Business Environment Analysis Report: Mark & Spencer (LSBM103 Module)

This report provides a detailed analysis of the business environment of Mark & Spencer (M&S), a multinational retail organization specializing in clothing and food products. The report begins with an introduction to the business environment and its impact on business operations. The main body of the report focuses on the application of Porter's Value Chain Model to M&S, breaking down both primary activities (inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service) and secondary activities (procurement, human resource management, technological development, and infrastructure). The report then provides an overview of M&S, including its mission, vision, values, and key objectives. An analysis of the internal environment is conducted, exploring how M&S can leverage the Value Chain Model. The report concludes with a reflection on the Value Chain Model's importance for M&S's long-term sustainability and competitive advantage. The report references several academic sources to support its analysis.

Business
Environment
LSBM103 - Part B

INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY............................................................................................................................................3
Value Chain Model.............................................................................................................................3
Overview of Mark & Spenser.............................................................................................................4
Internal environment ........................................................................................................................5
Reflection on Value Chain Model.......................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business environment can be defined as the presence of the internal and external
factors which directly or indirectly influence business operations. In simple term it can be
said that, presence of factors in internal and external enviornment affect each other as well as
also work together which affect working of an organisation (Calabrese and et. Al., 2018). So
it is necessary for business firm to examine the factors which are present in business
environment in effective manner because it will result in implementing positive outcomes and
reducing negative effects. This assessment is based on Mark & Spenser which is a
multinational organisation headquartered is located at Westminster, London. This business
speacialises in delivering high quality clothing’s as well as food products. Respective
organisation was founded in 1884 and serving at worldwide level. In relation to M&S
respective report will discuss Value Chain model and internal environment analysis.
MAIN BODY
Value Chain Model
Value chain model is a theoretical model which has been formed by Michael Porters.
This model focuses on analysing the business activities and identifying ways through which a
business can achieve competitive advantage . In simple terms it can be said that value chain is
collection of activities which an organisation perform for creating value for their customers.
In addition to this it create competitive advantage foreign business from as well as also result
in higher profitability (Rogers, 2018). It is divided into part first is primary activity and
second is secondary activities. Here primary includes inward logistic, operations, outbound
Logistic, and services relating to marketing and sales. On the other hand, secondary activities
include recruitment, management of human resources, technological development and
infrastructure (Porter's Value Chain, 2016). Explain explanation of these are as follows :-
Primary activities of Value Chain Model
 Inbound logistic – Within this relation with suppliers are includes and also activities
which requires reception, storing as well disseminating inputs.
 Operations – It is related to activity which is needed for transforming raw material
(inputs) within outputs (finish goods i.e., product and services).

 Outbound logistics – Within this activities are covered which needed for collecting,
storing and distributing outputs.
 Marketing and sales – Through this primary activity company will be able to inform
about their products as well as services to buyers for purchasing them and also
facilitate their purchase.
 Service – Involve all activities which are needed for products and services working
effective for buyers after it sold and deliver. In simple term here services are related to
after sale services.
Secondary/Service activities of Value chain Model
 Procurement – It is the acquisition of inputs s well as resources for business firm.
 Human Resource management – It involve each and every activity related to human
resource such as recruitment, training, development, compensation, dismissing and
laying off staff members.
 Technological development – pertains to the equipments, software, hardware,
procedures and technical information which are bought down for bearing
transformation of business firm’s inputs within outputs.
 Infrastructure – It is important part of an organisation because infrastructure serves
its needs as well as ties several parts together. There are several functions and
department which consist within it such as accounting, finance, planning, quality
assurance, legal, public affairs, government relation, common management and many
more.
This is an effective model which help organisation in managing their overall working within
effective manner. Along with this its implementation result in managing day to day
operations in more effective manner and also help in generating high profitability.
Overview of Mark & Spenser
Mark & Spenser abbreviated as M&S which is british oriented fashion retailer
headquartered is located in City of Westminster, London. This retail business was established
in 1884, 135 years ago by Sir Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. This retail industry
organisation is specialises in selling of clothing, home products as well as luxury food items.

