Marks and Spencer: Managing Innovation in Business Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Marks & Spencer's (M&S) innovation strategies within the retail industry. It examines the future trends of the retail sector, highlighting the importance of customer experience, agility, and efficiency in a competitive market. The report details M&S's innovation requirements, including the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, customization of products, and cognitive computing through smart robots for tasks like inventory management and customer service. Furthermore, the report outlines M&S's innovation roadmap, emphasizing the adoption of cognitive computing to enhance business operations and customer interaction, with a focus on integrating robots and human workforce to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. The report suggests cognitive computing as the most viable innovation for M&S, as it is not yet widely used in the retail sector, and discusses the impact of change management on the implementation of this strategy.

Managing Innovation
in Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
The Future of the Industry 2020 and Beyond ............................................................................1
The Organisations Innovation Requirements 2020 and Beyond.................................................2
Building the Future Innovation Capabilities for the Organisation..............................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Innovation maximises chances to positively react towards changes and discover new
opportunities. It allows organisation to foster their competitiveness in marketplace by offering
high quality services and products in marketplace. By taking advantage of innovation an
organisation can have significant capability to disrupt industry and maximise market share
effectively (Mazurek and Stroinski, 2020). Innovation facilitate organisation towards improved
productivity, value and brand recognition. By emphasising upon innovation organisations can
easily attract attention of large base of customers in marketplace and can further assure higher
growth. Innovation helps entities to satisfy their customers by offering them with more efficient
services and products and retain their loyalty for long period of time.
This report include discussions on Marks and Spencer, company is operating their
business activities retail industrial sector and offer wide range of products and services like food,
home products, clothing, etc. to customers. Organisation was founded in the year 1884 and
headquartered in London, England, UK. M&S offer their services worldwide with having more
than 80,000 employees. In this report formative discussions has been on purpose and future of
industry 2020 beyond and organisations innovation requirements 2020. Lastly, report include
building of organisation future innovation capabilities.
The Future of the Industry 2020 and Beyond
Retail industry is world's fastest growing industries this makes many retailers to cope up
with emerging issues or ideas to gain more competitiveness in marketplace. Today's retail sector
is all around the world is changing like never before, as in this new generation of digital shoppers
have grown such as introduction of Amazon's Alexa. Technology is continuously growing in this
sector which is influencing retailers to effectively shape shopping experience of customers.
Further it has been evaluated that retail sector is facing aggressive competition as in this number
of organisations are engaged in the process of offering higher quality services and products to
customers at affordable rate (Lee, Lee and Lee, 2020). In addition to this, companies are also
providing additional benefits to their customers in order to hold them for long period of time.
Major trend from which retail is going through is customer experience champions who attracts
consumers by providing them high service shopping experiences and offerings. In addition to
this major challenge that can be faced by Marks and Spencer is to maintain agility and efficiency
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in all of their stores around the world. As it plays crucial role through which organisation can
thrive in aggressive competition (Manthiou, Hickman and Klaus, 2020). In order to overcome or
cope up with the challenging environment of retail sector management of Marks & Spencer
framed strategy in which company will adopt circular economy principles to engage in the
production process in more sustainable way as to effectively engage with existing consumer and
reach new audiences. Further it has been evaluated that Marks & Spencer managerial department
is looking forward to grab more market share and consumer base for this they are planning to
disrupt respective industry with their strategic innovation goal which is “introduction of smart
robots with the help of AI”
With this strategy Marks and Spencer is aiming towards use of smart robots to manage
different tasks like store cleaning, inventory checking and product assistance. Management of
company is planning to deploy AI, in which they are planning to make tremendous implications
of robots on their future work. However, in order to assure success of this strategy success M&S
management is planning towards making effective coordination in combined efforts of IT, HR
and line of business managers (Roggeveen and Sethuraman, 2020). With this company is
planning to develop positive form of relationship between human workforce and robots.
