Marks & Spencer Case Study
Ryan McLaws
Southern New Hampshire University
Marks & Spencer case study Abstract
The English retailer Marks and Spencer aims to be the most sustainable major global retailer in the world. To expedite this process, they have configured sustainability as one of their core strategies. Marks and Spencer have made a clear commitment: Plan A will measure milestones, timelines and employee accountabilities. The sustainability strategy that is being integrated into every business function and strategic business unit; will involve suppliers, employees and more increasingly customers. (Richardson, Page 98, 2015)
This is a short paper analysis that will examine two potential
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With that the firm began to see declines in sales and realized a need reevaluate their business policies and practices. After much consideration it was decided to implement the sustainability policy that would once again set them apart from their competition. (Richardson, Page 98, 2015)
Given the recent market share problems and competition facing M&S, what are the two highest risks with embarking on a voluntary program of social responsibility at this time?
Financial and Reputation Risk; A firm must make its business decisions and changes that will benefit the environment and society, and guarantee the sustainability of the firm’s projects. In implementing a new program, however, the first risk is the financial impact and bottom line. There is a possibility that without proper project management that the efforts made by the firm will not yield a positive ROI, which in turn add stress to the relationship between the firm’s stakeholders and management. If the funds being funneled into these programs are not allocated wisely, there could be a potential waste of limited resource and reduce the shareholders profit. (Jo & Harito,
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What else is important is developing a strategy. This will help identify the KPI’s and also structure an attack plan to eventually address any issues. (D. Wong; 2011)
Conclusion
In relation to sustainability, more and more this aspect is becoming very important for a company’s bottom line and for them to differentiate themselves from their competition that fails to establish a sustainability program. In a macro sense, it ethically responsible to establish a sustainability program to identify ways that the firm can make a difference globally and reduce their overall expense and
Coles is a large Australian supermarket with many extents of the company. Due to it being such a sizable corporation, the environmental and sustainability problems that come with it can be difficult to manage efficiently. The information that Coles has released demonstrates that they are putting in substantial efforts to try to manage their sustainability and environmental state, but is it as much as they can do? Following is an analysing of Coles’ environmental and sustainability information, which will look into energy, water, waste, products, pollution, transport, education and training, and packaging.
Supplying eco-friendly products has been on the Walmart agenda since the early 1990s. After a failed first attempt and much criticism, the company decided to try again. In a speech made in October of 2005, CEO of Walmart, H. Lee Scott Jr., declared Walmart would devise a “business sustainable strategy” to reduce the environmental impact the company had. Walmart could not pull this off alone. If they only focused on the confines of themselves, rather than all that they were involved with, it was estimated that they’d only reduce their impact by about 10%. To reach that goal of 100%, Walmart had to involve stakeholders to make networks which achieve sustainability. These networks proved to be vital in not only Walmart’s goal in minimizing its environmental impact, but recovering their reputation, avoiding criticism, saving money, raising awareness, improving customer satisfaction, and creating incentive for other businesses to work towards sustainability.
Wheelen, T. L., & Hunger, J. D. (2010). In Concepts in Strategic Management and Business Policy Achieving Sustainability, Twelfth Edition. Pearson Education.
As part of its discussion of sustainability in that report, Target identified four commitments to sustainability: “sustainable living, sustainable products, smart development, and efficient operations” (Target, 2013, p 13).Sustainability is part of Target’s corporate social responsibility strategy, as demonstrated by ten of its twenty corporate social responsibility goals being bound to sustainability. Two examples of these goals are, “increase ENERGY STAR® certifications” and “reduce waste” (Target, 2015, pp 4-5). As a result, Target introduced its Sustainable Product Index in 2013 “to help establish a common language, definition, and process for qualifying what makes a product more sustainable” (Target,
Zsolnai, L. (2011). Environmental ethics for business sustainability. International Journal of Social Economics, 38(11), 892-899. doi: 10.1108/03068291111171397
Environmental awareness has also become a distinctive competence for Walmart. The company has a genuine concern to reduce their environmental footprint, which will appeal to customers who support this initiative. They are leading the way for other big-box retailers who can make a big difference with small changes. All of their goals and objectives are published in the annual statement for shareholders and the general public.
