Business Strategy for Mark and Spencer: An Analytical Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Mark and Spencer's business strategy, examining both the external and internal environments. The external analysis includes a PESTLE analysis, identifying political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors impacting the company, as well as a stakeholder matrix to understand key stakeholder relationships. The internal analysis utilizes SWOT and VRIO models to assess the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, valuable, rare, inimitable, and organized resources. McKinsey's 7s model further examines the organizational structure, focusing on structure, systems, style, staff, skills, strategy, and shared values. The report also evaluates the competitive landscape using Porter's Five Forces model and discusses Porter's generic strategies and the Ansoff matrix to understand the company's competitive advantage and growth strategies.

BUSINESS STRATEGY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Framework.......................................................................................................................................3
Examining the external analysis of the organization..................................................................3
Examining the internal analysis of the organisation...................................................................5
To analyse the competitive advantage .......................................................................................8
Porter's generic strategies..........................................................................................................10
Ansoff matrix............................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Business strategy is the complete plan which include specific actions and tools to achieve
the goal of success. Business strategy helps to outline the factors which helps the organization to
know about how they compete in the market, to decide their strategies for their product and
services (Quenum and et.al 2019). This strategy are roadmap to the organization as it develops
many opportunities for the organization to achieve their goals. Mark and Spencer company is
one of the leading food multi retailer organization of UK. Main headquarter of Mark and Spencer
company is located in London, England UK. Company is looking for effective strategic plan for
their product. This report include pestle, swot analysis, stakeholder matrix to know about the
macro environment of the company. VRIO and McKinsey's 7s model for examining the internal
environment of the organization. Report will further describe about the porter's five forces model
to evaluate the competitive advantage for the organization and porter's generic strategy or Ansoff
matrix.
MAIN BODY
Vision: vision of the Mark and Spencer is to be the best service and product provider in their
country.
Mission: Mission of the mark and Spencer company is to provide qualitative services and
product to their customers to achieve the goal of success.
Objective: Objective of the company is to achieve success rate by 65% in new market by the
end of this year.
Framework
Examining the external analysis of the organization
Pestle analysis
Pestle analysis is the marketing principle to analyse the macro environment of the
company. It gives complete report on external analysis of the organization. It includes key
factors which gives the external view that impacting the organisation. These factors are political,
economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factor.
Political factor:
Political factor involves all the government policy and rules that involve in the business
process. This political rule can be tax, bureaucracy etc. this factor affect the profitability of the

organization. Mark and Spencer company is operating in different countries as for them it is a
big threat because of different political environment of other countries (Sarjana and Khayati,
2019). For that purpose company need to implement some strategies to enter in new market as to
know about the political stability of the country, security of intellectual property, trade policy
and regulations, taxes etc.
Economical factor:
Economical factor include all the characteristics of the economy, which can be interest
rate, inflation rate, economic growth rate, foreign exchange rate etc. Mark and Spencer company
is retail company as for the retail industry pricing plays an important role if any other company
also offer the same product at lower price then definitely customer will go for their product
therefore mark and Spencer company need to consider all the economical factor in their strategic
plan as to know about the economic rate, raw material quality in retail industry, prosperity etc.
Social factor:
social factor includes all the cultural and demographic trend. It helps the organisation to
know about the behaviour of the customer. It involves age description, cultural characteristics of
the society (Chen, Eshleman and Soileau, 2017). For mark and Spencer company need to
consider all the demographic trend in their strategic plan which include age, gender, profession
of the person or to consider societal perception and class structure of the society to begin with
the development process of their product.
Technological factor:
Technological factor includes all the technical factor as rise of new technology in the
market is developing many opportunities for the organization. Mark and Spencer company
should also need to include technologies in their product development process so that customer
attracts towards their techy product and make investment in it.
Environmental factor:
Environmental factor includes climate, pollution, temperature environmental factor.
Therefore company need to consider all the environmental factor in their strategic plan to
achieve the sustainability in their business.
Legal factor:

Legal factor include all the legal activities as industry regulation, license and intellectual
property etc. to avoid all the legal action company need to follow all the laws and standards in
their product.
Stakeholder matrix
Stakeholder matrix help the organization to know about their main stakeholder through
which they can earn their support.
Keep informed:
Customer's are the most important for any organization as for the Mark and Spencer
company need to design a product which create curiosity among the customers so that they will
make investment in their product.
Manage closely:
In this category Mark and Spencer company consider their investor as a stake holder who
invest in their project also always show their interest in their project. Therefore, company need to
manage those investors as they also give recommendation and feedback so that it will help the
company.
Keep satisfied:
In this category the stakeholders are those investors who are not fully interested in
company's product, but still they can play a important role. Therefore, company need to keep
implement in their product and services to satisfy those investors so that they can make
investment in the company's project (Oldman and Tomkins, 2018).
Monitor:
In this category company monitor those customers who are on company's track list, but
they do not show interest in company's product. Therefore, mark and Spencer company need to
make innovation in their product to influence the customers towards their product.
Examining the internal analysis of the organisation
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis gives the internal analysis of the organisation through which company
can easily determine their strength, weakness, opportunity and tactics factor.
Strength factor:

