Leadership, Management Practices, and Strategies at Next Plc

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Next Plc, a multinational retail company, examining its history, vision, leadership style, management practices, and strategies. The report highlights Next Plc's democratic leadership style, emphasizing employee participation in decision-making, and explores the impact of various management practices such as fair rewards, good working conditions, and effective communication on employee productivity and organizational success. It further analyzes how Next Plc can implement and improve upon these elements, providing recommendations for enhanced leadership, motivational factors, and management practices to achieve economies of scale, gain a competitive advantage, and expand the business both domestically and internationally. The report underscores the importance of an effective leadership style and strategies in achieving high productivity and profit maximization.

Context of Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
History and Summary of Next Plc..............................................................................................1
Vision, leadership style, management practices and strategies of Next Plc ..............................2
Analyse how the above mentioned elements can implement by Next Plc..................................3
Recommendation as an improvement of Next Plc ..................................................................5
REFERNCES ................................................................................................................................6
.........................................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Leadership is an interpersonal influence which exercised in a situation and directed
through the communication process towards the attainment of a pre determined goal in an
effective and efficient manner (Donate and de Pablo, 2015). A company without an effective
leadership, it becomes a challenge to them in achieving their organisational goal or objective. An
organisation is established with a goal to accomplish high productivity and profitability through
productive manpower. In context to Next plc, one of the famous multinational retail company
which is commenced in the year of 1864. It offers varies ranges of products such as clothing,
footwear and home product which is headquartered in UK. This report covers the company
background and rationale of company, influence of leadership style, management practices and
various strategies on business, analyse hoe company can implement the influencing element and
finally recommend the corrective course of action to firm.
History and Summary of Next Plc.
Next is one of the British multinational company which is established in the year of 1864
by Joseph Hepworth. Its headquartered in England, UK and it the largest clothing retailer in UK.
Next segmented its products in clothing, footwear, accessories and home products and operates
700 stores in 40 countries across the globe. It has 43,970 productive manpower who are highly
dedicated and passionate towards the accomplishment of organisational goal in an effective
manner. In1864, it is started as tailor with the name of Joseph Hepworth & Son who believes in
adapting opportunities which enable them to have 100 outlets by 1884. It contains several brands
which provide quality of products such as Lipsy, Jack Wills, Warehouse, Barbour, Ted Baker
etc. in which Lipsy designs and sells its own branded younger women's fashions products
through wholesale, retail and website channel. Next serves 4 million active customers across the
globe and provide facility of online trading which enable the company to improve the overall
performance in an efficient way.
Rationale of Next Plc
The main purpose of choosing Next Plc is that they are highly dedicated or committed to
offer innovative and creative products which provide outstanding value to meet or exceed
customer's expectations. They considered their customer as a great assets for the expansion of
company which adds value to them and improves the brand image. The company's vision is to

the best and first choice retailer in the UK for fashion aware men and women who expect style,
distinction and quality from their clothing. Next Plc has effective leadership style as it follows
democratic leadership style which encourages the employees to participate in the business
decision making process. They are one of the innovative companies in the market and develop
an Internet or online trading which enable them to gain the competitive advantage. Along with
this, its employees satisfaction level is high as they provide fair reward and treat everyone
equally which enable them to build better relationship among employees (Iqbal, Anwar and
Haider, 2015). Furthermore, Next main focus is to support business approach or operations with
honesty, respect and encouragement which enable them to accomplish organisational goal in an
effective and efficient manner.
Vision, leadership style, management practices and strategies of Next Plc
Vision statement is a framework which provides clarity of purpose among mangers and
employees and enable the company to direct the subordinates in a proper way. By this Next Plc
leaders can accomplish their organisational goal in an effective and efficient manner.
Furthermore, it helps them in understanding the threat among market and enable them to
implement corrective course of action. In the present scenario, every organisation requires an
effective and productive leaders who identifies and analyse the challenges and can implement
corrective course of action. Next Plc is known for its working culture as its leadership is
productive and build the better working condition which improves the morale of employees.
Leadership is an ability of an individual to inspire or influence the followers to contribute their
best effort towards the attainment of high productivity and profitability. There is no best style of
leadership as it is a situation bound which depends upon the potentiality of leader or manager in
tackling with complex condition (Lillqvist and Louhiala-Salminen, 2014). An organisation
follows varies types of leadership style which helps them to achieve pre determined goal such as
transformational , transactional, autocratic, democratic etc. Each styles has it own traits and
potentiality in encouraging the followers to put their best effort towards the attainment of high
productivity. However, Next Plc has impressive leadership style i.e. democratic style as they
always encourage their employees in business decision making process which creates high level
of satisfaction among employees
(THE_IMPACT_OF_LEADERSHIP_STYLE_ON_WORKERS_PRODUCTIVITY, 2017). By this
company can easily adopt business opportunities in order to achieve pre determined goals.

