Strategic Report: An In-Depth Analysis of Marks and Spencer's Business

This report provides a comprehensive strategic analysis of Marks and Spencer, a multinational British retailer. It begins with an introduction to strategic management and then delves into Marks and Spencer's vision, mission, values, and key objectives. The main body of the report includes a detailed VRIO framework analysis, assessing the company's resources and capabilities. It also presents a PESTLE analysis, examining the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors affecting the business. Furthermore, the report utilizes Porter's Five Forces model to evaluate the competitive landscape and reviews the organization's strategic approaches. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and strategic implications for Marks and Spencer.

Strategic
Management

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................2
About the organisation...........................................................................................................2
Vision of Marks and Spencer.................................................................................................2
Mission of Marks & Spencer..................................................................................................2
Values of Marks and Spencer.................................................................................................3
Key Objectives of Marks and Spencer...................................................................................3
VRIO Framework...................................................................................................................3
PESTLE Analysis...................................................................................................................4
Porter’s Five Force Model......................................................................................................6
Review of organisational strategies........................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The management of resources of organisation for the purpose of achieving the
organisational goals and objectives is known as a strategic management. It is a collection of
various functions which include setting objectives analysing the competitive environment
analysing the internal organisation evaluating strategies a and at last insuring that management
roles out the strategies within the organisation. Various of organisation used strategic
management for the purpose of making goals and meeting the desired objectives. When any
business organisation is planning to expand their business they are required to make a complete
action plan by analysing challenges and prepare themselves for facing them. Strategic
management helps the organisation for the same. This report is based on Marks and Spencer
group PLC which is a multinational British retailer having headquarter in London England
United Kingdom. The purpose of making this report is to analyse the purpose vision mission and
objectives of organisation. It also includes the complete concept of VRIO framework along with
the PESTLE analysis of Marks and Spencer. At the end of this report there are various
organisational strategies has been analysed.
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MAIN BODY
About the organisation
Marks and Spencer group PLC is a multinational retailer of home products clothing and food
products. Its headquarter is located in London England United Kingdom. Michael Marks and
Thomas Spencer are the founders of this company. Nowadays they are working on almost 1463
locations (Hanski, J. and Ojanen, V., 2020). Along with this approximately 959 stores are
available across the United Kingdom. Marks and Spencer becomes the first British retailer for
making a pre-tax profit of over 1 billion. This company is basically focusing on the quality of
good food clothing and home ware. They are working globally as they have almost 1400 stores
across 57 countries and over 50 international websites. Marks and Spencer are also providing a
range of financial services which include current account, credit cards, insurance, mortgages and
savings accounts.
Vision of Marks and Spencer
Vision statement can be defined as a document which explains the way where an
organization is going and what the organization will get or look like when it reach at the desired
point. It helps the organization in working incompatibility goals. Basically it describes aur frame
a statement which describes the purpose of company, what are the organization is doing and
what they want to achieve in future. It provides guidance for decision making and creating
strategies. Division of marks and Spencer is it to be creating a standard against which others are
measured - Benchmarking. They are focusing on creating a standard of products for the purpose
of beating the competition in the market. Along with this they also wanted to create
benchmarking over their products.
Mission of Marks & Spencer
It refers to the key purpose of Organization. In simple words it can be said that it is a precis of
the aims and keys values (Globocnik, D., Faullant, R. and Parastuty, Z., 2020). It makes clear
that what the organization do for their clients. Mission is a broad concept but it is also a very
specific for the purpose of setting apart from other organization. Mission statement explains
reason of organization and how they are serving to their stakeholders. The mission of Marks and
Spencer is to make the persuasive quality which attained the customer's. They are focusing on
providing best quality products to the customer so that they can attain them towards the business.
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Values of Marks and Spencer
Values can be defined as beliefs of individual or teams in which the management invest
emotionally. In simple words values can be defined as beliefs and Standards of the organisation
which supports the objectives procedures and policies of organization. The values of Marks and
Spencer involve service, Innovation, quality and trust.
Key Objectives of Marks and Spencer
Employee orientation: More assumptions of contributions of staff towards the organisation for
stopper it is a basic need which the management required for the succession. It also leads to the
growth of career path of employees. Employee orientation can be said as a part of Marks and
Spencer for the purpose of attracting motivating and retaining the higher quality staff members
for assisting the transformation of the business and improve the performance at workplace.
Organizational objectives: Marks and Spencer is working to recover the leadership in food and
clothing. It is necessary for them to achieve them by translating their scale and authority
(Edmondson, A.C. and Verdin, P.J., 2018).
Sales objectives: Marks and Spencer trusted dieter there are many rooms for improvement in
their sales.
