BMA4000-20 Assignment 2: London Business Comparison Report

This report, prepared for a local newspaper feature article, compares and contrasts two London-based businesses: Marks and Spencer, a large retail company, and Atlantic Books, a smaller publishing house. The report examines their purpose, ownership, and the external environment, including political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors (PESTLE analysis). It further analyzes the organizational structures, with Marks and Spencer utilizing a flat structure and Atlantic Books employing a functional structure. The strategic planning of both companies is assessed, highlighting similarities and differences in their approaches to customer-centricity and market competition. The report concludes by emphasizing the impact of external factors like Brexit and technological advancements on both businesses and underscores the importance of adapting strategies to succeed in the competitive London market.

Running head: TWO BUSINESSES
TWO BUSINESSES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The purpose of this paper will be to introduce and contrast two local organizations
from the region of London, where one will be a big company and the other one will be a
small one. The context of this paper will be viewpoint of a junior journalist from the local
newspaper which is planning to run a feature article on local businesses. This article
consisting of the two local and contrasting businesses will cover the purpose, ownership,
external environment, organisational structure and strategic planning of the two identified
business houses, which are Marks and spencer as the big organization and Atlantic Books as
the small one.
Marks and Spencer belongs from the retail industry, and started their business
operations in the year of 1884. Headquarter of this business house is in Westminster and the
organization possess a presence in almost 1463 locations around the world. They are
specialized in selling of high end home products, clothing and products. Archie Norman is
the Chairman of this company, whereas Steve Rowe is the Chief Executive, and there are
almost 81,000 employees present in all the locations that have been mentioned above. The
amount of revenue that has been earned by the management of this multinational retail
company is £10,377.3 million, which has helped the management to use this amount of
money for making the existing structure better. It can be stated in this context that
advancement in the area of technology has changed the entire business concept and retail
industry is one of the most competitive business sector among all other business sectors. So,
there are opportunities for Marks and Spencer (Marksandspencer.com 2020).
On the other hand, Atlantic Books is from the publishing industry, and is a publishing
house based from London. It is an independent publishing house, which possess the power to
competitive in this global market place. The organization was founded in 2000 which is focused

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on publishing various kinds of books in the market place of London, or where it operates.
Toby Mundy is the founder of this business house, and it can be stated that there are business
opportunities for this company and will continue to do the same for years to come (Atlantic
Books 2020).
External Environment
Political Factor
The first and foremost factor is the political factor and it can be stated in this context
that the nature of the government hugely impacts the business operations of a company. The
same is applicable in the context of some of the impact of these external factors may have on
each of the companies. A stable government always helps to maintain smooth business
operations in the market place of London, which helps Marks and Spencer and Atlantic
Books to maintain a healthy work culture within their operations in this particular market
place. London can be stated as one of the most successful market places in terms of control of
corruption, the application of rule of law, regulatory quality and government effectiveness.
Apart from this, the market place ranks as satisfactory on political stability according to the
governance indicators of the World Bank.
Economic Factor
This factor also plays an integral part in the business environment of an organization.
The GDP growth of the market of London affects the business operations of both the selected
organizations and it can be noted in this context that the economy of London or the region of
the entire United Kingdom continues to get benefitted from robust economic growth. The
major or primary part of this growth occurs in London as well as the south east part of the
nation. Traditionally, it has been seen that the industrial activities has mostly been

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concentrated in the northern parts of the region of the United Kingdom, whereas the south has
been driven by the services sector. Both Marks and Spencer provides services to their
customers, one from the retail perspective and the other from the publishing industry. Brexit
issue is one of the most vital factors that might hamper the overall flow of the business
operations of these two organizations.
Social Factor
It can be stated in this context that factors like corporate social responsibilities has
become an important factor in the daily business operations of various companies, and
Atlantic Books and Marks and Spencer are two such business entities. Responsibility to the
society where they operates helps to assess the overall performance level of the organizations.
The age distribution of the population in the market place of London will impact on the
business operations of these two organizations, and retail as well as publishing industry
depends on the age of their targeted customers to a certain extent. The ever changing needs
and requirements of the people of different ages determines the rate of success that will be
faced in future of the business operations of the companies like Atlantic Books and Marks
and Spencer.
Technological Factor
Advancement on the area of technology has changed the overall concept of business
operations of all the business operations of the business entities irrespective of their sectors.
Usage of smartphone along with the internet activities has impacted a lot on small
organizations like Atlantic Books, where shift from physical books to eBooks proved to be as
one of the major impacted factor on the overall business operations of this company. On the
other hand, buying products from online platforms also affected the businesses in the retail
houses like Marks and Spencer in the market place of London. The advancement in this