Across United Kingdom, Mark & Spenser have 979 stores including 615 which are selling
only food products. Every organisation have their mission, vision and values explanation of
these are as follows :-
 Mission – A mission for an organisation defines the purpose for its existence. It
defines the overall purpose of establishment of the business. The undertaken
organisation focuses on making products that are inspiring to other and delivering
quality oriented products and services.
 Vision – It defines the standard against which other organisation benchmark.
 Values – quality, service, innovation and trust
Apart from this there are some key objectives of Mark & Spenser which are mention below :-
 Employee orientation – It is simple that staff members have their big contribution
within its success. Thus, there is need of proper management which also attempts to
develop path for employees for thier personal development. In addition to this,
manager and leader of M&S to attract, motivate and retain their high calibre personnel
for assisting transformation of business and to deliver improved performance.
 Organisational objectives – Mark & Spencer focuses on regaining their leadership
in clothing and food industry. Respective company can achieve this by translating
their scale and authority within superior quality, value as well as appeal.
 Sales objectives – It has been believed by M&S that there are several options for
improvement in sales. They saw return per sales as key operational objectives which
help them in meeting their sales objectives.
Internal environment
Porter’s value chain model is familarised term in today's business world for its
amended working. However, Marks & Spencer should not take it as a rigid, standalone
framework by assigning the fair decsions to all managerial units (Brun, 2019). The most
Value Chain Analysis requires Marks And Spencer Group Plc to realise that each and every
activities as well as functions not need same similar analysis level. Hence, the foremost
measure of accquiring the Porter Value Chain is to evalauate the features as per their role in
product/service delivery process (Marks And Spencer Group Plc Value Chain Analysis,

2018). Explanation of primary as well as secondary activities in relation of Mark & Spenser
are as follows :-
Primary activities – These are the activities which directly involved within Mark &
Spenser activities related to producing as well as trading the product for targeted customers.
Analysing primary value chain activities can enhance performance of respective organisation
explanation of these are as follows :-
 Inbound logistic – For M&S it is essential to Develop as well maintained strong
relation with their suppliers because their support is important for receiving storing
and also in distribution of product. Without analysing inbound logistics respective
organisation can face several major challenges within their product development
phase (Vilvert and et. Al.,2018). Listen to this analysing of prospective logistic
requires company to focusing on there are each and every aspect related to
transformation of raw material within finished goods. For illustrations, retrieving raw
material and internal distribution law from material as well as other components for
starting production process.
 Operations – In an organisation, evaluating the operatioanl functions are regarded as
an integral component as it increases when resources arises for production purpose.
With this pen Mark and Spencer get ready for converting raw material into their and
product and launch them within market area. Some example of operational activities
are packaging, machining, assembling, testing and many more full stop along with
this equipment repairing as well as maintenance also Falls within operational
activities. It involves both operations that is manufacturing and services (Manninen
and et. Al., 2018). There are several activities for which analysing of operation
activities is essential such as improving productivity and ensuring competitive
success, maximizing the efficiency and many more. Enhancing productivities of Mark
and Spencer’s help in several manners such as increasing profitability, gaining
competitive advantage and consistent economic growth.
 Outbound logistics – In include activities which deliver products to the customers
through passing several intermediaries. Thus, outbound logistics are warehousing,
material handling, scheduling, order processing, transportation and delivery of
product to final destination. In relation to M&S, they have to pay specific attention

towards its outbound value chain activities while offering commodities are
biodegradable as well as needed quick delivery to its end users.
 Marketing and Sales – In this stage, M&S highlights advantages as well as
differentiation points of offering products for persuading customers which offering
better than their customers. Providing high quality products at affordable cost with
distinct feature is not enough for creating value there is requirement to invest on
marketing and sales activity.
 Services – It is related to pre-sale and post-sales services which offering by Mark &
Spenser which play essential role in developing customers loyalty. The current
customers involve post- sales services as important as marketing and promotional
activities. Within present advanced technological era power of negative e-WOM
because of poor support services will not undermined (Frederick, 2019). In addition to
this, it is important for Mark & Spenser to analyse their support activities for avoiding
damaging within brand reputation. Instead of this they can use respective tool as
spreading positive word of mouth due to quick, timely as well as efficient support
services.
Secondary activities – The support activities play essential role within coordination as
well as facilitating iinitial value chain action. M&S can also get advantages from analysing
its empower activities explanation of these are as follows :-
 Firm infrastructure – Infrastructure of an organisation covers differnt aspects like
improving the qulaity, managing leagl issues, financing, planning, talent managmenet
and accounting (Liu and et. al., 2018). In relation to Marks and Spencers effective
infrastructure management result in optimising value of entire value chain.
 Human resource management – By value waiting various human resource like
hiring, enhancing talents, recognition personnel efforts, selection and many more
related to Staff management can analyse HRM in effective manner full stop in
relation to Marks and Spencer effective HR management result in reducing pressure
of competition which is based on commitment skills of staff members motivation and
so on (Bevilacqua and et. al., 2019).
 Technology development – In Modern era which is full of technological
advancement, almost value chain activities is dependent on innovation or

