Comprehensive Strategic Management Report: Mark & Spencer

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Mark & Spencer's (M&S) strategic management. It begins with an introduction to the company, its vision, mission, and values, followed by an overview of its methods of development, including technological advancements, new product strategies, and market expansion. The report delves into the leadership styles of key figures like Steve Rowe and Archie Norman, examining transformational and situational leadership approaches. It further explores change management initiatives, using the Change Kaleidoscope model to analyze the context, design choices, and implementation of changes within the organization. The report also examines M&S's sustainability efforts, including ethically sourced products, forest protection, and plastic reduction plans. The report highlights key strategies and challenges faced by M&S, offering insights into its business practices and future direction. The report concludes with a discussion of the overall effectiveness of these strategies and their impact on the company's performance.

Strategic Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Methods of development.................................................................................................................3
Leadership style...............................................................................................................................4
Change Management.......................................................................................................................5
Sustainability...................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Mark & Spenser was founded in 1884 by Michel marks and Thomas Spencer. Marks and
Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated as M&S) is a major British international retailer with
central office in London, England, that specializes in selling clothing, home products and food
commodity, mostly of its own brand name (Durand, Grant and Madsen., 2017). Mark & Spencer
is one of the UK major retailers and around 21 million customer visiting our stores every week.
They sell high quality & great value of clothes along with home products and outstanding quality
food. There are over 76000 employee working under M&S along with 2000 suppliers over world
and also have grown its business on territories overseas. The vision of mark and Spencer is “To
be the standard against which all others are measured” and the mission is to make inspirational
quality accessible to others. The values of Mark & Spencer is to provide good quality and
services by introducing new thing. The latest report ODF the mark & Spencer that it will launch
sausage dog called walter in coming month which will help them in growing their business. At
the time of Christmas they have launched chip shop scarps and shopping scheme returns after
corona virus hiatus and also have shown how their stores can be saved are also deciding to cut
7000 jobs and at the end of 2025 it will close its 2000 stores around the world and will do that
business on digital marketing strategy.
Number of employees – 80,000
revenue- 10.180
Number of stores- 10,181.9 million pound (2020)
Number of countries- 50 countries
Methods of development
There are various methods used by the Marks & Spencer within their organization that
helps them to grow their business. There are various development done by Steve Rows that help
the pompano to take competitive advantages within the market where they are operating their
business (Dvorský., and et.al., 2020). Company implemented the new technology within their
workplace that helps to increase their product and provide better quality in their clothing product.
New technology within the workplace of Marks & Spencer has increase the production but also a

make the easy for their employees in their work. Marks & Spencer also use the new product
strategy where they introduce new product in the woman wear that helps them to grow their
business. They come up with the new product segments and various new designs that helps to
attract the customers and increase their brand value as well. Marks & Spencer also has expanded
their business in the various new markets like Vietnam, Indonesia etc. this strategy helps to
improve the presence of Marks & Spencer.
Strategy is what drives decisions in business. By helping organisations identify their
strengths and weaknesses, an effective strategy will help you decide where your efforts and
resources are best spent. These decisions are crucial in ensuring your business has a profitable
and sustainable future (Teece., 2019). It is necessary for the Marks & Spencer implements the
strategies and their CEO Steve top make strategies to increase their sales and develop new
develop product, so they can take competitive advantages, and they can show their presence
within the market where they are operating their business. Without having the strategies they
cannot accomplish success in their business. Company should always have vision and mission so
employees can understand that what they need to achieve and leaders should guide through the
mission and vision that how they will go to achieve the success within their business make their
company success within the market where they are operating their business. The leadership style
help in making people work with better focus and it helped M&S to achieve good success. They
are focusing into the growth of the organization which can make the business more successful.
Organic development
Marks & Spencer has developed their organic food department where they come up with
the new polices to t provide quality food to their customers. They have set the limited store time
to provide fresh organic food and most of the customers attract toward the Marks & Spencer
because they provide Organic and fresh food.
Store closers- company have recently decided to close their 20000 stores all over the world and
reason behind closing This is to increase the profits by decrease their liabilities. Store that does
not make profits for the company will be closed by the M&S.
Operating new stores
To expand their business more countries, company will look for the developing countries
within the market like Indonesia, chain etc. where they have good opportunities to expand their
business.

