Marks and Spencer, a partnership formed in the late 1800s, is today one of the UK's leading retailers of clothing, food, home products and financial services. Employing 65,000 people, the company has 448 stores located throughout the UK, as well as a further 202 stores managed under franchise in 30 countries throughout the world (Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Far East). (Marks and Spencer, 2006). This report will be focused on Marks and Spencer and will try to analyze its success as well as its business environment, its strategy and its resources and capabilities.
On the one hand, this part will analyze the different factors which illustrate the achievement of M&S. The success of M&S can be exposed by several points: Firstly displayed by the fact that this company has existed since the end of 19th century; that shows the sustainability of this company. Nowadays, it can be considered among the biggest companies of the world.
Secondly, the number of stores opened since 1894 (the first) has considerably increased to reach almost 450 stores situated in UK and 202 stores worldwide (2007), including over 130 franchise businesses, operating in 30 countries. The UK market is the primary market of M&S, that is why this is where M&S is the most efficient. From the 1970s, M&S has adopted a market development strategy that includes open new stores all around the world., in beginning by
Europe.
Thirdly,by 1998, some companies had been suppliers to M&S for more than 100 years, and it is important to note than theses relations were based on trust and not on contracts. This shows the success of M&S with its suppliers.
[...] While most Marks and Spencer food is sourced in the UK and Europe, as much as 90% of other products are now sourced elsewhere. Outbound logistics include the order processing and shipping of products. Marketing and sales focus on customers' wants and needs. It includes advertising and promotion. Unlike early days, M&S has now established a marketing department and is increasing media advertising. Finally, services (maintenance), include customer service provided by the company and the training and handling of customer queries. [...]
[...] Identify the resources inputs and complexity of each capability Identify firm's resources. Appraise strengths and weaknesses relative to competitors. Identify opportunities for better utilisation of resources. Capabilities 5 Identify resource gaps which need to be filled. Invest in replenishing and augmenting the firm's resources Resources 13 / 23 Identify M&S resources: Organizational resources can be divided into three parts, tangible, intangible and human: Tangible Stores and location stores Headquarters(London) Intangible Reputation & brand Human Employees: organizational core values, principal and recognition: for quality and value knowledge, tacit and explicit, of Culture of organization; Financial resources: increasing retained profits Relationship between Suppliers and distribution centres suppliers, customers, employees, community and government Innovative ability in clothing manufacturing and food technology Management structure and experience in retailing (Smith, 2002) Embedded culture among employees (now focusing on making the culture more customer focused) customer service/ value focused New design team organizational operations Identify M&S capabilities: “Resources are not normally productive on their own. [...]
[...] The personal aspect was more important than the company interest for some chairmen and members. It is also a huge centralized structure and this type of organization can encounter difficulties in terms of communication and management. Finally, the pricing adopted by M&S when new competitors arrived on the scene also posed a limitation / 23 Financial aspect: Finally, from a financial perspective, this table (Marks and Spencer, 2006) shows the financial results since 2001. This information illustrates and shows the crisis that M&S has undergone at the beginning of the new millennium / Business environment: The role of stakeholders: Like most companies, M&S counts different stakeholders which can be viewed in the following graph. [...]
[...] On the other hand, Marks and Spencer business is mainly focused on selling clothing, food and home products: - Concerning the core product of clothing represented of its UK retail turnover. Moreover, M&S is the largest UK clothing retailer and its market share represents - Food accounts for of the UK retail turnover. M&S offers outstanding quality, convenient food, sourced responsibly. The company sells food products across its chain, including 129 Simply Food stores. - The home products that include a range of household products and furnishings account for of its UK retail turnover / 23 - M&S sold its Financial Services business, M&S Money, to HSBC and the company is well based internationally with 202 franchised stores in 30 territories. [...]
[...] THE RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES OF “Resource analysis is an important means of assessing an organization's strategic capability, which is necessary if sensible choices of future strategy are to be made.” (Johnson & Scholes, 1993) The literature uses the terms “capabilities” and “competences” interchangeably. The key differences are the adjectives used to modify the terms. Thus, Selznick used distinctive competence to describe those things that an organization does particularly well relative to its competitors, and Igor Ansoff used the same term to analyze the basis of firms' growth strategies. [...]
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