Mark and Spencer company is most popular leading retailer company. Their product
worth the money invest by their customers as they offer better and qualitative product and
services. Company has their own brand label which is anticipating their market. Company has
skilled workforce which are able to develop innovative strategies for them. Company has many
variants in their product and services for their customers.
Weakness factor:
Mark and Spencer company is lacking in their supply chain process, because of this they
are unable to fulfil the customer's demand. Company mainly focus on manual project therefore it
consumes more time and money. Therefore, they need to implement the new technologies to
resolve this problem. Company need to focus on their weakness to compete in the market.
Opportunity factor:
Rise of globalization can give the many opportunities to the organization. Company is
multi retailer so it has many opportunities to expand their business in other countries as well.
Company can develop their own websites so that customer will know about their product and
buy their product. They can also proceed with introducing their product in new market segment
to earn more profits (Cescon, Costantini and Grassetti, 2019).
Threat factor:
As emerging of globalization can also develop the competition in the market. If company
fail to design a product according to customer's need then it will be threat for them. If new
entrance company can offer their product same as mark and Spencer company but at lower price
then it will attract their customers therefore it will be threat to their annual revenues.
VRIO model
VRIO model include valuable, rare, inimitable and organized factor. It is an internal
analysis tool which gives information about resources of the organization.
Resources Valuable Rare Inimitable Organized
Human resource Yes Yes Yes Yes
Finance resource Yes Yes No Yes
Organisational
resource
Yes Yes Yes No
Technological Yes No No Yes

resource
Information
resource
Yes Yes Yes Yes
Physical resource Yes Yes Yes Yes
Valuable:
As for the Mark and Spencer company they have all valuable resources which helps them
to generate many opportunities for their company. Their human resource maintain all the
resources effectively. Finance resource allows them to invest on good opportunity.
Rare:
Human resource, finance resource, organizational resources are found to be rare for Mark
and Spencer. As very few companies has rare resources. Therefore, it helps Mark and Spencer
company to achieve their goals.
Inimitable:
Finance resource of Mark and Spencer company are very expensive to imitate, also
patent, logo of Mark and Spencer are hard to imitate as it involves all the legal activities.
Organized:
Resources of Mark and Spencer are in organized form therefore, they strategically follow
their plans for the development of their company (Wheelen and et.al 2017).
McKinsey's 7s model
The goal of the McKinsey's 7s model is to examine the organizational structure of the
company. It gives 7 tools which describe about the organizational design. These tools are
structure, system, style, staff, skills, strategy and shared values.
Structure:
The structure of Mark and Spencer company is fully organized. Leadership and
management team shows their full support to their employees therefore they feel motivated and
works efficiently for the company. Company has good interdepartmental coordination, there is a
mutual understanding between the department which allow them to take good decisions for the
company.
System:

Mark and Spencer company has strong system which helps them to carry out their
company's operation effectively without any hurdles. Good system helps the company in
decision-making process and to ensure the company's good technical system. Each system of the
Mark and Spencer has good tools for controlling. Company effectively monitor the performance
of their system for the better result.
Style:
Company has good leadership and management style which totally support the
environment of the company. Leader shows their extreme support to their employees, attitude of
management team towards their employees are very polite (Taherdoost and Madanchian, 2021).
Therefore, it helps their employees to work for their company for long time and to produce good
result for their company.
Staff:
Company recruit staff on the basis of their knowledge and skills. They trained and
informed their staff about their work. Human resource of the company hire skilled staff for their
work so that they will carry out company's operation effectively.
Skills:
Company has commendable skilled employees. All employees are hired based on their
skills and knowledge company also provide them a training and skill development course so that
all can do better work for them.
Strategy:
Company has clearly defined goal oriented strategy, it is easily understandable to their
employees and stakeholders. Their effective strategy helps them to manage or monitor all their
actions. Their strategy helps them to create a competitiveness in their product and service to
maintain their position in the market.
Shared values:
All the core values of Mark and Spencer company are able to develop good environment
in the company as honesty among the employees, creativity, transparency, quality all enhance the
work performance of the company (Federal, 2019).
To analyse the competitive advantage
Porter's five forces model

