...Introduction The aim of this assignment is to understand and explore the main principles of the way Marks and Spencer’s operates. In the assignment I will be examine the strengths and weaknesses of the company, however the most critical issues which will be covered in the essay is the leadership and management style and corporate culture of Marks and Spencer’s. Furthermore I will analyse to what extent o regard leadership and management style as the key factors in accounting for Marks and Spencer’s relative underperformance over the last 20 years. Explain 5 strengths and 5 weaknesses of Marks and Spencer’s Referring back to the case study, we can see that Marks and Spencer have a very well known recognition of their brand, which links to quality. In the late 1880’s the company introduced the ‘St Michael’ logo as a sign of quality. With the brand linked to quality has helped the company build loyalty with their customers as they always ensure that their products are consistent and of high quality. This has of course helped Marks and Spencer gain rewards in terms of profit. Another strength which the company comprise is the good reputation of customer service. Marks and Spencer’s tend to focus a lot on their customer services; with one of their fundamental principles was to ‘provide friendly, helpful service and greater shopping comfort and convenience to customers’ Marks and Spencer’s assistants all carried tape measures to assure a good fit and also exchanging and refunding...
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...Literature Review History and Culture It was very common to read about Marks and Spencer as ‘one of the best managed and admired businesses in the world’ (Mellahi et al 2002). The company had enjoyed a great success in the retail sector. Marks and Spencer commenced its business activity in Leeds in the late 19th century, as a family-run shop, with strong values. Since then and for many years after, it became popular for its alternative way of business, in comparison to other British retailers (Mellahi et al 2002). It established a good relationship with customers based on loyalty and trust. The firm also gained high respect from the British people; it was considered the biggest corporate charity donor within the UK (Mellahi et al 2002). Not only consumers, but staff and shareholders could share this great success. According to Wallop (2012) the company has been the most important British clothing retailer for decades, and also the first retailer in the UK to publish annual profits of £ 1bn. Lately Marks and Spencer has undergone a difficult period. The latest management changes have once again disrupted stability. In July 2012, M&S announced widespread changes across the company, including a new head of general merchandise, style director and a new head of food. A number of external and internal factors explain these changes. External Factors Consumer spending & Competition External factors can be described as things affecting the company beyond its control....
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...1.) Why are M&S in this predicament? The Report begins with an executive summary in order to explain the Situation of Marks & Spencer hence it follows an analysis of their predicament. Marks & Spencer was founded in 1894. In 1926 M&S is floated on the London stock exchange. They became more international in the year of 1973 with their first overseas store in Canada and in 1975 they build up stores in Paris and Brussel. In the year 1997 M&S profits exceeded £1billion. Finally Marks & Spencer became an international company, which spread through Europe, North America and Asia. The product portfolio of M&S comprises a whole range of clothing, footwear, gifts, house appliances, and food. As of the 1990s more competitors appear to the clothing market and M&S loses market shares. Competitors like Zara, The Gap or H&M were trend oriented, innovative and were able to sell their products at a very low price. In the autumn of 1998 British retailing descended into a sudden recession. In contrast to the first recession M&S did not come through unscathed. This recession due to more trouble in sales and profits reduced dramatically. Moreover M&S operated on the basis of two clothing collections per year. They need nine month ahead of the season in order to place their products to the market. According to the rivals The Gap, Zara or H&M, which had 14 season per year with stock changes every three weeks. M&S was not anymore in the position to supply their products at the right place and at...
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...Clothing Market of M&S 3 2.3 The Rationale: Why does HRM Contribute to Increasing Competitiveness? 4 3 Analysis of Current Situation 5 4. Respond to the HRM Weakness 9 5. Evaluation on HRM Approach Implemented by M&S 10 6. Conclusion 11 References 12 1.Introduction In recent business environment, competition has become a core issue due to its crucial impacts on company development in terms of market and profits. This dissertation will introduce proper and effective strategies to overcome the problems so that the company would be turned into higher competitive stance. Additionally, this article aims to analyze the competitive environment from both internal and external of Marks and Spencer plc (M&S), to evaluate the reasons why it has gone wrong ever since 1997 and to identify how the changes of human resources management could help M&S sharpen its competitive edge. This paper is divided into four parts. The first part focuses on the background M&S has been facing ever since 1997 that the company is suffering from a great crisis. The current situation is analyzed in the second part by using the SWOT model to examine the positions and environment of M&S. The third part emphasizes on discussing the human resources management policies that M&S used to respond the weakness discussion during the SWOT analysis. The final part aims to evaluate the HRM responds policy and illustrate the good effects and drawbacks the changes...