Leadership style
Leaders are most important part of the company, and they are responsible to lead
employees toward their success. Without having skills within the leaders, they cannot
successfully lead their employees, so they should implement new leadership. There are various
leadership style like democratic leadership, transformational leaders, situation leadership and all
can be applied as per the situation within the workplace of Marks & Spencer. Leaders of the
Marks & Spencer are having skills and Steve is using the transformational lectureship to leader
their employees and helping company to get success within their business.
Steve Rowe
Steve Rowe is one of the most dominant personality and is always focused in working for
different things (Trigeorgis and Reuer., 2017). Steve uses the leadership style of the
transformational in which they focus in making different transformation of the work and make
every person with quality work. It is helpful and Steve wants M&S to become top brand of the
world. Steve wants good in the work and always want to make others work hard so that they can
achieve the best result into the business.
The leadership style help in motivating the employee and it also shows them a great initiative
from the CEO to motivate in improved performance.
Transformational leadership
Transformational leadership is the theory or the leadership style where leaders work with
the teams create vision and identify the need of changes. Thorough the vision they guide
employees toward the change by inspiring them and execute the change in tandem with
committing to the team members .
Archie Norman
Archie Norman is a British politician and the businessman and person that has been
Chairman of the FTSE 100 and Member of the House of Commons at same time. It joined the
McKinsey on the graduation. Afterwards directorship at the Guest & Railtrack before becoming
the group financial director at the largest retailer of Britain Kingfisher plc. It became the Chief
executive of the Asda and chairman by the age of 42. The leadership of Archie Norman is highly
influential. Situational leadership style was used for managing the business operations. It
inspired the team members for working effectively and efficiently with themselves. Mark's &

Spencer also use the new product strategy where they introduce new product in the woman wear
that helps them to grow their business. They comp up with the new product segments and
various new designs that helps to attract the customers and increase their brand value as well.
Mark's & Spencer also has expanded their business in the various new markets like Vietnam,
Indonesia etc. this strategy helps to improve the presence of Mark's & Spencer.
Situational
Situational leadership style is one of the most difficult to adopt but most useful leadership
style where leaders change their leadership according to the situation within the company. To
adopt situational leadership, it is necessary for the leaders to have knowledge all other leadership
style.
Change Management
Change management is a process that involves planning and implementing change within
organisation while ensuring that everyone within organisation is ready for the change being
implemented. Steve Rowe as became CEO of M&S he had to face several types of challenges
(Jayatilleke and Lai, 2018) and these problems required different types of solutions and their
solutions included change within industry.
Change Kaleidoscope
This is a model that helps in arranging different elements and coordinating different
elements of change. This involves organisational change context and design choices for change.
Organisational change context includes-
Time- This is concerned with time that is required to accomplish change. Changes that were
implemented in M&S were of long duration because changes involved four stages. This means
that Steve Rowe presented four step transformation plan in which first two years that is 2018-
2019 were for restoring basics and changes will be followed by this.
Scope- This is concerned with degree of change and degree of change in M&S transformation is
high because organisation has and is planning to significantly transformed its different elements.

Preservation- This is concerned with retention of organisational assets, practices and
characteristics during change. Transformation and change in M&S aims at retaining its financial
assets and in addition to this change does not involve anything that requires changing
organisational practices and characteristics of M&S.
Diversity- This is concerned with difference in group of employees and divisions and change
affecting diversity in terms of attitude, values and norms (Resnick and et.al., 2018). Because the
changes in M&S are of operational nature in which change do not affect diversity in terms of
attitude, values and norms.
Capability- This is concerned with organisational competency in terms of skills of managers and
personal knowledge and ability. M&S has adequate and effective managerial capability and
ability to successfully implement change.
Capacity- This is concerned with organisational resources including cash, human resources and
time. M&S has sufficient resources of all types through which it can successfully implement
change in organisation.
Readiness- This is concerned with readiness of employees for adaptation and implemtation of
change in organisation. Employees are being trained and developed in order to ensure their
readiness for change implementation.
Power- In this element power is included for initiating change. Change in M&S has been
initiated by Steve Rowe who is CEO of M&S and this is why he has strong power to initiate
change.
Design/Implementation Choice
Change Path- Path of change that M&S is implementing can be considered is Adaptation. In
which M&S is adopting strategies and transformation through adaptation (Haggblade and et.al.,
2017).
Change Start point- Change in M&S has been initiated from Top Management.

