Marks & Spencer: Business Strategy - Lab Report Example

? Business Analysis Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Overview 3 Business Environment of Marks and Spencer 4 Strategic Capabilities of Marks & Spencer 8 Critical Appraisal of the Performance of the Business Since 2008 9 Potential Future Strategy of Marks & Spencer 16 References 18 Appendix A 23 Appendix B 24 Overview Marks & Spencer is one of the United Kingdom’s biggest retailers. Each week millions of people visit the stores of Marks & Spencer. The company offers varieties of home based products, menswear and kids wear. They offer standard quality products globally with having in excess of 2000 suppliers. They also offer employment to around 78,000 people in the UK as well as in abroad. The company operates more than 700 stores in the UK and has expanded their business especially in retail sector internationally. 49% of their business is based upon homeware and clothing and 51% of their business based upon on food. Marks & Spencer are known for their green credentials due to their focus upon eco plan. By the year 2012, the company has decided to provide no waste on land and to reduce overall operational waste. The company prepares their plans for each year, for the year 2010-2013 their plan is to improve business strategies in the UK. The development can be done by improving Marks & Spencer’s brand, stores and food business. The company’s next plan for the year 2013-2015 is to make more profit by increasing their business capabilities internationally. The largest store of M&S is situated at Marble Arch on London’s Oxford Street. They have built their shops at various locations like high streets, stations, retail parks and airports (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). The objective of the paper is to prepare a business analysis of the company Marks & Spencer. The analysis will include assessment of the business environment and strategic capabilities of the company along with critical analysis of the performance of the business since the year 2008. The paper will also include potential future strategies for M&S for their local as well as global markets. Business Environment of Marks and Spencer Marks and Spencer has been operating in the UK for a long period of time. The changing political uncertainties in the UK certainly create varying challenges for the company to successfully operate in. The political structure affects the retail shopping centres in a number of ways. The political structure in the UK has a direct impact on the retail centres. The retail shopping centres face a lot of issues related to national debates in the UK which has evolved recently due to various political conditions. There is certainly a significant impact in the UK of the political parties upon the various locations of land and the usage of lands for diverse purposes. Since 1990s there have been tight restrictions on use of land, and thus it has become difficult to obtain permission regarding the set up of retail sectors at various town centres. This restriction has evolved due to health issues at town centres and to develop the towns as a strong part of urban structure (Burt & Sparks, 2003). Pricing is the other important aspect on political grounds. Pricing is very much complex towards consumers as the consumers react differently to diverse prices given to the products. The retailers also position themselves accordingly to different prices at various market locations. The issue of price directly relates to market power as many of the organisations’ mergers were blocked a decade ago. The government desires to enhance the price competition among the retailers (Burt & Sparks, 2003). The economic impact on the UK’s retail sector is very much based upon the demand of the retail based products in the UK. As the demand of the products of retailers is quite steady in the UK, thus it has enabled the retailers to operate with quite a sustainable operational growth. Local market knowledge is significantly required to know the needs of the consumers but large retailers have incorporated computer knowledge to analyse consumer needs. Local and new retailers generally get few opportunities but the overall market structure is primarily dominated by big retail organisations. From the economic point of view, the behaviour of the consumers is very much multi-dimensional as their behaviour depends on the income and the increasing tax rate in the UK (Burt & Sparks, 2003). Working on a single issue is one of the main traits of the people living in the UK. Their attitudes and behaviours towards focusing upon a single issue relates to their shopping actions. Consumers spend a lot of time working on future perspective and accordingly they change their behaviour. The changing behaviour of the consumers makes retailers to bring products that are liked and the consumers generally react quickly to changing variations in the offered products (Burt & Sparks, 2003). There are high demands for healthy and organic foods and retailers respond to that trend instantly. Organic foods with premium price are less accepted by the consumers so the