VRIO Framework
VRIO Framework can be defined as a tool which is used for analyzing strategic management for
the purpose of uncovering and protecting the resources and abilities which provides them a long
term advantage of competition. In simple words it can be defined as a descriptor of 4 questions
framework which include value, rarity, instability and organization. Basically this Framework is
used to disclose the ine coverage benefits of competition. I need a source of organization can be
considered as valuable which adds some values to the organization by allowing them to take the
benefits of opportunity or reduce the threats (Hieu, V.M. and Nwachukwu, C., 2020). The latest
and subjective part of VRIO is considered under rarity. In simple words it can be said that those
resources which can be obtained by one or any few companies are examined as rare. Imitable
refers to those resources which can an organization imitate easily and Organization can substitute
or copy any resource (Cuskelly and et. al., 2020). Organized to capture value refers to the
resources do not consult the advantage for any organization for the purpose of not to organize to
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capture the value for them. It is the responsibility of organization to manage the management
system organizational structure culture policies and processes so that they can fully realize the
potential to its value is rare and costly.
The internal resources organization can be assess whether it provide help in the competitive
advantage, it can be analyzed only by the tool VRIO. Marks and Spencer organization is using
this tool for the same. Below mentioned is the applicable of VRIO Framework on marks and
Spencer organization:
Valuable: In the organization of Marks and Spencer financial resources are highly valuable as it
helps in investing the organization into various external opportunities that arise in the market in.
Along with the management of marks and Spencer are considering employees as valuable
resource for the organization (Coggburn, J.D. and Llorens, J.J., 2020). It is necessary that the
employees of organization should highly trained which leads to the increasing in productivity
organization.
Rare: According to VRIO analysis of it is found that after the financial resources which are
available for Marks and Spencer are available only for a few organizations in the same industry.
It is also found that there are various competitors available in the market which provides local
food products. So it is found that it is not there for Marks and Spencer. It implies that all the
competitors of Marks and Spencer are losing the resources in the same way as they are doing.
Imitable: In the VRIO analysis of Marks and Spencer it is founded at the financial resources are
too costly to imitate. The organization can only obtain finance from various financial resources
by extending profits over years. The local food products not found imitable as any of competitor
can obtain the same products by doing research and development.
Organization: The financial resources of marks and Spencer are arranged for the purpose of
catching values as analyzed by the VRIO analysis. Such resources are used for the purpose of
investing money at right place. Along with this it is also analyzed to that patents of Marks and
Spencer are not well managed by the organization (Cheluget, M. and Koech, C.J., 2018). It
implies that the organization is not using patent to their full potential.
PESTLE Analysis
It can be explained as a tool or concept of marketing principles which is used to analyze the
external factors of business organizations. In simple words it can be said that PESTLE analysis is
a practical Framework which is used to assess the factors of external environment of a business
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organization by shutting down the opportunities and risks in to political, economic, social,
technological, environmental and legal factors. It is a beneficial while doing a corporate strategy
planning and recognizing the merits and demerits of a business strategy. This story is a useful for
multinational businesses or when a new business is going to start. Along with this it is also
analyzed that PESTLE analysis is useful for that organization who are going to enter in a Foreign
market as it is necessary for them to follow all the factors rules and regulations for the purpose of
achieving organizational goals and objectives (Chakrabarty, S., 2020). Below mentioned is the
explanation of PESTLE analysis of Marks and Spencer:
Political Factors: It refers to all those factors which define how and what degree a government
intercedes in the economy or a certain industry. The political photos of marks and Spencer
include free trade and Brexit. It is well known that Marks and Spencer is a multinational
company and their stores are available at various foreign markets also free trade policy has them
in importing the foreign products for the purpose of sale at various stores along with maintaining
a good profit margin. Under Brexit, the United Kingdom have to leave the European Union
which is another political factor (Köseoglu, M.A., Yazici, S. and Okumus, F., 2018).
Economic factor: It refers to those factors which identify the performance of economy which
gives a direct impact on a company and make the same impact for long term. The economic price
of products of marching Spencer can be affected by a rise in inflation rate of a particular
economy various economic and does include interest rates, economic growth patterns, inflation
rate, foreign exchange rate and Many More. United Kingdom economy is it is the largest
economy in the world and it is Open Economy. Along with this, financial crisis affect the marks
and Spencer in decreasing the demand of customers (Neumann, F., 2017).
Social Factors: These factors employees a study of social environment of market and identify
culture Trend, population Analytics, demographics and many more. In the last ten years it is
analyzed that society has been increasing the demand of ready meals (Bustamante, C.V., 2019).
It is may be because of tasty foods. This gives a huge opportunity to Marks and Spencer for food
store. Along with this it is also found at the young generation of United Kingdom know Marks
and Spencer for household industry only as it is known trendy retail chain pop up for clothing.
