Analysis of M&S Business Strategies in the Global COVID-19 Environment

This report analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Marks & Spencer (M&S), examining the strategic changes the company implemented to navigate the global business environment. The report begins with an introduction outlining the objectives of the analysis, focusing on how M&S adapted its operations using PESTLE analysis and Porter's Five Forces. The main body delves into these frameworks, detailing the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors affecting M&S, as well as the competitive forces within the retail industry. The analysis highlights M&S's shift to online platforms, changes in supply chain, and adjustments to its workforce. Furthermore, the report assesses the sustainability of these changes, particularly in terms of manufacturing facial masks, adapting to government policies, and maintaining customer relations. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the importance of strategic adaptation and sustainable practices for M&S's survival and growth in the face of the pandemic.

Global Business
Environment- Assessment-
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Task 1. Analysing the changes that a company adopted during Covid-19 pandemic.................3
Task 2. Sustainable Changes.......................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
This report is introduce the businesses adopting the changes occurred during the Covid-19 crisis.
The chosen company is “Marks and Spencer” who is affecting with the pandemic and taking
changes accordingly by studying the PESTLE analysis and Porter's Five Forces (Fozerand and
et.al., 2017). And extent the sustainability in workplace towards the changes obtained by the
company. The objective of this report is to analyse the changes and sustainability adopted by the
company so that they remain competitive and use creative ideas to develop their business by
exploring new technologies during the outbreak of disease.
MAIN BODY
Task 1. Analysing the changes that a company adopted during Covid-19 pandemic
PESTLE Analysis-
The world is fighting with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The impact of the virus is huge
towards the business and the government. For understanding the situation both the businesses
and the government take instant changes which are suitable for their firm. And study their
environmental factor by PESTLE analyse so that it can helps them to make some strategic tools
which are beneficial for them during pandemic. The “Marks and Spencer” use this framework
and identify the political, economical, social, technological, legal , environmental issues. And
adopt the necessary changes to understand the current and future market.
Political Factor- “M&S” changed their policies during Coronavirus. As they adopt
changes in free trade that established between multitude of countries. M&S operates in UK,
while maintaining a profit margin the company import foreign products for sales in their store at
cheaper cost. Particularly the supply chain have been discontinuous during the pandemic so the
company has decided to manufacture the medical-grade facial masks internally to get better
outbreak from new disease (Nandonde, 2019). During Covid-19, the government also changes its
policies, the effect of the virus may lead to distributed political dissatisfaction among citizens as
the government are scrutinized for the slow response to the outbreak. Due to Brexit, the M&S
having an huge impact on operations as the UK decide to leave the European Union.
Economical Factor- Due to Brexit the company faces an huge economy issues as the
businesses are distributed and the firm might have lose the market share of the other areas. As
the price of the product is very big factor for any retailer industry but due to present situation

every company provide low cost of product so that the customers are encourage to enjoy the
lower cost product and the M&S can increase the goodwill and build their brand name or image
towards different customers. By providing low cost of product the company economy might have
effect but they have a benefit as well as the customers were buy their product in bulk of quantity
and enjoy the facilities provided by the companies.
Social Factor- Due to the outbreak of the diseases, the company adopt a change in their
working environment while using the technologies and give work from home to their employees
(Cadle, Paul and Turner, 2010). Some employees facing an challenge with this change because
they don't know how to use the technological changes they have to first learn the changes and
after that they can apply it towards their working criteria.
Technological Factor- The Covid has changes lots of techniques to do businesses. The
M&S start increasing social interaction with their employees and providing online training so
that they can work effectively. M&S has established a strong e-commerce existence by adopting
the traditional approach and offer almost all their goods from clothing to foodstuffs in online
mode and delivered directly to the buyers.
Legal Factor- It include the laws and regulations a company has to follow. During
pandemic situation the M&S has to follow the instructions granted by the government and
change the infrastructure of their firm as every employee has to wear mask and use sanitizer and
maintain the social distancing so that they can secure themselves with the disease.
Environmental Factor- The firm must aware about the environmental changes so that
they can change their workflow accordingly (Yatsenko and Dmytriyeva, 2018). M&S has change
environment by concerning about the personal hygiene and for maintaining their brand name
they become more sustainable retailers on various occasion in UK.
Porter's Five Forces-
Although the impact of Covid-19 will be recognized by the company so that they can observe the
competitors market and study the factor impacting towards the business environment. By
adopting Porter's five forces M&S identify the competitive environment as-
Competitive Rivalry- It include the extension of the competitions among existing
companies with limited profit by deducting price of the product, increase the promotion,
improving the product quality (Hamilton, 2020). But due to crisis it’s an impact towards the

