Corporate Sustainability Report: Marks and Spencer Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Marks and Spencer's corporate sustainability initiatives. It begins with an executive summary and introduction, outlining the significance of corporate strategy for long-term market sustainability. The main body delves into Marks and Spencer's operations, examining its products, history, and objectives, followed by an in-depth PESTLE analysis to assess the impact of political, social, economic, technological, and environmental factors on the company's sustainability. The report then conducts an internal analysis, evaluating the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). Furthermore, it applies Porter's Five Forces model to assess the competitive landscape, including competition levels, threats of substitutes, new entrants, and bargaining power of suppliers and customers. The report analyzes M&S's annual report, evaluating its revenue, production costs, and competitive advantages. It concludes by identifying sustainability reporting issues and recommending strategies for improvement, emphasizing the importance of decision-making and strategic planning to enhance corporate sustainability. The report highlights M&S's efforts in areas like ethical sourcing, environmental policies, and its 'Plan A' green initiative, alongside its challenges in a competitive retail market.

CORPORATE
SUSTAINABILITY

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Analysing annual report.........................................................................................................9
Evaluating sustainability in M&S........................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The corporate sustainability is an approach that creates the long term stakeholder value
by implement a business strategy. In order to gain effective business position and sustainability
in the competitive market, it is very essential to design effective corporate strategy. The present
report discussed Marks and Spencer's existing sustainability position with reference to relevant
market and its regulatory issue. Several models such as SWOT, Pestle, Porter five force etc has
been discussed in this report with respect of Marks and Spencer company. Furthermore, several
recommendations and strategies for improve corporate strategy of cited venture has been also
addressed.

INTRODUCTION
For sustain in the market for long time, every organisation required to adopt a specific
strategy and systematic plan. A well-structured strategy and plan helps to corporation in develop
competitive advantage and growth (Botha, Kourie and Snyman, 2014). The current report
defines the impact and significance of corporate strategy through which Marks and Spencer earn
maximum profitability and growth in the competitive business environment. Several concepts for
design corporate strategy has been also discussed in this report with respect of Marks and
Spencer company. In addition to this, for analyse the impact of various component of business
environment, PESTLE analysis has been also discussed in this report.
MAIN BODY
Marks and Spencer Group is a major British multinational retailer that headquarter is
situated in city of Westminster London. It serves several products like clothing, home ware
items, luxury food items etc in high prices and quality. The company found in 1884 by Michael
Marks and Thomas Spencer. It operated 979 stores across the UK along with one objective that
is to serve high quality of branded product to customer and become number one retail outlet in
the world. It's another aim is to earn maximum profitability by operate business in the different
country. For achieve business objective, corporation require conducting internal and external
analysis.
In order to survive in the competitive business environment, organisation required to
focus on several aspects of business environment (Zhang and Huang, 2012). As it is consisting
with several factors such as political, social, cultural, legal, environmental, legal and
demographical. By assess and analyse several factors elements company can easily develop
corporate sustainability and practices. There are various positive and negative impact of several
component of business environment that affect Marks and Spencer corporate sustainability.
Following are some implication of these elements-
Political and legal- This factor affects the business operation in large manner as it includes
several political legislations, practices, policies, rules, regulation. At the time of developing
corporate sustainability, company must have to consider governmental policies, regulation, rules,
legislation so as it can securely operate its business in the market (PESTLE Analysis, 2017). For
example, several laws regarding employees, customers, business helps to business in providing
rights and precise through which they can safely carry out their activities. For operate the

business in country, corporation must have to follow political regulation and imposed
legislations. On the basis of BBC news 30th January 2006 report, it has been found that Marks
and Spencer would be the first major retailer to go down the Fair trade route on the both
clothing and food.
Social and cultural- This factor is directly linked with customers choices, preferences, life style,
background, beliefs, social value, ethics etc. At the time of developing corporate sustainability
corporation must have to focus on the social and cultural components. The success of corporate
sustainability is directly linked with customer satisfaction and motivation (Cai and Yang, 2014).
If product and services are effectively delivered and meet requirement of customers then it helps
to achieve determined objective of business entity. Marks and Spencer effectively follows social
norms, value, and other demographic condition in different country and meet requirement of
customers accordingly.
Economical- This factor is linked with economical condition of country under which includes
recession, inflation, interest rate, GDP rate etc. This factor directly linked with profitability and
revenue of business. Marks and Spencer's corporate sustainability directly influence by economic
condition of country. At the time of setting pricing strategy, corporation must have to focus on
the economic condition of country.

