OUR VISION
“To help make our society a healthier and safer place in which to live and work, and to provide equal opportunities for all.”
Being a good corporate citizen and investing in communities is an integral part of the way we have always done business. By actively supporting the community, and being socially responsible, we are bringing real benefits to our customers, employees, shareholders, business partners and voluntary and charity organisations.
Their vision shows what Marks and Spencer want as a company.
The main aim of Marks and Spencer is - TO KEEP THE GROWTH OF SALES
Marks and Spencer have to keep the growth of sales in order to be successful. By doing this Marks and Spencer will be able to meet its other objectives.
The three main objectives are:
Marks and Spencer are known for their high quality products and their customer service. Their reputation is known both by its customers and within the market. Their reputation of high quality products has enabled them to become one of the leaders in foods and retail. Much of this reputation has been achieved through the quality production of Marks and Spencer brand products. The reputation of the company is very inflectional to the success of a business as the way in which its customers perceive the company will influence their sales. Marks and Spencer’s reputation of high quality and reliable products has encouraged customers to choose Marks and Spencer products and services rather than rivals. The high quality products are maintained through high quality control standards and have already set high standards for themselves. In order to keep the reputation already created by the company, they have to ensure that their products are made to their highest standard. They also provide good customer service and have a customer service desk in every store. Customer service is also enhanced by Marks and Spencer’s ability to effectively communicate with its customers. There is a variety of ways in which Marks and Spencer’s communicates with its customers. This enables Marks and Spencer to learn about their needs and ensure that the products they provide meet with these needs. But they can still continue to going on and providing better services to customers.
I think that Marks and Spencer’s is meeting this particular objective because they sell high quality products and have a good reputation in the community for selling products of a high standard.
These are the unique fundamental strengths of Marks and Spencer.
- 100% Own Brand
- Command Of Supply Chain
- Scale and Authority
- Focus On Superior Quality And Innovation
- Assisted Self Selection
- Underpinned And Executed Through The Talent And Capability Of Our People
These strengths have also helped the business create a good reputation.
- To establish an appropriate capital structure to deliver shareholder value
Marks and Spencer have to establish an appropriate capital structure in order to keep their shareholders happy. They also have to meet shareholder demand and have to be able to show shareholder that the business is making a profit, because the higher the profit the business make the higher the dividend the shareholder will receive.
The 2 million pound return to shareholders this year has shown that Marks and Spencer is meeting this objective. This year Marks and Spencer have returned a total of 2 million to all the shareholders. This has shown that the business has made a large profit and has also kept the shareholders happy.
- To stop non-core loss making
Marks and Spencer have to stop activities and roles that the business does not need to be wasting money on. Just recently Marks and Spencer restructured their structure. For the company this meant this meant that it was a lot easier for the business to communicate with each other and this also saved costs of hiring employees that were not needed any longer.
Marks and Spencer employee objectives
Marks and Spencer have five aims that the employees at Marks and Spencer should follow. They have adopted these rules to improve the ways of working.
Employees are encouraged to ‘Think customer’ as they will be more motivated in.
E3 - Organisational Functions
All businesses need to carry out a wide range of functions. Each of the factors below plays a part in the running of the Marks and Spencer.
FUNCTIONS OF A BUSINESS
FINANCE PRODUCTION HUMAN MARKETING ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH
RESOURCES AND
DEVELOPMENT
Marks and Spencer is a service and have more emphasis on the consumer service and marketing functions, but also focus on all the other functions as well.
Finance
Marks and Spencer have a separate department that deals with the financial side of the business.
Finance involves managing the business and the management of the money involved in the business. In order for the business to achieve its objectives such as enough day-to-day funds. Also, controlling costs can help increase profits, and a better accounting department may help raise profits.
There are two main subdivisions of the finance and accounts department of Marks and Spencer.