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...aplomb. The foundation upon which the whole business has rested since its inception in 1884 was in its initial form, involved selling carefully chosen, good quality goods with low margins, and achieving volume sales (relatively speaking, at least) through Michael Marks' Penny Bazaars in the North West of England. This strategy was overwhelmingly successful, and continued to be the central tenet of M&S strategy for many years. M&S sailed through the depression and several recessions, but at the end of the 1990's something went severely wrong. Profits were falling year on year and the footfall in the stores was lower than it had been for several years. From the year of 1991 to 1998 it started to regain its profit again. But from 1999 the situation started to worsen again. This report sets out many of the reasons for that failure then concludes by suggesting and evaluating the strategic options open to the organization going forward. The report concludes that drawing on the substantial capital resources of M&S, brand and product development are the appropriate measures to take in order to put M&S back on the retail map. 1|Page Part 02 Strategic Profile and Case Analysis Purpose Strategic Profile The case study provided several descriptions on the basic elements of the company. It has been described as a company that adheres to top-down management approach compounded by the close supervision provided by its former CEO. This has worked well with the company for several...
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...CASE STUDY Hennes & Mauritz, the leading Swedish clothing retailer and Sweden’s third biggest company, is attempting to become a world scale organisation. Expansion has already been successful in Europe, with 1010 of its 1134 stores located in 22 countries other than Sweden. The first steps to Internationalisation were taken in 1976 when a UK store was opened, followed by entry to Germany in 1980. Germany has been an especially successful market, becoming H&M’s most important market in 1995. Although H&M’s share of the German market is small, the low-priced, well-designed, value-for-money fashion lines are nevertheless popular and a store expansion programme is still underway. Sales outside Sweden generate 90% of turnover and that figure is likely to rise as more stores are added. In 2005, around 150 new stores were opened, mainly in Germany, France, Spain, Poland Italy and the USA, all following the same retail format. H&M normally opens its first store in a country in the largest population centre and then expands out to smaller centres. (http://www.hm.com) Some fashion retailers such as H&M and Zara attempt to achieve a competitive advantage by cutting the lead times involved in getting garments from the drawing board to the retail outlets. Some pioneers of this so called ‘fast fashion’ can get lead time down to as little as 14 days. This can be achieved through a high degree of vertical integration and the adoption of relationship marketing principles within...
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...Improvement, we study tools and cases that allow us to analyze, improve and design internal firm activities. In the second part, Supply Chain Management, we turn our attention to entities external to the firm and examine the activities of sourcing raw materials and delivering goods to consumers. The components are detailed below: Part I: Business Process Analysis and Improvement. We begin our study of business processes by first playing the “Lego” game. Through this exercise, we will have an overview of a simple assembly line as well as the fundamental concepts in process management, such as capacity, bottleneck, etc. Then, we study how to analyze the operational process using the case “Kristen´s Cookie Company” and further evaluate the financial value of operational improvement. In the following sessions, we will introduce Toyota production system as well as it implication in service context. We will also study the tools of quality management. We finally study the operations strategy and the product-process matrix using “Shouldice” case. Part II: Supply Chain Management: In this part, we turn our attention to the interfaces between an organization and its external environment, more specifically, to the management of relationships with partners and customers. We begin with the newsvendor model, a key tool which helps capture the trade-offs in matching supply with demand. Then, we study the coordination among supply chain partners using the case “Bose”. We will...