The Organisations Innovation Requirements 2020 and Beyond
Innovation acts as the linking pin between business and the marketplace (Ngo and O'cass,
2013). It helps in bridging the gap between the two. Marks & Spencer is a famous retail
corporation that capitalises upon its ability and potential to leverage innovations in order to gain
success in rapid course of time. This helps the enterprise in achieving business excellence and
attaining high share in global market place. The management of this entity is thus considering to
bring certain innovation by the end of next 3-5 years. This action is aimed at streamlining the
organisational operations and enhancing the business efficiency. This will give a boost to the
positioning and stake of retail sector across the globe. Thus, the innovations that are being
considered by the management of Marks & Spencer are discussed as follows:-
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Marks and Spencer has been wanting to
execute the use of AI alongside machine learning by the end of upcoming 3 years. This will
render assistance to the respective corporation in increasing its knowledge about the working
cycle and workforce, thereby employing measures to streamline the same. Such kind of
innovation within the bounds of the retail division will give a gigantic boost to the industry. With
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due assistance of this innovation, Marks & Spencer would be possessing the chance to recognize
any unfavourable outside factor that may represent a danger to general working and activities of
organization. Furthermore, Artificial intelligence would provide aid determination of certain
events such as traffic and weather reports. This would imply that the venture calibrating plans in
order to manage troublesome circumstances like awful climate where company would be
requiring a bigger workforce with the end goal that it can handle circumstances like blizzard or
gridlock that may account to delayed supplies of items within retail outlets. Likewise, the
respective innovation could be duly utilized by organization for following workers related data,
for example, lateness, alterations within shifts, call outs within past, absenteeism of individuals
or some other example aligned with representatives' working. This creative element considers
different outcomes like unwavering quality, representative commitment, risks, execution, and so
on.
Customisation: In the time period of upcoming 3 to 5 years, Marks & Spencer is
considering to leverage the trend of customisation in a full fledged manner. Through the
effective usage of customisation, the respective company intends to become a pioneering
enterprise within food supplies and general merchandising retail division. The leadership within
the bounds of M&S understands the centrality of putting resources into bringing upgrades,
improvements or increases in existing items in order to address the issues, needs and inclinations
of individuals. As a result of this practice of Marks & Spencer, the clients would have the option
to incorporate adjustments within items offered by the organisation with the end goal that these
products can duly address their necessities. The customers would just favour such products that
can satisfy their desires and duly fulfil their expectations regarding lifestyle, living standard and
spending plan. It will consequently empower customers to inculcate change into items to the
absolute last detail as per their requirements and demands. Providing clients with the choice of
customising their desired products instils a sense of trust and loyalty within the customers
towards the brand and uplifts their overall shopping experience.
Cognitive Computing: Marks & Spencer also proposes to make use of smart robots in
different segments of the business in order to streamline the business operations. This will allow
the organisation to increase the business efficiency and carry out tasks with least possibility of
glitches and defects. The robots would be put to use for tasks such as inventory management,
product assistance, store cleaning, etc. This will reduce the burden on human resources as well as
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provide customers with quick responses to their queries regarding the products and services
offered by Marks & Spencer within retail outlets.
The innovation of cognitive computing is being currently executed by the management of
Marks & Spencer. This will be discussed in depth in the latter part of the report.
Building the Future Innovation Capabilities for the Organisation
Innovation is an imperative tool that provides assistance to an organisation in enhancing
the efficiency of the business while also increasing the overall productivity of the organisation as
a whole. This renders aid to an enterprise in carrying out expansion of the entity in terms of
product and service portfolio, market, and so on. In the present era of technology, innovation has
become essential for each and every business (Jansen, Cusumano and Brinkkemper, 2013). This
provides an entity with the scope to disrupt the market place and thereby gain an edge over the
rival firms functioning within the bounds of same industry. Now, Marks & Spencer is a retail
corporation that acknowledges the significance of technology and innovation in terms of
augmenting the customer base. The implementation of innovation within an organisational
premise allows the business to instil a sense of trust within its base of customers. The same has
been the strategy of Marks & Spencer since the very beginning. It leverages latest and emerging
technologies & innovation to develop better relations with the potential leads and customers
prevailing in the confines of the market place.
