Business Environment Analysis Report: Mark & Spencer Group Plc

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Mark & Spencer's (M&S) business environment. It begins with an introduction to the company, its background, products, and services, followed by an examination of the competitive landscape using Porter's Five Forces model, assessing rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, the threat of substitutes, and the threat of new entrants. The report then delves into a value chain analysis, exploring inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, and key support activities to understand how M&S creates value. Finally, it discusses the role of Information Technology (IT) in enabling M&S to gain a competitive advantage in the market, summarizing how IT can be leveraged to improve performance and achieve business goals. The report concludes with a summary of key findings and references.

Business Environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Introduction of the organisation, their background and the products and services offered by
them.............................................................................................................................................1
Analysis of the Porter's Five forces.............................................................................................3
Analysis of the value chain analysis of the organisation............................................................5
Summarise & reflect how IT can help business to take competitive advantage in the market...7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business environment is defined as the sum of collecting different information i.e.,
internal and external which can allow organisation to perform well in any of the situation
through which goals can be accomplished. It is necessary because company can easily determine
that how they are required to perform better so that overall productivity can be improved. In
present scenario, any of the business organisation requires the help of Information technology
which can easily strength their performance in the marketplace. The chosen organisation for this
particular assignment is Mark & Spencer. It is one of the organisation which deals in different
part of the world.
Talking about the file, there are number of topics which are needed to be discussed within
the file which includes introduction about the file, porter five forces and overall impact on
organisation. Analysis related to inbound logistics, operations and outbound logistics can be
determined. Also, key value adding activities will be discussed with proper justification.
MAIN BODY
Introduction of the organisation, their background and the products and services offered by them
Mark & Spencer Group Plc is a British multinational company which has been
performing well within the market. They have been dealing within the market of retail sector
which includes clothing household product and many more. The current headquarter of the
organisation is located within London. The organisation was incorporated in the year 1884 where
founder of an organisation was Michael Marks & Thomas Spencer. Talking about current CEO,
then they are Steve Rowe, Marc Bolland. Talking about the current scenario of the company,
they have around 1400 store across the world which itself shows that how well organisation is
performing in current scenario (Pandey, Seth and Varshney, 2019).
There are around eighty thousand employees who are connected with company and
which is performing really well for the organisation. It has been found that company has been
conducting its business across 157 different nations which will allowing them to earn healthy
amount of profit. They are mainly targeting those customers who can easily allow them to earn
profit i.e., the age group of 22 to 40 years where people mainly likes to prefer those product
which are of high quality with brand image.
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Talking about the mission of an organisation, they are willing to deliver high quality of
product within the market with the help of innovative ideas. On the other side, their vision is to
becomes leading giant in retail sector. Talking about current situation, the main objective of
M&S is to operate with the help of innovative idea which can be done by using latest
technologies and IT sector. They are using Chief model which may allow them to earn higher
amount of profit with the help of enhancing the sale by approximately 30% . When it comes to
revenue, it is around £10,377.3 million (Marks & Spencer revenue worldwide, 2010-2019).
Also, the product of company are of affordable price which can allow them to accomplish the
target on specific time period.
The growth of company is increasing day by day and they are able to maintain their
position within the market. Talking about the company, there market is mostly dependent upon
UK where they have been performing exceptionally well. The annual profit which company has
managed to earn in the year 2016-17 was £176.4 million. All of this graphs and data clearly
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shows that company is struggling in number of occasion but still they have been trying to give
tough competition to their rivalries.
Analysis of the Porter's Five forces
Porter forces can be explained as the process which simply gives opportunity to company
to analyse about the market and competition available for business. With the help of analysis,
company will get opportunity to perform better in the market and give fair competition to
rivalries. It is among those framework which can be used in any of the structure which can allow
business organisation to perform better. The Five Forces model is named after Harvard Business
School professor, Michael E. Porter. The five competitive forces in this respective model are 1.
Competition in the industry, Potential of new entrants into the industry, Power of suppliers,
Power of customers and Threat of substitute products (Han, 2015). In context of M&S, they will
able to identify each and every factor which creates issues for them. It will be necessary for the
organisation to use porter five forces because they will get the idea that what types of
informational technologies being used by other organisation. In short they will get idea to deal
with competitive market. Below, there is the detail description about Porter Five Forces on Mark
and Spencer.
Rivalry among existing competitors :- This is among one of the most important force as
it allows to identify about the competition being given by the rivalry firm. Also, it enables to
know about the capacity of company to give competition to any of rivalry firm. When it comes to
Mark & Spencer, they are among those organisation where number of organisation are already
dealing. The major competition is being given by companies like ZARA, Tesco, and many
more. In current situation there is High competition which is needed to be tackled by the
organisation if they are willing to sustain within the market. Here, company is focusing more
towards online selling of products at a discounted price which can allow them to attract new
customers towards the organisation (Karthikayini and Srinath, 2017). This is raise the level of
competition and even chances will increase for organisation to built strong brand image and
every class of people will get opportunity to purchase products from M&S.