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technological field has forced to change the needs and requirements of the people, which
forced the management to take alternative steps to sustain in the market place of London as
well as to other places where these companies operate.
Legal Factor
Maintaining the length of working week in London or in the entire United Kingdom
forms to be a part of the legal factor that Atlantic Books and Marks and Spencer need to look
after. Both these companies may need to perform for extra hours depending on the number of
books to be published at a particular time for Atlantic Books or depending on the average
footfall that occurs in a single outlet of Marks and Spencer in the market of London. Other
legal factors like labour laws and different types of benefits that are provided to the workers
or the employees impact the flow of the business operations a lot, and the success of these
two companies depend on all these legal factors.
Environmental Factor
It can be stated in this context that the government of London as well as the United
Kingdom plays an integral part in the improvement of European environmental standards
with all European Union policy making. Sustainable development initiatives need to be
followed and maintained by the management of the organizations of Atlantic Books and
Marks and Spencer, mainly for Atlantic books as they have to deal with the paper. Waste
management is another factor that affects the daily business operations of Atlantic Books and
Marks and Spencer, and it can be noted that the health of the people who are working with
these business houses along with the society where they operates and serves need to be
maintained as a part of the environmental factor.
Thus, to summarize all the factors, it can be said that the factors like Brexit and
alterations in the technological field impacts on the business operations of Marks and Spencer

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and Atlantic Books. Overtime in case of publication of a particular book or spending time in
the retail stores without getting any kind on monetary as well as non-monetary benefits may
also adversely affect the business operations of these two organizations (Kolios and Read
2013).
Organizational Structure
Flat Organizational structure is followed by Marks and Spencer, which is given as
follows (Tolbert and Hall 2015):
Fig. 1: Organizational Structure of Marks and Spencer
Source: Created by the Author

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On the other hand, the organizational structure of Atlantic books is functional
organizational structure, which is given as follows:
Strategical Planning
The strategical planning of the two companies both varies and matches according to
the point of consideration. From the technological aspect, the strategies that are followed by
both the organizations are similar to certain extent, as they both are customer-centric and the
market share along with the revenue earning depends on acceptance of their services and the
number of footfalls on their retail outlets. On the other hand, to meet the ever-changing needs
and demands of the people, the management of both Atlantic Books and Marks and Spencer
need to provide innovative ways in their service offerings, so that it will both help to attract
the new people from this competitive market place along with retaining the ones as well. The
planning in the strategies need to be done according to the requirements of the people of
CEO
FUNCTIONAL
MANAGER
FUNCTIONAL
MANAGER
FUNCTIONAL
MANAGER
STAFF
STAFF
STAFF
STAFF
STAFF
STAFF

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London as well as the entire United Kingdom, which will help them to gain the competitive
advantage over others (Khan 2013).
Comparison and Conclusion
From the above conclusion, it can be concluded that both the organizations possess
the power to sustain in the market place of London, with having the technical skills and
abilities to perform in this local market as well as in other market places. The external
business environment is different for both these organizations, as they belong from retail and
publishing industry, but there are issues like Brexit and development in the field of
technology which equally affects the business environment of Atlantic Books and Marks and
Spencer. Strategies also differ in most of the contexts but there are similarities as well, which
need to be followed effectively and efficiently to sustain in this competitive market place of
London.

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References
Atlantic Books. (2020). Home – Atlantic Books. [online] Available at: https://atlantic-
books.co.uk/ [Accessed 24 Jan. 2020].
Khan, O., 2013. Managing risk by internalising product design in fashion retail: An
exploratory case of Marks & Spencer. Manchester School of Management, Manchester.
Kolios, A. and Read, G., 2013. A political, economic, social, technology, legal and
environmental (PESTLE) approach for risk identification of the tidal industry in the United
Kingdom. Energies, 6(10), pp.5023-5045.
Marksandspencer.com. (2020). Welcome to Marks & Spencer. [online] Available at:
https://www.marksandspencer.com/ [Accessed 24 Jan. 2020].
Tolbert, P.S. and Hall, R.H., 2015. Organizations: Structures, processes and outcomes.
Routledge.