Innovation Strategy and Analysis: Marks and Spencer Business Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Marks and Spencer's (M&S) innovation strategy, focusing on their new kitchen range launch and its implications for the business. The executive summary highlights the need for continuous innovation in a dynamic market, emphasizing the importance of understanding customer demands and leveraging various frameworks to identify opportunities. The introduction outlines the context of the industry and the need for M&S to adapt and innovate to remain competitive. The report delves into the future of the industry, particularly the food sector's growth, and how M&S plans to capitalize on this with their new kitchen ranges. It also examines M&S's innovation requirements, including transforming international business models and expanding online operations. Furthermore, the report includes a SWOT analysis to assess M&S's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, providing insights into building future innovation capabilities. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and strategic recommendations for M&S to successfully manage innovation and achieve sustainable growth. The report showcases the importance of adapting to market changes, leveraging brand reputation, and focusing on customer needs to ensure long-term success.

Managing
Innovation in
Business CW2
1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Innovation is a continuous part of every organisation that is required for the purpose of
developing a route map that outlines the different types of innovation process. For surviving in
industry and the external market that is completely dynamic and changes very fast according to
the specific requirements and demands of the people who are most important stakeholders for
every organisation as they played the role of customer who are in turn responsible for whole
revenue and profitability of each and every organisation. It has become very for approaching
different sources of information and applying different frameworks to develop a detailed
understanding and overview to identify the areas where new innovation can be made and then
use them for them to enhance present share of market and at last the level of revenue.
Present report is based on the Marks and Spencer wear this organisation is planning to
launch a completely new segment of products that has been different from the existing range of
accessories footwear’s, bags and clothing that they have been dealing cancel long period of time.
But now this organisation is willing to learn something different and new and that is completely
innovative for their existing oil base of customers and for this there is usage of certain
frameworks in order to understand what lies in the future relate with the overall competitive
capabilities in this new launching segment and how effectively can the overall innovation can be
managed by Marks and Spencer.
2

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................5
The Future of the Industry 2020 and Beyond.........................................................................5
The Organisations Innovation Requirements 2020 and Beyond............................................7
Building the Future Innovation Capabilities for the Organisation.........................................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
REFERNCE...................................................................................................................................15
3

Introduction
Innovation is a process that is related with creating something new and different from the
existing products and services offered by organizations. It can be brought by launching
something you or by making changes in existing products also. It has become very essential for
organizations to bring time the innovation in order to survive in the market for a longer duration
of time because customers have become more demanding as there are large number of
competitors available in every sector that are offering variety of products to customers and
customers have a zero switching cost (Osiyevskyy, 2016). Contribute to high demanding
customers for more Innovation and timely changes. Present report is based on the future of
industry for the Marks and Spencer. This organization has planning to innovation in terms of
new kitchen ranges. Further there is deposition of test industry in the year 2020 and beyond that.
There is a requirement to build up our vision capability for this organization. Lastly there is a
conclusion drawn based on the all discussions of important aspects related to the innovation that
is bought by Marks and Spencer and how is this related to more enhancement of growth for this
brand. Organization has to make innovations in fulfillment of their future requirement and long-
term survival.
The Future of the Industry 2020 and Beyond
Marks and Spencer has made of launching a complete new range that is different from their
existing range of products that were completely related with clothing accessories shoes etc. I
have made linking of the new products with their already launched products so that they can be
benefited from the existing brand image and loyal customer base.
Presently, it can be said that before the impact of covid-19 virus major businesses of making a
very high progress in implementation of the overall transformation program with their food
outperforming market (Phadermrod, ., Crowder, and Wills, ., 2019)There have been lots of issues
with regards to changes that are taking place regards to clothing range and kids clothing range
very slow growth in recent years for Marks and Spencer. This new innovation is very important
for this organization to start something new and innovative different from the existing range of
products so that customers can find something exciting and completely different their demands
4

