Marks & Spencer's Strategic Landscape in the Post-COVID-19

Introduction

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Brexit situation, the UK local and national market is suffering a lot of highs and lows with uncertainty about business plans by organisations being a master plan or a total waste of time. The organisation chosen to perform this task is Marks & Spencer which is a well-known and popular UK retail brand for this report. The report consists of a SWOT and PESTLE analysis of Marks and Spencer followed by a brief discussion based on these analyses. From various types of leaderships, an appropriate leadership style will be suggested. The CSR in current market environment will be evidenced with an overall reflection depending upon the report will be furnished. If you are seeking the most comprehensive insights and guidance in navigating through such complex business landscapes, seeking business dissertation help can be very valuable.

1. SWOT and PESTEL analysis of Marks & Spencer

SWOT Analysis of Marks & Spencer

2. Evaluating how the change in PESTEL factors has influenced the Opportunities and Threats of the business of Marks & Spencer. Critically commenting on how the company is using their Strengths to negate Threats and Weaknesses affecting their Opportunities.

In the above analysis, the PESTLE factors of the UK government, society and Marks & Spencer which impacts the business opportunities and threats of Marks & Spencer both positively and negatively.

As highlighted in the SWOT analysis, the strengths are already there to help and improve the business growth of M&S and in addition to that the political factor of free trading policies has been a blessing for M&S (M&S EST.1884, 2020). The UK free trading policies reduced the import of foreign goods and items for M&S helping to gain good profits. However the occasional product pricing conflicts of the products can cause obstruction in this (Fern Fort University, 2020). Despite all these, the free trading of foreign goods has created good trading relationships of M&S with multitude of other countries.

According to Buchanan and Huczynski (2019), the customer and buyer range of people of UK are very much welcoming and broad natured which gave M&S an easy and quick entry to the market despite having tough competition with other big brands like Tesco, Sainsbury, Walmart and etc. M&S also got a massive chance to stand strong in the UK market because of the ready-to-eat meals that people in recent days are more likely to prefer and which M&S offers its customers at all of their stores as well as on their online websites also with good quality items.

The use of latest technology such as the AI technology facilitated M&S with great chances and opportunities to establish its roots in the UK market. M&S recently changed their payment counter and set up self-checkout points and payment system which is liked by customers (Chiarini et al. 2017).

UK’s legal matters like environment safety laws, health and protection laws and many more has given restrictions sometimes but the Green Policy established by M&S on their own also gave them a separate respect and boosted their corporate social responsibilities (MBA Skool, 2019).

M&S can remove and negate their threats with strengths which are developed from their weaknesses and can provide opportunities of continuous growth.

* The recently found sales decline of M&S as presented by the 2019 yearly reports can be removed if M&S focus on reshaping and re-planning of their demand and supply chain of products as they did in their clothing sections only (S&P SWOT & PESTLE.com, 2020).

* M&S can remove and clear all those negative imaging and controversies of M&S regarding their introduction of the uniform Hijab in UK and other matters that rose with the passing time and growing competition (Marketing Tutor, 2020).

3. Comparing and contrasting the different styles of leadership. Commenting if the leadership style is appropriate for Marks & Spencer

Pietsch and Tulowitzki (2017) stated that every leadership style is not fit for every business organisation, the leadership style refers to a leader’s methods and behaviours when directing, motivating, and managing other team members. The leaders choose a definite leadership style according to the organisation type and workforce pattern.

Some of the most prominent leadership styles are like:

4. Recommending a suitable leadership style that will help them grow and overcome the challenges posed by the business environment

The workforce culture and business environment of Marks & Spencer is such a type where each and every employee and worker is given their own place, freedom and authority to share what they thin and also is allowed to contribute in the company decisions, although the final decisions were taken by the management itself (Veliu et al. 2017).

The Transformational leadership style, from all the above discussed style, will be appropriate and work well in the business environment of Marks and Spencer. This leadership style is the most effective and highly encouraging when it comes to handling and managing teams and individuals in a business organisation to make them according to the company requirements (Dhamija etv al. 2021). Companies like Marks and Spencer where there is a huge workforce, this leadership style make them growing minded by motivating them constantly by identifying and making them aware of their capabilities to be much more efficient from their current capabilities. As noted by Wikaningrum and Yuniawan (2018), the challenge comes when there is lack of receiving of the right kind of coaching and guiding while employee transformation from their existing capabilities towards growing some new strengths for handling the responsibilities adhered to them. Despite having such risks and challenges, in case of Marks & Spencer, the Transformational leadership style is appropriate and will work best as per their organisational culture and workforce type.

