Strategic Management Analysis of Marks and Spencer (M&S) Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the strategic management of Marks and Spencer (M&S). It begins with an introduction and background, outlining M&S's mission, vision, and financial performance, highlighting the company's operations in the UK and internationally. The main body of the report delves into the methods of development employed by M&S, including internal and external growth strategies, such as changes in top management, store closures, and digital initiatives. It then examines the leadership styles adopted by key figures like Steve Rowe and Archie Norman, focusing on transformational and contingency leadership. The report also discusses change management, utilizing the change kaleidoscope model to analyze the various elements of change within the organization. Finally, the report covers M&S's sustainability strategy, including its commitment to net-zero emissions and its relaunch of the Plan A initiative. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for the company's future strategic direction.

STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION / BACKGROUND INFORMATION...............................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Methods of development .................................................................................................................4
Leadership style ..............................................................................................................................6
Change management .......................................................................................................................7
Sustainability strategy......................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
RECOMMENDATION....................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION / BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Strategic management is the ongoing planning, analysis, monitoring and assessment of all
necessities a company needs to meet up with its goals and objectives. Changes in business
environment will require the company to assess the strategies for success (Strategic
Management, 2019). Marks and Spencer c is a British multinational retailer with headquarters in
England. The company specialises in selling home products, clothing and food products, mostly
under the own label. Mission of the company is to deliver the aspirational quality accessible to
all, with quality value, innovation, service and trust among the customer. As per data of 2020
revenue of company was £10.2bn (-1.9%) and whereas group profit before tax was £67.2m (-
20.2%) and all these figures of income and profit shows that M&S income and profit have
reduced from last year. Presently M&S has its operations in UK and 62 other countries through
1519 locations and 44 websites of the company. Among these number of locations of M&S there
are around 959 locations operating in UK including 615 stores that only sell food. In order to
manage and carry out all activities and operation of M&S it has employed around 78000
employees. Its vision is to be standard against which other are measured. This means to become
best in its industry. This report aims at discussing strategic management of Marks and Spencer
and will involve methods of development used by company. In addition to this report will also
discuss leadership style, change management, sustainability and will also involve
recommendations for organisation.
MAIN BODY
Methods of development
Development in M&S was done using several methods and practices for development.
Some of the methods of development adopted by M&S since 2016 includes-
Internal growth- In order to develop and grow organisation from inside company utilised
several methods. In this changes in top management level was one of the very important to be
considered. This means that several top level managerial changes were brought in M&S and this
included changes in director for some of the businesses and many new managers were also
appointed.
In addition to this, Steve Rowe also focused on enhancing quality of organisational operations
and for this they adopted method of regularly visiting different stores and evaluating practices
(Syardiansah, 2018). Followed by this different changes were implemented to enhance quality of

functions in M&S. This was also known as a strategy that is known as restoring basics and
included enhancing quality of existing business practices.
External growth- External growth of the company included closure of different stores. In this
different stores of M&S were closed because of completion of lease. In addition to this, they also
changed format of stores in which stores in which way in which they were used were changed.
This means that some of the stores were made only food stores. In addition to this M&S also
planned to open some new stores and along with this their emphasis on digitalisation of activities
also increased.
Analysis and discussion outlines that M&S changes within M&S were at slow pace
compared to changes that took place outside M&S.
In all the changes that happened outside M&S strategic alliances are also parts of them. This
means that M&S developed its alliances with other businesses. Strategic alliance with M&S was
one of the alliance that happened in February 2020 and was a joint venture of partnership that is
known as Joint Venture. This joint venture gave full online food delivery service for first time
(Yegorova and Akhmetshin, 2017). In this joint venture M&S bought 50% shares of Ocado’s UK
retail business and amount for that was £750 million. Joint venture will trade as Ocado.com but it
will stock products of brand of M&S and will benefit by accessing retailers data base of 12
million food shoppers.
This means that M&S in its development included different strategies in organisation as
well as outside organisation. Strategies of M&S outside were more considerable compared to
those that took place within organisation. As Steve Rowe became leader or CEO of M&S he was
required to face several changes but because of their leadership and managerial approach he took
some of the strong decisions. In addition to this changes that are likely to take place in future
have also been planned. Changes are very important because of M&S’ performance have been
significantly reduced and financial performance of M&S have also been negatively affected.
Some of the planned changes include addressing six self-defined identified issues and these are
deep-seated issues, behind the curve in digital, more to do in style and value in clothing and
home, and underperformance in food.