Cognitive computing is acknowledged to be the innovation that has been selected by the
management of Marks & Spencer to implement within the organisational premises. Through the
application of this innovation, the customer queries and inventories can be managed in an
effective manner. In this regard, robots help in replicating the thoughts & ideology of humans,
memory and reasoning (Kindström and Kowalkowski, 2014). This innovation is implemented
with the help of computerisation and robots that assist the humans in day to day activities of the
store such as management of inventory, cleaning of store, provision of aid to customers
regarding services and products, etc. Cognitive computing is regarded to be an upgraded form of
AI that assists the corporation by dealing with such activities which are of lesser significance
through the employment of robots. Now, Marks & Spencer is working on maintenance of two
customer service teams, robotic and human. The initial queries, enquiries and issues of customers
related to the offerings of Marks & Spencer will be initially handled by the robots. The queries
and issues of complex nature will be passed onto humans to take a deeper look and resolve the
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same for customer retention and satisfaction. This will leave a good impression of the brand on
the customers. Setting up PC frameworks and robots within the retail outlets that can fathom
regular dialects and precisely react to questions of clients can streamline the business operations
for employees and the company.
To effectively implement the innovation of cognitive computing, the management of
Marks & Spencer is making use of an innovation roadmap. This will assist the corporation in
building future innovation capabilities. It is recognised to be a strategic tool which helps an
organisation in depicting the formal layout of the manner in which the innovation will happen
and be implemented in the organisational premises. So, the roadmap for M&S to build its future
innovation capabilities for introducing cognitive computing in the premises, is as follows:-
Suggestion along with reason: In the wake of directing the investigation about Marks
and Spencer, it has been evaluated that among all other future developments of organization,
Cognitive Computing is acknowledged to be the most practical and viable. Looking upon this, it
has been suggested that organization should consider this creative practice as cognitive
computing is not yet utilized by any of the companies for dealing with customers directly within
the bounds of retail sector. This innovation will be very valuable for the respective company as
the robots will resolve the initial queries of clientele regarding the products.
Impact of change: For Marks and Spencer to effectively present and execute the practice
of cognitive computing in the organisational premises, it is basic that organization considers all
the important changes that will be needed to execute this innovation activity. Likewise, it is
fundamental that pioneers take into due account the effect of change upon each capacity and
branch of business in order to guarantee the successful formulation of innovation in the bounds
of entity (Lin and et. al., 2013). Different capacities and assets that should be kept in thought by
Marks and Spencer are R&D, human asset, money, technical abilities and some lawful
perspectives. They are talked about beneath:-
 Research and Development: In any of the companies, this function is accountable for
doing the examination aligned with bringing the innovation inside authoritative premises
(Dawson and Andriopoulos, 2014). Concerning Cognitive computing in Marks and
Spencer, it is vital that organization leads an inside and out exploration about this
component before implementing it at a worldwide scale in all the outlets. This
examination would provide due assistance to the entity in relation to picking up of data
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about the fundamental aptitudes and resource package for execution of cognitive
computing.
 Necessary resources: To implement cognitive computing, the main resources that are
required by Marks & Spencer encompass skilled workforce, technological resources,
physical resources, financial resources.
 Needed Technical skills: The staff of Marks & Spencer need to have sound and adequate
technical skills in order to ensure that the robots are successfully employed in tasks such
as inventory management, cleaning, customer handling and so on. The programming of
the robots also has to be done by human resources of M&S, thus they need to be
technically skilled. For this, they will be provided with training and development
sessions.
 Legal Aspect: The main legal aspect involved is intellectual property rights infringement
(Biemans, 2018). In this relation, it is crucial for the management of Marks & Spencer to
make sure that there is no overlapping of IPR with any other individual or organisation as
any instance like that would result into imposition of penalties, imprisonment or
cancellation of license.
 Finance: Cognitive computing is a complex process which would require extensive
funds to be invested in order to effectively employ robots into the business operations
(Dodgson, Gann and Phillips, 2013). So, the breakdown of cost is given as follows:-
Feasibility: Through employing robots in the premises of company, it becomes easy for
Marks & Spencer to pass on the tasks and practices of secondary importance to robots which are
programmed by human resources. The innovation is considered feasible to be implemented from
the point of view of market, finance, technology and workforce (Berglund and Sandström, 2013).