retail chains have started producing products that have their own brand name. In the UK, people spend quite a busy lifestyle so that people desire more of ready meals. Although around 70% of the women are working, they take out time for shopping from their busy schedule (Andidas, 2003). Online shopping is one of the biggest opportunities that the retailers are providing as through online shopping they have been able to acquire a major proportion of profit. Many of the grocery shops have converted themselves to online shopping business (Andidas, 2003). Store management has become easier with the help of Information Technology (IT) which helps to store detailed data and statistics of selling products. Availability of detailed data with regard to especially consumer choices and preferences has made the UK retail sector to offer more of new stocks according to varying requirements (Andidas, 2003). SWOT Analysis of Marks & Spencer Strengths In the year 2009, Marks & Spencer’s focus was mainly on innovation, service, value, quality and trust. The company’s market share rose from 11.2% in 2009 to 12.3% in 2011. In the year 2009, new products were introduced and relevant services were also commenced to their core businesses. The company managed costs and cost management has enabled to increase the efficiency of the company. The company also responded to the changing behaviour of the consumers without making any compromise to the quality of the goods which has enabled it to achieve long-term future objectives (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). By 2010, Marks & Spencer remained committed towards building a world class retail sector. Their main focus was to be excellent service provider in their business sector and to have a multi-dimensional capability (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). From the 2011 annual report, it is observed that one of the main strengths of Marks & Spencer is to make the company truly international. Along with other aspects like great value and great quality products the company is also making an attempt for making things right socially, environmentally and ethically (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). Weaknesses There had been certain gap with regard to management of stocks of Marks and Spencer. This resulted in customers to suffer from problems due to delivery services and shortage of stocks. Marks & Spencer has about 75% of store space that is left unused whereas market share has not yet increased significantly from the early eighties. Marks & Spencer needs to bring new products in the market in order to fill the empty store space. Even though Marks & Spencer is very much accepted worldwide, at times it is observed that the young generation prefers products from brands like Next and Topshop and Gap (Scribd Inc, 2012). Opportunities With the help of IT, the demand for online products has increased at a rapid extent, the customers are getting accustomed to this kind of online shopping as it helps them to reduce time and get products with no transport costs. Customers like fresh vegetables and Marks & Spencer is one of the prime organizations, which offers the customers with fresh quality products with low fat. This is one of their strategies, which has provided it a competitive advantage. The company has their stores in Hong Kong and Ireland and also in 28 more countries. They have their franchise stores creating a network of strong successful partnership (Scribd Inc, 2012). Threats Marks & Spencer faces a lot of competition from companies like Sainsbury, Tesco, Asda and Safeway. Next, Topshop and Gap are few competitors in clothing business. Marks & Spencer faced certain environment pollution related threats due to the chemicals that are being used in their products. Government is taking measures to reduce the pollution and protect the environment. Therefore, Marks & Spencer has to strictly abide by the environmental guidelines set by the government. These factors will affect the development of Marks & Spencer in the coming future in a positive sense (Scribd Inc, 2012). Strategic Capabilities of Marks & Spencer Marks & Spencer has five core businesses in brand, clothing, home, food and stores. The company’s strategy is to focus on core business. For the customers, new range of clothing are provided so that the company stands out in quality, fashion and style. Marks & Spencer gives a detail description regarding the shifting of sub-brands to the real brands. In food, Marks & Spencer provides more of fresh food and high quality standard of food to their customers. In the coming years, the company would attempt to uphold the strategy of trust, quality, innovation, service and value other than giving priority to Marks & Spencer customers. The company is following the strategies to the core and is looking towards the future with confidence. Marks & Spencer has operated in different countries to flourish their business in places like India, Southern and Eastern Europe and China. They followed this strategy in order to bring more profits to their business (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). Critical