Mark and Spencer: A Comprehensive Report on Leadership and Management

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Mark and Spencer (M&S), a prominent retail company. It begins with a historical overview of M&S, tracing its establishment and evolution in the retail sector, highlighting key milestones and challenges faced, including the adoption of various leadership styles. The report then delves into the company's vision, leadership styles (autocratic, consultative, democratic, and laissez-faire), and management practices, illustrating how these approaches have been implemented across different departments. The analysis includes how M&S adapted its leadership strategies in response to changing market conditions and internal challenges. Furthermore, the report provides specific examples of how M&S has applied different management styles based on hierarchical levels, with recommendations for further improvements, such as incorporating more democratic leadership to empower employees and foster innovation, and concludes with a summary of the key findings, emphasizing the adaptation of leadership and management approaches to maintain competitiveness in the retail market.

CONTEXT OF
BUSSINES

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
1.History and summary of Mark and Spencer ..........................................................................3
2.Their vision, leadership styles and management practices .....................................................4
3.How the above have been achieved or implemented by Mark and Spencer............................5
4.Recommendations on improvement ........................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Retail industry comprises of selling goods and services to consumer through difference
multiple channels in order to earn a profit. They focus on satisfying customer demand through
identifying the same through supply chain. Organisation undertaken under this report is Mark
and Spencer which is situated in London UK and is involved in producing goods such as home
products, food products and clothes. Under this report different leadership style that have been
adopted by the same have been discussed along with their vision. It also enlighten how these
leadership style have been adopted by the businesses in different departments. Later part of the
report deals with the recommendations that have been made which provide a future scope of
improvement in the organisations performance (Biryukov and et. al., 2015).
TASK
1.History and summary of Mark and Spencer
Mark and Spencer is been in the market for a long period of time it was established in the
year 1882 by Michael Marks and Tom Spencer. It is best known in retail sector for offering
product such as clothing, home ware products and cloths. It employees more then 80,000 people
across the globe and it operates in more then 30 countries. It has more then 450 stores across the
globe which is serving tens of millions of customers on weekly basis. The company was
established by Michael Marks and Tom Spencer. After fleeing anti Semitic persecution in Poland
mark immigrated to England in the year 1882. He began to sell goods on a stall in order to earn
money for living. As he was not good in English he used a sign on his stalls that contained a
message which was “Don't ask for price everything is a penny”. As the stall got popular and by
the year 1890 he was able to open stalls across five cities across the country. Tom Spencer joined
Marks in the year 1894 and they were able to expand their business into 36 branches across the
globe. After the death of Mark and Spencer the company was taken over by Simon who was
Mark son. He destroyed the traditional business techniques and established direct links with
manufacturers (Duarte Alonso and Bressan, 2014).
In thee world war 2 company faced major issues because their stores were being damaged
by air raids. The business regain its position and was rebuilt by Simon marks and in the year
1964 it was handed over to brother in law Israel Sieff. In the consequent year it expanded it
businesses into north America and Europe. He become chairman in 1972 and was replaced by

Derek Rayner after 12 years. In 1990 Business faced problems as their profits dropped because
of the British suppliers as the other competitors were importing their good from other countries
at comparatively low cost and other factors such as not accepting credit cards and refusal to
switch to low cost supplier led price fall more then two third in comparison to original market
prices. In response to the poor performance of the company they appointed Belgian Luc
Vandevelde as CEO And they announced a recovery plan which involved rescuing the struggling
chain by selling it's majority global operations. After some time the profits of the business began
to rise. In 2004 the company faced the same issue again and required changes and the company
appointed Stuart Rose CEO his appointment brought change programme in the organisation and
gave new strategic direction to the organisation (Gottlieb, 2014.
2.Their vision, leadership styles and management practices
Mark and Spencer Corporate Vision is to provide standard against which all others are
measured. It focus on producing food and products that are being produced at Exacting standard.
They have adopted a range of different leadership styles in order to operate in the market.
Leadership comprises with a process which involves activities that are focused on influencing
activities of an group towards the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. In the
early time when the business started operating in the market they used autocratic leadership
styles which involves leader making the decisions and guiding subordinates about their roles that
they have to follow in the organization. The subordinates are left with the option of questioning
the decision of leaders. As it was typical style facilitating in the environment of UK in the 90's
This was used by business in the early 90”s as all the decision of the business were being taken
by the family member only they had control over all the powers. As these approach was not able
to fit the changing environment situation they used different styles. And it also resulted into
creating dissatisfaction among the members of the group (Ramadani and Hoy, 2015).
In order to facilitate better management and operations Mark and Spencer uses
consultative management style which involves leaders consulting with other about their decision
which they will be incorporating in the operations. Which comprises of having a group influence
on decisions. For instance if the business wants to launch new range of product in market they
needs to consult the same with other departments to gain an insight about their decision and will
also help them in the further planning process. Mark and Spencer may also use mixture of
different management styles in their operations such as they might also use democratic