Technological Factors: These factors are concerned to the innovation of Technology which
affects the operations of an organization and do changes in market either favorably or
unfavorably. And Spencer has introduced to self checkout technology in their stores. It is can be
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said that it is the biggest trends in modern day retail. Self checkout experience is faster. Along
with their uses they are also offering online shopping to their customers. This is possible only
because they had make a strong commerce presence. By online shopping, Marks and Spencer
take traditional approach to online shopping (Kwon, S.J., Ryu, D. and Park, E., 2018).
Legal factors: It include various laws and rules regulations which of the business organization.
The laws of every country are ever changing. Marks and Spencer are continuously providing
training to their employees so that they can healthy and update them in every year.
Environmental Factors: It refers to those factors which impact by surrounding environment.
Fair trade create better company shade foreign producer. Marks and Spencer is offering the
product with fair trade which has an important benefit for environment.
Porter’s Five Force Model
It refers to a model of business analysis which helps in explaining why the various industries are
able to help different levels of profitability (Boohene, R., 2018). It is a most important tool which
is used them to understand the competitiveness of the business environment for the purpose of
identifying the potential strategies. As it is well known that management of organization when
under standard the forces of environment it helps in the increase in profitability. Bargaining
power of customer, bargaining power of supplier, threat of substitute products, rivalry and threat
of new entrants products are the five forces of this model.
Bargaining power of customers: Marks and Spencer is providing different products to their
customers. The companies focusing on making long-term relationships with our customers hand
doing various efforts in order to managing and maintaining the relationships. They had made the
relationships with their customers which bring the loyalty in the customers (Mitchell, G.E.,
2017). It is also analyzed detect the bargaining power of customers is too low. Marks and
Spencer have high power in order to setting the prices of their products as they are selling
different products in the market which also leads to the long term relationship with their
customers. They also provide various general products to mask customer base. These products
are also offered by their competitors which indicated that customers have power to to identify
prices.
Bargaining power of suppliers: The suppliers of Marks and Spencer almost United Kingdom
based. A number of suppliers are supplying products to Marks and Spencer which also develop a
long term relationship with them (ARMAN, M. and SHAFIEI, M., 2017). This act leads to the
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organization in identifying the prices rather than accept the prices which are decided by supplier.
It implies that the organization have various choices to change the supplier. Hence it can be said
that Marks and Spencer reduce the bargaining power of suppliers.
Threat to substitute: Various organizations available in the market are introducing various
alternatives products of marks and Spencer (Lee and et. al., 2019). It implies that the threat of
substitute is high. Sainsbury and Tesco can be taken as example of organizations which provide
threat to substitute.
Threat to new entrants: It involves high cost of entry into this industry (Andrey, P., Valentina, I.
and Yuri, S., 2020). Marks and Spencer is feeling and doubtful for the purpose of suffering
significant threat due to new entrants. It is necessary to have various resources in the clothing
market which able to maintain the position. Marks and experience has lots of experience as they
are working from many years. Hence they are enjoying Economics of scale which can't be
possible for any new Organization in the market. They also requires a lot of key competencies
which is not available to any new organization.
Rivalry among Competitors: Tesco PLC, Walmart, Next PLC, Morrison, Sainsbury are the
various competitive of Marks and Spencer.
Review of organisational strategies
Marks and Spencer comes under biggest retailer of United Kingdom which provide natural
services to their customers including food, clothes and home products. It is found that the Trends
of customers are changing day by day towards the natural and environmental friendly products.
Marks and Spencer launched the same plan which consists of almost 180 commitments for the
purpose of overcoming from these challenges. Some of the problems are also coming because of
changing environment condition. It is also a huge challenge faced by the Marks and Spencer.
They are facing a issue of reducing the waste which is going into landfill (Meissner, P. and Wulf,
T., 2017). The management of organization has launched plan A take into consideration which
implies the great challenges exit and feels the management needs with the suppliers and
customers for the purpose of achieving the targets. It is necessary for them to completely utilize
the fuel as a lots of used vehicles are used by Marks and Spencer for the purpose of
transportation. And energy saving is also and initial part of this plan.
It is also analyzed at a lot number of clothes are going to landfill in the form of waste. Another
significant factor of plan A easy to reduce the waste (Adler, N.J. and Ghadar, F., 2017). Marks
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and Spencer is providing that waste clothes to the non profit organizations which are doing work
for helping the needy people in the society. It also leads to the activities of corporate social
responsibility of organization.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it is concluded that the strategic management plays an important role
in any organisation as it helps the management in deciding about the procedures and various
strategies, policies in order to improve productivity as well as profitability. Furthermore, it is
also analysed that it is necessary for organisations to make their vision, mission, values and
objectives so that they can easily focus on them. The management should make transparency of
mission, vision, values and objectives so that the employees can also put their efforts in order to
achieve them. VRIO framework is a tool which is used to analyse the valuable, rare, imitable,
organization resources of an organisation. This report also shows the PESTLE analysis, Porter’s
Five Force Model.
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