Appraisal of the Performance of the Business Since 2008 Porter’s Generic Strategies Source: (Mind Tools Ltd, 2012). Marks & Spencer had managed their cost for the year 2008 due to recession. The company managed to carry on the cost focus strategy the same process for the future in order to make their business easy to continue. The main objective of the business is not only to fulfil the short-term goals but also to overcome the future goals. The purpose can only be fulfilled by managing cost in order to overcome any financial crisis that may take place in the coming future (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). The year 2008 was very much focussed towards the customer and the core areas were trust, service, value, innovation and quality (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). From the year 2008-2009, their main focus was to have the right basics for food and general merchandise. The company had reduced cost strategy for providing the customers with best quality, in order to invest more on prices the company had followed the strategy of lowering their price on various products. The strategy continued on core businesses of Marks & Spencer like women’s wear, menswear, kids wear, home and food (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). The strategy of managing cost continued for the year 2009, but the strategy for lowering price did not continue for the year 2009. The customers for Marks & Spencer wanted best quality products without compromising with the price. The company started improving their business in places like Eastern and Southern Europe, India and China (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). The different aspect for the year 2010 was the launch of new collection named Indigo Collection in order to bring variations in casual wear. Customer reliability was given more importance so that the customers can shop with more flexibility in whichever way they want (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). For the year 2011, enhancing and improving their core business was the main focus that included clothing, home and food. Their core aspects trust, quality, innovation, service and value continued for the year 2011 (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). By analysing the four years annual reports, it can be judged that the company Marks & Spencer has generally followed cost focus strategy in order to develop their business. Marks & Spencer did not make any such variations during especially the four years i.e. 2008-2011. The company improved and continued the patent strategies in order to make more profits in the business (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). Ansoff Matrix Source: (Sam Mishra, 2012). Marks & Spencer did not really go for market penetration as their focus is on their main businesses like brand, clothing, home, food and clothes. The company provides the quality made products to their customers. During the recent years, the company has developed the products in order to catch hold of the market. For further development of the market the company focused on quality made products without making any compromise towards the price of the products. The company did not make any such diversification but launched a new collection named Indigo Collection in the year 2010. This collection was mainly introduced to provide more variations to the customers and to make profit in the coming future (Sam Mishra, 2012; Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). In terms of financial aspect, it can be observed from the obtained data that the company was able to attain a continuous increase in earnings per share by 43.6 million USD in the year 2008. In between there was a downfall but gradually it had gained its earnings per share to reach up to 38.8 million USD in the year 2011. Operating margin had been nil throughout the year 2011. Quick ratio had decreased to 2.9 in the year 2011 from 3.4 in 2010. Current ratio had also decreased in the year 2011. Therefore, it can be observed that in the year 2011 in terms of financial aspects there had been either decrease in value or remained stable in few areas like P/E ratio and debt ratio. Overall, in between the years 2008 and 2010 M&S had managed to maintain a balance in its financial ratios. Whereas, the years 2009 and 2011 had shown unbalanced ratios, in certain areas it has increased and in some other areas it has decreased (Refer to Appendix B). Current ratio, quick ratio, returns on capital employed, net gearing and earnings per share have all shown reductions in its values due to the recession that took place in the year (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). Bowman’s Clock Source: (Scottish Qualifications Authority, 2008). Bowman’s Strategy Clock identifies company’s competitive situation and influencing factors towards the customers to buy the products other than buying those of competitive business partners. It includes various strategies like Low Price-Low Value, Low Price, Hybrid, Differentiation, Focused Differentiation, Increased Price-Standard Product, High Price-Low Value and Low