The growth of marks and spencers

Marks & Spencer” A truly British love affair” is a major British retailer in clothing and food. It is not only the largest British retailer by both global sales and domestic market share but also contributed to the huge social revolution that took place in early twentieth century. M&S was the first retailer to cut out the middleman, a move that allow M&S much greater quality and control on products and great values. In addition M&S pioneered standards in the textile and food industries which are the still benchmark ones largely used right around the world today. it is humbling thought that the whole of the marks and Spencer name, brand and retail is founded on intelligence. The company story began with a poor young immigrant, micheal marks, selling goods around the north of England at a penny a time in order to make living. He must have a remarkable mind. Having arrived with no money no contacts no prospects and not a word of English. Within a few years He had stall and the later from market stall to chain of shops. But if that were all M&S was about-the ability to make a healthy profit- micheal marks and his son simon brought the vision to the British high streets later simon marks known was the henry ford of retailing. it is thanks to him that public were first offered quality goods of a high standard afford able prices . In 1999, online shopping was introduced to their website for customers to enjoy in the comfort of their own home.   The internet had just started to become known and more and more people were staring to use it, so Marks and Spencer took this opportunity and set this up at the correct time.

In 2000, M&S introduce their healty’Count on us’ range, for the healthier people. M&S 1st ‘Simply food’ stores opened in Surbiton & Twickenham in 2001, selling healthy food, not home furnishing or clothes like the normal stores.

M&S launched a brand of clothing ‘Per Una’ specifically targeting the fashion-conscious women.   Shortly after in January 2001, ‘Blue Harbour’ was introduced, a casual wear brand for males.

‘View form’ and ‘DB07’ another brand of clothing was introduced in 2002, ‘View form’ for sportswear and ‘DB07’ for children designed in partnership with David Beckham.

Mission Statement

Mission Statement is important for any organization. Basically, the mission statement describes the overall purpose of the organization. It helps in making every employee aware of the goal towards which the organization wants them to work and helps in maintaining the focus of all the employees towards the one goal. Marks and Spencer’s mission statement is broken into 3 parts which include:

“Vision – To be the standard against which others are measured

Mission – To make aspirational quality accessible to all

Values – Quality value, service, innovation and trust.”(2)

This mission statement has been kept up since the start of making it; M&S have worked hard to achieve all these factors.  Even though there have been ups and downs during the years they have tried hard and have kept to their word.

There are many companies which look up to M&S and measure themselves against them, helping their company to improve and gain more customers.

Marks and Spencer’s have been known for their quality value, service, innovation and trust to all their customers. Core values are all about doing the right thing which is, quite simply, how we do business.

Objectives of the company:

For reputable name and growth of an organization in today’s competitive market it is necessary to have some aim and objectives. The meaning of objectives is that the objectives that they set for the company should include being Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, and Time Specific. Specific is being specific and stating what the company is aiming to achieve. Measurable means Objectives that believe that can be measured so that they can decide whether the objective has been achieved and Agreed When sets their objectives, they must make sure that they get everyone involve within the objective to get maximum success.

If the organization able to follow objective’s successfully then it can be able to survive in market. Marks and Spencer have also some objectives. The basic marks and Spencer objectives are.

Offering best service, quality products and environment in stores.

Increasing the pace of change and operational execution in the business;

Leveraging M&S Direct by building more channels to market;

Building our international portfolio to grow our global customer base; and

Reinvigorating our brand communications.

Increase the sales by offering better value for money to its customers.

Marks & Spencer long term eco and ethical plan to help our customers to live more sustainable lives.(3)

to accelerate our moves to make Plan A ‘how we do business’

Make our operations in UK and Republic of Ireland carbon neutral.

Stop sending waste to landfill from our stores, offices and warehouses, reduce our use of packaging and carrier bags, and find new ways to recycle and reuse the materials we use.

Helping thousands of customers and employees choose a healthier lifestyle.

Performance management:

Performance management is a combined process that involves management and the employee together to identify common goals, which are related to the goals of the organization. Performance management is the activity of tracking performance against goals and identifying opportunities for improvement -Not just looking back at past performance. The focus of performance management is the future – what do you need to be able to do and how can we do things better? Performance management acknowledges opportunities for maximizing improvements in managing service delivery in the future. Performance management helps you to make decisions about investment routes, affordability and setting investment priorities in the face of competing demands for resources. Managing performance is all about managing results. Performance-based management at any level in the organization should demonstrate that one should know what one is aiming for, should aim to meet the objectives, how they measure the progress of the organization towards the objectives and finally should detect the problems which hamper the problems and how to overcome them.

diagram shows how M&S board work for organization.

M&S board sets challenging new performance objectives for organizations, from the delivery of high quality services that meet the standard of their customers and stakeholders, to doing more from available resources, through to continuous improvement in how the M&S itself operates. Performance management underpins the operations and processes within a planned change programmed framework. Sound practices and targets (which are both flexible and reactive to change) are needed to achieve performance enhancement. The valuable performance of Marks and Spencer depends on the contributions of activities at all levels – from top management policy development through to efficiently run operations.” (4)

In reaction to the pressures and opportunities for improving M&S performance, we need to identify how to define and measure performance as part of a intensive strategy for relevant, successful and cost-effective operations.