Porter's five force model gives the information to the company about their competitive
environment of their market. It involves five parameters, these will help the Mark and Spencer
company to build sustainability in their business. These parameters are as follows-
Threat of new entrants:
New entry in the market always comes with innovation in their product, and they also
offer affordable or low price on their product to lure the customers. Therefore, Mark and Spencer
company must have to develop a strategy to deal with this problem company can begin with
innovation in their product which not only attract their old customer but also help them to build
new customers.
Bargain power of suppliers:
All retail industry buy their raw materials for their product from numerous suppliers in
the market. Therefore, suppliers always negotiate and rise their raw material price which enables
the company to invest more it decreases the profitability rate of the company (Frolova, 2019,
January). Therefore, Mark and Spencer company should develop a multiple supply chain also
they can use alternative resource or can do experiment with different resources so that if price go
up for the resource they can use other resource to compensate the price.
Bargain power of buyers:
Bargaining power of the buyer are always higher. Buyers always look for the better
qualitative product on minimum price. Smaller customer base always increase the bargaining
power therefore Mark and Spencer company must have to build a large customer base this will
help the company to decrease the bargaining power of the customer as well as it develops the
opportunity for the company to streamline their production process.
Threats of substitutes:
New product always comes with the innovation and has a good advancement therefore
customer should shift towards that product, because of this profitability of the company suffers
the most. So Mark and Spencer company should have to focus on their services to rather than on
product only to lure the customers, also by considering the core needs and desires of the
customer. This will help them to earn more revenues for their product.
Industry rivalry:
When the rivalry among the companies are intense therefore it drives down the cost price
of the product which will reflect the profitability rate of the company. As for the Mark and

Spencer company they are leading company, so they are operating in highly competitive
environment therefore it is necessary for the company to build a sustainability to effectively
building the scale so that company operate better. They can also proceed with collaborating with
their rivalry company to increase the market size rather than competing in small market
(Freeman, Harrison and Zyglidopoulos, 2018).
Porter's generic strategies
This strategies help the organization to achieve competitive advantage in their market
field. Those strategies are cost leadership, differentiation, cost focus and differentiation focus
strategy. Mark and Spencer company has implemented these strategies to handle all the
competitive pressure in their market.
Cost leadership strategy:
Cost leadership strategy allows the organization to lower the cost of their product to
achieve the competitive advantage. The main aim of this strategy is to develop a strong market
leadership. Through this Mark and Spencer company can expand their market by targeting
certain group of the market as they can design product for middle class customers which shares
the most part in the market. It will also help the company to charge low price by decreasing their
cost production which helps them to maximize their supply chain value.
Differentiation strategy:
Differentiation strategy allows the company to design a product in a unique manner
which will be able to adopted by the customers. The main aim of Mark and Spencer company to
use this strategy is to make innovation in their product also to give response to the customer's
health concern factors (Bahadorestani, Naderpajouh and Sadiq, 2020). Therefore, company has
increased their product line after examining the customer's interest to compete with their
competitors. Mark and Spencer company is using both cost leadership and differentiation
strategy to develop their strong customer base.
Ansoff matrix
It is the strategic tools through which company can grow their growth. It helps the
management team to implement this strategy for the development of their company.
Market penetration:

Market penetration describe as a existing product in the existing market. This strategy
helps the organization to sell their product in their existing market for the potential growth. It
will directly reach out to the customer also develop customer lifetime value.
Product development:
Product development strategy helps the organization to invent or design new product by
implementing innovation in the product to sell in their existing market. It will help the
organization to develop more customer by providing better services and product.
Market development:
This strategy helps the organization to develop or increase the market for their existing
product. It will increase the productive line of their product, by entering into new international
market to increase the product sale of company (Stindt and et.al 2017).
Diversification:
This strategy describe as a company enters the new market with their new product. This
strategy is implemented when company sees opportunities in new market.
As for the Mark and Spencer company they are focusing on to expand their business, they
are focusing on implementing strategies in their new product development so it will help them to
launch their new product in their chosen market. Therefore, they go with the diversification
strategy to build their brand in their new market by designing new product based on the new
market customers. As for the company both their customers and market is new therefore they
need to proceed with strong strategical and business plan to achieve the goal of their company.
Recommendation for growth;
Mark and Spencer company can begin with the innovation in their product. They have to
clear their vision as business can't grow without a strong vision. Therefore, company needs to
decide their vision first to decide goals and objectives to achieve. Company need to examine first
about their goals as why they have chosen these goals to achieve therefore it will help them to
proceed with to accomplish the desire goals. These goals also develops the motivation among
their employees to work effectively for their company. Company should have to begin with the
strong plan to implement in their development process for that company should have to complete
their analysation report on their market so that they are able to collect the useful information for
their business (Bashir and Verma, 2017).

For the expansion in the new market company should focus on the market analysation as
it gives the proper information about the market which includes people's buying behaviour,
competitive environment so that it will help them to earn strong position in the new market
which will also open the road of success for them. Yes by applying all the strategies effectively
company can grow their revenues. They must have to add transparency in their services to
communicate with their customers in new market as they are the key stakeholder to them.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that better and effective strategies could provide the
business advantage to the organization. Business strategies played an great role to give
competitive advantage to the organization. Good business strategy gives the better business
environment to the organization through which they could be able to make or design their
product and services which satisfied the customers need and desire. It helped to outline all the
factors so that company could achieve all their goals and objectives. Report described about the
macro and micro environment of the organization which involved models which gives the
description about the internal and external factor about the organization. Report also concluded
with the competitive advantage model and strategies which helped the organization to achieve
their goals and objectives.

REFERENCES
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Online
Business strategy, 2021. [online]. Accessed
through<https://www.imd.org/imd-reflections/reflection-page/business-strategy/>.
Business Strategy