Innovation Management in Marks and Spencer

Introduction

In current times, it has become essential for organisations in the world to undergo the process of innovation for acquiring growth and sustainability in the business market (Bessant and Tidd, 2011). Innovation of products and processes allows the companies to target enhance its customer pool and enhance their operational areas.

Marks and Spencer are one of the most known companies operating in the retail industry of the UK. The organisation was established in the year 1884 and is currently headquartered in London (Pilkington, 2019). Some of the noticeable products that are offered by Marks and Spencer to the customers include fashion apparels, foods and high-quality home products. The organisation operates worldwide and is regarded as one of the topmost organisations operating in the retail sector of the UK.

The purpose of the current report is to explore innovation and its management in Marks and Spencer. The report is presenting the analysis of innovation along with some theories, which support the process for the company. Not only this but, the report also provides some recommendations regarding the digital media strategy that can be considered in Marks and Spencer.

Innovation in Mark and Spencer

Innovation can be explained as the process of transforming a new idea about the product and process development into reality (Bessant and Tidd, 2011). It can be understood that organisations generate new ideas for business, which allow them to bring changes in their products and different business processes. These practices of shaping the ideas into reality are termed as innovation.

It is found that many studies management in Mark and Spencer keenly focuses on improvising its existing approaches to do business and carry out innovation. There are two types of innovations that can be seen in the organisation, which are explained in the following manner.

Product innovation: it refers to the generation of ideas about developing new products and improvising the existing products, which are being offered by Mark and Spencer to the customers (Tidd and Bessant, 2009). It is found in the study that managers in the organisation focus on enhancing the communication between the employees to generate new ideas and creativity. The study reveals the collaboration between the employees of different departments such as marketing, research and development and many others results in the generation of new business ideas which may provide exceptional growth to the company.

Process innovation: Similar to that of product innovation in Mark and Spencer, process innovation is also carried out. However, this type of innovation is for internal use only in which new business processes are developed or improvised; but, it is highly effective in enhancing the excellence of Mark and Spencer in the UK (Chaney, 2009). Process innovation is considered for production technologies, marketing, research and development, administration and many other processes in the organisation.

It is found in the study that managers in Mark and Spencer consider 50-10-2 strategy for executing the activities related to innovation. In this strategy, it is essential for the employees in the research and development department to present minimum of 50 ideas for innovating the products and processes of the company (M&S, 2019). Further, out of these 50 ideas only 10 will be considered as the projects in Mark and Spencer and 2 ideas are likely to result in success. It can be understood that although the organisation does not transform all the ideas for innovating the products and processes into reality; but, it keenly focuses on developing the ideas. This way, approaches of continuous innovation can be seen in Mark and Spencer.

Identification of the challenges corresponding to different business process is one of the most noticeable activities in the company, which triggers the innovation. There are many studies, which suggest that employees of the different department in Mark and Spencer are allowed to share their experiences, which results in understanding about the challenges being faced by the as well as the potential innovative solutions to mitigate them (M&S, 2019). Approaches considered by the organisation for innovation are highly effective in meeting the business objective in Mark and Spencer. Generation of new products and processes through innovation allow the company to increase its offerings to the customer and attract them. This is how more business opportunities can be targeted by through innovation management in Mark and Spencer.

Theories to manage innovation within Marks and Spencer

Innovation carried out in Marks and Spencer can be supported with several theories and frameworks, which are given below.

Critical and creative thinking

This is a framework, comprising of several activities, which help foster innovation in Marks and Spencer. These activities are explained in the following manner.

Creation of innovation ambition

In this process, the managers in Marks and Spencer need to determine how innovation and creativity should be fostered. For this purpose, new and creative ideas are generated corresponding to different requirements (Nagji and Tuff, 2012). Along with this, ambitions are also set in the company, which provide the direction in which creativity should progress. Therefore, the use of ambition matrix is observable in Marks and Spencer, in which objectives are set based on their priority.

Maintaining the right balance

Further, it is also necessary for the managers in Marks and Spencer to ensure that the new ideas generated for creativity and innovation are meeting the requirements of the company. For this purpose, these ideas are required to be mapped against the objectives, which have been set for organisational growth (Nagji and Tuff, 2012). Along with this, management within the company also evaluates the percentage given to the innovation activity to maintain a balance of the processes in Marks and Spencer. These activities help in understanding the requirements of innovation in a different department.

Management of total innovation system

It is another activity in the framework, which allow the managers in Marks and Spencer to focus on different aspects related to innovation. These may include the talent and skills of the employees to carry out innovation and integration. It can be analysed that innovation activities cannot be managed effectively in organisations if employees will be lacking adequate skills and cannot integrate the approaches (Nagji and Tuff, 2012). Along with this, funding is also a crucial part of managing innovation system because researches and their implementation require funding in Marks and Spencer.

Moving forward

This is the stage of commercial implementation of the ideas developed for innovation and creativity in organisations. Marks and Spencer need to look for the ways through which innovative products and processes may bring competitiveness to the business (Nagji and Tuff, 2012). Clear messaging for the development of the new products and other activities are accomplished in this stage.