Business strategy is the means by which firm’s plans to achieve its goals and objectives. It can also be termed as organization long-term planning. The strategy covers periods between 3-5 years and sometimes longer. Businesses use two major types of strategy, general or generic and competitive strategies. The overall strategy involves strategies of growth, globalization and retrenchment. The competitive advantage includes low pricing, product and customer differentiation. We will look at the business strategy used by Marks and Spenser (Cole, 1997). The company is a British multinational located at Westminster London and specializes in clothes and luxurious food products.
This paper critically analyzes Nike company sustainability strategy. Every investor or a group of investors wishes to see the business profitable at the current time as well as having good prospects for future (Werbach, 2009). For this reason, business sustainability strategy is very important. A strategy is a plan that guides the company or a business firm towards a certain direction or set goals. Thus, sustainability strategy is an action plan that a company set in order to maintain the plan toward the achievement of company’s goals in future. Sustainability strategy puts into consideration aspects such as the source of raw materials, competition, human resource development, and sustainability, and the general business environment. Thus, in evaluating a business’ sustainability, it is important to consider the business planning in this direction (Heslin and Ochoa 2008)
Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/asda-food-waste-risk-climate-change [Accessed 23 Jan. 2015]. • LAWSON, A. Analysis: Is Asda’s five-year strategy the right one? In-text: (Lawson, 2013) Bibliography: Lawson, A. (2013). Analysis: Is Asda’s five-year strategy the right one?.
In the case, Marks & Spencer and Zara, it discusses two business process designs that each company took. You first had Marks & Spencer, who had a more traditional approach. Their chain started of with the buying team, design, developers, merchandisers, technologist, suppliers, logistics, and lastly the store. Zara, however, comes up with a new innovative design. With this new design in effect the delivery of new collections only has a lead-time of 5 days. They were able to cut down this time due to the fact that products where mainly produced on Galicia.
This report will investigate the British retailer Marks and Spencer. It will analyse why decision making, planning and goal setting are important to the organisation. Decision making is a process of identifying problems and opportunities then resolving them. Mission planning is the way that organisations aim to achieve their goals. All organisations have goals, these are the reasons that the company exists. Boddy (2005:178) states “A goal is a desired future state for an organisational unit. Goals provide a set of detailed objectives for an organisation’s desired outcomes”. Within this report there is a brief outline and history of Marks and Spencer. It will then look at the missions and goals of the organisation and will go on to critically evaluate planning and decision making processes that the organisation could be using. To conclude it will summarise the findings.
Stuart Hart, in a business article, discusses the tough task for companies to make a sustainable global ec...
Environmental pressures have caused green supply chain management to emerge as an important corporate environmental strategy for organisations’ processes. Our discussion will describe, illustrate and critically evaluate the purchasing process of Woolworths. It will further identify the steps of the purchasing process, the effect of green purchasing and sustainable purchasing. Moreover, the essay will go on to look at the effort that Woolworths has made through their programmes and initiatives of green purchasing.
7). Their definition was as follows: “ It is in the hands of humanity to make development sustainable… to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. (SHRM, 2011, p. 7).” Sustainability is the organization’s commitment to balance financial performance with contributors to the quality of life of employees, society at large, and environmentally sensitive initiatives (SHRM, 2011, p. 2). Workplace sustainability requires observation of the following: work force diversity, environmental impact, bribery and corruption, community involvement, ethical sourcing of goods, human rights, product safety, and product usefulness (Epstein & Roy, 2001, p. 588). Creation of a stable, sustainability culture can support the company’s efforts to reach its long term goals; however, sustainable practices are more often found in medium and large staff-sized organizations, publicly and for-profit companies and multinational companies (SHRM, 2011, p.
Now-a-days it is considered that CSR is one of the major concerns of organization’s business ethics. Companies increasingly increase their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical management accepting the positive impact on the bottom line. The vast bulk of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies publish sustainability reports unfolding their program challenges and achievements. These pre-emptive efforts can pr...