Bargaining power of suppliers :- This is among one of the force which plays the crucial
role as it direct evaluate about the power that suppliers have within the market. It has a direct
connection within available number of suppliers in the market. If in case suppliers are more in
number then power will remain less and if they low in number then power will be vice versa.
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Talking about Mark and Spenser, the power of supplier is very limited because there are alternate
source available for the company. If in any of the situation, company is not satisfied with the
prices being given by suppliers then they can easily switch to another organisation. If in any of
the situation company thinks that they are earning less profit from the market then they can
easily switch to another supplier (Singh and Teng, 2016). In short the bargaining power of
supplier is very low in it. Talking about Information technology, it will allow them to determine
and do comparison with the prices being offered by suppliers.
Bargaining power of buyer :- In this respective force, there are some of the important
aspects which are mainly considered such as purchaser, transition cost and many more. This
force reduces the power of buyer at the time of buying any of the product as per their choice. In
context of Mark and Spenser, the power available for buyer is very low as it has been found that
if company wants to switch to any of the other organisation then in that respective situation
expenses are very low. It is because there number of company dealing in same market. For the
purpose of attracting more customers towards the organisation, company like M&S is trying to
built better faithfulness towards the customers. To continue this, company can easily conduct
online survey within the help of Information Technology which will simply enhance the chances
of achieving better result.
Threat of substitutes: This will be the factor which will focus more towards the
substitutes available for the company. If in any of the situation the percentage of substitutes is in
higher number then in that respective condition more competition will occur. Whenever
discussion takes place about M&S, there is no doubt that to say that there is a high substitute
available for the company. This is because there are number of other organisation which is
capable at the moment to deliver the product at a cheaper price. In recent period of time,
company has found that there are number of SMEs who have been producing different clothing
any food product at a smaller price which is creating more issue for organisation. The main focus
which can be given by M&S is related with focusing on utilisation of resources (Senft, Gallegos
and Davis, 2016). This can be easily monitored with the help of Latest Information Technologies
which can give them the way to deal with any of the situation in best possible manner.
Threat of new entrants :- Whenever any of the new business entity enters into the market
then in that respective situation, there is high chances that changes can be seen within the market
and existing buyer and seller. There is low chances of new entrants in the market because there is
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the requirement of high amount of capital. This is among one of those factor which has very less
chances for creating any of the issue for M&S. Also, they are one of the organisation which
mainly prefer higher quality in the products due to which if any of the new organisation enters in
the market, giving competition to them can become tough task. In addition, this brand impact be
further improved with the help of IT (Iqbal and et. al., 2019). Use of IT will allow M&S to
determine about any of the new organisation which is going to enter into the market and there
possible action to sustain within the market.
Analysis of the value chain analysis of the organisation
Porter's Value Chain is among one of the effective process which simply determines the
ways to improve the overall performance while conducting any of the project or task. The main
benefit of this analysis is that it can give opportunity to improve the sales margin. While
discussing in simply words, value chain analysis will check each and every internal process
which company is going to use and then it helps to identify the best among the available choice.
In context of M&S, this respective analyse will give them the opportunity to select the best
alternate choice of plan available with them. This analysis will allow them to determine about all
of the primary and secondary activities which can support to accomplish the goals. The primary
activity which will be included over here is inbound logistics, operations outbound logistics an d
many more. On secondary activity, they will add some of the services and they are HRM,
technological development etc.
Discussing about the primary activities of M&S, it includes number of activities which
will allow them to product and sell the product within the market. Those activities are:
 Inbound Logistics: Here, it is necessary for the organisation to develop the healthy
relations with suppliers but producing the raw material on specific time period is quite
necessary. If in any of the condition relation with suppliers are not suitable then in that
respective situation company may have to suffer as delay may occur in production. In
context of M&S, it will be necessary for the them to identify about inbound logistics
because it will help them to identify about any of the problem and challenges which they
might during the process of manufacturing (Daly and Nataraajan, 2015). For example: if
management will have all of the idea related to the deliver of material on specific time
period then chances of suffering from losses will reduce automatically. For the purpose
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of identifying, company has the option to take the help of IT which simply gives
suggestion that how work can be managed in a systematic manner.
 Operations: It is among the important activity where management of M&S will have to
focus towards raw material being converted into finished goods. It will also include the
date when they had received the raw material. Some of the main activities which will be
included here are related within machining, assembling, packing and finally having the
proper test (Baller, Dutta and Lanvin, 2016). If all of the process will be analysed then
there will high possibilities that better results can be obtained by M&S.
 Outbound logistics: This is that particular step, where organisation is required to make
products available for their customers. There will be number of activities which will be
included by Mark and Spenser in it and they are handling of the material, scheduling,
processing of the order and many more. This process will allow them to determine about
the time which M&S requires to deliver the product to their customers. For much
effective result, organisation can simply use Information Technology which will give
them better idea to accomplish the target on specific time period.
The work is not limited up to here a there is the requirement of number of supportive
activity as it can give number of ideas related to coordinating and supporting. The supportive
activities for M&S are:
 Technological development: In any of the organisation, the support of technological
department plays the crucial role because it gives the idea that how any of the business
organisation can manage their work in a systematic manner. In context of M&S, it will
add on the value for company because they will be able to manage each and every work
related to production, Distribution and marketing. Also, supportive activity will allow
them to distinguish about the technologies and products being used by the company.