Leadership style
Leadership is both the area of research and a practical skill which encompasses the ability
of an Steve Rowe and Archie Norman to lead, guide and influence, other individuals, team or
can be the entire company. The leadership style adopted by the individuals lead with
Transformational leadership-
It is the style where the leader work with the team in Marks and Spencer to identify the
change that was being needed. They both encompass to create a vision which guides to change
by inspiration and executing the change with focused and dedicated member. It is the integral
part to full range of leadership style being opted by the company. It is when leaders like
mentioned above encourages, motivates and inspire employees to create and innovate change
which will help to shape and grow the success of the company.
The importance of this is it helps to transform the individuals of the group into
individuals who transcend beyond the self actualisation and with their own interest for the sake
of development in the company. It helps the individual in the team to perform in ways that helps
in creating change which is being meaningful (Purwanto, Asbari, and budi Santoso, 2019).
However, it is of disadvantage, where influence can backfire, when the leader is self
serving and immoral. Leader when takes the risk, which result in decision that are unfavourable
in nature where the chance will be subordinates will be ones who will be put in line to answer.
Contingency leadership-
It is the style which represents and put forth idea that success of leaders like Steve Rowe
depends on the specific situation at the hand. Certain factors which come into play define that
how effective the leader was in particular situation. It includes factors such as task, personality
of leader and the whole of group that is meant to be led. It helps in assessing the control over the
situation of the leader. It states that there is no one best style of leadership which can be adopted
by the leader for all the situation (Abu Sultan, 2018). Selection of Style depend on the situation
which best fit the leader. To handle the situation in effective manner. According to this theory,
leader can be effective in one situation and turn out to be ineffective In another situation. It is
simply contingent to the situation.
The importance of this style of leadership is it helps potential of learning from the
situation that is specific and using this lessons and situation for future management of the same
and situation that are similar to the leader and company. The ability to adapt for pressures which

are external and changing accordingly serves as the advantage to the company. It shows up with
the effectiveness of the leader critical thinking process at the workplace to solve the situation and
support the management of the company (Al‐Yami, Galdas, and Watson, 2018).
However, this can turn out to be reactive in nature. Sometimes the handling of situations
become harder for leader. It suffers from inadequacy of the literature. It is being not sufficient to
say that action of the leader like Steve Rowe depends on the situation. It is more of complex
approach where the suggestion to the approach turns out to be simple but when it come to the
practicality it becomes more complex in nature.
Change management
Change management is a collective term for all the approaches to support, prepare and
help the individuals, organisation and team in the Marks and Spencer to make the changes
effectively (Paton, McCalman, 2020).
Change kaleidoscope helps the leaders like Steve Rowe to design a sensitive approach to
the change by actuation together and codifying the with wide range of contextual implementation
and features available which requires the consideration for change during the period
(Rosenbaum, More, Steane, 2018). It is the method for pulling together and arranging with the
wide variety of highlights that are being logical and usage of choices that requires thought to
amid the change.
This helps with serving the revolution type of strategic change as it relates with the
fundamental change in both the culture and strategy which will lead with changes that can
restore the damaged position of the company.
Change kaleidoscope is a model that involves eight key elements of change in organisation and
these features include-
Time- This involves period of time that is required to accomplish change in organisation and
change made in M&S involved time of several years because challenges that required change
within organisation were very strong that in order to remove their impact and start new activities
and functions in organisation required time to ensure success.
Scope- This is concerned with degree of change which can be separated into realignment and
transformation. Concerned with this scope of changes were significant because as a part of
changes many of the stores of M&S were closed and in addition to this strong emphasis was
placed on digitalisation of activities (Resnick and et.al., 2018). This is why changes were