Change Style- Changes style that should be adopted by M&S is collaborative which includes
high involvement of employees and style that is used by Steve Rowe and Archie Norman is
direction style of change leadership because all important decisions are taken by them.
This style is also effective because changes being implemented are new and realigning
and participation and control by leader facilitates effective implementation of changes.
Sustainability
M&S has strong emphasis on sustainability in different types and organisation has developed
Plan A to help sustainability in organisation. For sustainability M&S have considered different
elements that are directly or indirectly linked with business operations of M&S.
Ethically made and trusted value- This is one of the approach of M&S in which they focus on
creating sustainable fashion (ETHICALLY MADE, TRUSTED VALUE, 2020). In this approach
organisations aims at sourcing with care so that nothing waste and they are also working on
making difference in supply chain.
Protecting our forests- This is concerned with protecting forests and in this approach of
sustainability M&S is working on eliminating deforestation from the production of palm oil, soy,
meat and wood in M&S products. In this approach of sustainability M&S have achieved 100% of
palm oil certified responsibly sourced by the Roundtable on sustainable Palm Oil. In addition to
this M&S is also focusing on 100% soy sourced using Round Table for responsibly soy credits
and also focusing on 100% responsibly sourced wood and paper.
Plastic Plan- This is another approach for sustainability that has been adopted by M&S in their
plan A. M&S is working on identifying new and innovative ways through which they can reduce
use of plastic in M&S and they are also working helping customers to reuse and recycle plastic
(OUR PLASTICS PLAN, 2020). In this approach they have teamed up with some of the NGOs,
industry partners and government to support improvement in UK’s waste collection and
recycling system.
From Field to Fork- Farming Standards- In this approach M&S ensures that best food in
M&S comes from best farmers. This includes those who are dedicated towards quality and those

who take care of their land and their animal. In this M&S considers it very important to have
knowledge regarding farmers and producers of food. This is because good food starts with
farmers and they play very important role in ensuring high quality of food. In addition to this
M&S also ensure that they select farm and farmers meet their high standards for safety and
quality of food, animal welfare and environment protection.
Food waste approach- This is concerned with approach of organisation for sustainability
regarding food waste. In this approach they are working on providing quality, fresh food and in
have set targets to manage food waste across M&S from suppliers to customers. In this approach
none of the food goes to waste in bin and is sent to create energy to power homes and businesses
(OUR FOOD WASTE APPROACH, 2018). M&S is also working in halve food waste and
working on ensuring that 100% of edible surplus food finds its way to dinner plate. In this
organisation is working on testing new ways to recover food that nearing end-of-life and
encourage customers to buy food on its last day at reduced price. In this approach M&S is also
working local community to donate surplus food to ensure it ends up in person’s plate and does
not get wasted.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above discussion, it can be concluded that M&S have adopted effective
strategies for development for both internal as well as external development of M&S. Later
report discussed leadership style of leaders in M&S and leadership style involves
transformational leadership style. This is because transformational leadership style is very
important while organisation is going through change and transformation. Later report involved
discussion regarding change management that contextualised Change Kaleidoscope. Followed by
sustainability was discussed and this involved discussion regarding different approaches adopted
by M&S for its sustainable future. M&S has developed a plan that is Plan A for sustainability.
On the basis of recommendation it can be recommended that M&S should emphasis more
on internal development. This means that on the basis of case study and change adopted by Steve
Rowe mainly focuses on operational aspect and focus on development of employees and their
involvement have not been considered in development and transformation (Hussain and et.al.,

2018). This requires that employees should also be involved as an important element of
organisation and transformation of M&S.
In addition to this it is also recommended that M&S increase its focus towards declining
sales and revenue because along with change and transformation in organisation for future
growth, immediate actions and strategies for increasing sales and revenue are also important for
M&S. Increasing sales will also help M&S to increase pace of its internal growth aligned with
external growth.
Concerned with external growth M&S can also consider merger and acquisition with
different businesses like Ocado in food retail.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Durand, R., Grant, R. M. and Madsen, T. L., 2017. The expanding domain of strategic
management research and the quest for integration. Strategic Management
Journal.38(1). pp.4-16.
Dvorský, J., and et.al., 2020. Selected aspects of strategic management in the service
sector. Journal of Tourism and Services.11(20). pp.109-123.
Haggblade, S and et.al., 2017. What drives policy change? Evidence from six empirical
applications of the Kaleidoscope Model (No. 1878-2017-2512).
Hussain, S.T and et.al., 2018. Kurt Lewin's change model: A critical review of the role of
leadership and employee involvement in organizational change. Journal of Innovation
& Knowledge. 3(3). pp.123-127.
Jayatilleke, S. and Lai, R., 2018. A systematic review of requirements change
management. Information and Software Technology. 93. pp.163-185.
Resnick, D and et.al., 2018. The Kaleidoscope Model of policy change: Applications to food
security policy in Zambia. World Development. 109. pp.101-120.
Teece, D.J., 2019. A capability theory of the firm: an economics and (strategic) management
perspective. New Zealand Economic Papers.53(1). pp.1-43.
Trigeorgis, L. and Reuer, J. J., 2017. Real options theory in strategic management. Strategic
management journal.38(1). pp.42-63.
Online
OUR PLASTICS PLAN. 2020. [Online]. Available Through: <
https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/sustainability/quick-reads/our-plastics-plan>.
OUR FOOD WASTE APPROACH. 2018. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/sustainability/quick-reads/our-food-waste-
approach>.
ETHICALLY MADE, TRUSTED VALUE. 2020. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/sustainability/quick-reads/ethically-made-
trusted-value>.