management styles. Laissez Faire in this style individuals are free to follow their instinct that
may be because of level of knowledge and expertise that they posses. Mark and Spencer have
been using different variety of management style and their they give chose to the management
depending upon their level on the hierarchical scale. Individuals who are on higher level of scale
enjoys autocratic style as they command their junior abut the job responsibility that they tend to
perform. They uses this style as they posses a level of knowledge and expertise in their field and
can take better decision in comparison with others. The middle level are permitted to adopt
Laissez- faire as they comprise high position in the company and can have enough knowledge to
use the style in such a way that maximizes potentials. Shareholders still keep an eye on the their
decisions in order to ensure that their decisions are focused on attaining the overall
organizational goals (Shi, Shepherd and Schmidts, 2015).
3.How the above have been achieved or implemented by Mark and Spencer
Mark and Spencer is been using different management and leadership styles in the
business environment. In the early 90's the organization used autocratic leadership style which
comprises of centralization of decision making power. Leadership I that time period was only in
the hands of family member which was a traditional approach and was being used by several
organizations in that period of time. The approach comprises of looking inwards and resulted in
creating dissatisfaction among the members of groups as they tend to get dissatisfied with the
decision of leaders. In the late 90's the company faced difficulty because of this they had to
change their leadership style in order to survive with the changes in the economy and to compete
with the competition. In that time company required distributive leadership form that can help
the managers and individuals in the organization to gain clear understanding about the steps that
they need to take in order to build strength and capacities. For this Luc Vandevelde leadership
plan was adopted in order to put the company closer to it's consumers and also gaining the core
strength of the business back. The recovery focused on UK, By selling their product and taking
the command on supply chain back. There plan's main objective was to return the organization
their reputation for value and quality. Along with it Stuart Rose's mass motivation training was
also provided to employees which comprise of catchphrases which they used in order to define
the what is happening and also for encouraging them. In advertising campaign they used Your
M&S which was embedded with the key values and believes on which the new M&s was being
based In order to differentiate the customer base and serve to different sectors they came up with

sub branding which was Per Una by Sir George Davis which was done for younger people and
limited edition for serving the style conscious people with maintaining the quality standards high
it become more competitive with other retailer existing in the high street (Thecka, 2014).
The mark and Spencer uses mixture of management style depending upon the
hierarchical scale. The higher level member of the group are provided with an opportunity to use
autocratic style and they are allowed to make decision on their own duty is to guide their staff
members to work accordingly. Theses is being provided by higher level manager in the
origination and they guide their staff which comprises from production to logistical and they
provide laissez faire management style to middle level manager it involves delegative leadership
which comprises of allowing group members to make decisions on their own and they are being
guided on w very little level by their leaders it helps in development of environment which
motivates teams as they are provided a sense of independence. This is provide as they are
equipped with enough knowledge which enables them to use style properly which will help them
to maximize their potential. As the shareholder of Mark and Spencer always jeeps and eye on the
several decisions that are being taken in the business in order to ensure that all decision are
heading towards one direction which is achievement of overall organizational goals.
4.Recommendations on improvement
The organization is using a mixture off different style in order to survive in the market.
As they can use more of democratic leadership style which will help them to empower their staff
members. It helps in providing an opportunity to their members to be accountable for their own
decision (Leadership Styles 2015). As managers of the organization will feel more comfortable
allowing the other members to take their own decisions. It also comprises of getting of regular
feedback from the staff members for the impact of their decision which are being taken in the
operational processes of the business. It will help the manager to build a sense of confidence and
empower the individuals and teams so hat they will fulfill the responsibility given to them in a
sincere manner. By this the individual will perform more sincerely and will work at their full
potential because they will be accounting or their decisions and this is an great opportunity for
them in order to showcase their skill sets. By using democratic style the managers of the
organization will be able to focus more on other important area of the businesses which will help
them to tackle different important issues. It will also help the business to adopt creative solutions
to their problems as group members have the opportunity to share their thoughts and

organization will be availed with more choices from which they can chose the best way to solve
their issues.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it have been concluded that retail sector comprises of selling goods
and service to customers with the use of different channels. Mark and spencer is one of the
leading retailer in the UK. It uses different leadership and management styles in order to manage
it's operations and it have also changed it's style according to situation from using autocratic style
in 90's to using different mixture of style in the later time period. It has done this in order to
survive and compete in the market. The later part recommendations have been made to company
about the styles that they can use to improve their performance in future.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Biryukov and et. al., 2015. Small businesses in the context of innovation competition.
International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues.5(4).pp.989-994.
Duarte Alonso, A. and Bressan, A., 2014. Collaboration in the context of micro businesses: The
case of Terracotta artisans in Impruneta (Italy). European Business Review.26(3).
pp.254-270.
Gottlieb, M., 2014. Context-sensitive navigational aid. U.S. Patent 8,755,968.
Ramadani, V. and Hoy, F., 2015. Context and uniqueness of family businesses. In Family
businesses in transition economies (pp. 9-37). Springer, Cham.
Shi, H.X., Shepherd, D.M. and Schmidts, T., 2015. Social capital in entrepreneurial family
businesses: the role of trust. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior &
Research.21(6). pp.814-841.
Thecka, S., 2014, May. Transforming fragmented industry into sustainable businesses with
SMAC technologies. In 2014 IST-Africa Conference Proceedings (pp. 1-9). IEEE.
Online-
Leadership Styles. 2015. [online] Available through
<http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadstl.html>.