Strategic Management Report: Competitive Advantage of M&S

This report provides a comprehensive strategic management analysis of Marks and Spencer (M&S), a retail company. It begins with an introduction to strategic management, defining business and corporate strategies. The report then delves into the types of strategies employed by M&S, specifically focusing on market development. It explores the application of different schools of thought in strategy formulation, including the design and planning schools. A key component of the report is the application of Porter's Five Forces model to assess M&S's competitive advantage within the retail industry, analyzing threats of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threats from substitutes, and rivalry among existing competitors. The report further examines the impact of these forces on M&S's competitive position. An internal analysis using SWOT and VRIO frameworks is also conducted to evaluate M&S's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as the value, rarity, imitability, and organizational aspects of its resources. The report concludes by discussing strategic choice models to sustain the company's competitive position and the resource implications of the chosen strategies.

Strategic Management

Table of Contents
.........................................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Types of strategy in relation to the schools of strategy and strategic concepts .........................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Model to explore competitive advantage of the company..........................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
Internal tool analysis ..................................................................................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
Strategic choice models to sustain the company’s competitive position ...................................9
TASK 5.........................................................................................................................................12
Resource implications that the company has to address...........................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFRENCES.................................................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
Strategic management refers to the process where continuous planning, controlling,
determination and assessment of all the resources which are required by a company to achieve its
goals and objectives. It includes the creation and implementation of the goals and capacity of
willingness taken by a firm's top level managers on the behalf of the owners and guides the
organisation to make strategies and procedures to follow up to achieve the goals of the
organisation. There are two types of strategy that is business strategy and corporate strategy.
This report is about the strategic management of the Marks and Spencer's company. This
company is a retail public limited company which was founded in 1884 by Sir Michael Mark and
has headquarters in London (Barney, 2012). It sells clothes, home products and luxury food
products. It includes the types of strategy and relevant models and concepts, exploring
competitive drivers and the impact on the competitive position of the company. Exploration of
strategic choice models to sustain the company's competitive position and resource allocation of
the selected strategy is also mentioned.
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TASK 1
Types of strategy in relation to the schools of strategy and strategic concepts
Marks and Spencer are focusing their main marketing efforts by incorporating in helping
the communities to do less wastage and more recycling and doing market development. It is a
method where the company is selling its present goods and services into the new market place.
The developments in the market might enhance the business of the products of the company to
new segments of the market, there will be new utilisation for the products and services of the
organisation or the new geographical areas which will able to attract new customers for the
organisation (Bettis, 2016). There are several other possible conditions for adopting this strategy,
which also includes new market segments for geographical areas for example delivering the
goods and services to a fresh or a new country or place. Marks and Spencer has announced the
starting of the world's most significant store of Marks and Spencer beyond the UK at Dubai
Festival City in February 2007. On October 2008 , the company has opened up its first mainland
China store in Shanghai, which are treated as some exceptional cases of market development.
Schools of thoughts for strategy formulation
Most of the companies have devoted workforce for the formulation of the strategies and
is a very crucial process for the companies because it guides the company as to which direction
the company has to lead and the methods in which a company can get succeeded. School of
thought of strategy formulation is mentioned below:
The design school
In regard to the process of formulation of strategy, the concentration is on the thought of
ideas and to create new ideas and technologies (Boyd, 2012).
 The internal analysis of the company is done with the help of SWOT analysis.
 After doing the internal analysis, the organisation makes efforts to match its internal
strength which is needed.
 This is suitable in a environment which is stable, here stable environment refers to the
scenario where the competitors do not interrupt the market all of a sudden and it gives
minimum time to the firm to adapt to the marketing conditions.
But, conducting an internal analysis of the company is dependent on the knowledge of the firm
about itself. Likewise, to match the internal abilities of the firm to the external market, needs the
information and description of the external market. Eventually, the limitation of the design
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school of thought of formulation of the strategy is knowledge and if the correct information and
description is not used, the design school of thought will fail.
The planning school
In this thought of school, the thought process is implemented towards the planning of the
entire strategy in a strict manner, so that the company can advances forward. The issues is
arrived in this school of thought is whenever the plan is not properly implemented. For example,
if the company has preplanned the activities but the competitors comes in between then the entire
plan will have a impact (Ginter, 2018). Therefore for using the planning school of thought one
needs to have correct and proper prediction.