The Finance and Accounts department
Financial Accounting Function Management Accounting Function
The financial accounting function keeps a record of financial events. They keep account of all the money that has been paid to or by Marks & Spencer and also debtor and creditor transactions. They also take care of wages for employees and deductions such as national insurance and pension. They will also produce periodic records such as annual accounts and figures to discuss at meetings with directors.
The management accounting function leads the company in certain directions. These are based on the analysis of present figures and predictions for the future. The figures will be broken down in to information, in which the Marks and Spencer’s performance can be shown. As Marks and Spencer is a PLC, the company have to produce an annual report for shareholders, on how the business is doing.
Production
Marks and Spencer is a service industry, so they organise others resources to ensure that the product they are offering to the final customer is made to the best quality and value.
Production links to Objective 7- providing high quality products.
Marks and Spencer provide contracts with other small companies to produce goods. They also keep a track and knowledge of the contractor’s values, standards and responsibility, to ensure that the products are made to the highest standards.
The goods made by these small companies are then sent to large Marks and Spencer warehouses, from where they are delivered to the Marks and Spencer stores. If each of these is not done on time then this could mess create problems, if for example the delivery from the warehouse did not reach the store on time then the products wouldn’t be ready to be put on to the shelves, and this would lead to unhappy customers and so on.
The production department links to many other functional areas of the business, like the objectives: making a profit, increasing sales, surviving, providing services to the community, offering charitable non-profit services, developing staff skills and providing high quality products. The finance department has a link with the production department, the finance department have to ensure that the production is carried out within agreed costs. The relationship between both these departments must be strong, in order for Marks and Spencer to meet their profit objectives.
The marketing department is also linked with the production department because, when new products are created, marketing department have to be aware of this, also as the marketing department carry out the research then they will be able to inform the production department on what the customers actually want.
Human Resources
The Human resources department covers a variety of activities in Marks & Spencer. Human Resources links to Objective 6- developing staff skills. The four main types of work that are carried out in the Human resources department are:
- A policy making role – this ensures that the place and how important each person is, is covered.
- A supporting role – this helps managers develop their work.
- An administrative role – this is concerned with wages, supervision and health and safety rules.
- An educational and development role – helps with development and education in the workforce.
At Marks and Spencer each individual store does not have their own Human Resources manager, there is a Human Resources manager for every three stores. The Human Resources manager is in charge of the Human Resources department of the three stores and will visit the stores as and when needed, but they are based elsewhere. Marks and Spencer believe that well trained and efficient staff will sell more.
Marketing
Marketing links to Objective 2- increasing sales or market share.
The marketing department at Marks and Spencer takes care of both the marketing and sales in marketing department. There is an important difference between marketing and sales. Marketing g is to get the company to produce what the customer wants and sales id to get the customer to want what the company is producing. This department is mainly responsible for three main functions theses are identifying, satisfying and anticipating.
The marketing department will also investigate to find out consumer need and try and find out what customers want, how they want it, how much they would pay for it and so on. The marketing department has very close co-operation between the production departments.
The marketing department links inside and outside Marks and Spencer.
Customer services desks Market research
Ensure satisfaction Information on
Dealing with complaints customer need
MARKS &
SPENCER
Marketing Activities
External agencies
Retailers/ distribution Liaison with government
Maintain and enhance links departments
Administration
Administrators service the work of the organisation. The administration department handles the company’s filing, paperwork and word processing and data handling facilities. At Marks and Spencer each individual store have someone who will do the basic administration work for them like sorting out mail and word processing. But the main administration department is at the main head office. There is an administration manger that will carry out and take responsibilities in the following areas:
- Train and be responsible for the administration staff.
- Advise departments on store layouts and staff development.
- Maintain the communication systems within the company.
- Provide the board with statistics about the effectiveness of the existing administrative practice.
Research and Development
Marks and Spencer cannot continue to be successful without research and development. Marks and Spencer has to able to create new and better products and improve operational processes and develop new ones. All businesses allocate a proportion of their budget to pay fro research and development.
