Strategic Management: Analysis of Marks & Spencer's Global Strengths, Weaknesses, and Key Issues

This report analyzes Marks & Spencer's strengths, weaknesses, and key issues in the global market. It discusses the company's high level of brand awareness and economic growth, as well as its limitations in expanding its geographic reach. The report also examines the impact of innovation on the company and its ability to meet customer requirements.

Strategic Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management is the organizational activities in which organizational working is
analysed and planing is developed in such a way that working capabilities of company can be
increased (Octavia and Ali, 2017). Marks & Spencer is chosen for the analysis in this report,
M&S is a UK based multinational retailer which provide wide range of products to customer all
across the globe. Analysis of company's strengths and weaknesses in global market is done in
this report with that analysis of different issues faced by company is done in this report. With
that evaluation of company's performance in terms of implementation of innovation, external and
internal environment is done in this report.
MAIN BODY
1. Strength and weaknesses in global perspective
Marks and Spencer is one of the biggest multinational retailer of UK which provide wide
range of products to its customer because of which company is able to achieve high economical
background and also with that M&S is also having high level of brand awareness. Following are
strengths and weaknesses which M&S has to face in terms of reaching to global audience.
Strengths-
M&S is having high level of brand awareness due to which company is having efficient
economic growth by which it can increase the chances of goal achievement because company is
able to provide products on the basis of customer requirements by which customer loyalty is also
achieved (Laudien and Daxböck, 2017). This strong economic growth of the company has
enabled it to increase its geographic reach in other areas by which customer count can be
increased and also sales can be increased. Thus, company has to follow the laws of host country
because if it is not able to work as per the laws and regulations then it may have to face penalties.
However, M&S provide products on the basis of psychological segmentations in which wide
range of products are provided by company on the basis of customer requirements and thus
through this action organizational sales are not limited to a specific segment of the society.
Through this company is able to attract wide range of customer for achieving high organizational
sales and also in order to provide high level of customer satisfaction because company is able to
provide products on the basis of customer requirements. M&S uses this strategy to increase its
customer count in other countries as well like the Asian market because Asian market is one of

the largest market in the world and due to which company is having high probabilities of goal
achievement because of high sales (Ansah and Chinomona, 2017). The chances for goal
achievement is high because M&S provide wide range of products and thus through this it
increases the chances of goal achievement because customers will be assured that company is
able to fulfil the requirements and thus high engagement can be seen.
Weaknesses-
M&S provide wide range of products to customers, due to which it is able achieve high
level of customer satisfaction. But company has to make expenditures on a large scale because it
has to follow the international laws for doing businesses and also has to follow that law sits of
the host country because of which product placement becomes complicated. With that company
also has to make sure that it is able to work as per changing market trends and thus it has to make
sure that the developed product is as per customer requirements. But each country is having its
different culture because of which the developed product has to fulfil the customer requirements
and also that the product is not limited to a specific geographic reach. This is important if
company has to make changes on large scale for the developed product then expenditures will
increase and also profit margin will be affected (Kaar and Stary, 2019). With that company has
to make sure that it employee local candidates and provide effective training in such a way that
high level of customer satisfaction can be provided because employees are responsible for
representing organization. Due to these factors M&S is facing limitation in increasing its reach
in other geographic areas and is limited to spread its geographic reach all across the globe. With
that company is also having limitation in spreading brand awareness in several countries because
of lack of effective advertisements due to which company is having limited amount of sales, this
happens because customer are not aware of the type of services which are provided by company.
2. Key issues faced by Marks & Spencer
The British retailer company Marks & Spencer faces many challenges in context to the industry,
national and global levels.
 In terms of the industry issues, Marks & Spencer is issues such as a decrease in the level
of incomes to purchase luxury clothing items, a major shift of the consumers to purchase
clothes from online shopping markets, social trends and changes in tastes, lifestyle,
preferences of the consumers, increasing overheads of the company, high debt and

presence of many bricks and mortar stores through direct ownerships as well as
franchises which are not yielding results. There is a high impact of the economic
instability and a decline in high street shopping ins evident in UK, which Marks &
Spencer is facing in the UK retail industry. There have been closer of more than 15 stores
which downside many employees. The luxury clothing industry is also affected by the
pandemic which led to incurring a huge sales decline and job losses in Marks & Spencer
and a permanent shift in demand led to major disruption (Leite, 2020).
 In the national level, Various UK based physical stores have shut down and the company
is facing operational and supply chain issues. Due to Brexit, the logistics of the company
were compromised and high tariffs on transportation led to increase in bottom-line. Apart
from that there is an intense competition in UK. There is a lack of a clear marketing
strategy and a dire need for diversification. The distribution issues are high and the
company is not able to perform well in the online market as it needs to incorporate
technological changes. The fashion sales of the company in the UK markets are not
coinciding with the demand and major changes in marketing and product development is
needed and Marks & Spencer needs to listen to its customers. There are problems in the
physical stores and a need of recreation and physical evidence development (Faria, 2020).
 In international level, Marks & Spencer is facing issues with its high pricing and is
unable to penetrate the markets, especially in the Asian countries while its project sin the
Us are failing miserably. The capital structure, property, products and business model are
weak and unable to cope up with the international demand and ever-growing competition.
Many customers remain dissatisfied due to reasons like unavailability of sizes and most
popular collections, which signifies major inventory management issue in the global
outlets. The reduction in prices led to a reduced quality in other outlets of Marks &
Spencer as compared to the UK market and the stores are being poorly managed. In
conclusion, Marks & Spencer has failed to adapt to fashion across the world and needs to
focus more on the younger demographics. The brand reputation and equity as also decline
and consumer loyalty has decrease over the years which has led to underperformance in
global markets (Ahmed, 2016).