and expectations from Marks and Spencer. There have been lot of structural changes related with
the basic infrastructure of the specialist that consists of closing of their 54ec shares stores and
migrating of the mainstream structure to a complete cloud based system. In future there will be
for the implementation of new warehouse management system. The changes have resulted into
instrumental in helping the specimen’s organization to react effectively in early week of such
crisis.
Performing in food business:
It can be said that the food industry in UK has been outperforming in recent years specially in the
year 2019 this industry has shown a tremendous growth (Szeto, 2017). This was the main reason
behind marks and Spencer spreading their business across the sector. This has resulted into
complete high value that will be provided to their customer and the major impact of this is going
to lead new efforts by this brand such as:
1) There has been a price investment that is that will be for strengthen with the launch of
remarkable value and there will be some Fresh Market Special lines at 65 pence.
2) New program related to innovation have been brought forward that consists of launches in the
plant kitchen and healthy means that has to be broaden more with the target segment of
customers who are having more preferences for low calorie and healthy food and are highly
concern towards their health (MARKS AND SPENCER GROUP PLC FULL YEAR RESULTS
FOR 52 WEEKS ENDED 28 MARCH 2020 “SECURING THE FUTURE... ACCELERATING
CHANGE”, 2020 ).
3) There is a new program related to test and learn Universe where the food stores will be open
showcasing more of the full ranges of products in Spencer and will engage environment and lead
to testing of more new products with high innovation. Expectation is to move towards the
extension of such formats in the coming period of time.
4) Another project name as Vangarde has now been ruled out to a counting of 90 stores the
5

leadership team is demonstrating the scope for reduction of face and improvement of availability
so that stores can be done in a more efficient manner (Wada, 2019).
From the above discussed it can be said that the future for Marks and Spencer with the new
innovation with which organization is launched the product will lead to large number of changes
and all the situation present in the external environment are supporting this organization.
The Organisations Innovation Requirements 2020 and Beyond
In case of the future of industry for marks and spencer beyond the year 2020 there are for the
innovation requirements for this organisation.
1) The first phase where there will be transformation of the whole international business is
moving away from the ownership to a franchise or a model of joint venture. There is a
requirement to focus on more localising of the ranges and reduction of prices so that there can be
more development of sales on online platforms across different parts of the world. Marks and
Spencer have to lay their focus on launching of the new kitchen ranges on online platform as
compared to the physical stores as there has been a complete shift in the way people are now
using available brands for the purpose of fulfilment of their basic demand (Wangui, Kiragu, . and
Wachira, 2018).
2) There has been constant International revenue that has decreased from 2.5 % of the whole
operating profit because of the overall trading conditions that are prevailing in the Mars in the
year 2020. It has resulted into loss of 110.7 million pounds that was approximately 15.2% for
Marks and Spencer. So it can be predicted that if the external environmental conditions is year
ending 2020 and will be full of spreading of covid-19 virus then it can result into negative impact
on the sales for the year 2021 also. The new innovation in the kitchen range can be a Ray of hope
for this plant where it can lead to balancing the from sales of launch of such new innovation in
their existing ranges (M&S COLLEAGUES ARE INNOVATING & WORKING TOWARDS A
SUSTAINABLE FUTURE, 2020).
3) The overall online operations have been in 44 market and it consists of direct shipment from
6

