Management failure at Marks and Spencer.

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Contents

I. Introduction 2

II. Perspectives on management failure 2

III. External factors at M&S 4

IV. Internal factors at M&S 6

V. Discussion 8

VI. Conclusion 10

Appendix 12

References 14

Management failure at Marks and Spencer

I. Introduction

For over a century Marks and Spencer (M&S) has been regarded by many as a legendary retailing organisation. Both M&S's management style and its individual leaders have been acknowledged as exemplars of 'best practise' (Mellahi et al, 2002). Peter Drucker (1974) described M&S as a 'managerial giant in the western world'. Tse (1985) noted that M&S 'has been widely recognised as one of the best managed companies in Europe ... as far as management excellence of the firm is concerned, with the consensus being almost total in the trade, as well as in government and specialist circles'.

However, since 1998, the situation had somewhat altered, and the company began to experience a decline in its sales, profits and market share. Its once legendary reputation has been reduced at both home and abroad, where for example it has been fined by the French courts and severely