Analysis of Leadership and Strategy: Marks and Spencer Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Marks and Spencer (M&S), a leading UK retail company. It begins with a historical overview of M&S, tracing its evolution from its inception to its current status as an international business. The report then delves into M&S's vision, leadership styles, and management practices, exploring concepts such as autocratic, laissez-faire, transactional, and bureaucratic leadership. It examines various management practices, including engaging workers, rewarding effort, and fostering clarity and team effort. Furthermore, the report discusses M&S's business strategies, including competitive and corporate strategies, and analyzes how the organization implements leadership and strategy. It concludes with recommendations for improvement, focusing on leadership styles and strategic approaches. The report highlights the importance of adapting to market conditions, employee motivation, and efficient supply chain management within the retail sector.

INDIVIDUAL REPORT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK1.............................................................................................................................................3
History of the organisation ....................................................................................................3
Summary of the organisation .................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Vision of the Marks and Spencer...........................................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
Business strategy-...................................................................................................................6
Analyse how organisation can implement leadership and strategy of their business.............6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
Recommendations as an improvement for Mark and Spencer. .............................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Retail business is the way in which a person or business can sell the goods and services to
the customer by working as a mediator of supply chain management. So they can earn profit and
satisfy the demand of the customer. In these assignment different types of leadership style and
management practice is discussed. The Marks and Spencer which is a top company of retail
sector is also discussed in this study. In these report how strategy can help a business to achieve
their mission, vision and goal is also mention(Arnold and et. al., 2015.).
TASK1
History of the organisation
Marks and Spencer is one of the largest retail company in the UK which was established
by Michael Mark and Thomas Spencer in 1884. M&S deal their business in clothes, home and
food products in their stores. M&S has spend more than 130 years in retail industry. As there
journey start from the Penny bazar and slowly they convert the market opportunities into
potential market of their business. In the early 20th century M&S made their goodwill in the
British market as by selling British goods only(Sarver and Miller 2014). The company made
healthy relations with British manufacture and started to sell manufactured goods under brand
name of M&S.
Summary of the organisation
Marks and Spencer made their first sell in the year 1926. Now company has asset of over
70,000 items and are collected in their archive. The enlighten rich history help the company to
achieve the success from a penny bazar business to international business player in retail
industry. The company has different variety of clothes, food and other products which can offer a
large segment of products to their customer for purchase of things that satisfy the needs of the
customer.
Purpose to choose Marks and Spencer in the assignment.
 Company has a experience of a century for their business. Marks and Spencer hold the
fifth position under the company ranking list in UK. So it is a benefit to understand
traditional market and modern market which are faced by the company.

 The company can cover 61% in the food industry of their market. While the food market
cover by the company is 39%. in the United Kindgom. It help to understand the cloth
and food sector of business.
 Sustainability of the Marks and Spencer business is depend on their supply chain
management. So with the overview of these case it is to understand the depth of supply
chain business.
TASK 2
Vision of the Marks and Spencer.
The vision of a company describe what a company want to achieve in its next five or ten
years. Ii represent a goal to achieve and also set direction or way by which company can achieve
their targets.
The M&S follow the same platform to run their business globally. The firm has a set
motive to provide quality goods in all of their stores. So they can provide same quality of goods .
Company has decided benchmarking to run their stores. As company has multi-national channel
store in their business benchmarking help them to sustain their supply chain.
Leadership- in the business leadership is the capability of an organisation management to
accomplish their goals and achieve their decision as fast as they can(Zhu and Lai 2013).
Leadership is a duty to learn new things and to motivate other employees that how they perform
effectively in their work.
Types of leadership.
Autocratic leadership- it is a style of leadership in which all the decision are taken by
leader without consulting others. The autocratic leader has high level of power and decision are
whole sole responsibility of the leader only. Company which need a close supervision can follow
the autocratic leadership style. So there employees will not make any concern without permitted
by there leader.
Laissez fair leadership- in this style a leader can take decision but cannot control their
employees directly. Because they are more experienced and need less supervision in their work.
Sometimes it create delay decision because employees fail to meet their deadlines. Business
where professional have to be perform their duty those business houses follow laissez fair
leadership style.

Transnational leadership- this type of leadership is highlight when an employee achieve
goal and now leader and his follower want to achieve high goal and for this high level of
motivation is needed. In this leadership changes occur when an employee develop positive
attitude towards the organisation goal. This leadership style help an employee to achieve
employee goal as well as company goal ( Berbegal-Mirabent 2012).
Bureaucratic leadership- in this a leader believes to follow step by step process and also
make sure that his employees will follow same procedure. In bureaucratic leadership there is no
space left for new ideas. These type of leadership is followed in hospital, university etc. business
houses who want to secure their ideas and concept and business where high level of money is
involved will focus on this style of leadership.
Management practices- refer to methods and design that a manager can use to better the
performance of their employees. It is the instrument that support the ideas that will end result in
achieving the goals of the organisation. Some type of business practice that help a business is
refer as below.1.) Engage workers- these are those employee who are talented freshly. They are
enthusiastic and productive. These employees are totally focused towards their goal.
M&S will employed engage worker because it can help them to bring more productivity
in their business (Abu Hussain and Ajmi 2012).2.) Reward effort- each one want to do his work in a organized way. If a company do small
efforts for their employee like saying thank you. Employee thought that their job is
valued. Marks and Spencer motivated their employees by appraising them in a small way.3.) Vulnerable- In these a manager should try to interact with the junior employees. It is the
best way for a company to engage their employees with the work of the organisation.
Marks and Spencer can do orientation program so new employees become familiar with
the organisation.4.) Stay committed- New employees of the company do not trust each other. They invest a
lot of time too work on a common platform. It can help them to avoid conflict and
confusion between the teams. Marks and Spencer can resolve conflict so there employees
work as a team and bring more value in their products.

