Strategic Management Analysis of Mark and Spencer - Level 5 Essay

This essay provides a comprehensive strategic analysis of Mark and Spencer, a leading multinational brand in apparel, food, and home products. It begins with an overview of the company's history and operations, followed by an examination of its current strategic situation through SWOT and PESTLE analyses. The SWOT analysis identifies the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, while the PESTLE analysis assesses the impact of political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors on the business. The essay then proposes a strategic direction for the future, outlining a strategic management process that includes clarifying the vision, gathering and analyzing information, formulating and implementing strategies, and evaluating and controlling the process. The analysis concludes that strategic management is essential for Mark and Spencer to maintain stability and sustainability in a competitive environment, emphasizing the importance of adapting strategies to achieve the firm's vision and long-term goals. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments.

Strategic Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Overview Of The Company........................................................................................................1
CURRENT STRATEGIC SITUATION..........................................................................................2
SWOT Analysis of Mark and Spencer........................................................................................2
PESTLE ANALYSIS Of Mark and Spencer..............................................................................3
STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR THE FUTURE...........................................................................4
Strategic management process....................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
.........................................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management is refers to as the course of actions or tactics which an organisation
perform in order to achieve their vision and long term goal. This is also know as the process of
defining strategy for the organisation so that the business manager can chose the best set of
action for their firm through which the objective of the firm can be achieve in a effective manner.
Strategic management is a continuous and ongoing process within the association as it support
the employees within the business regarding their job that how should it be performed and what
strategies must be implemented so that they can easily gain a competitive advantage over other.
The chosen association for this report is Mark and Spencer which is one of the well known brand
of clothing. This report will focus on the covering of various topics such as how the business
organisation analyse their business environment along with the implementation of the strategic
management process so that the business can operate their operation successfully with the
competitive environment(Ansoff and et. al., 2018).
MAIN BODY
Overview Of The Company
Mark and Spencer is the leading multinational brand that deals in the apparels, foods
items, and home products. The company was formed in the year of 1884 in the city of
Westminster, London. The brands has rapidly expanded it business by operation number of
Outlets across the world along with its new online shopping services so that the customers gets
the products as per their expected quality and prices(Papke-Shields and Boyer-Wright, 2017).
Mark and Spencer has its unique logo which attract the customers and leave a mark in the mind
of the customers so that further they can easily buy the products from the company like Mark
and Spencer.

It also operate its business in a competitive environment by beating its competitors through the
implementation of diverse ranges of tactics and strategies. These strategies have been formulated
by the association only after determining various factors such as companies strengths along with
all other external factor which have influenced the working of the business in the most effective
manner. The business have focused on its internal environment at the prior notice so that they
can easily formulate strategic decision which may lead the business with extreme profitability in
the market place(Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018).
CURRENT STRATEGIC SITUATION
SWOT Analysis of Mark and Spencer
SWOT analysis is a strategic tool which enables the business with all its strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats which firm fosters. This is the most powerful tool which
the business adopts in regards to formulate and prepare strategies to overcome the situation
where they are lacking(Lasserre, 2017).
Mark and Spencer has a strength of large customer base as its offers it customers with
wide variety and range of products such as home, furniture, clothing and wines. Along with
holding large customer it is also leading brand and retailer in the UK economy by its increased
amount of sales.
The business of Mark and Spencer also have to undergo various difficulties and situation
due to its weaknesses such as uninterested consumer who are not willing to buy the products of

the brands moreover the perception of the public that the brand will offer them the products
which are of extreme quality and prices which the consumers feels that they can not afford.
Apart from these strengths and weaknesses there are number of opportunities and threats
which the business have in this prevailing competitive environment. The opportunities which are
available in front of the Mark and Spencer are alliance and innovation with the other company so
that the business market position can be strengthen and wider area of the market can be covered.
Moreover the business also have the opportunity to introduce diverse range of product in the UK
economy so that larger market and customer base can be enhanced(Ginter, Duncan and Swayne,
2018).
Along with these opportunities the business also have to face challenges and threat as
there are already new and existing firm which offer variety of product to the customers due to
which the business have to face the competition from the prevailing firm present within the
market place. Rapidly changing legislation in the economy have also created a threat for the
business of Mark and Spencer.

PESTLE ANALYSIS Of Mark and Spencer
Pestle analysis will help the association in determining all those macro environment
factor which can affect the business in positive and negative manner. The business of Mark and
Spencer also have to face the problem from these external factors which are Political,Social,
Economical,Technological, legal and Environmental.
Political factor are those which include all those rules and regulation which the
government have lead for the companies to follow. This also have influence the business of the
Mark and Spencer such as the policy of the free trade by the government has enable the
companies to source goods from other countries at lower costs. This also lead some opportunities
and threats such as this will allow other competitor too to compete on cost and attain higher
position as through this they will also be enable to acquire products at lower rates(Hitt and
Duane Ireland, 2017).
Economic factors are those which includes interest rates, inflation rates, growth rate etc.
due to this factor the business of Mark and Spencer also got affected as the economy of the UK
is developing slowly from the recession. This also gives a number of opportunities and threat for
the business such as through this economic factor business of Mark and Spencer can easily
expand their operation to the international market.
Social factors are those which involves shared beliefs, ethics, business culture , socio
culture , attitude of the population. This have impacted the business in both positive and negative
manner as there is a decline in the food prices due to which the business have to face problem
and the positive is that the business have the opportunity to increase its profit margin as there is
increase in the demand of the trendy clothing and apparels. This will also render the opportunity
and threat that is diversification in the range of their business of foods items by offering quality
services such as online food delivery at homes etc.
Technological factors are those who involve technology up gradation and interventions
such as new ways of producing goods and services etc. Mark and Spencer is also influenced or
impacted by these technological factors such as customers in the economy are becoming more
technologically savvy and there are increment in the number of customers who prefers buying
products through online services(Zhao and et. al., 2017). This has also provide opportunities and
threats to the business of Mark and Spencer as through this firm can easily reduce their cost of

