MGT6800: Strategic Management: M&S Analysis - Development & Future

This report provides a strategic management analysis of Marks & Spencer (M&S), a British multinational retailer. It covers M&S's background, strategic tools used for development (VMOST, SWOT, PEST), leadership styles (transformational), strategy implementation through change management models, and future sustainability strategies. The analysis includes internal and external factors impacting the organization, such as political, economic, socio-cultural, and technological forces. The report evaluates M&S's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the international market, and assesses the effectiveness of their strategies in relation to competitors.

Strategic Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
M&S - Background Information: ...............................................................................................1
Relevant strategic tools to analyse methods of development used by M&S. ............................2
Analyse and evaluate the leadership style at M&S. ...................................................................6
Critically examine strategy implementation at M&S through change management models ....7
The future sustainability strategy for M&S................................................................................8
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management is a process of managing the organisational resources to attain the
goals and objectives within the industry or company. Strategic management consists of setting up
the goals and objectives which relates with all department, basically to formulate and implement
the strategic plan in accordance with the activities of analysing the internal organisation and
evaluating the strategies by implementing in the course of action plan through appropriate
activities(Barbosa, Castañeda-Ayarza and Ferreira, 2020).The objective of strategic management
is to strategically implement the goals and initiatives related with the organisation, to accomplish
these aspects strategic planning and procedure are required which will be develop by the senior
authority of the company and strategically implement them to attain the value of their
appropriate plans regarding the objectives and targets in relations to the any change management
and after the specific strategy plans are made then organisation has to deploy the resources
according to the planning .The below report is based on M&S a British multinational retailer and
having the headquarter in London, England which deals in the products like clothing, home
products and food products by having their own branding on products. The below report will
cover the topic on strategic tools to analyse the methods of development in respect of the
company and analysis the leadership style and evaluate them future sustainability strategy of
M&S.
MAIN BODY
M&S - Background Information:
Mark and Spencer is a British multinational retailing company with a well known
branding image in the international market through their standardised products and caters in
popular branding by having their own tags and branding on their products the so they are easily
attaining the aspects of reaching their customers(Carayannis, 2018) .Having their headquarter in
London, England, industry type in which they are dealing is retailing and type of company is
public limited company, Mark&Spencer are serving across the country worldwide with the aim
to attain the large number of markets in the international business through caters the large
customers base .M&S was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds.
M&S are currently having 960 physical stores across the united kingdom which includes 615 that
only deals in the food product in relation to the selling part. They are operating in both the
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channels is that online and offline platform they are serving better through their attainment of
online aspects of doing the business by interacting with their customers with lots of available
options and having the approach of gathering improvement feedbacks from them. They are
dealing in online food delivery products by having their own label or branding, the product in
which M&S deals involves with clothing products for kids, adults and seniors ones so basically
they are catering in all groups with their quality of serving to the customers in effective manner,
food products, home based products and general merchandise products so the industry type
basically meets the regular based demands of their customers .They introduce their marketing
strategies according to the environment which relates with customers taste and preferences.
Brands in which M&S deals in per Una, autograph, limited, Rosie, Blue harbour, M&S
collection and M&S Energy , number of employees working in this industry is approximately
80000 current employees.
Relevant strategic tools to analyse methods of development used by M&S.
Some of the most common analysis tools which are assisting M&S in the development
phase which is basically consists with the VMOST analysis which relates with vision, mission,
objectives, strategy and tactical and the models helps in strategically implement while
determining the internal as well as external factors which will impact the organisation in long run
so this tools help in analysing the methods of developing phases used by M&S, because of the
multinational approaches of dealing in the international market they have to set the mark by their
different strategy which will assure whether this industry planning are compatible to compete
with that of competitors, these aspects will shows the effectiveness for this industry to make
efforts with the future point of view. So here are some of the strategic tools to analysis the M&S
that is important in the stages of developing phase are as follows:
Vision:
A vision shows the long term goal of the organisation, the vision poses by M&S to be the
standard against which others are measured, they are having the quality of serving the quality
brand product so vision is to deliver to their customer by this strong branding image so as to
compliment to their customer as well through their standard, this vision aspects are continuously
operate by this industry (Dzwigol, 2020).
Mission:
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Mission of M&S is to make aspirational quality available to all with the efforts of
reaching to the large customer base through involving the value of excellent quality in respect of
their product like clothing and food products .
Objective:
The objectives board is to built a sustainable business through consistent, profitable
growth by catering the customers through quality products and to make sure about the
responsibility through meeting accountability to shareholders, and to operates its activities by
making an efforts to employ their resources well.
Strategy:
M&S using the aspect of print media , TV ads , mobile ads and other sources through
which they are inducing their activities in the market and by suing of social media campaigns,
the company are using their won websites to cater there customers and to promote their clothing,
food, home products, custom,er will easily operates on their websites (Ketchen Jr and Craighead,
2020) .