considerable and in addition to this changes also required realignment and transformation from
existing functions of M&S.
Preservation- This is concerned with organisational assets, practices, or characteristics which
require to be retained during change. Concerned with this some of the changes were solely made
to reduce extra cost for the M&S. This was aimed at preserving financial assets of the company.
Concerned with preservation of characteristics, they were changed because M&S was moving
from offline and store business to online business.
Diversity- This is concerned with level of difference among group of employees and divisions,
who will be affected by change in terms of attitude, values and norms. Change in M&S does not
have any kind of impact on these elements and diversity was not affected because of change that
was brought by Steve Rowe.
Capability- This is concerned with ability of organisation to implement change in terms of
managerial skills and personal knowledge and ability. Concerned with this M&S had strong and
effective managerial skills and personal knowledge to implement successful change in M&S.
Capacity- This is concerned with resources needed for change investment including cash, human
resources, and time. M&S implemented change to reduce cost and financial expenses in
organisation.
Readiness- This is about level of change awareness, in this employees were prepared for the
change in organisation.
Power- This is concerned with power needed for change and this change was implemented by
Steve Rowe to stabilize activities of organisation.
Sustainability strategy
Sustainability relates with the ability to exist constantly. It refers to meeting with the
needs of M&S without compromising the ability of future generation to meet there needs and
wants. It is the integration of environmental, economic and social aims into the firms goals,
planning and activities, which creates long term value for the stakeholder and for wider society
that relates with M&S(Moore,2017.
The sustainability strategy adopted by the company relates with the commitment to net
zero emission by 2022. It was as the part of cohort of retailers convened by the British Retail
Consortium. M& S will aim to be net Zero across its operation by 2035.

M&S is planning to relaunch its leading industry Plan A. It will reflect with the social
needs and changing environment globally. It is being taking measure and spreading awareness to
reduce the carbon footprint and encouraging effectively to dispose of the waste.
M&S exceeds with its science based initiate, where it is planning to achieve the carbon
neutrality from its operations. Alongside with the 80% emission reduction target the company
aims to cut emission of supply chain by 13.3 m tonnes (M&S to relaunch Plan A sustainability
strategy, 2020).
Its strategy is being also focused with sourcing 100% certified RSPO palmed oil and
converting 99% of wood and 28% leather to more sustainable sources.
It is being important as it helps with non penalising and restriction being imposed by the
government of that region. It leads with the continuity of the business (Nilashi, 2019). It is being
important for M&S as it helps with increasing the favourable brand image of the company .
These in turn leads with building trust and loyalty of its potential customer and boost up with
sales revenue of company and increase in profit margins. It helps in creating long term value
for the company. These helps with increase in the market share and getting an edge over the
competitors to win in the marketplace. It helps with effective decision making at the workplace,
which helps in identifying the needs and wants of the target audience and fulfilling the same in
fruitful manner.
It helps with the expansion of business in fruitful manner and helps in coordinating
efforts of various individual. This is so as they develop the sense of understanding that
organisation which they work for is being based upon the ethical grounds and platforms to
conduct its business operations all across. By adopting to various strategy of sustainability, it
leads with facing various risk and support the challenging business environment that increases
the sales and profit margins.
CONCLUSION
From the above report its is being concluded that company needs to take several steps to
effectively manage the business operation of M&S. If the company fails to dos so than it result
with loss of market share and competitors taking the advantage of the same. It has explained with

various methods of development such as MBO and other. It has briefed with the understanding
of leadership style and change management strategies which can be adopted by the leaders of the
company to manage business operation. It has lastly briefed with the sustainability strategy
adopted by M&S for future plans.
RECOMMENDATION
• It is being recommended to the leader that they opt for methods which are being highly
effective and efficient for grasping the opportunity. The method should be cost effective
and time saving and easily adopted by the employees of the company .
• It is being recommended that leader should always be open to listen to queries of its
employees are facing and solve the same to support business goal. Leaders should opt for
democratic style of leadership.
• It is being recommended that various parties of business should develop the sense of
understanding that change is constant and working should be in accordance with the
same. It is lastly recommended that company needs to plan for its sustainability strategy
which boost up with building favourable brand image.

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M&S to relaunch Plan A sustainability strategy.2020[Online]. Available
through<>https://www.edie.net/news/7/M-S-to-relaunch-Plan-A-sustainability-strategy/
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