TASK 2
Model to explore competitive advantage of the company
Porter Five forces model is being used to explore the competitive advantage of Marks and
Spencer's. The Michael Porter analysed five forces that contributes to the profitability of the
firm. The Porter Five Forces are: Threat of new entrants; Bargaining power of the suppliers;
Bargaining power of the buyers, Threat from Substitute products and rivalry among the existing
players which are being discussed below:
Threats of new entrants
The new entrants in the retail industries brought innovations and new ways of managing
things and brought stress to Marks and Spencer group plc, by decreasing their pricing strategy
and doing reduction in the costs (Goetsch, 2014). The organisation can handle the threats of new
entrants by:
 Bringing creativity and modifying the new products and services of the company. This
modifications or innovation in the new products and services not only attract the
customers but also influence the old customers to buy the company's products.
 Developing economies to scale, to decrease the fixed cost of product per unit. Building potential and doing expenses with money on the research and development.
New entrants fear entering a industry which is of dynamic nature and define the
standards on the regular basis.
Bargaining power of suppliers
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The retailing industries buy their products from different suppliers. Suppliers are the people who
can lower down the margins for the company and these suppliers utilise their power of
negotiation to pull out higher prices from the retailing industries (Greco, 2013). Marks and
Spencer can tackle the problem by:
 Developing a supply chain which is effective and efficient from various suppliers. Doing experiments with the designs of the products and utilising different resources so
that in case if the prices of the products rises of one resource than the company can shift
to other resource.
Bargaining power of the buyers
Buyers often try to demand more and wanted the best and high quality at the lowest prices
possible which can be a issue in the profitability in the company for the long run. Mark's and
Spencer can tackle this problem:
 By rapidly brining innovation the new products and services as customers always look
for the discounts and offers on the products so if the company will launch innovative
products it will eventually lead to the limitation for the bargaining power of the buyers. New products will also lead to the reduction in the rejection of existing customers of
Marks and Spenser with its competitors (Hill, 2014).
Threats of Substitute Products or services
When a new product or services full fills the requirements of the customer in different ways , the
profitability of the company suffers. The company handles the issue of threat of substitute
products and services by:
 By giving more services and focus on giving more services rather than giving more
products.
 By analysing the requirements of the customers rather than what the customer is
purchasing. By bringing an increment in the switching cost for the customers.
Rivalry among the Existing competitors
Intensity in the company rises if there is a rivalry among the existing competitors which will lead
decrement in the prices and it will eventually decrease the overall productivity of the company.
Marks and Spencer can tackle this intense rivalry among the competitors by:
 Creating a sustainable differentiation.
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 Developing a competitive scale so that it can survive in the competitive market.
 Coordinating with the competitors so as to increase the size of the market rather than just
giving competition to the smaller markets.
Impact on the competitive position of Marks and Spencer
By determining all the five competitive forces of Marks and Spencer company, the
strategies can tell about the full description on the impacts which effect the profitability of the
organisation regarding the industries of retailing (Hitt, 2012). They can analyse the the changing
trends coming in the environment which can effect the industry and can take measures to give
responses to deal with the new emerging opportunities coming in the dynamic markets. By
implementing and understanding the porters five forces model in full description the manager of
Marks and Spencer can turn those forces into favour of the company and can gain a competitive
advantage to their rivals. Porter Five forces model also build a resistible competitive advantage
in the retail industry for the firm and it is not limited just to develop a strategic position of the
company in the retailing field but can also find out various opportunities which will help in
giving satisfaction top the customers and increasing the productivity and profits of the company.
It also help in determining the strategic decision by just de terming the present competitive with
the market of retailing industry and gives a competitive advantage to the firm to survive in the
dynamic competitive world.
TASK 3
Internal tool analysis
Marks and Spencer is a retailing industry which sells clothes, home appliances and luxury
food products. An internal analysis determines measures that will give useful information about
the organisation with regards to its strengths, weakness, threats and opportunities which basically
means a SWOT analysis of the company (Keupp, 2012). The vision and mission statements of
the organisation influence the workforce to take initiative and encourage the innovation so as to
achieve the competitive advantage or resist in the competitive world. Therefore the vision
statement and the mission statement of the company Marks and Spencer is given below:
Vision: The vision of the company is to maintain a standard according to which others
are measured. It also states that the bench marking is conducted by other industries so that it can
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implement the same strategy into their practices of business and competitors' aspiration to gain
the same level of quality as Marks and Spenser.