Tactics:
M&S is dealing in the tactics of product and servicing innovation, marketing investment
related to different countries market by analysing the trends their and to opt the situation of their
market and the customer experience regarding their product and service quality.
SWOT Analysis of M&S:
SWOT analysis is a process or approach by the organisation in determining the internal
as well as external environment by analysing their strength, weakness,opportunities and threats.
Its basically the strategic planning techniques which assists the organisation in making the
appropriate plans for their particular objectives and goals , strength and weaknesses relates with
internal factor while opportunities and threats relates with external factor so here are SWOT
analysis of M&S are as follow:
Strength:
 A well experienced industry having the experience of 136 years into the international
market and one of the well known retail industry in united kingdom. They are dealing in
many investment with big partnerships which leads to give strong position in the
international market(Okumus and et. al., 2019) .
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 They are having the reputation to built the strong relationship with the customers through
providing the quality product on the base of their branding, customers are loyal for this
industry as they are catering in both clothing and food product segment.
Weaknesses:
 This industry recently suffers from the declining sales as the given report by wood 2019,
the sales in some of the stores of M&S which relates with the other countries as well are
decline because of the poor supply chain and non availability of their products(Wan and
et. al., 2019) .
 One of the common weakness of M&S industry is that they are catering their customers
by high cost sometimes difficult for them to cater each customer on the basis of their
income level.
Opportunities:
 Through their process of online platform M&S have to continuously built the approaches
to cater the large customer base by developing the easy accessible websites by displaying
about their products and services in better manner.
 As this industry are well known by their branding image they are basically caters the high
income level customers due to that they do not segment their market, but If they
considered this aspect by catering the middle level customer will provides growth to the
industry(Ansoff and et. al., 2018) .
Threats:
 Because this industry are having the multinational approach of operating in the
international market this will leads to the tough competition in the market and risk of
reducing the market shares.
Pest analysis of M&S industry:
Pest analysis is the process and methods to determine and analysis the external forces
which will impact the organisation an d its operational activities , industry like Mark and Spencer
have to prepared strategies by determining the forces on which industry do not have any control
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over it is that political, economic, socio-cultural and technological forces which will impact the
M&S industry so by analysing this process they will go for their strategic development planning:
Political factor:
 Due to their operations across the different countries as well as they posses the benefits of
easily operates in the united kingdom they are getting more profits by those countries,
this free trade allow this industry to import the foreign products in respect to sale in their
stores in cheaper price by maintaining the higher profit margin(Bell and et. al., 2018) .
 Due to Brexit its really unclear about this industry especially in terms of their tariffs and
trade regulations so there are having the impact of this on their operational process.
Economic factor:
 The company is having the overall strategy of providing the quality products to its
customers, hence financial crisis leads to decrease the demand for Mark and Spencer
product in respect of their high quality product because of low disposable income of the
customer(Deephouse, Gardberg and Newburry, 2019) .
 They have to compete with the small retailers over the pricing of the product due to
currency impact of the Brexit.
Social factor:
 This industry works on initiative of supporting the surrounding communities which are
exists in the markets this will help or assist this industry to reduce the internal costs.
 Product chain of this industry due to poor performance will leads to the negative social
trend.
Technological:
 Because of the large retailing industry , technological advancement will lead to the
strengthen security , risk associated with the company as well as with customers and
compliances.
 Adaptation of upgrading websites will impact this industry working through catering
more customers
Analyse and evaluate the leadership style at M&S.
Mark and Spencer deals in the large areas of serving their customers worldwide so as to
attain the aspect to reach the customer in most effective way through maintaining the value of
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providing the best quality products to their customers this will require more effective leadership
style to formulate the large and expand operations of this industry. Industry should have to
follow some of the leadership style which will leads to the formation of vast operational
activities is that:
Leadership style is the way of doing the activities by making an efforts through influencing the
teams or groups to successfully achieving the targets and objectives , a leaders is one who will
inspire and influence its followers in respect of the employees working in the industry and team
members so some of the leadership style adopts by the M&S industry(Holloway, 2018).
Transformational leadership style
This industry relates with its large operations so they have to deal with the leadership
style of being with the transformational change, employees working in this industry with the aim
to attain the objective of provides the quality service they are serving with lots of efforts by their
senior level management , this leadership style inspiring the people to be proactive in order to
participate in the development phase of the industry so by providing the growth to the M&S with
this transformational leadership here senior manager or leaders motivates sharing the values with
the employees by making efforts in respect of any innovation ideas or planning that has to be
implementing into the industry .
