Strategic Management: Methods, Leadership Styles, Change Management, and Sustainability

Strategic management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Methods of development.................................................................................................................3
Leadership styles.............................................................................................................................4
Change management........................................................................................................................6
Sustainability...................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion and recommendations...................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
Strategic management is the ongoing planning, monitoring, assessment and analysis of all
the necessary elements and functions of an organisation which are required to meet the
objectives and goals. Any change in the business environment will require the corporations to
consistent and periodically assess the strategies for attaining long term success (Velikorossov
and et.al., 2020). Marks & Spencer is a British multinational retailer which is headquartered in
London, UK and has specialization in sale of clothing, food products, home products, which are
primarily of its own label. The total group revenue of the company is £10.2 billion out of which
the clothing and home revenue was valued at £3.2 billion and the food revenue was valued at £6
billion. The total gross profit before tax was valued at £67.2 million and the international and
service operating profit was £110.7 million. Marks & Spencer has a total of 1519 global stores in
62 international markets. The total number of employees of the company are over 78,000. The
vision of the company is to be a stand against which others are benchmarked and the mission is
to create aspiration al quality which is accessible to everyone (Marks & Spencer 2020). This
strategic report will aim at using strategic tools for analysing methods of development used by
M&S and to evaluate the leadership style at M&S. Apart from this change management models
will be critically examined and the future sustainability strategy will be determined, along with
future recommendations.
Methods of development
In its foundational years, Marks & Spencer was started as a stall by Michael Marks and
Tom Spencer in 1884 and by 20th century, it preceded with a reputation of selling only British
made goods, which was discontinued by 2002 through development methods, bringing changes
to the business and implanting strategies for success (Scott and Walker, 2017). In terms of
organic growth, in which Marks & Spencer has achieved higher output by improving the sales
internally for a very long time, the growth has been diminishing in recent years in comparison to
the external or inorganic growth. Organic growth does not include any profits attributed from
acquisitions or mergers that Marks & Spencer has undergone but instead the percentage of sales
and expansion that the company has attained by the internal resources of the company (Jin, Miao
and Park, 2018). The major aftereffects of poor performance and declining sales were the major
store culls since 2015, a change in the format and the use of the stores and opening new stores as
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a part of diversification strategies. In the period of 2015 to 2016, various stores in UK closed that
included traditional clothing and food shops and end of season sale outlets. The store cull costed
Marks & Spencer around £200 million in implementation. The culls included loss making stores
in various European markets across Belgium, France, China and the Netherlands. In the years
2017 to 2018, various smaller stores were closed including various oldest presence in towns.
This would make a total of 100 stores closed by 2022 due to the declining corporate profits. The
company has been facing a continuous declining net profit since 2016. When it comes to store
format, major changes were made by changing the usage and introduction of full line stores, food
halls, home stores outlet stores, and online services (Leite, 2020). Change management strategies
include progressing on transformation, outperformance and focus of food sector, reengineering
of home and clothing and positioning Ocado retail robustly for growth. In order to cover the
losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, the strategies like planned cost reductions, actions for
stabilising the cash flows, securing additional headroom and liquidity for future years and
management of extra home stock and clothing. The strategic alliance with Ocado, which was a
major change management strategy by Marks & Spencer took place in 5th August 2019. The total
cost incurred by Marks & Spencer to form the partnership by acquiring a 50 % stake in Ocado
retail was £750 million. Marks & Spencer formed a joint venture with Ocado retail for strategic
significance of getting a broader customer base and increasing the expertise in food innovation.
The other major strategies that Marks & Spencer has implemented to increase organic growth are
the strategic priorities of transformation of leadership, building accountability, to become a
digital retailer, reshaping the customer profile ranges in the home and clothing. Also, focussing
on international growth, development of high-quality real estate, and doing cost savings and
modernising the supply chains (BBC, 2019).
Leadership styles
Leadership is defined as the method of providing a direction, guiding employees,
implementing plans and strategies. Taking actions, managing teams and inspiring and motivating
the people in a corporate environment. The leaders are generally the founders or the chief
executive officers that lead and implement a specific leadership and management style in the
organisation. In context of Marks & Spencer, the organisation is led by two most influential and
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