Strategic Audit of Maisons du Monde in UK Market: Leadership & Change

This strategic audit report analyzes Maisons du Monde, a French home decor company, focusing on its UK market entry and overall business strategy. The report uses various tools for internal and external analysis, including SWOT, Porter's Value Chain, PESTLE, and Porter's Five Forces. The internal analysis highlights the company's strengths, such as strong customer commitment and a sustainable environment, and weaknesses, like delivery issues and limited YouTube presence. Opportunities include co-creation of products with customers and growth in the furniture market, while threats involve increasing competition and economic crises. The value chain analysis identifies key activities from inbound logistics to customer service. The PESTLE analysis examines the political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, ecological, and legal factors affecting the company. Porter's Five Forces analysis assesses competitive rivalry, bargaining power of customers and suppliers, the threat of substitution, and the threat of new entrants. The report concludes with a comprehensive understanding of Maisons du Monde's strategic position and challenges.

LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE
MANAGEMENT
S U B M I T T E D B Y :

TOOLS FOR INTERNAL ANALYSIS
SWOT Analysis- SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique
which helps in evaluating the strength and weaknesses of an
organization and also identifying the opportunities and threats
of an organization
Porter’s Value Chain Analysis- Porter’s Value Chain was developed
by Michael Porter which defines a set of activities that an
organization performing in a specific business environment
performs in order to deliver a valuable product or service for
the market.

TOOLS FOR EXTERNAL ANALYSIS
PESTLE Analysis- A PESTLE analysis is an archetype
or process which is used by marketers to assess and
control the macro-environmental factors which
impact organization.
Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis- The Porter’s 5 forces
framework is a tool which is used for analysing
competition of a business organization.

STRENGTHS OF MAISONS DU MONDE
• Strong Customer commitment to the brand
• Very good presence on social networks.
• Sustainable Environment
• Diversity of products
• Theme widely represented on the internet and
television

WEAKNESS OF MAISONS DU MONDE
• Problems regarding the delivery of the products of
the company
• No blog discussion among the customers
• Almost no official presence on YouTube, as there is
only limited video of the company in YouTube.

OPPORTUNITIES OF MAISONS DU MONDE
• Seeking the opinion of customers for co-creation of products.
• The furniture market has a future and therefore there is a high
growth expectation.
• According to Johanan (2017) the company is more followed in
social media platforms than competitors.
• Increase in the number of nuclear families and single families
due to increased rate of separation in the society.

THREATS OF MAISONS DU MONDE
Orientation towards self services.
Increase in the rate of competition in the market.
The furniture market has been hit hard by various types of crisis in various
countries such as the financial crisis caused due to BREXIT in UK.
Evolutionary consumption in context of the furniture industry.

PRIMARY ACTIVITIES OF MAISONS DU MONDE IN
PORTER’S VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS
Inbound logistics- raw materials of company are supplied by suppliers to the manufacturing units
of the company which are located mostly in France and the manufactured products are then
transported to various distribution centres of the company.
Outbound logistics- The company delivers their products to the customers through effective
delivery option offered by the company in a safe and convenient manner.
Operations-The company operates through more than 250 stores located in multiple countries
which includes France, Italy, Spain, Luxemburg, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and UK.
Marketing and Sales- The company carries out marketing and sales through both online and
offline platforms in order to reach to a larger number of target customers.
Services- The company provides effective customer services to their customers in order to enhance
customer loyalty.

SUPPORT ACTIVITIES MAISONS DU MONDE IN
PORTER’S VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS
Firm Infrastructure- The stores of the company are generally bigger in size and they possess tall
hierarchical organizational structure.
Human Resource Management- As stated by Issah and Antwi (2017) the company has a huge level of
responsiveness to HR activities with efficacious employee training and development initiatives.
Technology- The company implements various technological advancements through elaborate
utilisation of Information Technology in different business functions.
Procurement- The raw materials of the company are procured my multiple suppliers of the company
located at various strategic location.

POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS
The political environment in which MAISONS DU MONDE
operates is literally stable in nature and UK has trade relations
with various developed and countries of the world and the
polices adopted by the government are investment friendly in
nature post the BREXIT.

ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS
The economic environment of MAISONS DU MONDE has greatly
been affected due to Brexit as it led to decrease in the value of
pound which led to lower purchasing power of customers and
greater inflation levels.

SOCIO CULTURAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
According to Business Wire (2016) The socio-cultural environment
of MAISONS DU MONDE reflects a change in customer
preferences where customers prefer to shop products online
rather than allocating time for visiting stores.

TECHNOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
The technological environment of MAISONS DU
MONDE is accompanied by high rate of technological
advancements as the company uses latest technology in
order to develop the quality of products and to reach to
their target customers.

ECOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
The ecological environment Analysis of MAISONS DU
MONDE indicates that the company has implemented
various initiatives in order to address the environmental
concerns of the society.

LEGAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS
The legal environment analysis of MAISONS DU
MONDE states that the company complies to all the
necessary regulations and legislations which are in place
in the different countries in which they operate.

PORTER’S 5 FORCES ANALYSIS OF MAISONS DU MONDE
Competitive Rivalry- The competitive rivalry in the industry is high owing to the presence of
a large number of competitors as a result of low cost products, high market presence and
effectively managed supply chain of the competitor firms
Bargaining power of Customers- The Bargaining power of customers are high due to intense
rivalry and stiff competition between the company and its competitors.
Bargaining power of Suppliers- As stated in PR Newswire (2015) the bargaining power of
suppliers in relatively lower due to greater availability suppliers and due to close relation
with the suppliers.
Threat of Substitution- The threat of substitution is relatively lower for MAISONS DU
MONDE due to the limited alternatives who offer the same product range at the same
price.
Threat of New Entrants- The threat of new entrants is low for MAISONS DU MONDE
considering the high amount of financial investment and expertise required to enter the
market.

REFERENCES
Business Wire (2016). Furniture market outlook to 2020 - surge in demand for
children furniture and rise in trend of online furniture sales to shape future -
research and markets. Business Wire [Online] Available:
https://search.proquest.com/docview/1812958516?accountid=30552 [Accessed 30
Oct. 2018]
Issah, M., and Antwi, S. (2017). Role of macroeconomic variables on firms'
performance: Evidence from the UK. Cogent Economics & Finance, [Online]
5(1) Available: doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23322039.2017.1405581 [Accessed
30 Oct. 2018]
Johanan, G. (2017). Maisons du monde . New York: JPMorgan Chase & Company.
Business Premium Collection [Online] Available:
https://search.proquest.com/docview/1894925243?accountid=30552 [Accessed 30
Oct. 2018]
PR Newswire . (2015). Global luxury furniture market 2014-2020 - low product
differentiation lowers the bargaining power of suppliers. PR Newswire. [Online]
Available: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1712478583?accountid=30552
[Accessed 30 Oct. 2018]