Transactional leadership style
In the context of this M&S retailing industry, they are more focused on this leadership
style and currently using this leadership because of developing the culture of work with
motivated employees by developing the positive environment in the organisation this leadership
relates with the objective of increasing the performance of organisation efficiently by motivating
employees by providing the benefits with reward system on the basis of their working through
evaluating each individual in the organisation through its performances in respect of operational
activities. This industry using a bureaucracy approach, this industry because of their retailing
aspect this leadership completely set in this nature where each employee are dedicated towards
their tasks and activities according to the job role.
Critically examine strategy implementation at M&S through change management models
Change management is a structured and strategic planned approach to shift the
organisation from its current situation in which they are in presently and to meet with the desire
future state in respect of what management wants to develop in their changes, this shift are
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necessary If the organisation like M&S will get affect through some of the external factors which
relates with either political , technological etc. So here are the model of kotter's for change on
M&S industry;
Need Urgency:
Here the industry like M&S have to change quickly to effectively leads in the market by
having the different skills and products and decision regarding their competitors to compete with
them, is there is any sudden adaptation of change by their competitors regarding the product so
they have to access as soon as possible by adopting some strategy to cope up with this
change(Makadok, Burton and Barney, 2018) .
Strong coalition:
According to kotter, proper team work in the organisation towards the particular change
will leads to success, they should take feedbacks from employees and creating external audits.
Change in mission:
By using the channel of seminars and talk about the change in mission and goals
provides the effectiveness in the organisation by maintaining the value to convey the employees
about the change.
Regular communication and Discussion:
Management should also allow their employees in the change process.
Remove obstacles:
If any obstacles and problems arises while doing the change they should work urgently
on the appropriate obstacles through review the process.
Short term wins:
Through lots of little efforts by the employees in respect of working will be recognised
and rewarded this will leads to attain the motivation for employees which direct to the approach
to change.
Change continuously:
They have to be regular in their changing phases and needs to be productive.
Relation with company:
This industry should connect with the changes and ideas with the company cultural
environment .
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The future sustainability strategy for M&S
This industry works on the principle of providing the growth to the industry by
maintaining the sustainability in the future through Plan A of M&S by being in a business that
enables their customers to have with the positive impact on communities, societies , well-being
and planet these are the aspects in which this industry works , M&S industry working with their
customers and suppliers to deal wit the climate changes, reducing the waste . Through using the
sustainable raw material and by trading ethically with the motive to set standard about their
company values by assisting their customers to leads with the healthier lifestyle, basically to
improve the retention quality of the organisation(Velikorossov and et. al., 2020).
Recommendations:
 This industry have to work on their change management due to their vast operations
across the countries so it takes time induce the change management in respect of any
product related and pricing related change they have to strategically implement the
program to cope up with change quickly.
 M&S relates with the product which normally involves with higher price due to quality
standardisation by maintaining the value of branding but they should develop the strategy
to cater the middle income level customer so to achieve the all segment and higher
profitability in the organisation.
 This industry should maximize their employment factor to minimize the poor channel of
supply.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report is that every organisation have to deal with
the strategic management planing so as to achieve the objectives and task which are relates with
operational activities of the organisation, to identify the methods of development of any industry
there are specific appropriate tools which are required to determine and analysis the stages of
organisation is that by working on their vision , mission and by models like SWOT and PEST
analysis we will come at specific developing methods uses by industry ,organisation should
follow the change management with proper strategy implementation by proper leadership style.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ansoff, H.I. and et. al., 2018. Implanting strategic management. Springer.
Barbosa, M., Castañeda-Ayarza, J.A. and Ferreira, D.H.L., 2020. Sustainable strategic
management (GES): Sustainability in small business. Journal of Cleaner Production,
p.120880.
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Bell, R.G. and et. al., 2018. From the guest editors: Opportunities and challenges for advancing
strategic management education.
Carayannis, E., 2018. Strategic management of technological learning. CRC Press.
Deephouse, D., Gardberg, N. and Newburry, W. eds., 2019. Global aspects of reputation and
strategic management. Emerald Group Publishing.
Dzwigol, H., 2020. Methodological and Empirical Platform of Triangulation in Strategic
Management. Academy of Strategic Management Journal. 19(4). pp.1-8.
Holloway, S., 2018. Changing planes: A strategic management perspective on an industry in
transition. Routledge.
Ketchen Jr, D.J. and Craighead, C.W., 2020. Research at the intersection of entrepreneurship,
supply chain management, and strategic management: Opportunities highlighted by
COVID-19. Journal of Management. 46(8). pp.1330-1341.
Makadok, R., Burton, R. and Barney, J., 2018. A practical guide for making theory contributions
in strategic management. Strategic Management Journal. 39(6). pp.1530-1545.
Okumus, F. and et. al., 2019. Strategic management for hospitality and tourism. Routledge.
Velikorossov, V.V. and et. al., 2020. Strategic management.
Wan, W.M.K.F.B. and et. al., 2019. Strategic management in fatwa-making process. Academy of
Strategic Management Journal. 18(4). pp.1-6.
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