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Apply the changes: Post receiving the approval from board of directors of Marks &
Spencer, leaders and managers can proceed with implementing the process of cognitive
computing within organisational context. Proper and structural execution of process is required
so as to ensure that change is successfully executed with least chances of failure. This will assist
Marks & Spencer in creating a positive corporate image and position in marketplace.
Review the impact of changes: This is the most important step of the road map which
involves reviewing of the execution of process so as to ascertain any hindrance that can be
observed in implementing the process of cognitive computing in Marks & Spencer. Also, this
step will assist the company in determining the development of workforce so as to ensure that
they facilitate the process of execution.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report, this has been concluded that innovation have
capability to make significant increase in turnover and profitability of entity. As in this process
company undertakes advantage of advanced tools, techniques and ideas to improve quality and
effectiveness of their products and services. Regular upgrade in business ideas and ways of
conducting business activities is required of each and every organisation which can be only
assured by continuous innovation. Innovation is required within organisation to create more
effective products, ideas and processes as to assure higher business growth and profitability.
With the help of innovation business organisation can make significant boost in their market
share holding and can further increase loyalty of customers towards entity. In addition to this, it
has been evaluated that innovation is important for long term sustainability for entity in
respective industrial sector, it also allows company to take advantage of more opportunities and
growth through which they can ensure maximum competitiveness in marketplace. Further it has
been evaluated that innovation not only increase profitability and productivity of organisation but
it also benefits economic growth of a country in number of ways. As if innovation lead company
towards higher productivity and sales then it automatically generates higher GDP growth of a
country.
Marks and Spencer is having immense capabilities to disrupt retail market with their
innovative and high-tech technology and ideas. Future innovation trends of industry include
digital enablement that plays major role in adding new revenue streams for company. In this
fifth-generation network technology (5G) plays important role that allows retailers to implement
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real-world application in their business processes. For this it is essential for M&S to develop
their capabilities for adopting new technologies before their competitors. With this company can
effectively accomplish their objectives and can further assure long term sustainability and
profitability in retail industrial sector.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Mazurek, C. and Stroinski, M., 2020, January. A concept of innovation hub for smart
applications, enabling pro-active approach to urban policy and planning processes.
In Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.
Lee, S., Lee, H. and Lee, C., 2020. Open innovation at the national level: Towards a global
innovation system. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 151. p.119842.
Roggeveen, A.L. and Sethuraman, R., 2020. Customer-Interfacing Retail Technologies in 2020
& Beyond: An Integrative Framework and Research Directions. Journal of Retailing.c
Manthiou, A., Hickman, E. and Klaus, P., 2020. Beyond good and bad: Challenging the
suggested role of emotions in customer experience (CX) research. Journal of Retailing
and Consumer Services. 57. p.102218.
Berglund, H. and Sandström, C., 2013. Business model innovation from an open systems
perspective: structural challenges and managerial solutions. International Journal of
Product Development. 18(3-4). pp.274-285.
Biemans, W., 2018. Managing innovation within networks. Routledge.
Dawson, P. and Andriopoulos, C., 2014. Managing change, creativity and innovation. Sage.
Dodgson, M., Gann, D. M. and Phillips, N. eds., 2013. The Oxford handbook of innovation
management. OUP Oxford.
Jansen, S., Cusumano, M. A. and Brinkkemper, S. eds., 2013. Software ecosystems: analyzing
and managing business networks in the software industry. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Kindström, D. and Kowalkowski, C., 2014. Service innovation in product-centric firms: A
multidimensional business model perspective. Journal of Business & Industrial
Marketing. 29(2). pp.96-111.
Lin, H. E., and et. al., 2013. Managing the exploitation/exploration paradox: The role of a
learning capability and innovation ambidexterity. Journal of Product Innovation
Management. 30(2). pp.262-278.
Ngo, L. V. and O'cass, A., 2013. Innovation and business success: The mediating role of
customer participation. Journal of Business research. 66(8). pp.1134-1142.
Trevino, L. K. and Nelson, K. A., 2016. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do
it right. John Wiley & Sons.
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