Marks And Spencer

By Author: Anthony W Bills
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Marks and Spencer

Introduction

Marks and Spencer plc, also referred to as M&S is a retailer based in Britain and is headquartered in Westminster City, London and has over 690 store in UK and over 320 franchised stores in 41 territories. The company specialises in selling clothing and other luxury food products. The company was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer.
M&S was the first British retailer to post a pre-tax profit of over £1 Billion in 1998. Though the company later plunged in to problems which took several years, in November 2009, the former Morrisons’ CEO, Marc Bolland, was to take over from Stuart Rose though Rose was to remain in leadership till mid-2011.
The management of Marks and Spencer from the period of 1999 to today
The management of the company has passed several hands since 1999 to date. Here are the people who have been responsible for the company’s growth since then.
1999- Sir Richard Greenbury
2000-2004- Luc Vandevelde
2004-2006-Paul Myners
2006-2009-Lord Burns
2009 to date- Sir Stuart Rose
The changing ...
... structure and cultures of the organization
Changing organizational culture is a tough task that is taken by the company. The organization culture is the tread the company has been following for years to alleviate the variability in results and also to govern the stake holders on the achievement of the company goals. To change the organizational goals, M&S has been working hand in changing their culture and giving all the employees. Changing the accepted culture is always hard since not many people would be able to adapt to the new culture.
There has always been a problem in changing the culture that matches the founders’ needs and goals of the company and has been in use for many years. The current management finds it hard and expensive to change because its expensive and it affects primarily the company’s performance between the time of implementation and adaptation (Sopow, 2007).
Finance
M&S is listed in the London Stock Exchange and is among the FTSE 100 Index. The company has been doing well in the last few years which even contributed to the share of the company posting more value. The company has been struggling to retain the conservative shoppers especially during the credit crunch. The company posted £ 298,000,000 half year profit in the half year of 2009 and another £632,500,000 for the remaining part of the year.
In addition, the company offers some financial services like the account cards, personal loans and unit trust among others. The company accepts credit cards in its stores and in sales transactions. Through this, the company has been able to increase its sales and have shown a commendable improvement financially (Sopow, 2007).
Marketing
M&S is committed to marketing their products to enhance there is an improved growth and retaining of customers. There are several methods the company has been using to enhance their products get to the market and reaches the intended customers. The company runs newspaper and magazine ads since 1950s. The company has also ensured that they reach all sorts of customers including those who don’t read. Through this, the company introduced TV ads which on the other hand have been showing a commendable improvement.
The company has a tread of using famous celebrities in their adverts which has on the other hand have worked positively for the company. The new perspective of the company has been an instrumental that have enabled the company to gain more. The company has also used road shows, billboards in their advert and clear taglines like ‘This is not just food, this is M&S food’ which has been distinctive for the company and has propelled the preference of the company’s products (Parker, 2000)
HRM
Human resource management is one of the most departments in any organization or a company. M&S has not been left behind in implementing the HR strategies that will ensure that the company is able to deal with all its stake holders in the best way possible. M&S values their HR department as they are aware is a coherent approach to the management and deals with most valued asset of the company. HR deals with people who collectively contribute to the welfare of the company and also aid the company in achieving its goals and objectives.
M&S has a well organized leadership structure that recognizes the efforts of any employee. This has helped the company to have a motivated workforce and has enabled the company improve the standards of its products as every employee feels that is responsible to achieve the laid strategic goal of the company.
The HR department is responsible of making sure that all stake holders get what they require. It has been formulas of making sure the company’s competitors do not find a room to beat the company as the customers interests are completely catered for as well as the suppliers needs. (Peters, & Waterman, 1982)
The company uses this formula to retain competent workforce as well as acquiring demoralized competent workers from other companies.
Key issues in the managing stakeholders
Strategic management in organization is the study and identification of methods and ways of management to provide employee effectiveness through provision of high and complex nature of individual, group and organization process. Leadership strategic is drawn from a variety of disciplines including psychology and sociology to explain the methods of leadership to be used in a company.
On the other hand, the strategic management is a process or art on which the company can evaluate and implement as well as formulating the function of the decisions that have been made in the organization in order to achieve its long term goals. This is also a process of giving guidelines to specific missions and visions of the company (Black, 2003).
SWOT analysis
Strengths
-M&S is one of the largest and most competitive stores in the industry. It has been depicted as a company with attitude where the shoppers feel very comfortable while shopping.
-M&S has ability of anticipating the customers demand through providing quality products and in time which makes their customers feel royal and available for all occasions.
-The strategies that are used by the store make the company to be always competitive and a threat to its rivals.
-The company has sophisticated technology that makes it able to cater for the ever and fast changing technology in the marketing trends.
Its IT capability enables the company to sell its wide range of products in wide geographical area as well as saving time and money while ordering its products.
Weaknesses
Though the company is strong enough to dominate the market, it has some weaknesses as well.
-The company has not been able to anticipate price increase which is one of the major influences that affects its operations.
-The company has been faced with several issues regarding the decision making especially in the HR department.
-Due to wide rage of products, the company has not been able to master the flexibility of its rivals in the market which remains as an unsolved weakness (Ranchhod, 2007).
Opportunities
Through combining its strengths and tactics in the market, the company has a room for advancing and growing.
-The company may gain more customers if it would be able to master the current marketing trends for its products to meet the demands of the target group.
-With the continuous innovation the company is employing, its evident that its going to grow and dominate the market through moving ahead of its close rivals.
-The current trend of the company diversifying its revenues, its an open opportunity that is making the company stronger and outgrow over its rival companies (Ranchhod, 2007).
-The company is employing ecommerce in its business which is another vital opportunity that will develop the company’s tactics and will make the company grow globally as it would be able to easily interact with the international customers and suppliers.
Threats
-The company is faced with stiff competition due to various competitors that are trading in the industry.
-There are new products that are introduced to the market that are cheaper that the company’s products and are feared that they may substitute the company’s products.
-The demands of the customers are viewed as a challenge due to continued demand of new designs and purposes (Rowley, 2003).
Future prospects of the company.
The company has high hopes that it will be able to be the leading global company in the industry once it opens more stores in other countries. The company has worked hard to strengthen its marketing strategies and formulating expansion strategies to be able to enter in other countries and have a considerable market share. The company has been fairing well in the market which has contributed to giving the company moral that it can be able to compete with other stake holders in the industry. If the company will be able to adapt to its growth strategies, it is in a better position to fair well in the market (Rifkin, 2000).
Works cited:
Black, J. (2003) Organizational Culture: Creating the Influence Needed for Strategic Success, London UK
Parker, M. (2000) Organizational Culture and Identity, London: Sage.
Peters, T. & Waterman, R. (1982), In Search of Excellence, HarperCollins, New York
Ranchhod A. (2007). Marketing Strategies, financial times prentice hall
Richard, L. (2008), Strategic management, London, Prentice Hall
Rifkin, J. (2000), The Age of Access, Putnum Books, New York
Rowley, L (2003) On Target How the World's Hottest Retailer Hit a Bull's-eye John Wiley & Sons; Hoboken, New Jersey
Sopow, E. (2007). Corporate personality disorder. Lincoln NB: iUniverse.

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