Marks and Spencer Company - Essay Example

Company Analysis: Marks and Spencer: Introduction: Marks and Spencer is a renowned and brand in the field of clothing and other luxury products.It has a rich history of good services and effective customer relationship. Established around middle of 19th century, it has retained a dominant place amongst the service providers. Originally founded and headed from England, it has its branches spread across various parts of the world and most notably the major tourist cities of the country. This distinction and credible position has been attained and then maintained through adoption of certain salient features and functions which are in line with the market consideration, clients responses, technological developments, innovation, supply chain procedural methods functioning and many more factors of relevant importance that are vital to be taken into account in order to derive maximum out of a business enterprise on international level. Philosophy adopted: M& S services and activities are driven by organized philosophy which has enabled effective growth and development in the market in comparison to the rivals. The philosophy of mark and Spencer is based on the basic idea of “ production and manufacturing of products of top most quality with due consideration of the costs but at the same time ensuring that the costs do not come down to a very low level which would ultimately compromise the quality. The bottom line of philosophy is that of quality retention which in other words is the clients’ satisfaction. Working principles: Certain basic principles are derived and set forth as benchmark towards the company’s goals achievement. These come in the following form 1) Extended workable relationship with the suppliers 2) Keeping the prices view in consideration 3) Keeping the customers satisfaction and demand as top priority. Challenges faced by Mark & Spencer: Mark & Spencer has a rich history of productive market performance, however it has had share of low phases as well. One major turn of similar events was seen around the end of last century when during 1999 when the company performance graph in terms of the sales made went extremely low, and considerable stock market shares were lost to other rivals as well which resulted in loss of trust of the customers and overall net loss to the company both in terms of financial means and clients trust. The stocks dip by a good over 30 percent was a deep blow to the company (Bevan 2007). This came along in contrast to the outstanding figures and outputs achieved by the company in yester years when the company had over 18 percent of the clients captured in terms of the garments market, 30 percent of the undergarments of women were covered through Marks and Spencer(Alon 2000). Other challenges faced by Mark & Spencer include the competitors and the new entrants into the market that have emerged recently and providing all kinds of services. Challenges in form of advancement of technology are another area of importance and possible improvement. Human resource management and domain is of high importance to any organization and its performance, M&S is no exception and there is always margin for improvement, enhancing the overall HR services and customers’ relationship is another area which can pose threat and stand as a challenge if not handled properly. Market strategy: Market strategy is primarily focused on customers requirement fulfillment, accompanied by the innovation and first to market concept along with long term relationship with the stakeholders (Hallbauer 2008). Technology used by Mark & Spencer: In the present scenario where every domain is being driven by technology, keeping abreast with technology is a vital area. Mark and Spencer incorporates state of the art technology to fulfill the needs of the company and the clients in parallel. It facilitates the customers through online stores which are directly accessible from any part of the world. Besides this the use of R.F.I.D in number of stores has been on display which has made the mechanism of products delivery more efficient and transparent. The usage of RFID has enabled faster operations and reduced chances of loss of goods during the flow (ComputerWeekly 2007). M&S on the go is another venture undertaken by M&S which has been made possible through the use of technology. Hence M&S is fully aware of the technological importance and thereby it has adopted it in totality. Employees’ aspect: Employees are the backbone of any organization, they can turn the fortunes of a company either way. Marks and Spencer ensures employees aspect is fully understood and addressed for this matter. Educational training, tools and techniques introduction, providing them with perks and privileges and ensuring their maximum participation are few of the basic concepts incorporated in the incumbent company and thereby extracting maximum benefits from the employees. Marks and Spencer has a total of around 75 thousand (M&S, 2013) bench of employees who are employed all over the world in their different chains, each of them fully adhering to the company’s mission of quality, customers satisfaction and excellence in their own domain. As there are different employees’ levels, there are equal reward levels integrated into the system which are based on different categories of incentives and rewards given to various employees based on their performances and based on their contribution towards the level of task depending on its difficulty level. Levels are broadly the contractual and non contractual and deeper details include the top management, the middle management and the file staff that is directly associated with the production units (Shl 2010) Environmental consideration: With ever rapidly destructive sequence of environmental hazards, marks and Spencer is fully aware of the environmental considerations and thereby usage and disposition of the chemicals. It has inaugurated a chemical compliance policy for 1998. By the principle and virtue of which the certain banned and un suggested chemicals are completely avoided from usage in the company’s manufacturing processes. In 2011(M&S 2013) it undertook another initiative towards better environmental operations under the policy of Environmental and Chemical Policy ( ECP) with same aim as that of reducing the damage to the environment caused by these hazardous materials and chemicals. References: Alon, I., 2000. MARKS & SPENCER: A CASE STUDY IN INTERNATIONAL RETAILING, New York: State University of New York Brockport. Bevan, J., 2007. The Rise and Fall of Marks and Spencer: And How It Rose Again. s.l.:Profile Books Limited. Blog, 2013. Marks and Spencers Employer Reviews. [Online] Available at: http://www.indeed.com/cmp/Marks-and-Spencers/reviews [Accessed 4 May 2013]. ComputerWeekly, 2007. Marks & Spencer extends RFID technology to 120 stores. [Online] Available at: http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240080090/Marks-Spencer-extends-RFID-technology-to-120-stores [Accessed 4 May 2013]. Hallbauer, S., 2008. Retail Marketing and New Retail Idea - Marks and Spencer. s.l.:GRIN Verlag. M&S, 2013. How We Do Business. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/howwedobusiness/our_policies/climate_change_2 [Accessed 4th May 2013]. M&S, 2013. M&S Homepage. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/mscareers/opportunities/graduates/graduate_roles/product_technology [Accessed 4th May 2013]. M&S, 2013. How We Do Business. [Online] Available at: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/howwedobusiness/our_policies/climate_change_2 [Accessed 4th May 2013]. Shl, 2010. M&S innovates to get the right people fast, s.l.: CEB. Read More