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...This case deals with the ethical dilemma that Tobacco manufactures face when selling tobacco products in third world countries. First, there is the ethical dilemma of business versus health. The opening and development of the tobacco business in Third World countries like China, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Africa, is considered against the health consequences of tobacco use which according to an Oxford University epidemiologist, has estimated to cost 3 million lives annually rising to 10 million by 2050 without effective tobacco control program A second ethical dilemma is employment versus impoverishment, where the opportunities for work in the tobacco industry are considered against a background of malnutrition. This is a problem that is certainly worth consideration, but with those who have the power to change things reaping huge profits, I am not sure if anything will be done. 1. Use the model in Exhibit 1 as a guide and assess the ethical and social responsibility implications of the situation described Exhibit 1 is a decision tree. A model for incorporating ethical and social responsibility issues into multinational business decisions. The decisions are decided by the users’ responses to a number of relevant questions regarding the matter at hand. The first question the model asks is whether the decision efficiently optimizes the common good or benefits of the business firm, society, the economy, and the individual. From the tobacco business standpoint, the answer...
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...Case Study – Zara Abstract The competition of current clothing industry is very fierce and Zara has many competitive advantages in this competition. This paper will analyze on about how the information technology help Zara to make decisions and make their performance more speed. First, a case review from Harvard Business Review will be covered in the introduction to show an overview of current Zara’s business model. Second is the Michael Porter’s model analysis based on Zara that including three generic strategies and five forces. Third, some of IT applications are really help the Zara to make their business more efficient, the applications will be applied in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) will emphasize a speed supply chain for Zara, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Finally is about the relationship between Zara and Peter Drucker’s theory, Zara and Andrew McAfee’s theory, Zara and Hey’s theory. The last part will conclude where is Zara today and make brief recommendations. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Zara and Michael Porter’s Model 5 Generic Competitive Strategies Analysis for Zara 5 Five Forces Analysis for Zara 6 Suppliers Bargaining Power 6 Buyer Bargaining Power 7 Threat of New Entrants 7 Threat of Substitute 8 Industrial Competitors 9 The Value Chain of Zara 10 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) 11 Supply Chain Management (SCM) 11 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 13 Zara and...
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...European Planning Studies, Vol. 10, No. 4, 2002 RESEARCH BRIEFING The Fashion Industry in Galicia: Understanding the ‘Zara’ Phenomenon ARTURO REVILLA BONNIN ABSTRACT Galicia is traditionally one of the weaker regional economies in Spain. However it is home to one of the most successful global marketing phenomena of the age. Zara, the mid-market fashion arm of the Galician INDITEX Group, is amongst the ‘culprits’ that have been blamed for the demise from high street hegemony of such European retail notables as C&A, Littlewoods and Marks & Spencer. In this paper an analysis is provided of the mechanisms by which this peripheral region has succeeded in producing, from virtually nothing, a globally outstanding retail fashion industry in one of the world’s most cutthroat competitive industries. It is shown that regional, national and supra-national factors have had important parts to play, but that the Galician approach is nevertheless unique, compared to that of other fashion clothing regions. Among the special features at play are high levels of tacit and codi ed knowledge exploitation, integrated design, production and retailing and advanced retail feedback technology that enables anticipation of customer preference. 1. Introduction The fashion industry in Galicia presents different characteristics from that in the rest of Spain. Until the end of the 1970s, the Spanish textile industry was highly protected, oriented mainly towards domestic markets and with a very restricted...
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...Primark is one of UK’s largest clothing retail stores with a reported revenues of £4,273 million, the store was first established in Ireland in 1969. Over the past ten years Primark has become extremely successful with its expansions into the United Kingdom where 165 stores are now available and more than 250 stores around Europe (Wood 2014). Earlier this year, Primark’s parent company announced its intention to enter the US market with a first store opening in Boston MA in 2015, the opening will be shortly followed by another ten new stores across the country (smith 2014). This can be a risky strategy as the shift towards a more globalised market means companies who have been successful in their home market (such as Primark) will find themselves competing with foreign businesses which are much bigger and more successful. However, International expansion offers businesses the opportunity to become recognised on a global scale, for example, companies such as Coco Cola, McDonalds and Microsoft could not have achieved global leadership within their industry without expanding abroad, therefore International expansion offers international reputation which is necessary when wanting to become a leader. Internationalization Theory The Uppsala model (a.k.a the Stage Model) is an important theory that explains how firms expand abroad, under this model, internationalization is seen as an incremental process whereby firms increase their international involvement in a stepwise manner...