All the functions above help Marks and Spencer to meet their objectives. If these functions did not exist then the business would not be able to continue going on or will not be able to make a profit.
C2 -Organisational Structure
- Marks and Spencer organisational structure shoes the internal framework within a business. For this structure various parts of the business can be directed, monitored and managed. An organisations structure can be displayed diagrammatically.
Forms of organisational structures
There are also different forms of organisational structures. These are:
Marks and Spencer use the tall structure. In this type of structure the people at the bottom are usually semi-skilled or unskilled workers and require a lot of supervision and guidance.
An organisation is decentralised if people lower down the structure are able to take decisions. For example line managers. The organisational food chart can be seen on pages 14 and 15.
Marks and Spencer’s organisational structures
Marks and Spencer’s is an organisation with a tall structure. On the next page there are parts of the Marks and Spencer organisation structure. The structure is very large and each individual department have their own small structure below them.
Marks and Spencer is a decentralised organisation. There are many advantages of a business being decentralised.
E4 - Management Style
The management style of a person is dependant on the behaviour in which is taken in carrying out a management role over a period of time.
The three different styles of management.
MANAGEMENT STYLES
AUTOCRATIC CONSULTATIVE DEMOCRATIC
Marks and Spencer’s Democratic Style
Marks and Spencer follow the democratic style of management. Each store will have a store manager and then up to 5 section managers who will be in charge of different sections of the business or will be in charge at different times of the day, and will be able to make decisions about what they do. Employees are also asked for their opinions and are being allowed to make decisions about store layout and so on.
STORE MANAGER
SECTION SECTION SECTION SECTION SECTION
MANAGER 1 MANAGER 2 MANAGER 3 MANAGER 4 MANAGER 5
Each of these section managers will be in charge of the store at different times and will take care of different aspects. For example section manger 1 might take care of making sure that all the shelves are filled every morning before the store is due to open
E4 - Management Culture
Culture are built and founded by dominant groups in an organisation over a number of years. There are four main types of cultures.
CULTURES
POWER ROLE TASK PERSON
The Role Culture
Marks and Spencer follow the role culture. In this type of culture all the members have defined. In this type of culture the job description is just as important as the person doing the job. Power is hierarchal from the employees position in the organisation.
E5 and C3 - ICT - Information Communication and Technology
Internal and External communication
Internal communication takes place within Marks & Spencer, and external communication takes place between the business and everything outside the business. Due to rapid developments in information and communication technology both internal and external communications have been rapidly transformed.
The internal communications within Marks and Spencer are:
- The intranet, each store has the intranet this is used so that each store can communicate with the other stores, the warehouses and the head office. They are able to send and receive e-mails, send queries and reports and tasks.
- They have internal telephone lines in which each part of the building have three digit codes. Also if they want to contact another store the have to enter the extension number, which will put then through.
The external communications that Marks and Spencer have are:
- The Internet, Marks and Spencer have an Internet site, the site provides information about the business, it gives financial information about the business, and it lets customers shop on line, and gives the main organisational structure of the business.
- Telephones, the business uses these to keep in contact with their customer and contractors.
The impacts that these communications have had on Marks and Spencer are:
Internal
- Communication has been improved within the business
- Been able to communicate with other stores regarding goods and stock
- Been able to communicate with warehouses to ensure that the stock is delivered on time.
- Also if one store does not have the goods in stock another store can easily be contacted to see if they have it in stock.
External
- Better customer service is offered
- On line shopping has made it easier for the customer
- Also ICT has improved customer awareness of Marks and Spencer
The Internet has created another method of advertising
Communication within the organisational structure
Below is an example of what a Marks and Spencer food only store structure could look like.
The horizontal arrows shows that people within the structure can communicate within the same level. The arrow pointing upwards shows the upwards communication channel - Employees are also asked for their opinions and are being allowed to make decisions about store layout and so on. The downwards arrow shows the downwards communication channel.