Therefore, Next is flexible in nature which enable them to take effective decisions which
improves the morale of employees.
Management means getting things done effectively through people which implies the
importance of leadership and people skills in management practice to achieve optimal results.
Management practices are the essential tool for management in which company applies for
attainment of high proficiency. However, every company wants to improve employee
productivity for which they adopt several management practices which enable them to improve
the satisfaction level of employees. Some of the management practices are providing fair
reward, good working condition, effective communication between employer and employee,
motivational practices, providing training and development tools etc. By these management
practices, Next plc are enable to obtain high productivity and profitability and can easily gain
the competitive advantage. However, an organisation can achieve success through the
implementation of appropriate management practices in order to attain business pre determined
goals or objectives (Papulova, 2014).
In today's competitive world , every organisation wants to be productive in order to gain
competitive advantage effectively and efficiently. Organisations effectiveness relates to the
efficiency of a business; however managers should also focus on quality of services. For
attaining the same firm applies several strategies to accomplish pre determined goals. Some of
the strategies are hiring talented workforce i.e. effective human resource , provide training and
develop employees skills, identify the potentiality of subordinates, effective leadership style,
adapting innovative technology etc. By this, Next Plc are able to understand the potentiality and
can make use of optimum utilisation of resources for attaining profit maximisation. However,
one of the primary objective of Next is to deliver long term returns to stakeholders through the
adaption of innovative technology, focussing on customer service and satisfaction level in order
to gain competitive advantage and can improves the brand image among community and market.
Analyse how the above mentioned elements can implement by Next Plc.
An impressive or effective leadership style and management practices helps Next Plc to
gain competitive advantage and can attain high productivity. The first and foremost thing of any
organisation is having and impressive vision which is the image of future one seeks to create or
to expand business at global level or domestically. . Along with this, Next Plc can have
inspirational vision statement which helps them in analysing the path and enable them to take

better decision in order to avoid misfortune among employees as well as from company. An
organisation success is fully depend upon the behaviour of leaders or mangers towards
employees which effect the company's productivity and profitability. Hence, an inspiring
leadership plays a vital role in the company's expansion or growth as well as helps them to
improve the satisfaction level of employees. Each leadership has their own roles and purpose for
handling or managing the complex business situation. However, Next Plc's managers or leaders
should adapt appropriate leadership i.e. autocratic, democratic, task oriented style etc. style
which enable them to build better relationship among employees (Renko, El Tarabishy, Carsrud
and Brännback, 2015). Apart from this, effective leadership enable the leaders to determine how
someone can uses their power and authority to lead others. Among that some leadership style are
power oriented and some are participative like autocratic leadership signifies that individual
person controls the entire business operations. On the other hand democratic leadership
encourages or motivates employees to put their best effort towards the attainment of high volume
of sales and enrich of company. So, Next Plc 's leaders should be very careful or attentive in
choosing the right leadership style which helps them in understanding the business opportunities
in order to enrich the business operation at a global level.
At the same time application of productive management practices is also an integral
component for the growth of company. However, business management is the process by which
Next Plc gets its employees to produce the greatest results with least amount of effort using the
resources available to them. Some of the management practices or tools which Next can imply
i.e. engage the employees in decision making or problem solving process, recognise the effort
and appraise subordinates performance, motivating employees etc. By this company can
understand and identify the opportunities in order to face the challenges from competitors and
enable them to gain competitive advantage.
Moreover, continually improving the work process it is not only required effective
management practices but at the same time it need effective strategies to enlarge the business at
an international level (vom Brocke, Zelt and Schmiedel, 2016). So, Next Plc can have
inspirational or effective strategies for attaining the high productivity and profit maximisation.
Some of the strategies which Next Plc can apply such as analyse the business opportunities,
adapt innovative or latest technology in order to capture the market share, offer high quality
customer service etc. However, all these components enable Next Plc to attain economies of