Value- Standard Price (Scottish Qualifications Authority, 2008). The company Marks & Spencer follows the Hybrid strategy in Bowman’s Strategy Clock. The company provides their customers with the quality made products with no such high price. The people of the UK prefer more of quality made products rather than compromising in price. The customers’ feel free while shopping and desire to take with them the best of products (Scottish Qualifications Authority, 2008). Marks & Spencer had constructed a plan in the year 2007, to make the company a globally recognised retail sector that should be customer directed, flexible and fast-moving. In the year 2008, M&S had not changed their focus but had broadened their focus towards implementing more ideas. The key factors of 2008 were to invest and to grow the core businesses by the introduction of new products. The year provided a proper direction to Marks & Spencer’s business strategies, make expansion of international business and to carry the business in a more sustainable way (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). The year 2009, deals with two aspects i.e. improving the value of M&S and managing costs and trust. Marks & Spencer made a decision to make more of price investment. The company had invested in offering superior quality products despite the recession. The company also observed that the customers are not ready to pay low price for getting any kind of product; in fact they are eager to pay the right price for quality made products which they can take back to their home (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). In the 2010, M&S faced certain obstacles in its business operations. However, the company remained focussed towards improving the business in the best possible way, building a multi-dimensional capability and having an international portfolio. Due to the recession, the company did not set back instead they focused on short-term goals and this kept the long term goals in place. The company has built strong platform on market share and on all core areas. The company’s core areas are trust, innovation, service, value and quality. In present times, the company is following these aspects and the customers have also felt the improvement (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). There had been growth in profits by 12.9 % in the year 2011, the company sales increased by 4.2%. The company grew their market share both in food and clothing. This achievement has been gained mainly because of the quality products offered to the customers as well as innovative products the customers noticed while shopping (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). Potential Future Strategy of Marks & Spencer Local Market Marks & Spencer has already built a strong retail establishment in the local areas of the UK. They have provided retail outlets in the various locations in the UK for attracting more and more customers and increase their profits. Their main focus is on specified areas like brand, clothing, home, food and stores. The company has not done any such variations in their business since the company started. More variations in product will give them more business and more amount of profit. The people of the UK might become monotonous of receiving and observing the same kind of products. In the year 2010, it was due to the desire from customers of Marks & Spencer a new brand for casual wear was launched named Indigo Collection. It is understood through psychological analysis of the UK that people out there want more of variations rather than sticking to same kind of products offered by Marks & Spencer (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012). Global Market Globally, Marks & Spencer has not made any kinds of merger and acquisitions (M&A). The company has extended its business in various places in order to earn more profit but has not combined their business with any other company to earn maximum amount of profit. Merger is a corporate strategy that deals with selling, buying and combining the business with other companies in order to gain more profit and ensure sustainability in a rapid way. Acquisition, on the other hand, relates to taking over another company, and controlling the entire company’s interest that has been taken over. Joint Venture is the other more important aspect through which a company can flourish its business. Joint Venture is an agreement made through contractual basis between two or in excess of two parties in order to earn more profit (Johnson & et. al., 2011). Either of the aspects i.e Joint Venture as well as M&A had not been followed by Marks & Spencer. If merger, acquisition and joint ventures are followed by the company then it can make more profit at a very short period of time. Merger and acquisition will provide Marks and Spencer an added advantage to their business in order to make their business more flexible and sustainable. By following the strategies of Ansoff Matrix, the strategy that Marks & Spencer could follow is to have a new line for product development. Product development can be an overall strategy for capturing the desire of the consumers of UK market as it can enable them to have an option of varied types of product offering. References Andidas, 2003. A Guide for Trainee Graduate Retail Managers and Middle-Level Managers. Waitrose. [Online] Available at: http://www.andidas.com/academic/babm/RetailMarketing_WaitroseTraineeGuide_by_andidas.pdf [Accessed April 11, 2012]. Burt, S. & Sparks, L. 2003. Competitive Analysis of the Retail Sector in the UK. Institute For Retail Studies. [Online] Available at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.bis.gov.uk/files/file11029.pdf [Accessed April 11, 2012]. Johnson, G. & et. al., 2011. Exploring Strategy: Text & Cases. Prentice Hall. Marks and Spencer plc, 2012. Where We Are. About Us. