then with
development it and growth being in path The entity accomplished its targets and received the
leading producer and it is enjoying today. Marks and Spencer do make regular changes and
variations in its strategies and operational activities with keeping its focus on the current market
trends and requirements that are needed to be addressed by the organisation in order to keep
targeted audiences and loyal customers of the brand happy and satisfied.
Innovation and strategic innovation is one common tool which is used by marks and
Spencer to rapidly change it operations and functioning keeping the main focus on development
of the organisation as a valuable resource for customers and receiving their loyalty in written
with a competitive power over competitors in the industry (Lyngsie and Foss., 2017).
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
The corporate social responsibility which is also every weighted and known popularly as
CSR in the business and the market. Corporate social responsibility is a term which reflects upon
the basic necessity of an organisation to contribute their path towards society and the world of
which they are using the resources amongst whom some are perishable and some are not.

Marks and Spencer do understand its responsibility towards the environment and the
world as well as the society in which it operates its operations. Hence the company mixture to
have a strong and sustainable corporate social responsibility plans and services. There are several
actions and activities conducted by Marks and Spencer in order to be more sustainable and value
adding towards the nature and environment of the world with making contribution to the
community in which it is of being operating its functions (Li and Guo., 2020).
CONCLUSION
In regards to the discussion and evaluation conducted in the report above it can be
concluded that organisations and its different activities do cause number of variable beneficial
aspects for businesses. In the report the discussion is conducted over the company and different
internal as well as external processes that goes around in regards to fulfilling the agendas of the
organisation and rendering the best of products to the people that is the targeted audiences who
are related to the organisation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alpkan, L. and Gülsoy, T., 2019. Introduction to the special issue on strategic management in
emerging economies: Innovation, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable
management.
Bolland, E.J., 2017. People, Mission, Vision and Planning in Strategic Management.
In Comprehensive Strategic Management. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Hadrawi, H.K., 2018. Network analysis of the effect of strategic leadership on organizational
success: Evidence from Iraqi Heavy Industry. Academy of Strategic Management
Journal, 17(4), pp.1-12.
Jemelka, M. and Chramcov, B., 2017. STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND MULTIPLIER
EFFECT. Annals of DAAAM & Proceedings, 28.
Kalnins, A., 2018. Multicollinearity: How common factors cause Type 1 errors in multivariate
regression. Strategic Management Journal, 39(8), pp.2362-2385.
Kasemsap, K., 2017. Strategic innovation management: An integrative framework and causal
model of knowledge management, strategic orientation, organizational innovation, and
organizational performance. In Organizational culture and behavior: Concepts,
methodologies, tools, and applications (pp. 86-101). IGI Global.
Laureiro‐Martínez, D. and Brusoni, S., 2018. Cognitive flexibility and adaptive decision‐
making: Evidence from a laboratory study of expert decision makers. Strategic
Management Journal, 39(4), pp.1031-1058.
Li, Q. and Guo, J., 2020. Search within or beyond the industrial cluster? The effect of perceived
competition and knowledge base tacitness on strategic location choices of external
knowledge search. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 32(6), pp.711-723.
Lyngsie, J. and Foss, N.J., 2017. The more, the merrier? Women in top‐management teams and
entrepreneurship in established firms. Strategic Management Journal, 38(3), pp.487-
505.
MacKay, R.B. and McKiernan, P., 2018. Scenario Thinking: A Historical Evolution of Strategic
Foresight. Cambridge University Press.
Online:
Overview of the retail sector in the UK, 2020. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/retail/overview-of-
the-retail-sector-in-the-uk/>
M&S to lose its decades long status as the number one clothing retailer to Primark, 2018.
[Online] Available Through: <https://www.globaldata.com/ms-lose-decades-long-
status-number-one-clothing-retailer-primark/>
India becomes second largest market for Marks & Spencer after UK, 2019. [Online] Available
Through: <https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/apparel-fashion/apparel/
india-becomes-second-largest-market-for-marks-spencer-after-uk/68590180/>