UK and also consists of sales in the third party Markets and says that are fulfilled by various
franchise partner by building of their own websites. The over online details have expanded from
26 % to a figure of 103 million pounds and their having a support of launch of the five new
different transactional websites that has a further expansion of range in different marketplaces.
All this is a positive sign for Marks and Spencer as the efforts have been towards high sales and
maintaining the overall revenue that have been constant across all these years before 2020.
From the above discuss it can be said that there is a scenario that can be visible resulting in a
70% decline of the overall revenue of the UK clothing and home sector which is going to impact
Marks and Spencer as one of the high brands period of time and specially in the year 2021
(Zhou, 2018).. It is a very high risk for this Industry that is going to impact their revenue of the
food sector that is going to face only 20% decline according to the experts forecast balancing of
the overall revenue for Marks and Spencer from this new innovative range that they are planning
to launch and have already launched in some of their E-Commerce stores.
Building the Future Innovation Capabilities for the Organisation
Strategic importance off Marks and Spencer can be understood with the help of the future in
aviation capabilities of this organisation for this there is requirement to conduct a detailed
internal analysis for this SWOT analysis is used as a Framework for analysing all these tools in
detail:
1) Strength:
It is basically a resource advantage that is relative to other competitors and needs of the market
that is helping organisation to gain a high competitive advantage (Abdel-Basset, Mohamed. and
Smarandache, 2018). It can be said that distinctive advantage is strength for every organisation
for achievement of high competencies. It can be said that for Marks and Spencer the financial
strength of this organisation and the large market share is one of the highest strength that is
helping them in achievement of high profitability. Further innovation that has been launched for
7

the food related products can be extended to other different stores and location by using the
strength of large loyal customer base and high brand reputation by Marks and Spencer.
2) Weakness:
Every brand for organisation has some type of weakness. In case of Marks and Spencer the
major weakness that is faced by this organisation is high price issues as compared to other
similar brands that are offering same quality. the new innovation of the food related products that
is launched by Marks and Spencer there can be use of special offers and campaigns that can help
their present customers it getting Association with the brand and their newly launched products
for longer duration of time. This weakness if reduced will help them in dealing with the
weakness of price related issues faced by their present customers.
3) Opportunities:
The most important factor that is affecting a business growth of particular organisation is the
high number of opportunities that are present in the external market. The innovation that has
been brought up by the marks and Spencer is a great opportunity that has been utilised by them
in the present external environment apart from the clothing and accessories section that they
were dealing. So there must be utilisation of more effective Strategies and usage of
contemporary model to attract the millennial generation as the segment of products are for the
segment of society that is having high consciousness for the healthy products. So there is a
requirement to approach this segment and specially the young generation who are having high
conscious for their overall health.
4) Threats:
There is presence of high competition for all the sectors in organisation and specially in the retail
sector there have been large number of brands who are providing competition to Marks and
Spencer. For dealing with various threats there is a requirement to improve the overall
performance in terms of high quality products and reasonable prices. In case of understanding
the Future competence of Marks and Spencer, the newly launched segment can be used for the
purpose of reducing the negative impact of strong competition in the external market.
8

Ansoff matrix
Ansoff matrix is a great tool that can be used by organisations for the developing of
future strategies. For future purpose and expansion of markets in International and Domestic
locations there are certain strategies that can be used by Marks and Spencer for the purpose of
analysing the future innovation capabilities of this organisation.
1) Market development strategies:
Strategies related to usage of existing products and services in some new markets. Marks and
Spencer can use as Strategies for growing their business in some new country. Such as the
products offered by Marks and Spencer are of very high quality so it is very easy for Marks and
Spencer to expand in some new locations. In the present scenario of innovation in case of marks
and Spencer can launch their new segment in completely new location.
2) Product development:
In product development there is changes or innovation made in the products by launching
something new but the market segment is existing (Gurcaylilar-Yenidogan, and Aksoy, 2018).
Marks and Spencer can we use of product development strategies in all their lines such as
clothing house ware and food sector. As in the present case of innovation there can be more
innovations and Rangers that can be expanded in healthy products of their food sector.
3) Market penetration:
The strategy is completely relate products and services and also with the needs and requirements
of existing market. In this strategy neither the market is new products are launched. In the
innovation in food segment Marks and Spencer can make use of certain strategies like the
existing loyalty of their customers and high value that they are providing India products as a
improvement strategy for their and also expansion of financial services as a new segment for
achievement of high market share and as a part of growth Strategies for the purpose of
enhancement of overall growth in the existing market.
4) Diversification strategy:
9