Marks and Spencer Organisational Structure
Luc Vandevelde Chairman and Chief
Roger Holmes Managing Director
David Norgrove Alan Mcwalter Alison Reed Laurel Powers- Helena Barry Stevenson Stuart Senior
Director of Director of Finance Director Freeling Feltham Retail Director IT Director
Strategy and Group Marketing Financial Services Human Resources
International Director Director Vince Ginlay
Director of supply
Chain and Technology
Jacqueline Michelle Jobling Maurice Helfgott Steve Longdon
Patterson Business Unit Director Business Unit Justin King Keith Bogg Yasmin Yusuf Business
Business Childrenswear Director Business Unit Business Unit Creative Director Unit
Unit Director Menswear Director Foods Director Home/Direct For Clothing Director
Beauty and Lingerie Womenswear
Food Management Structure
BUSINESS UNIT DIRECTOR
Justin King
Technology Trading Product Direction Selling
David Gregory Guy Farrant Fiona Moore Richard Sadler Human Resources
Procurement Marketing John Wareham
Mark Broadbent Merchandising & Logistics Helen Buck
Ian Bentley Finance
Food Region HR Structure David Sharkey
Jane Archdeacon
Head of HR
Performance
Manager foods Resource Manager OCD Manager Food Region 1 Food Region 2 Food Region 3 Food Region 4
1 & 4 Foods Region Food Region
HR Mgr1 HR Mgr 1 HR Mgr 1 HR Mgr1
Performance Policy Manager
Manager foods Foods Manager
2 & 3 HR Mgr 1 HR Mgr 2 HR Mgr 3 HR Mgr 4
Hr Mgr 1 Hr Mgr 2 Hr Mgr 3 Hr Mgr 4
E6 - Production and Quality
Adding value in the process of production
One of the main concerns of a Marks and Spencer is to convert inputs and outputs in order to satisfy the needs of customers. Adding value to a product means making it more desirable to the customer.
Different businesses convert inputs to outputs in different ways. Marks and Spencer will use on the following:
- Project production
- Job production
- Batch production
- Line production
- Continuous flow production
Marks and Spencer’s mainly use batch production as they are making the same products for over 300 stores.
Quality control involves an organisation using a inspection system to test their products, to ensure that the finished products meet the company’s specifications.
In the food department of Marks and Spencer’s they test the food samples for over 107 pesticide residues.
The production process for Marks and Spencer
Obtain products Reliable Supplier
from suppliers
Store products in Check products are in
Marks and Spencer good condition when
warehouses then received by the Marks
distribute to all and Spencer stores
the stores
Place on shelves
Marks and Spencer offer a
Customers buy products money back guarantee if
Products are still faulty
Adding Value
The production process adds value by selling more products and getting rid of faulty ones in the process.
A1- alternative approaches that might enable Marks and Spencer to better meet its objectives.
- Introduce a reward card scheme where customers can earn points by buying products and receiving vouchers e.g. for every 500 points earned a £2.50 voucher will be given to the customer. (Objective 4)
- Marks and Spencer could be environmentally friendly by introducing recycled bags and packaging. (Objective 5)
- Expand the business to Africa and America to increase market share and profits. (Objective 8)
- Give money to more charities e.g. cancer research
Children in need
Leukemia Research
A2 – Evaluating the effects that the alternative approaches might have on the structure and functions of the business and on how it achieves its objectives.
The above alternative approaches will make a big change to Marks and Spencer’s structure. The effects should be positive and Marks and Spencer should receive a positive impact from customers, staff, and environmental health department and staff at Marks and Spencer.
List of Resources
Below is a list off all the resources that I have used to complete this report.
Textbooks
Advanced Business, Needham D, Dransfield R, Heinemann AVCE
Websites
(05/03/02)
andspencerfinancialsevices.com (05/03/02)