This theory is effective in analysing consumer behaviour and the ways it presents the requirement of innovation for the companies. According to the neuroscientific theory of innovation, consumer behaviour towards an organisation may indicate the nature of the innovation that should be carried out (Pilkington, 2019). It is found in many studies that consumers show interests in the products offered by an organisation only when they find them highly innovative and appealing. For this reason, it becomes essential to the research and develops teams in Marks and Spencer to consider the consumer's perspectives while creating new ideas for innovation.

According to this theory, managers in Marks and Spencer are required to carry out the research in which prefer abilities of the consumers are explored. Based on the research, ideas for innovation should be developed. This way, the probability of success for the organisation to target success in the business market can be enhanced (Pilkington, 2019). It can be analysed that neuroscience theory of innovation sheds light on the customer orientation while carrying out the innovation. As a result, the process and products developed by Marks and Spencer may allow the organisation to meet the customers’ expectations and target success and achievability.

Recommended digital media strategy for Marks and Spencer

It is found in many studies that the business of Marks and Spencer is mostly dependent upon the sale of its products and services to the customer in the business markets (Faull, 2019). For this reason, the company needs to consider an innovative strategy, which may boost up the sale of the products and allow the company to target more customers. Digital media strategy can be much effective for these purposes, which is described in the following manner.

Its current times, digital media has acquired a significant place in the lives of the people. Most of the customers targeted by Marks and Spencer prefer spending time on digital platforms such as online social media and many others. For this reason, the organisation is required to formulate the business strategy in which digital media is highly used (Faull, 2019). It can be said that promotion and sale of the products offered by Marks and Spencer through mobile phones, social media and many other digital media platforms can be much influential and effective in targeting its business objectives and implementing digital innovation.

Considering the real-time example corresponding to the digital marketing strategy considered in Marks and Spencer, it can be said that in the year 2018 the organisation launched a programme named “Must Have” (M&S, 2019). The programme was entirely focused on the sale of the products through digital media including internet, mobile phones, social media and many others. Along with this, there were many other digital media channels, which were considered by the management in Marks and Spencer. These channels include Google Advertising, Instagram, VOD and many more. The organisation considered selling apparels, home products as well as the food products through the digital media campaign.

Further, it was also observed that the “Must Have” programme was considered highly innovative by the business analysts. The organisation significantly raised in excellence in targeting customers in the business markets of the UK. It was observed that more than 3 million customers were targeted in just 4 hours due to the “Must Have” campaign of Marks and Spencer in the country (Faull, 2019). Not only this but, the digital marketing strategy also enhanced the responses given by the customers to the company. Google Advertisement and Instagram were found the most influencing ways in the digital marketing strategy considered by Marks and Spencer for targeting the customers and acquiring their responses.

It is also found in the study that before the launch of the digital marketing strategy, Marks and Spencer was facing the issues of low customer response and sales. This is because the customers being targeted by the company were not aware of the new products and processes due to which they are less responsive (M&S, 2019). Not only this but, the organisation also focused on the marketing of its top-rated products through the “Must Have” campaign. As a result, an increase in the hourly calls was observed in Marks and Spencer. This way, process innovation was considered by the company in the “Must Have” campaign, which resulted in huge success to the company. For this reason, it can be recommended to the organisation to target more customers by considering Facebook and other social media channels in its digital marketing strategy “Must have” (Faull, 2019). This is because; the study shows that there were over 39 million users of Facebook in the UK in the year 2018, which was higher than that of Instagram.

It can be concluded from the above report that innovation is one of the most noticeable processes in Marks and Spencer in current times, which has allowed the organisation to target grand success in the business markets. Two types of innovation are considered in Marks and Spencer, which include product and process innovation. Further, it is found that the organisation follows 50-10-2 strategy for carrying out innovation to target the customers. Along with this, several theories and frameworks related to innovation are also followed in Marks and Spencer, which include critical and creative thinking and neuro-scientific theory. A digital marketing strategy can be recommended to the organisation in which the managers can consider Facebook as a prominent tool to bring success to the “Must Have” campaign.

References

Bessant, J and Tidd , J. (2011) Innovation and Entrepreneurship. 2nd edition. Chichester. Wiley and Sons.

Chaney, P (2009) The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow your Business Using Social Media, Wiley. New York.

Faull, J. (2019). M&S boss: shift to product marketing ‘the right decision’ but wider business must catch up. [online] The Drum. Available at:

M&S (2019). M&S LAUNCHES MOST DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN TO DATE: “MUST-HAVES”. [online] M&S LAUNCHES MOST DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN TO DATE: “MUST-HAVES”. Available at:

M&S (2019). THINK INNOVATION: How we’re encouraging innovation across M&S’. [online] THINK INNOVATION: How we’re encouraging innovation across M&S’. Available at:

Nagji, B. and Tuff, Geoff (2012) ‘Managing your innovation portfolio’. Harvard Business Review. 90(5) pp66-74.

Pilkington, M. (2019). Retail Therapy: Why The Retail Industry Is Broken – And What Can Be Done To Fix It. UK: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Tidd, J and Bessant, J (2009) Managing Innovation: Integrating technological, market and organisational change. Wiley and Sons. Chichester.

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