5.) Clarity- in these a employ should be transparent by the company that what is the work,
how they can fulfil their responsibility. M&S should clearly share their goals so that there
employees can develop a direction to complete their work.
6.) Focus on team effort- manager invest high energy and time to know that there team will
perform on the right track. As team members are from different backgrounds so to
convey them towards a common goal it is the responsibility of a manager. M&S can
appoint a senior person so manage team.
TASK 3
Business strategy-
It is understood as the course of study that can help the entrepreneurs in achieving the
objective of the company. It is a plan of the management that help a business to secure their
position in the market.
Types of business strategy.
Competitive strategy- it is the strategy that define on which basis a business can compete
with other competitive company. The competitive strategy can define strength, weakness of the
company. Marks and Spencer can go with competitive strategy to analysis there competitive
advantage and predict the environment of the company (Laszlo and et. al., 2012).
Corporate strategy- it define the market in which a company can operate their business.
In corporate strategy company can tell their vision, mission and value of there business. M&S
had been following corporate strategy from several years.
Analyse how organisation can implement leadership and strategy of their business.
In the above there is different types of leadership and strategy has been discussed in the
context of Marks and Spencer business. Company can applied these strategy with the help
management practice. In the case of Marks and Spencer company they are following
Bureaucratic leadership. So they can follow the procedures and can perform the operations as
when the company requires them. Marks and Spencer are operating their stores on a global level.
There is a large supply chain management. So in bureaucratic leadership the work is done by
follow of a book process in these a company can pass decision from top management towards the
low management. Example- Marks and Spencer are running their stores with the bureaucratic
style of leadership they can maintain their international market with these basis. As in different

market company behave as per market conditions like for Sweden company appointed new staff
to deal with the crowd in their store. For support the leadership the company is using different
management practice so the company can achieve organisation goal. Marks and Spencer always
support their companies to stay committed towards their goal. This practice help the company to
solve problems that are raising in the teams and motivated employees to stay focused towards
individual goal and company goals.
Marks and Spencer follow Porter five force of model in retail business of them. Company
already prepare themselves to save them from these forces so that they cannot face major loss in
future. Example- when M&S go for international market they used the slogan the british are
coming. Even employees who work for M&S was trained in UK.
TASK 4
Recommendations as an improvement for Mark and Spencer.
In the case of leadership style there are some recommendation which can be applied by the
company.
 The company should share their vision with the company's employees. Teams should
know or aware that what are their goal to achieve. There should be a proper
communication between the employees and goals of the company.
 Be more strategic that how company can achieve their goal they should perception
about bigger picture for their company. Company not focused only on home business
but they should also try to think regular about their picture(Bagdare and Jain 2013).
 The company should be more focused towards the results rather than expanding their
business. Marks and Spencer should try to cover those area which help them to earn
more profits.
In the case of strategy there are some recommendation which can be applied by the company is
as follow.
 Company is working with corporate and competitive strategy in their business. In these
they should also try to increase the sale opportunities in their business.
 For the Marks and Spencer company can train their sale staff that how they can do cross
and up sell in their business.

 Company always buy products in bulk so for these case company has to purchase from
those vendors where they get best value with superior quality(Iannone and et. al., 2013).
It is not necessary that vendor is selling products at low level so the company should buy
those product.
 As Marks and Spencer store are present on a global level. So they should try to control
there expenses. Because company have to bear high cost regarding transportation,
expansion etc.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that M&S is the large company in the retail
business. They are applying different management practice for their business. In the dynamic
environment of business. Marks and Spencer successfully running their business from a century.
Company provide transparent policy to there employees. So there is less complexity in their
business. As there are some recommendation are also provided in the above report by which
Marks and Spencer can also earn more profits and discover which are there potential store. So
they can analyse the average earning of their business from different stores.

REFERENCES
Arnold and et. al., 2015. Leadership styles, emotion regulation, and burnout. Journal of
Occupational Health Psychology, 20(4), p.481.
B. Sarver, M. and Miller, H., 2014. Police chief leadership: styles and effectiveness. Policing:
An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 73(1), pp.126-143.
Zhu, Q., Sarkis, J. and Lai, K.H., 2013. Institutional-based antecedents and performance
outcomes of internal and external green supply chain management practices. Journal of
Purchasing and Supply Management, 19(2), pp.106-117.
Abu Hussain, H. and Al-Ajmi, J., 2012. Risk management practices of conventional and Islamic
banks in Bahrain. The Journal of Risk Finance, 13(3), pp.215-239.
Laszlo and et. al., 2012. Flourishing: A vision for business and the world. Journal of Corporate
Citizenship, (46), pp.31-51.
Bagdare, S. and Jain, R., 2013. Measuring retail customer experience. International Journal of
Retail & Distribution Management, 41(10), pp.790-804.
Iannone and et. al., 2013. Merchandise and replenishment planning optimisation for fashion
retail. International Journal of Engineering Business Management, 5(Godište 2013),
pp.5-26.
Trimi, S. and Berbegal-Mirabent, J., 2012. Business model innovation in entrepreneurship.
International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal 8(4), pp.449-465.
Online
About Marks and Spencer. 2013. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.marksandspencer.com/>