constructing a physical buildings and stores and can reach across the globe through these online
business services(Meyer, Neck and Meeks, 2017).
Legal factors are those which includes all the laws and legislation regarding the
employees, health and safety, equal opportunities which have been enacted by the government
for the companies to follow. The business of Mark and Spencer also have to deal with the impact
of these legal factors on their business as in this business have to undergo a problem of the
financial dispute that too of frascati landlord apart from this the opportunities and the threat
which this legal factor provides is that if Mark and Spencer does not focuses on the maintenance
of its products productions along with this if does not focuses on the safety standards and
measure than firm has to undergo litigations.
Environmental factors are those which includes things that are related to the
environment such as climatic condition, weather, pollution, availability of non renewable goods
etc. Mark and Spencer is required to focus more on this factor while operating their business as
this can influence their business , in order to sustain in the environment they must focus on the
factor of go green so that it does not harm the ecosystem and can operate their business within
the environment in a systematic manner(Zhao and et. al., 2017). Opportunity that exist in front of
the business Mark and Spencer is that they can easily launch some other ethical and
environmental programmes so that utilisation of sustainable resources can be done in a simplest
manner.
STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR THE FUTURE
The present scenario of the external environment have challenged Mark and Spencer in
maintaining their stability and sustainability within the competitive era. Too much rise and fall
in the prices of share states that the targeted expectation of the Mark and Spencer have not been
attained till the date. So in order to achieve that the business will follow a proper strategic
management process so that the expected goal of the firm can be attained through the following
of effective stages of the process which are as mentioned(Trigeorgis and Reuer, 2017).
This process of strategic management will enable all the members within the business to
understand the strategy in a detailed manner so that they can easily implement those strategy and
can achieve their ultimate goal of the business. The stages of this strategic management process
are as follow-

Strategic management process
Clarify your vision: The business of Mark and Spencer work with the vision that is to be
the standard against which others are measured. So in order to achieve this vision the company
here will seek to target and think of all the strategies and tactics that will lead the business to
achieve their vision in a realistic manner.
Gather and analyse information: Here In the business will focus on the gathering of the
information which are required to achieve the decided vision in the first step. In order to gain the
objective with the time the business of Mark and Spenser her will focus on the Above analysis
that is Swot and Pestle so that they can easily formulate the strategies on the basis of the negative
aspects which have been analyses(Aguinis, Edwards and Bradley, 2017).
Formulate strategy: In order to overcome all those drawbacks and issue which have
been identified through pestle and swot the business here will focus on the formulation of the
strategy so that these can be reduced and the sustainable position can be attained within the
competitive market.
Implement the strategy : All those strategies which have been formulate in the previous
stage are implemented here so that all the threats which the business of Mark and Spencer is
facing can be reduce such as the threat of rapidly changing legislation. Here in this they will
focus on the formulation of the strategy from the earlier stage by considering all the legislation
so that this problem can be reduced a lower level and business can perform their operations in a
effective manner.
Evaluate and control: This phase is the most important phase as in this the business will
seek to check whether the strategy which the Mark and Spencer have implemented in their
business is successful or not , if not than they can again focus on the taking of the corrective
actions so that all the hurdles from the business can be reduced and the goals can be
accomplished within a given time frame(Baumgartner and Rauter, 2017).
All these above mentioned phases of strategic management process will enable the
business in successfully choosing their strategy and implementing it in a best possible manner so
that the ultimate vision of the business can be attained.

CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report it can be inferred that Strategic management within the
business is necessary as this will enable the business in implementing the most suitable strategy
so that vision of the firm can be achieved. As the business of Mark and Spencer is operating their
business in a competitive environment for this reason they will undergo swot and pestle analysis
so that factor influencing business can be determined and formulation of the appropriately
strategy to overcome those influencing factors can be done and the business can sustain in a
competitive market by beating its competitors.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aguinis, H., Edwards, J. R. and Bradley, K. J., 2017. Improving our understanding of
moderation and mediation in strategic management research. Organizational
Research Methods. 20(4). pp.665-685.
Ansoff, H. I. And et. al., 2018. Implanting strategic management. Springer.
Baumgartner, R. J. and Rauter, R., 2017. Strategic perspectives of corporate sustainability
management to develop a sustainable organization. Journal of Cleaner
Production. 140. pp.81-92.
Durand, R., Grant, R. M. and Madsen, T. L., 2017. The expanding domain of strategic
management research and the quest for integration. Strategic Management Journal.
38(1). pp.4-16.
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J. and Swayne, L. E., 2018. The strategic management of health care
organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Hitt, M. and Duane Ireland, R., 2017. The intersection of entrepreneurship and strategic
management research. The Blackwell handbook of entrepreneurship, pp.45-63.
Lasserre, P., 2017. Global strategic management. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Meyer, G. D., Neck, H. M. and Meeks, M. D., 2017. The entrepreneurship‐strategic management
interface. Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset, pp.17-44.
Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018. Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI
Tourism Texts. Cabi.
Papke-Shields, K. E. and Boyer-Wright, K. M., 2017. Strategic planning characteristics applied
to project management. International Journal of Project Management. 35(2). pp.169-
179.
Trigeorgis, L. and Reuer, J. J., 2017. Real options theory in strategic management. Strategic
Management Journal. 38(1). pp.42-63.
Zhao, E. Y. and et. al., 2017. Optimal distinctiveness: Broadening the interface between
institutional theory and strategic management. Strategic Management Journal. 38(1).
pp.93-113.

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