companies which are not able to increase their market share. The M&S facing a challenge in
present condition as they are not achieving a healthy profit and not aware about the strategies
made by the competitors.
Suppliers Power- The suppliers having a power to control the supply chain of goods and
services as it is linked by the price changes, decrease the quality of the product and limit the
products selling scale (Karagiannopoulos, Georgopoulos and Nikolopoulos, 2005). During
crises, the M&S having an impact towards the power of the suppliers as they are not able to form
strategies towards the business. For moving their business the suppliers can provide the goods at
lower price so that they can sale the goods at bulk and create their brand image.
New entrants- Due to Covid-19, the companies are not investing in the market share as
they knew the market conditions and wait for better situation. The M&S having an impact of this
as the inverters are not agreed for investing and the business facing an trouble of such situation.
Buyers Power- The buyers having an power of bargaining of the product and this having
an impact to the company because the buyers buying the product in the bulk of quantity with
lower price.
Threat of substitution- Due to present situation, the retailers are facing an challenge
towards the lower price of substitute product having an impact towards the profit margin
(Dälken, 2014).
Task 2. Sustainable Changes.
One of the biggest industries to have seen extensive business changes during the current
pandemic has been consumer retail. Retailers are now balancing two critical tasks: first, to make
sure that the essential products reach customers in lock down, and second, make sure to offer
environment that is safe and secure for both consumers and colleges. For food, clothing and
home, the scenario of Marks and Spencer are no different. What were different was their timely
strategic decisions that M&S took over the situation of crisis and layout a plan for long term.
Ensuring the safety of its customers after taking in mind to fulfil the needs and demands of the
customers at utmost prior basis, the marketplace requires an immediate change not only in terms
of shopping habits but also in government rules on safety and movement (Jonkutė and Staniškis,
2016). M&S reacted quickly to the pandemic situation, and cancelled about 100 million pounds
of home and clothing orders. In the business with slow cultural changes of M&S, the pandemic

has given them an opportunity to grow faster with respect to flexibility in working hours of
employees in stores and in their support centres.
The pandemic has driven several changes including the shift of physical customers to
online customers. Their needs and demands of customers are also shifts according to the
situations drastically. With respect to the PESTLE and Five force model, the changes taken by
the company and the sustainability of the factors that are followed which keep the company
remain competitive in business environment as well as develop their business by exploring new
technologies are:
It can be analysed that the company has adopted the change that it has start manufacturing facial
masks in its own country UK and this change is sustainable as till the time vaccination is
available and is applied to each and every citizen in UK will purchase masks and till now it has
not been predicted that when will be the world free from Covid-19. So, M&S manufacture the
masks with the guidelines and practising its business considering the changed government
policies, procedures and health related laws are taken care of. Economy due to Covid-19 is
highly impacted and M&S offered to maximise the sale of its products offered the products in
low cost in this situation but company needs to think of some good strategy for the long to make
its business sustainable and long-term (Provasnek and et.al., 2017). While considering the social
aspect in the PESTLE framework, it is the one factor which is most influenced and is the steps
taken towards it are sustainable for M&S business. Company in these hard times of Covid-19,
being a responsible and inclined corporate has contributed towards the society because many
people lives have been affected because these disease, they have given huge funds to government
for the healthcare of citizens, this has increased the value and good will of the company. It has
taken full advantage technological advantage, from managing each and every activities offline
physically to moving digitally, manager and employees have managed the business activities
from their homes. Initially, they found things are bit different and now they are used to it and
there is major increase in their online business (Danubianu and Teodorescu, 2017). Company
joined these aspect with the sustainability by ensuring that it some ways can provide benefits to
business it uses different softwares for managing their activities which will not bring any affect
to their activities and increase the sales in UK, they where all the companies have increased their
handling, they decreased their handling fee to maximise the online business sales. M&S uses the
packaging that is recyclable and do not harm the environment in any way considering this major

factor, it can be analysed that M&S has taken all the steps considering the fact changes are
sustainable for its benefits for its business and provide the benefit to its business.
As there is high rivalry in this retail supermarket industry, M&S have to work on its research and
development team to keep an eye on whole market and their rivals, and needs to come up with
the such strategies which make the company give huge competition to its rivals and make more
profits in the industry. At the time of Covid-19, the suppliers are also impacted because of the
disruption in the supply chain, they were also not able to provide raw material at some operations
of M&S and because of that customers demand were not fulfilled with some products. Food
products line made some profits but there was major decline in clothing as the people were not
going anywhere and because of the reduction in their income they purchased only essential
things (Kölbel and et.al., 2018). There are no chances for any comer to enter the industry as
already some of the businesses are struggling. But still the buyer or customer’s power is high
because of their lower income if M&S offers the products with good margin they will shift to
some other competitor, in such situation company is using their long term profits to survive its
some products and making less profits with low margin but is trying its best to retain the
customers and if it s successful in these efforts it will make good profits with customer retention
in long term and these changes are sustainable.
CONCLUSION
The report above discuss in detail about the global business environment with respect to
Morrison. It describes in detail about the actions that M&S is taking in the situation of COVID-
19, what are working practices adopted by the company in this situation for the growth of its
business. This report further evaluates the changes that M&S taken in past few months and
explains that up to what extent these changes are sustainable and the changes are analysed with
the help of PESTLE and Porter's Five forces.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
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Fozer, D and et.al., 2017. Life cycle, PESTLE and multi-criteria decision analysis of CCS
process alternatives. Journal of cleaner production.147. pp.75-85.
Hamilton, J., 2020. The strategic change matrix and business sustainability across COVID-
19. Sustainability.12(15). p.6026.
Karagiannopoulos, G.D., Georgopoulos, N. and Nikolopoulos, K., 2005. Fathoming Porter's five
forces model in the internet era. Info.
Nandonde, F.A., 2019. A PESTLE analysis of international retailing in the East African
Community. Global Business and Organizational Excellence.38(4). pp.54-61.
Yatsenko, O.M. and Dmytriyeva, N.O., 2018. Determinants of formation and development of
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Danubianu, M. and Teodorescu, C., 2017. Impact of corporate social responsibility on
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Kölbel, J., and et.al., 2018. Beyond Returns: Investigating the Social and Environmental Impact
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