This strategy is related with development of a product line in a completely new market. This
strategy can be of basically to type that is horizontal diversification where there is development
of product as a alternative to the existing product on the other hand there is another category that
is vertical diversification where organisation becomes their own supplier or distributor. Apart
from this there is another type of diversification that is unrelated diversification where there is
development of a product that has no related to the present market or industry and forms a
completely new segment of the organisation. It can be said that in case of Marks and Spencer
there can be use of diversification strategy for their food sector. The major strategy will be the
use of horizontal diversification strategy where there is development of good products and also
use of some type of in their existing range of food products.
Above discussed, are some of the growth strategies that can be used by answer purpose of
analysing their future innovation requirements.
McKinsey 7s Framework
McKinsey 7s Framework is basically a management model that has been developed by
Tom Peters and Robert water men in the year 1980. It is basically used for the purpose of
developing a strategic vision for various businesses and there are seven years that is part of
overall structure for this framework. The major two objectives for using of the same work is
facilitating of a present organisation change or an implementation of a new strategy. In the
present case of Marks and Spencer there is a new innovation that is bought by this organisation
and relation with that innovation 7s analysis of McKinsey has been done:
1) Strategy: It is a plant that is developed by organisation for achievement of a sustainable
competitive advantage for surviving successful in the market for longer duration of time period.
In case of Marks and Spencer there is use of short term Strategies for launching their new
innovation for food products and for this many marketing campaigns products in new locations
apart from the existing market segments (Cox, Pinfield, . and Rutter, 2019). So in case of future
it can be said that he strategies will be helping them in enhancing their present share of market
and higher revenue.
10

2) System: System of organisation refers to the overall workflow and decisions that are made
with related to standard operations in organisation. In case of Marks and Spencer there is proper
workflow and all the decisions are made the top management with regards to the innovation of
food products that is implemented by the organisation (Gürel, . and Tat, 2017).
3) Shared values: it is a system that is related with commonly accepted principles and norms
that belongs to organisation. It is related with the overall guidelines of organisation that are
presented to their workforce and it is accepted behaviour in the organisation. The overall vision
of the marks and Spencer is achievement of high sales. for this vision is communicated with
respect to the new innovation in new food segment.
4) Skills: Skills comprises of the overall capabilities and potential of force in a organisation. In
Marks and Spencer there is a requirement to make a detailed analysis of all the skills that are
possessed by the workforce. According, to the skills and competence level of all the individuals
there is further plans are made for achievement of higher revenue from this launching of
innovation.
5) Staff: Staff refers to whole personnel of a organisation willing to work according to different
organisational objective. In Marks and Spencer there is efforts made to provide high training to
employees so that they are able to work according to the Innovation and new segment of
products that have been implemented in this organisation (Irtaimeh, Al-Azzam, . and Al-Qura'an,
2016).
6) System: System refers to the overall procedures and daily activities that are part
of organisation. There is requirement to maintain a smooth system of girls with appropriate
leadership styles that have been developed to achievement of a long run competitive advantage
by organisation like Marks and Spencer who is planning to launch their innovation in future.
7) Style: This factor is symbolising the overall fashion and technique according to which a
company having their all the operations and functions. Revolving around various leadership
11

qualities that are possessed by management and individual in organisation and there are great
responsibilities that are associated with leaders in Marks and Spencer’s as they have the whole
some responsibility of launching the products and ensuring that the overall goals associated with
the new innovation are being achieved (Liu, 2020).
Above discussed is the McKinsey 7s model that can be used by organisation like answer for the
purpose of understanding their future competencies and making efforts to develop some future
course of strategies in order to achieve the long-run objective.
12