5. Critically commenting on M&S’s Corporate Social Responsibilities in the process using evidences from the research

CSR as suggested by Horowitz (2020) focuses on the environment, society and its well-being and protection. Marks & Spencer have always taken their responsibilities towards their customers, employees, partners, suppliers and local communities with full focus and seriously. Some very noticeable CSR of M&S found are-

Waste Management

Buchanan and Huczynski (2019) stated that M&S introduced their own plans named Plan A which is a five year “eco” plan under which M&S committed to reduce and slowly stop creating excessive and unnecessary waste. They have decided not to send their waste materials to landfill and instead reuse and recycle them to produce the green energy through the 'anaerobic digestion' technique or in simple words composting them (US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, 2020). Some aims of this Plan A are:

To reduce the non-glass packaging by 25% and also using those packaging materials that which are easy to recycle or composting.

To cut the carrier bag usage by 33% and try to make them from the recycled plastic (SpringerOpen, 2019).

To make sure that the customers can eventually dispose all of their clothing without sending it to the landfill.

To give trial to the 'closed loop' recycling method in their Cafe Revives; and

Sustainable Raw Material

The sustainable raw material usage is also the part of Plan A which commits to ensure that all primary raw materials used by M&S must come from the most useful and sustainable sources that are open and available to them (Adnan et a. 2018). This initiatives aims:

To increase the sales of organic food to its retail stores more than other food types.

To use all the recycled plastic in making all the ranges of polyester clothing and home products.

To reduce their water usage and wastage in the UK by 20% and also help their suppliers to reduce theirs; and

To use only those wood that can be recycled or independently certified that it is coming from a sustainable source (M&S EST.1884, 2020).

Environment Protection

Marks & Spencer originated their own Green Policy under which they oath to make as much possible less wastage from their warehouses, stores and other places in UK. This initiative helps customers and suppliers reduce their carbon neutral emissions too (BRAND STORY, 2019). Under this initiative, they aim:

To reduce the energy use by 25% and storing the power with green electricity only offsetting their remaining CO2 emissions.

To develop low carbon products and services, such as energy efficient electrical products.

6. Reflection Report

The research above is mainly focused on the business contexts of Marks and Spencer which is the 2nd largest and popular retail store with a long chain of physical stores in UK and around the globe too. In these current Covid-19 & Brexit situations, each and every business idea is crucial and important because no one knows which plan becomes the master piece and which one will be a foolish piece. Many researchers have pointed out that in this fluctuating market scenario, even the best laid plans can go awry and leaders should account anything and everything in their strategy formulation. So this research aims at strategizing the plans and ideas in such a ways that the business operations can be managed even if the conditions are worse than expected.

This research mainly revealed all the factors of UK that can or will impact and affect the business operations of Marks & Spencer. Politically, M&S is in quite profitable state due to the UK free trading system where they are facilitated to import foreign goods without any cost or taxes and introduces and sell them in the UK market at desirable rates (M&S EST.1884, 2020). It can be found that M&S have used the latest technologies at its best by introducing self-payment system and self-checkout pints in their stores. Various types of negative controversies about Marks and Spencer are present in market and are open to read for everyone still M&S is holding a strong place in between its customers and M&S also gained positive image in their business journey.

These controversial impacts are also removed by all the corporate social responsibilities that M&S have played and is still playing towards the society, its customers, government and the environment (M&S EST.1884, 2020). The Green Policy which Marks and Spencer initiated within their organization for environment protection gives a view of how not only government, common people and legislative people but business organisations can also contribute on their level for making a healthy and pollution-free nature for habituating (Fern Fort University, 2020).

This above research reflects and presents an example that like Marks and Spencer, how they will help other business organisations to give a view of how appropriate leadership style and proper strategised plan can bring out any company from bad to good conditions. If I will get any other chance in future to conduct such research further, I will put more emphasis on other aspect and topic which could help business organisations to make best out from the rest.

Conclusion

The conclusion of this above writing says that Marks and Spencer has great sustainability with the motive to give “value for money” products. M&S recently adapting the latest AI technology introduced self-checkout points and payment system which attracted its customers. From all leadership styles, the Transformational will be the best and appropriate. Some of its CSRs are like Waste Management initiative, Sustainable Raw Material initiative and Environment Protection initiative. The reflection report in the last section furnishes that what can be learned from this research and how this learning can be applied in present scenario and in future too, if needed, by the business organisations.

References

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