Also, it will give them the idea to being further improvement if there is any of the
requirement.
 Procurement: It is among the most important aspects for supportive role because
company requires to have proper raw material, equipment funds and many more which
are essential at the time of finishing the goods (Stein and Barron, 2017). In context of
Mark & Spenser, they will be able to acquire the best supplier who can allow them to
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purchase raw material at cheaper price with high quality of product. It will allow them
to improve overall efficiency of the organisation.
Summarise & reflect how IT can help business to take competitive advantage in the market.
The use of informational technology is being increased in the modern world as all the
working and business operations are performed through the IT. It is beneficial for the company
as it allows them to perform best and facilitates effective ideas in order to make corrective
measures. This can be done in that manner which provides unique platform of businesses for
managing and performing their work systematically. With respect of Marks & Spencer, it is one
of the leading company that needs to be performed their business activities and functions
effectively because it has direct competition from others such as ASDA, TESCO and so on. If
M&S needs to develop their outcomes then they require to emphasise on that how they can
launch new techniques for their operations (Julita and Arianty, 2017). For instance, If the
management of company introduce the way with which they can be accepted online payments
then it will become easy for their customers to pay amount by using online mode. This will assist
in saving time and the requirements of carry cash in the pocket will be reduced. Another
example, Marks & Spencer must emphasise on online stores instead of physical stores as it will
allow customers to directly interact with company. This will provide alternatives to shopping
when they are sitting at home that facilitates the comfortableness while doing shopping.
Moreover, there are some another ways that can be effectively used by M&S as they has
choice to launch robots in their stores which can help customers to choose goods and services.
This is considered as a new concept which can attract more number of customers and company
can be able to give tough competition to their competitors. Also, there is an option of adopting
automatic checkout facility which has been in used by Amazon as it is the most effective
technology through which the waiting time of customers in queue is reduced and automatic
payment will be done at a time of checkouts. In addition, there is another option to adopt Smart
mirrors with which the video will be made automatically and it allows customers to see their
looks in new clothes whichever they wear it. It will help clients to not use the changing rooms
and there are so many other technology that can be beneficial for Marks & Spencer in order to
lead in the competitive marketplace.
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CONCLUSION
From the above discussed file, it can be easily concluded that business requires to give
tough competition in the market if they are willing to sustain within the market. It is possible
only in that respective situation where companies are able to work within inclusion of
Information technology. Company like Mark & Spencer will be able to compete within the
market whereas they will be able to attract new customers easily towards the organisation. With
the help of Porter Five Forces, company will get the opportunity to determine about the
capabilities through which competition can be given within the market. Also, internal and
external factor will give them the idea the how they are needed to take positive decision through
which goals can be accomplished.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Julita, U. M. S. U. and Arianty, N., 2017. Porter’s Five Force Model For Superiority Of Micro
Small And Medium Enterprises (Sme’s) In Face The Asean Economic Communiy
(Mea). KUMPULAN JURNAL DOSEN UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH
SUMATERA UTARA. 4(2).
Stein, C. and Barron, J., 2017. Mapping actors along value chains: Integrating visual network
research and participatory statistics into value chain analysis (Vol. 5). International
Water Management Institute (IWMI). CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and
Ecosystems (WLE).
Baller, S., Dutta, S. and Lanvin, B., 2016. Global information technology report 2016. Geneva:
Ouranos.
Daly, T. M. and Nataraajan, R., 2015. Swapping bricks for clicks: Crowdsourcing longitudinal
data on Amazon Turk. Journal of Business Research .68(12). pp.2603-2609.
Iqbal, M. A. and et.al., 2019. Amazon cloud computing platform EC2 and VANET simulations.
International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing .30(3). pp.127-136.
Singh, A. and Teng, J. T., 2016. Enhancing supply chain outcomes through Information
Senft, S., Gallegos, F. and Davis, A., 2016. Information technology control and audit. Auerbach
publications.
Karthikayini, T. and Srinath, N. K., 2017, December. Comparative Polarity Analysis on Amazon
Product Reviews Using Existing Machine Learning Algorithms. In 2017 2nd
International Conference on Computational Systems and Information Technology for
Sustainable Solution (CSITSS)(pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Han, Y., 2015. Cloud storage for digital preservation: optimal uses of Amazon S3 and Glacier.
Library Hi Tech.
Pandey, A. C., Seth, S. R. and Varshney, M., 2019. Sarcasm detection of amazon alexa sample
set. In Advances in Signal Processing and Communication (pp. 559-564). Springer,
Singapore.
Online
Marks & Spencer revenue worldwide, 2010-2019. [Online] Available
through:<https://www.statista.com/statistics/413349/group-revenue-marks-and-spencer-
mands/>
The 2018 Retail Crisis Catches Up With Marks and Spencer. 2018. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://blog.bham.ac.uk/cityredi/the-2018-retail-crisis-catches-up-with-marks-and-
spencer/>
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