Mission: The mission of the company is providing the new quality products in the areas
of cloths, food, home and financial services. Social revolution, by providing the working class
with clothes fit for lords and food fit for kings. Delivering high quality of products with
affordable prices and receiving by customers good value for the money.
VRIO Analysis of Marks and Spencer
VRIO analysis refers to determination of the company's resources and its competitive
advantage. The basics strategy process that a company goes through starts with a vision
statement and then continues through the objectives, strategic choices, strategic implementation
and external and internal analysis. VRIO is a short form of four framework questions which are
related to the description of the resources or the potential to analyse the competitive capacity: the
question of value, the question of rarity, the question of imitability and the question of
organisation (Lasserre, 2017).
Valuable: Under this the cost of the resources are valuable and it gives the business the
productivity and opportunities for being competitive in the market. It also brings reduction or
elimination to the threats of the business. These valuable resources will help the company's
external as well as internal environments. This helps in determining the cost of purchase of the
resource within the market. For example, its availability to purchase. Hence, the resources like
brand, supply chain management, top executive and product distribution are very much valuable
of Marks and Spenser.
Rare: When resources are rare and valuable, then it helps the company to give a
competitive advantage to other company. With regards to this , the competitors of the company
will realise rapidly and can do not face a much trouble in the market. This helps in analysing the
rareness of the resources. Therefore the supply chain management of the company or products
will be rare.
Inimitable: It is helpful in provide the competitive benefits to company. This element
undertakes the study about how difficult it is to copy the product or the services of Marks and
Spenser. Hence, the brand, supply chain are the elements which cannot recopied by any other
competitor in the market (Molina-Azorin, 2012). However, the international product distribution
is carried out by many other competitors in the market such as TESCO, Sainsburry, etc.
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Organised: This factor help in understanding how well the organisation can use its
existing procedures and plans . Thus, it will be right to say that this is a well established
company which have have successfully explored all the organisation arrangements in order to
expand the market share and growth of the company within the market.
Business Canvas Model
It is a strategic management for creating new or improvising the existing models of the
business. It is sought of a visual chart that have elements which have the description of the
company or product's value proposition, infrastructure, customer and finances. It was proposed
by Alexander Osterwalder. It is usually used by the strategic managers to represent the
virtualisation of the existing or new business models and helps in the comparative analysis of the
business as a whole regarding the effect on the increment in the of the investment of the business
that may contributes to the factors of the business (Priem, 2012). It also give assistance to the
firm in aligning their activities by elaborating the potential of the trade off. The building blocks
of the model are: key partners, key activities, key resources, value prepositions, customer
relationship, channels, customer segments, cost structure and revenue streams.
Business canvas model of Marks and Spencer is mentioned below:
Partners-
M & S bank AND
M&S ENERGY
Activities-
sells clothes,
home appliances,
luxury food
products and
branded goods
like Kellog's Corn
Flakes.
Value
Proposition-
Try to bring
innovations and
modification the
products and
services of the
company.
Customer
relations-
Switching cost.
Customer
Segment-
Mass Market.
Resources-
Employees,
Product and
Services
Channel-
Clothing and
home stores and
websites.
Cost- Low cost marketing strategy, Revenue Stream- Clothes, home
appliances and luxury food.
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TASK 4
Strategic choice models to sustain the company’s competitive position
Bowman's strategy clock model gives tools for determining and justifying the profits and
gains of Marks and Spencer that has been faced by them throughout its cycle of life. The
company is one of the most popular company in clothing and food chain and o the business
internationally are facing impacts which are due the market scenario for not implementing the
correct strategy combination related to the quality, price and value of the product (Rahm, 2012).
Concept of Bowman's Strategy Clock and the routes taken by the firm.
Position 1:Low Price and Low Value Added
Under this phase it is difficult for the companies to do competition since the quality is
low as well as there no or a little differentiation, but in case the firm is not able to give quality
as well as differentiation to the extent of competing with the rest of the companies whose
business have to remain in this level of strategic clock (Somsuk, 2014). Here, In Marks and
Spencer, this is an exclusive organisation which concentrates of the superior segment related to
price and it can't afford to adopt this strategy in any way. This level also depends on keeping the
margins low and volumes high which is based on earning profit. Sales with an effective cost
volume and depending on new customers continuously will be needed because there is no
loyalty expected from the customers, but the amount of price taken is should be attractive and
influencing so that it can convince the customers (Vogel, 2013.).
