The Relationship between the Strategic Position and Strategic Choices of Marks & Spencer Plc - Case Study Example

STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STRATEGIC CHOICES AND POSTION OF MARKS & SPENCER PLC al Affiliation) Introduction The corpus of a company’s strategic choice basically entails the specific decisions made by it management in regard to its modus operandi as well as its market position. The key issues that are usually taken into consideration when a company makes a strategic choice are: Its competitive advantage in relation to other companies; making decisions ascribed to choosing its future paths i.e. modus operandi et cetera (Johnson & Scholes, 1999). The essence of a company’s strategic choice also entails a scenario where the company makes decisions related to means of development and expansion. In addition, Companies also have specific positions in every operational environment in any activity they undertake. Thus, a strategic position of a company entails the general view of the company in relation to the environment in, which it operates for example: Its competitive advantage against the competitive advantage of other companies that may offer similar products or services. Moreover, it may entail issues such as company-customer relationship, prices at, which it offers its goods or services as compared to other companies with similar activities (Johnson & Scholes, 1999). Consequently, the strategic position of a company may also entail the success of the company or in some cases, the failures of the company that may reduce its competitive advantage in the market. Economic research from various schools of thought has indicated that there is a great sense of relationship between a company’s strategic choice and its strategic position. The choices that are usually made by companies are great determinants of its strategic position in the entire market. For instance; if a company decides to sell its products at a certain price, has to consider the prices that consumers are willing to purchase the goods at, ultimately the decision made in relation to this issue may affect the competitive advantage of the company either positively or negatively in that: When the prices are increased consumers tend to shift their loyalty to other companies that offer similar goods or services at a lower price (Johnson & Whittington, 2010). On the other hand, when the prices are reduced, new customers from other companies may be attracted to the company with similar products, yet offered at a lower price hence increasing it competitive advantage. Strategic Position of the Marks & Spencer Company The Company focuses on provision of food products and clothing. For over 20 years, the Company has been recording huge amounts of profits; however, this has been varying from year to year owing to the certain economic conditions (Collier, 2010). An example of its major success occurred in the year 1998, when it recorded as the first British Multi-national Retailer Company that recorded a profit of over 1 billion Pounds. However, in later years the profits of the company reduced due to the economic crises that faced the region for several years. There are certain changes that have occurred in the company in regard to its management team since 2009. During this year, a major announcement was made indicating the new Chief Executive Officer of the Company would be Marc Bolland. He was meant to replace Rose Stuart who was the Chairman of the Company’s management Board. Although Mrs. Stuart was retained as non-executive member of the Company’s Management Board in order to ensure that she could assist in making imperative decisions of the Company. The Objective of the Marks & Spencer Plc is to facilitate the Provision of Quality goods and Services to their clients as well as to make the Company and its surroundings a better place. Moreover, the strategic position of the Company is guided by an aim that states: Increasing the Company’s profit together with developing four express shops in four different regions within a period of four years (http://corporate.marksandspencer.com, n.d). The mission statement of the Company is to become one of the World’s largest and sustainable Multi-National Retailer by the year 2015. This shall be achieved through addressing various themes through creating new cloth lines of high value as well as quality (Collier, 2010). Moreover, the company is focused towards becoming one of the most efficient family brands through developing various new Brand identities i.e. specialized food products et cetera. Marks & Spencer Plc is also driven to become the most effective and true Multi-national Retailer in the entire globe through attracting talented employees who are retained for the benefit of the company. This shall ensure that the company increases its efficiency in regard to human resource expansion strategy. Strategic Choices of the Marks & Spencer Plc The Marks & Spencer Multi-national Retail Company is among the most successful companies that have been guided by unique and effective strategic choices. One of the strategic choices of the Company has been its decision to increase the number of its employees in regard to its development and expansion. Currently, the Company boasts for employing over 7000 workers, who are equally distributed among its various stores all over the world (Fallon, 1995). Moreover, the Company is known for its respect of diversity among its employees i.e. in relation to religion, ethnicity as well as sexual orientation. In 2013, the company introduced a new policy that was meant to protect its Muslim Staff from undertaking duties that could jeopardize the requirements of their religion. This policy is known as The Muslim Check-Out Staff Policy (Fallon, 2008). It gives Muslim workers the authority to reject selling alcoholic drinks and goods made of pork at their selling tills. The Company has also engaged in various campaigns to increase its engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility through promoting issues ascribed to environmental management thus improving environmental sustainability. One of such campaigns is the Look Behind the Label Campaign that