M&S Global Expansion: Impact of Structure and Digital Technologies

This report analyses Marks and Spencer's organisational structure and its impact on international expansion, focusing on the suitability of its structure and functions for global growth. The company's adoption of a flat organisational structure, characterised by fewer management levels and decentralised decision-making, is examined in relation to its various functional departments such as marketing, human resource management, customer service, finance and sales. The report also investigates the significant role of digital technologies in Marks and Spencer's expansion strategies, highlighting benefits such as reduced transactional costs, enhanced productivity, increased brand awareness and improved competitive positioning. Ultimately, the report concludes that digital technologies are essential for supporting global economic growth and providing organisations like Marks and Spencer with opportunities to scale their businesses internationally, despite facing challenges related to legal, environmental, and legislative factors in different countries. The company aims to leverage its well-known brand in Europe to expand worldwide, focusing on enhancing profitability and revenue for long-term success.

Organisational
Structure and
International
Expansion

Table of Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
The organisation structures and functions are appropriate for to facilitate the expansion :........3
The affect of the digital technologies have on their expansion strategies globally :..................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
An organisation structure refers to the activities that are assigned in accordance to attain the
targets or goals of the firm. It tells the duties and various job roles of the workers in the
organisation. The more power the workers have, the better the will be on the position in the
company and it enhance the efficiency of the operation of the firm. The following report is based
on the company, Marks and Spencer, which is a well recognised British multi national brand of
clothing, food and home products. Company was found in 1884 and their headquarters are in
London, England. The following report can cover about the various topics like, company that has
scaled itself in to world wide markets and whether the structure and functions of the organisation
is suitable to help in the expansion of the firm. Additionally, it will include the affect of the
digital technologies that have utilised on the following firm's strategy of expansion globally.
TASK
The organisation structures and functions are appropriate for to facilitate the expansion :
Organisation structure is a framework that assist in making a hierarchy of the firm. It concentrate
on every activity of the firm and tells that who is accountable to whom in the firm. It is made to
show on how a company functions and assist the firm in accomplishing its targets and goals for
the long term (Ebinger, and Geissler, 2021).
In context to Marks and Spencer, company has adopted flat organisational structure. This
structure includes some management levels of employees in the organisation. Managers and
leaders have a large authority in the decision-making and operations of the firm and it is also a
small chain of command (Faulkner, and Runde, 2019). This structure is usually utilised by
almost every type of businesses.
Organisational Functional:
It is the working departments or divisions of the company where several operations are operated
in the company. These functions are separated into several sections and helps in accomplishing
the tasks of their particular department. Several operations of the organisation is described
below:
 Marketing – This department of a company is concentrated on knowing needs and wants
of the customers and improving the goods and services to make it available for the people

who needs it. In case of Marks and Spencer, firm can progress and gain large reach
globally with the help of the digitalisation. As it is very cost effective as company can
target their particular audience internationally at once only with very low cost and better
results (Fenech, Baguant, and Ivanov, 2019).
 Human Resource Management – This operations deals with the employees or human
perspective. It is combination of various practices like, recruiting, motivating, employee
welfare, employee management, wages etc. It also helps in improving the performance of
the employees. In case of Marks and Spencer, company send some of their expatriates in
to the new market where company is planning to expand in order to train and develop the
employees of that area.
 Customer Service – The main motive of the department is to concentrate on the issues
and inquiry of the consumers regarding the product or services of the company. It
provides a adequate happy experience to its clients that helps in maintaing relation with
those clients. In case of the company Marks and Spencer, they should create those
services for their consumers in order to solve every issues and queries of their consumers
that can help company is providing world class services to their clients.
 Finance – This department involves in getting investment for the company. It consists of
various activities like allocation of funds, account payable and receivable, maintaining
the books of the firm. In relation to Marks and Spencer, this division can give adequate
funds in accordance of the proper and smooth expansion of the firm in several parts of the
country (Lund, and Tyson, 2018).
 Sales – The main objective of this division is to improve their revenues and profits by
making maximum sales of the company. These activities on the structure and size of the
respective organisation and their targets. In terms of Marks and Spencer, department of
sales can impact the expansion as they can sell their products to the specific countries by
the needs and wants of the consumers there.
The affect of the digital technologies have on their expansion strategies globally :
Digital technologies is a crucial component of in the procedure of operations of the organisation.
It can assist in improving the productivity and performance of the workers that can assist in
improving the structure of the organisation. The factor of digitalisation gives a chance for
expanding the organisation globally. It supports in constructing a appropriate relation between