3. Innovation impact on company
Innovation has changed the ways of doing business because of which company is able to
provide products on the basis of customer requirements and also is able to provide new and rare
products to its customers. Following are the dynamics by which innovation has changed the
working of the company.
Innovation-
Innovation is important for organizations because through this it will be able to provide
new and rare products to customers by which premium pricing can be taken through which high
profit margin can also be achieved (Frösén and et.al. , 2016). But the other side of the coin is that
this will increase organizational expenditures which will make a direct negative impact on
company's economic growth and also with that company has to develop effective marketing
strategy which will also increase expenditures.
Internal Environment-
It is very important for company to provide new and rare products to its customers by
which it can increase the chances of goal achievement by having large organizational sales but
with that company also has to make sure that the workforce is able to implement these changes
on the ground level. This is important for M&S to make sure that employees are able to work as
per the requirements because if they are able to work accordingly then company will not be able
to implement these improvements on the ground level and thus it will decrease employee's
motivation towards achieving their targets (Trihatmoko, Mulyani and Lukviarman, 2018). Thus
M&S has to make sure that it is able to develop effective working strategy in such a way that
effective training is provided to employees by which company can make sure that employees are
able to work as per the organizational requirements. However this increases organizational
expenditures and with that company also generates risk that if employee leave the company then
its investments in implementing these innovations will be of no use.
External Environment-
Company has to make sure that customer requirements are being fulfilled and for that it
has to make sure that new and creative products are being provided through which customer
satisfaction can be achieved and also with that company ha to make sure that innovation is as per
current market trends (Schaltegger, Lüdeke-Freund and Hansen, 2016). Therefore, in order to
achieve this company has to analyse the market competition and has to compare itself in such a

way that it is able identify its weaknesses through which it can develop effective working plan by
which company will be able to improvise its weak areas and also maintain customer's
engagement with the company.
Influence-
M&S has to make sure that it is able to provide products on the basis of customer
requirements and with that it also has to make sure that the develop product is rare and trendy
because if develop product is not as per current market trends then company has to face
limitation in sales due to which the expenditures will give no suitable outcome to the
organization. Thus the developed product must be influenced by the current market trends and
also with that it should also be able to fulfil customer requirements without disturbing the
copyright law (Saeedi and et.al. , 2017). This is important for M&S to develop a new products
which may be influenced by market trend but must not violate these governmental laws because
if company is not able to implement innovation in this way then M&S has to face penalties
which will increase organizational expenditures and thus negative impact on organizational
image in front of the customers.
CONCLUSION
From the analysis in this it can be concluded that organizations have to increase their
geographic reach in such a way that they are able achieve their organizational goals and also by
which it can increase the chances of increasing customer count. Through which it will be able to
increase its sales and thus high profit margin can also be achieved with that M&S also has to
make sure that it is able to provide products on the basis of customer requirements by which
chances of goal achievement can be increased because customer are assured that company is able
to fulfil their requirements by which customer loyalty can also be increased.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
References
Ahmed, U., 2016. Marks & Spencer: A Global Expansion to Acquire Lost Momentum?.
In Market Entry in China (pp. 61-72). Springer, Cham.
Ansah, M.O. and Chinomona, R., 2017. Analysis of market orientation on business performance
in the multinational service industries. Journal of Social Sciences. 13(1). pp.40-52.
Faria, B.V.I.R.D., 2020. Potential impact of brexit in marks and spencer (Doctoral dissertation).
Frösén, J., and et.al. , 2016. Effective forms of market orientation across the business cycle: A
longitudinal analysis of business-to-business firms. Industrial Marketing
Management. 52. pp.91-99.
Kaar, C. and Stary, C., 2019. Intelligent business transformation through market‐specific value
network analysis: Structured interventions and process bootstrapping in
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Laudien, S.M. and Daxböck, B., 2017. Business model innovation processes of average market
players: a qualitative‐empirical analysis. R&D Management. 47(3). pp.420-430.
Leite, B.T.D.S., 2020. Marks & spencer out of fashion the case of an outdated brick and
mortar (Doctoral dissertation).
Octavia, A. and Ali, H., 2017. The model of market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and
business performance of small and medium enterprises. International Review of
Management and Marketing. 7(3).
Saeedi, H. and et.al. , 2017. Analyzing competition in intermodal freight transport networks: The
market implication of business consolidation strategies. Research in Transportation
Business & Management. 23. pp.12-20.
Schaltegger, S., Lüdeke-Freund, F. and Hansen, E.G., 2016. Business models for sustainability:
A co-evolutionary analysis of sustainable entrepreneurship, innovation, and
transformation. Organization & Environment. 29(3). pp.264-289.
Trihatmoko, R.A., Mulyani, R. and Lukviarman, N., 2018. Product placement strategy in the
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