scale and enable them to expand their business operation in domestically and internationally that
improves company's brand image.
Recommendation as an improvement of Next Plc
From the above mentioned report it has been recommended that effective leadership
plays a significant role in the enrichment of company but each leadership has unique role and
purpose which effect the working culture within workplace. Each leaders or manger should be
able to handle or manage the complex business situation in order to provide the high satisfaction
level and improve the morale of employees. Apart from this, company must focus on
motivational factors as it is considered as one of the essential tool for the business growth
effectively and efficiently. Motivational factors can be in monetary or non – monetary terms
which has equal importance on the achievement of organisational goal as well as the satisfaction
of employees. Moreover, company 's manager must have an effective communication which
enable them to build open relationship with employees that helps in gaining their trust. Along
with this, an organisation should have effective management practices in order to increase
morale , productivity in order to obtain profit maximisation and gain competitive advantage.
Moreover, for obtaining effective performance company should provide enough
platforms to employees in order to improve their potentiality or skills which reduces the
employee retention or turnover. By this, firm can achieve economies of scale and encourage the
subordinates to optimise the available resources for attaining profit maximisation. However,
leader should motivate the employees so that they can contribute their best effort towards the
accomplishment of pre determined goal. A leader or manger should take initiative to participate
the employees in major decision making process and problem solving which builds positive
attitude among them towards company's goal. By this, company can easily accomplish the high
profitability and productivity and can enlarge the business in domestically and internationally.
Therefore, company should be flexible in nature as they always seek for innovation or creative
products which enable them to gain competitive advantage and can accomplish pre determined
goal in an effective and efficient manner.

REFERNCES
Books and journals
Donate, M. J. and de Pablo, J. D. S., 2015. The role of knowledge-oriented leadership in
knowledge management practices and innovation. Journal of Business Research. 68(2).
pp.360-370.
Iqbal, N., Anwar, S. and Haider, N., 2015. Effect of leadership style on employee performance.
Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review. 5(5). pp.1-6.
Lillqvist, E. and Louhiala-Salminen, L., 2014. Facing Facebook: Impression management
strategies in company–consumer interactions. Journal of Business and Technical
Communication. 28(1). pp.3-30.
Papulova, Z., 2014. The significance of vision and mission development for enterprises in
Slovak Republic. Journal of Economics, Business and management. 2(1). pp.12-16.
Renko, M., El Tarabishy, A., Carsrud, A. L. and Brännback, M., 2015. Understanding and
measuring entrepreneurial leadership style. Journal of Small Business Management.
53(1). pp.54-74.
vom Brocke, J., Zelt, S. and Schmiedel, T., 2016. On the role of context in business process
management. International Journal of Information Management. 36(3). pp.486-495.
Online
THE IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP STYLE ON WORKERS PRODUCTIVITY. 2017. [Online].
Available
through:<https://www.academia.edu/25050677/THE_IMPACT_OF_LEADERSHIP_ST
YLE_ON_WORKERS_PRODUCTIVITY>.