Technological- This is most significance factor of business environment that bring innovation
and creativity within business entity. This factor can largely affect corporate sustainability of
Marks and Spencer as every functional department required technology. Due to continuous
changing technology and equipment, business operation can largely influence.
Environmental- Marks and Spencer have established their own green policy which they call
'Plan A”. In the present time, Marks and Spencer has announced a 100 point five year plans to re-
enginer itself to become a carbon neutral, zero waste to landfill, ethical-trading, health promoting
business (TEbert and et.al., 2014). This factor also affect corporate sustainability of Marks and
Spencer as it has to consider several aspects such as weather, climate, air, water, pollution etc
while operating business.
Illustration 1: PESTLE Analysis
Source:PESTLE Analysis, 2017

Internal Analysis
Strength- Marks and Spencer is one of the most famous retail outlet that delivers high quality of
product and services in the market. It has strong brand image in the competitive business
environment due to its high quality of services. It has also engaged with corporate social
responsibility and follows several business ethics through which it has effective goodwill. Marks
and Spencer effectively focuses on e-commerce infrastructure through which it can easily
promote and advertise its commodity and services on the internet.
Weakness-Marks and Spencer follows old technique rather than following a new technique
which increase the different aspect such as money, time etc. It has poor promotional strategy and
practices due to which its profitability influenced in the present time. It is another weakness is
strong competition in the market (Waithaka and Ngugi, 2013). As there is a large numbers of
competitors of Marks and Spencer due to which some time its profitability and growth
influenced in market.
Opportunity- Develop more stores in the different country is one of the major opportunity for
Marks and Spencer in the present time. Corporate can introduce new market segments that offer
more profit and its can expand its business in the china and India.
Threat- Marks and Spencer major threat is its huge competition in the market as it has large
numbers of rivals. As company operates its business in various countries so it has to follow
different legislation and regulation. (Grigor'ev and Suslova, 2014) This is one of the major threat
for company because company have to modify its policies and practices according to political
environment. Regular changes in technology is another hare for Marks and Spencer.
Porter Five force Analysis
Porter Five force model is another one of the significant technique for analyse the business
condition and for conduct industry analysis of organisation in the competitive business
environment. With help of this model, company can easily analyse its position and competency
in the competitive business environment. In order to assess Marks and Spencer competency,
following are detail analysis of business with help of Porter Five force model- Level of Competition- Marks and Spencer is one of the famous retailer in the market that
serves high quality of product and services (Asghar, 2013). However, it has large
numbers of competitors in the market which serves same commodity and items. Cited
venture is particularly vulnerable to competition as it sells not only food but also apparel

and household items. It faces competition from both supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda,
Sainsbury and cloth retailers such as Next, Zara, John Lewis etc. Threat of substitutes- The threat of substitution of Marks and Spencer is very low
because there are no substitutes to food and clothes as company delivers. As Marks and
Spencer delivers high quality of product and services which other brand do not deliver
(Porter five force analysis, 2018).
 Threat of new entrants- Threat of new entrants is low for Marks and Spencer company
because it is one of the famous retail brand in the market which serve distinctive product
and services (Schneider and Schmidpeter, 2012). It has strong position and good will in
the competitive business environment. New business required to invest large amount of
capital for develop such strong position in the market as Marks and Spencer have.
Illustration 2: Porter Five force Model
Source:Porter five force analysis, 2018

 Bargaining power of suppliers- Bargaining power of supplier is low because Marks and
Spencer brand name is enough for sale its product and services in the market. It is not
dependent on suppliers as other stores as it mainly sell won branded products
(Kitzmueller and Shimshack, 2012).
 Bargaining power of customer- The bargaining power of customer because there are
large numbers of substitute product available in the market. Due to large numbers of
Competitors of Marks and Spencer in the market customers have option to switch their
brand.
Analysing annual report
Analyzing the annual report of M&S, the overall revenue has been evaluated as 10.7 bn. On
every part of the production of goods, the firm has achieved a total of 1.6 p. Although after
adding the tax amounts, there have been some changes in the pricing of goods but they are also
accurate enough for helping the firm to achieve all objectives. On every single purchasing of
goods or service, they have estimated an amount to be reached. Then after the whole process gets
completed, they make analysis between the two (Fisher, 2015). Making an analysis between the
expected and the achieved outcomes, they can evaluate their growth percentage. So, this also
helped M&S to achieve a great competitive advantage and a higher position in the market place

as well. Therefore, on the basis of the analysis, it can be considered that M&S is successfully
growing and achieving targets. As there is a huge competition in the market place, so M&S is
trying to leave no stone unturned by involving a wide range of products so that they can be able
to satisfy the customers to a huge extent. Not only in any one sector, but the firm has
successfully achieved all targets in every single sector, whether it is about their clothing or the
food range.
This is an example of the achievements of M&S in clothing sector. Their contribution for the
UK sector has been about 39%. So, this can be considered as a very effective factors having a
positive influence on the economy. They have also covered a wider space over this sector. M&S
has involved a variety of new and improved articles so that they can be able to make a special
and advanced position in the market place because they wanted to be on top. Also, the
involvement of different factors and operations helped M&S to achieve a higher competitive
advantage as well.
Evaluating sustainability in M&S
After the analysis has been made, it has been evaluated that there are some sustainability
reporting issues in M&S that are affecting the operations and processes of the firm. Some issues
that the company is going through involves the fact that M&S is making involvement of sources
of stakeholder communications for the purpose of media. Because of issues with sustainability
reporting, the firm is also not able to analyse the overall rate of improvements and also in
strengthening factors. It is because one of a major issue within the company is lack of efficient
decision making, which is further leading to complications and issues. So, with the help of an
efficient sustainable strategy, M&S can make some improvements and modifications. On the
basis of these situations, the only gap that is leading to such issues is that there is a lack of proper
decision making and along with that, involvement of basic and required strategies and techniques

