Marks & Spencer Resources, Capabilities & Competitive Advantage

The main source of data presented in this paper is the official website of Marks and Spencer. The details of links are provided at the end of this paper under the title of References.

M&S are one of the UK's leading retailers of clothes, food, home products and financial services. Some 10 million people shop with us each week in over 375

Technology is very important in the retail market. In order to grow your business, make their business more secure and complete with the competitors, Marks and Spencer has to move along with the new technology. To do this they must manage their brands carefully. Major brand marketers often spend huge amounts on

Marks and Spencer Group (M&S) is the premier retailer in clothing, foods and home ware within the United Kingdom. The company’s commitment to quality, value, service, innovation and trust is a key contributor to their success as a high street retailer in the UK. Their current core UK operations centre around three divisions, food, general merchandise (including clothing and home ware), and the financial services industry. Therefore Tesco plc is the prime UK retailer to analyse and compare growth, financial performance and the financial status of M&S Plc in line with other competitors within the same industry.

This report will demonstrate, apply and evaluate knowledge and understanding of key managerial disciplines of the chosen high street retailer, Marks and Spencer, in different real-world global contexts. According to the report by Deloitte, the retail industry is undergoing immense changes and faces a tough competitive

Marks & Spencer is a large company listed on various stock markets, which a widely spread operations in many countries. The size of operations of the company and high reputation in the

Selecting a business strategy that details valuable resources and distinctive competencies, strategizing all resources and capabilities and ensuring they are all employed and exploited, and building and regenerating valuable resources and distinctive competencies is key. The analysis of resources, capabilities and core competencies describes the external environment which is subject to change quickly. Based off this information a firm has to be prepared and know its internal resources and capabilities and offer a more secure strategy. Furthermore, resources and capabilities are the primary source of profitability. Resources entail intangible, tangible, and human resources.

Porter, Michael. 1998. “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance.” 26 Dec, 2011. Free Press, 1998.

Marks and Spencer (M&S) p.l.c. is one of the largest retailers in the United Kingdom with a selling space of 12.5 million square feet, was established in 1884 as ‘Penny bazaar’. M&S sells clothing, food, footwear, gifts and home furnishings in its 760 stores around the world. The company’s wholly own and franchise stores operates in Europe, Hong Kong, Far East, Australia, Middle East, the Bahamas and Bermuda making a total of 34 countries.

This document/report throws light on the business environment of Marks and Spencers and the analysis of strategic position, strategic direction, success criteria and backed up by future recommendations for the company based on all the mentioned aspects. The frameworks used to analyse the company are:

M&S target market was to attract more people to their stores, usually people that visit M&S has an average income. M&S will provide a better offers for the customers. The shop has quite high prices for products, so not everyone can afford it. That is one of the main targets of M&S. As well as they targeting for different gender as M&S provides women’s and mans wear. Also targeting for people interests, for people who are interested in a cloth with a good quality. M&S targeting their

Marks and Spencer Company is one of the biggest retailers in UK, which it has known by providing the finest qualities of goods and services including clothing, home product, foods and groceries. In currently, M&S Company operates 852 UK stores, 480 international stores and e-commerce platform includes approximately 83,069 employees, while M&S Company is one of the UK’s leading market positions in Menswear, Women-wear and Lingerie products (Mark and Spencer 2016.

Marks and Spencer is one of Britain's most well-known, beloved stores. Within its walls, you can get everything from clothes to quintessentially British food. It is a one-stop shop for many Britons who adore it. Because of its popularity and singular British-ness, the company thought to expand into Western Europe. After all, there were many communities of British expatriates all over the continent who would probably appreciate being able to get a little taste of home in their new locations. You can't buy meat pies and English tea just anywhere, after all.

Marks and Spencer are a well-known brand of retailers around the world. What made them famous in over 125 years are their core values which are: Quality, Value, Service, Innovation and Trust. They started out in England but soon spread around Europe. They are making their expansion into the Asian market and have so far been successful with opening multiple branches in Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. Marks and Spencer provide well over 70,000 items which includes clothing, advertising, packing designs, homewares and company documents. They are most well known for their clothing line

In an increasingly globalized marketplace, some corporations are succeeding while others are failing by virtue of a valuable competitive advantage. Although competitive advantages can assume a wide range of forms, they are typically characterized by a combination of skills and technology that provide improved efficiencies and economies that facilitate firm performance and profitability. In some cases, competitive advantages are readily apparent while in other cases such attributes may be less easily discernible. To gain some fresh insights into this area with respect to the global retailing sector, this paper provides a review of the relevant literature concerning Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco to determine the extent to which their respective competitive advantages are due to the possession of unique resources. A summary of the research and important findings are presented in the paper's conclusion.