modernisation techniques which drive an organisation to impriove its technological
functions within human resource units as well as marketing help marks and Spencer’s
in realising importance of technological advancement with their working.
 Procurement - It is related to the process which include buying of computer inputs
such as machinery e, raw material, supplies equipments and many more items which
are needed for converting finished product. Value chain activities Marks and Spencer
should have to consider procurement activities for optimising the inbound operational
as well as value chain (O’Donoghue and et. al., 2019).
Reflection on Value Chain Model
Value chain model which was introduced by porters and it play important for
organisation in evaluating their external environment. As it is classified within two part i.e.,
primary as well as secondary activities. In relation to Mark & Spenser it will provide
assistance to them in their long term sustainability as well as also help in gaining competitive
advantages. As it involve all such activities within it which an organisation have to ensure
that are working in effective manner as well as result in gaining better place within external
business environment.
CONCLUSION
This has been recapitulated from the above explined report that the nature of business
environment keeps on changing and in this it contain various organisations are working that
result in increasing competition for each other. As it has been already discussed that it is
classified within two micro and macro factors. In relation to this, estabilishmnet are required
to conduct external environment analysis because its control is not in hand of company. As
well as it may result in some negative impact if not analysed within effective manner.
Furthermore, with the implication of value chain model which was introduced by Michael
Porter’s that enable organisation to determine their external factors in improved mode as well
as highlights its influences over business premises decision making procedure . Thus, in
simple term it can be said that for long term sustainability and gaining competitive benfits
there is a need to conduct external and internal analysis.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Calabrese, M., and et. Al., 2018. From mechanical to cognitive view: The changes of
decision making in business environment. In Social Dynamics in a Systems
Perspective (pp. 223-240). Springer, Cham.
Rogers, D., 2018. The Future of Lean Sigma Thinking in a Changing Business Environment.
Productivity Press.
Brun, E. C., 2019. Understanding a Business Incubator as a Start-Up Factory: A Value Chain
Model Perspective. International Journal of Innovation and Technology
Management, 16(03), p.1950025.
Vilvert, E. and et. Al.,2018. Multi-model approach for assessing the sunflower food value
chain in Tanzania. Agricultural Systems, 159, pp.103-110.
Manninen, K. and et. Al., 2018. Do circular economy business models capture intended
environmental value propositions?. Journal of Cleaner Production, 171, pp.413-422.
Frederick, S., 2019. Global value chain mapping. In Handbook on Global Value Chains.
Edward Elgar Publishing.
Liu, J. and et. al., 2018. Overview of wind power industry value chain using diamond model:
A case study from China. Applied Sciences, 8(10), p.1900.
Bevilacqua, A. H. V. and et. al., 2019. Following the Fish: The Role of Subsistence in a Fish-
based Value Chain. Ecological economics, 159, pp.326-334.
O’Donoghue, C. et. al., 2019. Measuring GHG Emissions Across the Agri‐Food Sector Value
Chain: The Development of a Bioeconomy Input‐Output Model. International
Journal on Food System Dynamics, 10(1), pp.55-85.
Online
Porter's Value Chain, 2016.[Online].Available through<
https://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/dstools/value-chain-/>
Marks And Spencer Group Plc Value Chain Analysis, 2018.[Online].Available
through< https://www.essay48.com/value-chain-analysis/9035-Marks-And-Spencer-Group-Plc-
Value-Chain-Analysis>