Conclusion
From the above discussed it can be said that innovation is a very important tool that can help
a Organisation in probability of growth in the future course of time. Customers are always highly
demanding and they always possess large number of options that lead to bore organisation with
respect to their present products for making some changes in these products. Also there is a
continuous requirement of making that can help a customer segment to keep associated with the
brand for a longer period of time. Present report is based on how effectively different types of
techniques that can be used in the present scenario for the purpose of managing a new innovation
by an organisation.
There are many different Frameworks that have been developed with the time and used
by organisation for the purpose of formation of certain effective actions and development of
future course of Strategies. For this there is a requirement of understanding the internal
capabilities of a particular organisation. For making a internal analysis the most important and
popular Framework is usage of SWOT analysis that helps in developing a detailed understanding
of what are various strength weakness opportunities and set that can provide a opportunity as
well as higher amount of threat for a organisation.
Apart from this another frame 7s model is also a very commonly used tool which helps in
developing a core understanding of capabilities of organisation according to seven types of s that
are related with the functioning and development related pictures of organisation. Apart from this
another model that is and Ans off growth matrix is also used by organisation to understand the
future course of Strategies for achievement of high growth. This is basically a growth Matrix that
is used only for the purpose of understanding what are the requirements of organisation for
achievement of higher growth in coming future period of time and four strategies that a part of
this Matrix are search strategy can be selected for the purpose of adoption in the organisation.
13

REFERNCE
Books and Journals
Abdel-Basset, M., Mohamed, M. and Smarandache, F., 2018. An extension of neutrosophic
AHP–SWOT analysis for strategic planning and decision-making. Symmetry, 10(4),
p.116.
Cox, A.M., Pinfield, S. and Rutter, S., 2019. Extending McKinsey’s 7S model to understand
strategic alignment in academic libraries. Library Management.
Gurcaylilar-Yenidogan, T. and Aksoy, S., 2018. Applying Ansoff’S Growth Strategy Matrix To
Innovation Classification. International Journal of Innovation Management, 22(04),
p.1850039.
Gürel, E. and Tat, M., 2017. SWOT analysis: a theoretical review. Journal of International
Social Research, 10(51).
Irtaimeh, H., Al-Azzam, Z.F. and Al-Qura'an, A., 2016. Impact of intellectual capital on
Carrefour internal growth strategies (Ansoffs Model) in Governorate of Irbid. European
Journal of Business Management, 8(5).
Liu, H., 2020, March. Research on Library Data Management Reform: Discussion on McKinsey
7S System Thinking Model. In 2020 6th International Conference on Information
Management (ICIM) (pp. 295-298). IEEE.
Osiyevskyy, O., 2016. The ultimate leadership challenge: a unique corporate theory of value-
creating growth. Strategy & Leadership.
Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2019. Importance-performance analysis based
SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management, 44, pp.194-203.
Szeto, M.C.H., 2017. 2 Challenges for a community of practice: recognising complexity with the
mckinsey 7s framework.
Wada, T., 2019. Decline of business brings growth opportunities. Annals of Business
Administrative Science, 18(1), pp.13-23.
Wangui, W.L., Kiragu, D.N.U. and Wachira, A.W., 2018. Effect of Pricing Strategy and Growth
of Selected Hotels in Nyeri County, Kenya.
Zhou, X., 2018. Diversification in growth and competition of Chinese home appliances
companies. Journal of Management and Training for Industries, 5(1), p.22.
14

Online:
MARKS AND SPENCER GROUP PLC FULL YEAR RESULTS FOR 52 WEEKS ENDED 28
MARCH 2020 “SECURING THE FUTURE... ACCELERATING CHANGE”, 2020.
[online] Available through: <https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/media/press-
releases/5e0f046f7880b21924350282/marks-and-spencer-group-plc-full-year-results-for-
52-weeks-ended-28-march-2020>
M&S COLLEAGUES ARE INNOVATING & WORKING TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE
FUTURE, 2020. [online] Available through:
<https://careers.marksandspencer.com/inside-mands/m%26s-colleagues-are-innovating-
%26-working-towards-a-sustainable-future>
15

16