Position 2: Low Price
There is not much difference in the Position 1 and Position 2 phases of the strategy,
except that this phase realises a little higher level of value of the product. Companies give
competition on large volumes and low basis of margin. Sectors of many organisations
implement this strategy to attract the intended market of cost which has lowest cost of the value
of the product, where the quality of the product is higher than the phase 1. The company Marks
and Spencer is targeting the profits above the average and detect the increased value and quality
of brand , so it have no reason to adopt this strategy in their organisation.
Position 3 : Hybrid (moderate price/ moderate differentiation)
Marks and Spencer has certain lines of products that are analysed to be of a moderate
value, here value means price in its food sector as well as clothing of women. But the factor
regarding the price is to an extent low when compared with Marks and Spencer , who targets the
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higher strata of all the geographical locations. This strategy assures that the products are
affordable enough to attract the buyers and prices are reasonable like in discount stores. Hybrids
are the interesting companies who provides the products at a low cost along with a higher
perceived value when compared to other competitors who provides low cost products. Although
volume is an issue here but these companies build a brand of providing reasonable prices for
affordable goods. Department stores are the perfect example for organisation that adopts this
strategy. The combination of good quality and value builds loyalty among customers (Strategic
Management. 2018).
Position 4: Differentiation
This phase provides a higher value, this higher value is developed by increasing the price,
expanding market share and sales or utilising economies of scale. Marks and Spencer have been
succeeded in achieving the differentiation by launching Per Una designer wear and expanding
the clothing of the women apparels as well as men's and kids wear. Doing differentiation along
with the branding is very crucial for an organisation. Another reason for Marks and Spencer got
into the downward trend is because they were not able to perform with its competitor brands in
the markets such as BEST, OASIS, etc.
Position 5: Focused Differentiation
Focused differentiation is one of the main strategy for giving the good competition
among the companies because Marks and Spencer concentrates on the differentiation strategy, by
launching the products with premium price and highest quality of brand and target the niche
market who are conscious of the brands along with very high profit margins. The company was
carrying a very high sensed value in the market in regards with brands of men's shirt. But this
perception was impacted by some competitors in the market such as Next who also started
providing with the smooth quality of brand and makes sure the reliability within the market
which was satisfactory enough to do excellence in certain segments of Marks and Spencer
company.
Position 6: Increased Price/ Standard Product
Among the different strategies of Bowman's Strategy clock, some positions doesn't match
the strategic value as it is implied apparently. For example, fixing a maximum cost for the
standard or normal products according to the view point of the market will not be a reliable
situation. Approaches of this kind can be applied in case the customers are having a temporary
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lack of the substitute resources which are making the company into a monopoly state then the
buyers buys the product neglecting the price of it or in a certain situations where the customers
are not convinced in approaching to the substitutes and alternatives.
Position 7: High price/ Low value
This strategy can be used by the organisation who have monopoly in the market. The
monopoly company do not focus on the requirements of the customers in the products and it
depends ion the customers whether they have to buy the product or not, they don't have
substitutes or alternatives for this. In this strategy the company can set the prices according their
wish , but usually they give a high price for a normal or standard product. It is referred as the
classic example of monopoly status and tis perceived as a very difficult option to resist in the
dynamic market of competition, that is the main reason it is not relevant for the Marks and
Spencer's company.
Position 8: Loss of market share
This phase is the recipe for chaos within any competitive market, setting a minimum
price or a standard price for the products which have low value according to the customers might
be unlikely to gain an advantage over many other customers , as they have many other options
such as a good quality of product with the same range from the competitors of the company.
This position is uncompetitive and not relevant in case of the conditions of Marks and Spencer
company.
It can be concluded that Marks and Spencer was ranked as the top strategic company
from the beginning of the business. Since the threats were rising because of the entry of new
competitors Marks and Spencer had to adopt the strategy to give the competition to the
competitors at their level. Marks and Spencer should implement a holistic approach for doing the
business and can bring about more fundamental changes in the cultural model and reducing the
bureaucracy and launching products and services with variations even on the online websites so
that the customers can order options through electronic portals. The company was considered as
mitigated due to the intensity of rivalry though the organisation was able to gain its original
status.
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