was undertaken in 2006. The objective of this campaign was to create awareness among the company’s customers on the efforts that have been undertaken by the Company to promote environmental sustainability and proper consumption ethics. Marks & Spencer Plc has also engaged itself in various initiatives to facilitate environmental sustainability in relation to its operations. One of these initiatives is the Plan A initiative that was undertaken in 2007. This initiative was planned for five years, specifically indicating the company’s commitment in over 100 environmental sustainable activities at a cost of 200 million British Pounds (Collier, 2010). These commitments were guided by five major themes superficially: Fair-trade Operational Partnerships; climate change; waste management; sustainability in outsourcing and utilization of raw materials as well as health issues. The Company has also engaged in various Community Charity Works; it has undertaken this initiative through selling various women’s charitable clothing to facilitate fighting breast cancer. One its stores, the Ashbourne facilitated the collection of 2000 British Pounds to support the services of the Derbyshire Hospital through purchasing an ECG Machine to be used in the hospital. Another Charity work that the company has undertaken is the Clothes Recycling Programs that was launched in the year 2011. This program ensures that clothes collected are supplied to hospitals and children’s orphanage. In regard to marketing, the Company has made a unique marketing Logo that has seen its success from 2010. It rebranded its marketing Logo as the Marks & Spencer from the St. Michael’s. The Marks and Spencer Logo usually appears in every packaging product used by the Company. On the other hand, the St. Michael’s has been used as a quality mark at the bottom of every packaging product. This has increased the company’s competitive advantage by increasing the level of the loyalty of its clients. Certain decisions related to management within the Company’s marketing team have also facilitated the success of the company tremendous for instance: The hiring of Steve Sharp to take the position of the Marketing Director in 2004. He introduced an effective marketing strategy that led to increased consumer awareness as well as their loyalty. Specifically, he introduced a new brand for promotion in marketing banners using the label Your M & S. This has been used in combination with the Company’s Logo in various marketing platforms i.e. online media, television et cetera (Collier, 2010). Another strategic choice that has been made by the Company is directly related to its marketing strategies and campaigns. Since the early 1950’s Marks & Spencer Multi-National Retailer Company has produced its own magazines and various ads of its products and services. It has also employed the use of famous personality like Ryan Reynolds to be the face of its adverts hence attracting a wide range of clientele. Moreover, redesigning of the Company’s Stores outlook has been described as one of the most pertinent strategic choice made by the Company. One of its designs is the Brighter Look that entails expanding the spaces of stores, use of appropriate lighting, use of modern goods shelves, new carpets cetera. Relationship between the Strategic Choice and the Strategic Position of the Marks & Spencer Plc It is apparent that there is a great relationship between the strategic choice of a company and its strategic position. The strategic choice of most companies is usually the guidelines by, which the strategic choices are made. The Marks & Spencer Plc is one of the Multi-national companies that have exhibited a great sense of relationship on its strategic choice and the strategic position. To begin with, one of the objectives of the Marks & Spencer Company is to facilitate the provision of quality goods and services as well as to ensure that its operational environments are in proper conditions (Collier, 2010). This is a strategic position that is directly related to the company’s strategic choice that entails placing emphasis on quality. The company employs the use of St. Michael’s as a quality mark hence ensuring its clients of high quality goods. The relationship between the strategic position and the strategic choices in regard to quality issue is evident in the company’s efforts to redesign its stores through increasing operational space, lighting systems, improving carpeting of floors et cetera. This improves the conditions of the operational environments hence indicating a direct relationship with the objective of the company that requires improving the company’s operational environment. The objective of the company to increase its profits through facilitating expansion of the company through opening four express shops within a period of four years; this is related to the company’s strategic choice that entails the expansion and growth of the company various parts of the world. That is, the strategic position of the company that is geared towards expanding the services of the company in various parts of the world has seen it achieve a strategic choice that entails extending its services to other parts of the world (http://corporate.marksandspencer.com, n.d). The mission statement of the company is to ensure that the company becomes one of the largest and most successful Multi-National Companies in the world. This is a strategic position that is directly related to the Company’s strategic position that has seen the company expand its services in various parts of the world making it among the current largest and successful Multi-national Companies. For example; the Company owns a store in Kabul, Afghanistan, Paris, Australia, and the United States, Canada, Israel and other parts of the world. Moreover another essence of relationship between the Company’s strategic position and its strategic choice is evident in regard to the development of its brands. The strategic position of the company is relation to the objective that guides re-branding of its products and services states that the Company shall focus on re-branding and creation of new brand identities for the Company’s products. This strategic