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/aboutus/where/uk_stores [Accessed April 11, 2012]. Marks and Spencer plc, 2012. Annual Report And Financial Statements. How have we done. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/file.axd?pointerid=c25b7670e6e4420abd2403cb7a6149f4&versionid=c6167e6e5dc44b918eb9a277b921fa23[Accessed April 11, 2012]. Marks and Spencer plc, 2012. Annual Report and Financial Statements. What’s In This Report. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/documents/publications/2010/annual_report_2010 [Accessed April 11, 2012]. Marks and Spencer plc, 2012. Annual Report And Financial Statements. About M&S. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/documents/publications/2011/annual%20report%202011 [Accessed April 11, 2012]. Marks and Spencer plc, 2012. Our Plan. About Us. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/aboutus/our_plan [Accessed April 11, 2012]. Mind Tools Ltd, 2012. Porter's Generic Strategies. Choosing Your Route to Competitive Advantage. [Online] Available at: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_82.htm [Accessed April 11, 2012]. Marks and Spencer plc, 2012. Reports & Publications. Investors. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/investors/reports_publications/2011[Accessed April 11, 2012]. Scribd Inc, 2012. Marks Spencer SWOT. Strengths. [Online] Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/46757269/SWOT-Analysis-for-Marks-and-Spencer[Accessed April 11, 2012]. Sam Mishra, 2012. Ansoff Matrix. Ansoff Matrix- Existing Product Strategy. [Online] Available at: http://franteractive.net/Matrix-Ansoff.html [Accessed April 11, 2012]. Scottish Qualifications Authority, 2008. Management: Strategic Change. Management Development. [Online] Available at: http://www.sqa.org.uk/files_ccc/CB4559_Stategic_change.pdf[Accessed April 11, 2012]. Bibliography Blackwell Publishing, 2009. Introduction: What Is Strategic Management. What is Strategy. [Online] Available at: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Content_store/Sample_chapter/140511181X/Dobson_strategic%20management_sample%20chapter.pdf [Accessed April 11, 2012]. Collier, N & Johnson, G., 2005. Marks & Spencer. Introduction. [Online] Available at: http://pgsm.co.uk/members/teaching/strategic/m_s.pdf [Accessed April 11, 2012]. March, A. & et. al., 1994. Marks & Spencer: Sir Richard Greenbury's Quiet Revolution. Harvard Business School Pub. Seth A. & Randall G., 2001. The Grocers: The Rise And Rise Of The Supermarket Chains. Kogan Page Publishers. Sadler, P. & Craig, J., 2003. Strategic Management. Kogan Page Publishers. Tse, K. K., 1985. Marks & Spencer: Anatomy of Britain's Most Efficiently Managed Company. Pergamon Press. The Financial Times Ltd, 2011. Marks and Spencer Group Plc. Marketsdata. [Online] Available at: http://markets.ft.com/Research/Markets/Tearsheets/Summary?s=MKS:LSE [Accessed April 11, 2012]. Appendix A PEST Analysis Political Political aspect affects the retail shopping centre of UK to a certain extent, because without the permission of the government building a retail shopping centre on any land is not accepted. Economic The economic condition of the people of UK is very much multidimensional. If there are high tax rate on different products then consumers will behave differently and high tax rate will not allow any retail company to exist for a longer period of time. Social In the UK, the changing demands of the consumers affect the retail corporations. The consumers desire to obtain high quality products which create a major influence upon the strategies implemented by the retailers. This changing behaviour allows the retail sector to bring new products in the market. The consumers react quickly to the new products as the consumers already have a detail concept of each and every product that has entered the market. Technological Online shopping is very much well known to the people of UK as online shopping allows the people to spend less on transport and buy more products with lot of variations. Appendix B Financial Ratio Ratios 2008 2009 2010 2011 Current Ratio 3.6 3.1 3.7 3.3 Quick Ratio 3.5 2.8 3.4 2.9 Operating Margin 0.0 _ _ _ Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) 0.21 0.10 0.13 0.0 Net Gearing Ratio 1.5 1.1 0.9 0.7 Debt Ratio 0.3 0.56 0.6 0.6 Earnings Per Share (EPS) 43.6 28.0 33.5 38.8 P/E Ratio 1.0 1 1.0 1.0 . Source: (Marks and Spencer plc, 2012) Read More