Critical factors for success.

Focusing on outcomes that meet business objectives, rather than outputs

Managing performance by cascading down from the top and building bottom-up

Defining and using measures that evolve over time

Using a mix of short and long term action, and selecting action’s that link cause and effect

Measuring effectiveness (doing the right things) and efficiency.

Relating individuals’ reward and compensation with success of outcomes.

Store managers are liable for setting targets and managing performance against those targets and commercial managers monitor service performance from the customer viewpoint, service providers supply performance information. Managing for results requires the management to focus on the outputs of the processes and activities undertaken by the at unreliable management levels. Together these outputs will add to the achievement of the outcomes preferred by the management.

Levels of performance management in M&S

The effective performance of M&S depends on the involvement of activities at all levels – from top management policy progress through to efficiently run operations. There are four levels of performance management in the model framework as.

M&S priorities: at the highest level performance management are rooted in the long term business strategy. Measures at this level are of impact, resource utilization and public service improvement.

Strategic level performance management: at this level the management concern is from an “outside in” as well as an internal perspective. Measures are of outcome, such as volume and value of service take-up, upward trends for inclusion, staff and customer satisfaction.

Programme level performance management: performance management at this level is focused on the desired results of programmes of change, to describe what has been accomplished. The measures used would include those stated in individual business cases. Benefits management would help to determine if these are achieved.

Strategic or operational service level performance management: The management focus is concerned with service delivery and outputs, using conventional service level agreement approaches and related measures of aspects such as volumes and quality.

Although performance measures and indicators may be different at each level, they will need to be:

Directional – to confirm that you are on track to reach the goals,

Quantitative – to show what has been achieved and how much more is to be done.

Worthwhile – adding more value to the business than they cost to collect and use.

Performance evaluation:

The performance evaluation is about managing and improving performance. It should be a motivating, inspiring process conducted not just in six month, but on a regular basis. At the end of every 6 months a performance review or appraisal takes place. Employees discuss their progress with their line managers. Employees are given ratings for the skills and competencies they have shown over the past year. These are compared with expected skills profiles for these areas.

This feedback helps employees identify how they are performing in relation to the expected technical skills and business competencies and reveals any gaps.

M&S evaluation criteria.

Measuring the right thing?

Having right measures?

Measures used in the right ways?

Do you determine the quality of a particular performance metric using smart test Specific, Measurable, Relevant and Timely?(6)

Mystery shoppers. Each M&S store is anonymously visited once a month and twice in the case of larger flag ship stores by mystery shoppers who evaluate service quality.

The procedures and measures used in performance management will depend, among other factors, on the type of process which is being measured. A business process is assumed to be made up of a number of activities which transform inputs into outputs and contribute to the realization of outcomes. The customers for a process may be external or internal. Look at how the M&S is performing in all its aspects of performance management – from direction setting through to review and measurable improvement.

Assessment will help to identify your M&S maturity and the strengths and weaknesses.

Establish where we are now as a series of baselines, looking at performance management at strategic programme, tactical and operational levels. The aim is to have target, measurement and review processes for those things that the business considers important such as product, process, service and staff. All staff has a personal development plan in which they set objectives based on the feedback from their performance review. This helps them to construct a realistic and focused career path. They use training and development to improve the technical skills and business competencies they need in order to undertake particular management roles. This performance cycle helps Marks & Spencer to maintain an efficient, effective and motivated workforce.

Challenges during performance review:

An organization comes across different problems and challenges Of Performance reviewin order to make a performance appraisal structure efficient and successful. The main Performance Appraisal challenges involved in the review process are:

Determining the evaluation criteria

Identification of the review criteria is one of the major problems faced by the top management. The performance data to be considered for evaluation should be carefully selected. For the reason of evaluation, the criteria selected should be in assessable terms,

Create a rating instrument

The reason of the reviewing process is to judge the performance of the employees rather than the employee.

The focus of the system should be on the development of the employees of the organization.

Lack of competence

Top management should prefer the raters or the evaluators carefully. They should have the required expertise and the knowledge to decide the criteria accurately. They should have the experience and the necessary training to carry out the appraisal process objectively.

Errors in rating and evaluation

Many errors based on the personal bias like stereotyping, helo effect etc may creep in the appraisal process. Therefore the rater should exercise objectivity and fairness in evaluating and rating the performance of the employees.

Resistance

The appraisal process may face resistance from the employees and the trade unions for the fear of negative ratings. Therefore, the employees should be communicated and clearly explained the purpose as well the process of review. The standards should be clearly communicated and every employee should be made aware that what exactly is expected from them.

Suggestions:

According to my research M&S already working all the loop holes which ever exists in the organization. Still the management should take care of the customer feedback very strongly and where ever possible should act according to their needs. Just need to improve the customer experience by ensuring fair queue management and to drive efficiency by reducing transaction time and idle time it should be taken care that all the departments of the organizations work in proper alignment. Performance review meetings should be done more regularly. Deserving candidates should be given proper guidance and opportunities to grow so that the organization can utilize their skills to the maximum.