is less however (Button and Cross, 2017). So, in order to stay protected from sustainability
reporting issues, M&S can make sure to involve some strategies that can help them.
These strategies can help to make modifications in the environment of M&S so that the
firm can be able to achieve a higher rate of productivity. Some well known sustainable strategies
may include departmental, federal etc. According to the Federal sustainable development act
2008, it throws a major focus on goals and targets. It is because if the goals in M&S will stay
clear to every single employee, then there are possibilities that they can be able to achieve their
objectives much faster. In case of departmental strategies, the focus remains on the fact that
every department of M&S should have to ensure that in every environmental petition, they have
to participate completely. It plays a very important role because after participating in that only,
they can be able to analyze and their position that where they actually stand. So, this can b
considered as much helpful and beneficial so that M&S may analyze where they are acting
efficient and where they lack so that they can make improvements and modifications in the parts
that actually need some sort of modification. This can further help them to ensure a sort of
sustainability as well so that the whole processing can stay maintained. It will also cover and
improve all factors causing issues in the sustainability reporting within M&S. So, after the
implementation of these strategies, they can ensure a better and higher productivity rate thus by
satisfying a higher rate of customers.
Strategic Plan and sustainability strategy proposal
In order to develop strong position and gain competitive advantage in the market, Marks
and Spencer will focus on the Quadruple Bottom Line (Bautista and et.al., 2016). This strategy
considers by organisation for not only fiscal losses and returns but also the environmental and
social losses and benefit that result from their product and business operation. In order to analyse
the improvement within the company, management should consider The Triple bottom line. It is
a bookkeeping structure with three sections that are social, ecological and monetary. There are a
few organizations which embrace the triple main concern approach for assessing and breaking
down the business execution. Fundamentally this approach help with estimating the
organization's level of social obligation, monetary esteem and its ecological effect. The
association which is viewed as the structure of triple primary concern then that organization
consider the effect of business activity on nature, society and economy.

By adopting the Triple bottom line approach company have to focus on the social,
environmental and financial aspect. By adopting this strategy, Marks and Spencer can create
greater business value and position in the market. As Marks and Spencer specialises several
customer products such as clothing, food, home ware items. It will consider environmental
factors along with its business operation (Bhaduri and Selarka, 2016). By consider this factor, it
will follow several business ethics and engage with corporate social responsibility by deliver
environment friendly product to its customers. By deliver environment friendly product and
green products, it can develop strong image and goodwill in the market. In addition to this,
Marks and Spencer will consider social factor by meet actual requirement of customers by
delivers product and services accordingly. It will also provide healthy food products to health
conscious customers. It will focus on social ethics, norms and value of customer by meet their
requirement. In addition to this, company will organise social welfare and charitable trust for
improve social value. For consider the last elements of Triple bottom line that is financial
factors, company will provide free services to its regular customer and attractive discounts along
with its product and services.
In order to design the sustainable strategy company will focus on the approach of triple and
Quadruple bottom line through which it can earn maximum profitability and competitive
advantage in the competitive business environment. The above strategy will help to company in
minimise environmental and social damages through which brand image will automatically
improve.
Recommendation for further improve strategy
 Company should adopt the triple bottom line approach for overcome its business issues.
It should improve its corporate social responsibility by engage with some business ethics
and involve in social works like voluntary work, charities trust, employees and
community welfare programs etc (Bhaduri and Selarka, 2016).
 Company should improve its involvement in social media and latest technology so as it
can improve speed of business operation as well as promotional activities. By use social
media, company can easily promoter commodity on the internet and attract large numbers
of customers.

 Company should adopt operation management approaches such as six sigma, total
quality management, lean production etc for improve quality and effectiveness of
business activities, strategies, product and services.
Social media Campaign
For promote its corporate and sustainability strategy, company will focus on the social media
campaign. It will promote its triple bottom line strategy with help of social media under which it
will design its own web page on Facebook and You tube and provide information to customer for
its new business product such as healthy product, green product strategy and environmental
friendly product and services.
CONCLUSION
From this entire report it has been summarised that there are several factors that can
affect the business operation and activities. It is very important for corporation to focus on that
factors for sooth running of business. It has been also concluded that Marks and Spencer have
strength of its high quality of product and services through which it has developed strong brand
image in the market.

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