the country in which the firm wants to scale up. It also refers to the newest trends of data
exchange, production and automation in the operations of the organisation at the several level
from local to global level while majorly improving their effectiveness and efficiency in the
practices of the company. Currently, technologies like, internet, network, cyber system, server
system etc, have helped in constantly working for large level volumes of the information or data
and it also assists in making several chances for the organisation in scaling up their firm at a
international level (Plas, and Van Winckel, 2020).
(Barnard, 2020).. The impact of the digital technology on expansion of the firm intentionally is
described below in relation Marks and Spencer:
 Reduce the transactional cost in global market – It is the value in constructing
transactions like purchasing of products. Trade provides a competitive advantages in the
country by adopting several methods. It minimises the cost of supply, production
management, etc. in the country. In case of Marks And Spencer, company can establish
their production unit in developing countries in order to get cheap labour, raw material,
and production cost and it can also help them in enhancing the brand image of their
company.
 It enhance productivity – It increase the organisation's productivity in several sections
as the tasks are basically performed by machines, and equipment. Moreover, it helps the
organisation in eliminating the errors faced by the firm as the major working is digitalised
so manual works and errors are reduced so it can help the firm in enhancing their
productivity. In relation Marks and Spencer, by making products available on several
digital platforms which can help the company in enhancing their sales, as a consumer can
buy the product from anywhere in the world through those platforms.
 It increases brand awareness – It is the one of the most efficacious affect of technology
on the company, as it supports in brand awareness globally with the help of social media,
websites, blogs etc. In context to Marks and Spencer, management can enhance their
brand image by using various platforms like Instagram, Facebook, etc. that can help firm
in improving brand image (Yi, Wenbin, and Zening, 2020).
 Supports business to be competitive – It can help the firms in getting an edge over their
competitors in the same industry. It helps in researching about the several aspects of the
expansion in other countries. In relation to Marks and Spencer, management can

implement automated tools and machine in their manufacturing and can use various
effective software in order to enhance their supply chain. This can help them in saving
cost and time which can give them a competitive edge.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that digital technologies have a essential role in supporting
the economy of the world. It provides a larger opportunity for the organisation in case of scaling
their business in a broad segment by financing a big capital funds with involving the techniques
of several practices in order to expand their business globally. The firm has to face various
problem such as legal, environmental, legislations etc. of the counries on order to expand
themselves their. The above research tells that the impact of technology on the organisation have
given them a better opportunity to grow their enterprise in order to enhance the profitability and
revenue of the firm which helps in in long term success and goodwill globally. M&S is well
known company in the entire Europe, and now they are thinking to scale up their firm in
countries world wide.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barnard, P.A., 2020. Secondary school structure, organisational learning capacity and learning
organisations: a systemic contribution. International Journal of Educational
Management.
Ebinger, F. and Geissler, R., 2021. Financial Supervision of Local Governments: An
Organisational Hurdle. Local Public Finance: An International Comparative
Regulatory Perspective, p.57.
Faulkner, P. and Runde, J., 2019. Theorizing the Digital Object. MIS Quarterly, 43(4).
Fenech, R., Baguant, P. and Ivanov, D., 2019. The changing role of human resource
management in an era of digital transformation. Journal of Management Information
and Decision Sciences, 22(2), pp.1-10.
Lund, S. and Tyson, L., 2018. Globalization is not in Retreat: Digital Technology and the Future
of Trade. Foreign Aff., 97, p.130.
Plas, M. and Van Winckel, L., 2020. Facilitating brand integration through a matchmaking
platform international expansion strategy for a belgium based start-up an exploratory
research project.

Yi, Z., Wenbin, L. and Zening, S., 2020. A research on performance evaluation and management
of academic conference from the perspective of organisational structure. Science
Research Management, 41(3), p.194.