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...STRATEGY 2015 Articles | Books & Chapters | Cases | Core Curriculum Course Modules | Simulations | Video Harvard Business Publishing serves the finest learning institutions worldwide with a comprehensive catalog of case studies, journal articles, books, and elearning programs, including online courses and simulations. In addition to material from Harvard Business School and Harvard Business Review, we also offer course material from these renowned institutions and publications: ABCC at Nanyang Tech University Babson College Berrett-Koehler Publishers Business Enterprise Trust Business Expert Press Business Horizons California Management Review Crimson Group USA Darden School of Business Design Management Institute European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) Haas School of Business Harvard Kennedy School of Government Harvard Medical School/Global Health Delivery HEC Montréal Centre for Case Studies IESE Business School Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Indian School of Business INSEAD International Institute for Management Development (IMD) Ivey Publishing Journal of Information Technology Kellogg School of Management McGraw-Hill MIT Sloan Management Review North American Case Research Association (NACRA) Perseus Books Princeton University Press Rotman Magazine Social Enterprise Knowledge Network Stanford...
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...higher quality expected as well as the extensive research and documentation required for government contracts. If a part fails to perform correctly it can cause minor glitches as well as problems that can carry serious repercussions, such as in the National Semiconductor case. When both the culpable component and company are found, the question arises of how extensive these repercussions should be. Is the company as an entity liable or do you look into individual employees within that company? From an ethical perspective one would have to look at the mitigating factors of both the employees and their superiors along with the role of others in the failure of these components. Next you would have to analyze the final ruling from a corporate perspective and then we must examine the macro issue of corporate responsibility in order to attempt to find a resolution for cases like these. The first mitigating factor involved in the National Semiconductor case is the uncertainty, on the part of the employees, on the duties that they were assigned. It is plausible that during the testing procedure, an employee couldnt distinguish which parts they were to test under government standards and commercial standards. In some cases they might have even been misinformed on the final consumers of the products that they tested. In fact, ignorance on the part of the employees would fully excuse them from any moral responsibility for any damage that may result from their work. Whether it is decided that...
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...perform idealised gender/class identities women and men must buy cheap fashion items from primark and H&M, which are produced by low-paid factory female workers exploited by working on less than minimum wage.. This I believe is a fair starting point for any gender/class analysis of the power relations through which global commodity chains are structured. Not to mention elements of race and imperialist (as well as neo-imperialist) attempts to control and manipulate international trade links and destroy industrial sectors of poorer countries. The rise of the export-oriented Garment industry has been a major result of trade liberalisation in Bangladesh. Major Oxford street retailers including Wal-Mart, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, H&M, Zara, Carrefour, Gap, Primark, Marks & Spencer, you name it, all import clothes in bulk from Bangladesh, in return for some of the lowest labour costs in the world, often below minimum wage, if they are paid at all. The pressure to supply mass produced garments to foreign buyers via cheap labour is even higher during times of global economic crisis when prices on the international market are falling. Yet, the bad image these retailer chains have received through many ethical consumption boycott campaigns does not always portray the full picture of this very complex issue. Following my meeting with major buyers based here in Dhaka, I have learned that both Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s have commitments (tho not sufficient),...
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...sThe current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-4093.htm Effectiveness and efficiency: the role of demand chain management David Walters University of Western Sydney, Parramatta, Australia Abstract Purpose – The paper aims to focus on and discuss the differences between the demand chain led organization and the supply chain led organization. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a desk-based approach to data collection and provides analysis and discussion of the issues. Findings – The paper finds that the differences between the demand chain led organization and the supply chain led organization are ones of emphasis. Supply management is cost-led and attempts to provide an adequate level of service. By contrast the demand chain approach is a broader view of relationship management taking a view that the two overlap and that effective management is to integrate the two. Originality/value – The paper focuses on the increasing importance of demand chain and supply chain management decisions. Keywords Supply chain management, Cost effectiveness Paper type Research paper The role of demand chain management 75 A glance at today’s financial pages suggests that it is those firms that consistently and persistently manage their cost structures that are seen as the achievers. There also appears to be a popular notion that an effective supply chain alone will ensure adequate customer satisfaction through reducing costs,...
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