position exhibits relationship with the strategic choice that has enabled the company re-design its products and areas of operation. In the year 2004, when a new marketing manager, Steve Sharp, the company made various changes in regard to its brand such as implementing the use of a new Company Logo, the Marks & Spencer, instead of the St. Michael’s Logo. The St. Michael’s Logo is currently used as a quality mark while the Marks & Spencer Logo is used on the packages of various products as well as on advertisement Banners. The Company also operates under six basic principles that guide its operations in various ways. The first principle guides the process of offering high quality products as well as properly designed merchandize (Johnson & Whittington, 2010). This is a strategic position that is related with the re-redesigning various aspects of the company’s products and services such as the use of a new product quality mark as well as the redesigning of the Company’s stores. Another strategic position of the company that has shown a great sense of relationship with its strategic choices is the principle that guides the company to work with suppliers to ensure provision of high quality products. This is related to the strategic choice that is geared towards facilitating high quality service and product provision. Marks & Spencer also operates under a principle that guides it to foster proper human-relations specifically; among employees, between the company and its clients and other stakeholders (Johnson & Whittington, 2010). This is a strategic position that has been achieved through the various initiatives undertaken by the company. For instance; it has engaged in various charity works i.e. donating money to the Derbyshire Hospital. This is a mode of corporate social responsibility that has not only improved the relationship between the company and the entire society, but also its competitive advantage as well as the creation of a positive image among its clients. The principle of creating a proper relationship between the company and its employees as a strategic position is directly related to the strategic choice that has been made by the company to enhance its relationship with employees of different cultural and religious backgrounds. One of these strategic choices entails a policy that was formulated and implemented by the company to allocated powers to Muslim workers in order to allow them refuse the sale of alcoholic and pork products at their tills. However, this policy was highly criticized by certain stakeholders, specifically its competitors. Furthermore, the company’s principle that guides provision of appropriate, comfortable and friendly shopping environment has been achieved by the strategic choice made by company to ensure that company re-designs its operational environment through the program, Brighter Look. This program facilitated the company’s efforts directed towards re-designing its operational systems in various stores i.e. installation of proper lighting system, proper carpeting as well as proper advertisement. On the other hand, the principle of improving operational efficiency among its employees is a strategic position that exhibits a great sense of relationship with the company’s strategic choice that recognizes and respects employee diversity. The company has implemented various policies to guide its modus operandi to ensure that employees are comfortable at their places of work for Instance the Policy that allows Muslim employees to avoid selling pork and alcohol on their tills. Appendices PESTLE analysis of the Marks & Spencer Plc Political Analysis in The Company operates in an environment characterized by various political facets that may affect the rate of its success. For example, the company is likely to be affected by political activities that majorly focus of formulation and implementation of business operational policies. Economic Analysis There are various economic forces that may affect the success of the company in the current competitive business environment. For example, experiencing high rate of competition from already established Multi-national Retailers like the Wal-Mart Company. However, its management team has implemented various modus operandi that effectively counter the effects of these forces. Social Analysis Marks & Spencer has participated in various cooperate social responsibility activities that basically improves its image within the society. Moreover, it has undertaken initiatives that focus on respect of various social factors such as religion. For example, in order to exhibit a sense of recognition of a religious diversity the company formulated rules that facilitate the adherence to Islamic religion. Technological Factors The current society is also characterized by high rates of technological advancements, for example there is high rate of changes associated with technologies applied in marketing for businesses i.e. the use of social media. This scenario compels the Marketing Department of Marks & Spencer Company to undertake a constant update of its marketing technologies to ensure that its keeps at par with other companies. Environmental Factors Environmental issues also affect the success of businesses; environmental degradation and climate change has also affected the success of many companies. However, the Marks & Spencer Company has undertaken various initiatives geared towards improving environmental sustainability for example: Look behind the Label Campaign Legal Factors Issues ascribed to rules and regulations of business guiding the operations of businesses are also factors that affect the success of many retail companies. These rules can be formulated internally and adhered to by the organization’s team. The Marks & Spencer has implemented internal rules i.e. the policy that recognize the right of Muslim workers and other external policies of retail companies operations in order to facilitate its success. Bibliography Brimpton, M. S. 2011. Management: the Marks & Spencer way.. London: McMillan. FALLON, J. 2000, July 14. MARKS & SPENCER TO OPEN OUTLET STORES.. Daily News Record, 3, 4-5. 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