Strategic Management: Research Framework And Evaluation

Personal Reasons for Research

Strategic Management is the approach which involves continuous planning, monitoring and evaluation of all the important aspects of the organization in terms of meeting the objectives and goals of the organization. This approach is all about the description and identification of the strategies that must be carried by the managers of the organization in terms of achieving the better performance and competitive advantage in the organization. Competitive advantage is earned by the organization at the time when its profitability level is higher than the average profitability of all the organizations in its industries (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright, 2006).

Strategic Management can be defined as the bundle of decision and acts under which manager undertakes the functions of the organization and on the basis of which performance of the organization is forecasted. Manager must hold the required knowledge and analysis of the general competitive organizational environment, so that they can take the right decisions in this context. In this context, management needs to conduct the SWOT analysis and PESTEL analysis (Ansoff and McDonnell, 1990).

Strategic management and strategic evaluation of the organization is nothing, but only the planning related to the feasible and predictable changes which might occurr in the business environment of the organizations. Strategic Management is considered as most important approach, in terms of ensuring the survival and profitability of the organization in this complex business environment.  Strategic management is used in both small as well as large organization face competition, formulate and implement the required strategies in terms of gaining the sustainable competitive advantage.

It can be said that, this is the continuous process which evaluates and controls the business and also the industries in which organization operates its functions. It further involves the evaluation of competitors and sets goals and strategies in terms of meeting all the existing and potential competitors of the organization. After that manager needs to reevaluate the strategies on the continuous basis in terms of determining how it has been implemented and whether such strategies are being successful or it required the replacement (Teece, Pisano and Shuen, 1997).

I believe that strategic management is the wide and most important concept needs to be recognized by the organization in this present business environment, and as a regular consumer of Marks and spencer I choose this organization as case study. Another thing which attract towards this topic is the strategic failure of this organization and reasons because of which M&S face these issues.

The main reason in terms of conducting this research is to understand the strategic management approach and its importance in terms of conducting the business in international market. This paper further focuses on those strategies which must be adopted by the organizations in terms of overcoming from the issues which organization face from the year 2007.

Research problem mainly focus on the strategic management approach of the Marks & Spencer in terms of dealing with the problems faced by organization from last few years.

This research is significant in nature because it describes the common framework through which strategies are framed by the experts and management in terms of achieving the goals and objectives set by the organization. In other words, through the model and framework of strategic management, decisions related to future actions are made and implemented by the organization. It further helps in identifying the direction in which organization can take steps.

Rationale for the Research

The main aim of this question is to understand the strategic framework and strategic evaluation required to conduct the business in effective and efficient manner. This assignment mainly evaluates the strategic weakness of M&S in terms of determines the actual reason behind the problems faced by this organization since 2007. Structure of this assignment includes the literature review on the topic stated in the research question, which is followed by research methodology, and at the end proposal is concluded by concluding the important facts of this paper.

The research question of this assignment “What have been the strategic reasons for the problems Marks and Spencer has encountered since 2007?” defines the strategic management approach of Marks & Spencer Plc.

The objective of this research is to develop the deep understanding of the importance of external analysis and also the requirement of framework which creates connection between the actions of the organization nad factors of external and internal environment.

M&S are the retailers of UK that mainly focus on home ware, clothing, and groceries. It can be said that this organization is the small market stalls on the platform of leading markets. However, good quality goods and strong reputation in the market are the two pillars which help the organization in expanding their business globally (Marks & Spencer, 2017). This organization witness great success since the year 1990s, but because of the increasing competition and failure on part of management to answer the external changes resulted in strategic failure for the organization.

The dynamics and complexity related to external environment directly impact the ability of organization to conduct its business activity. Changes can result in the disruption in the functions of the organization in multiple manners which includes both internal functions and external functions (Ashill and Jobber, 2014). It is necessary to understand that, factors related to external environment of the organization does not evolve simultaneously in the similar direction and with the similar intensity, as effect of these triggered on these entities are completely different. Influence of external environment between the organization are reciprocal in nature, which means, former element influence the environment through its products and services and outer factor focus on influencing the organizations operates in it. Management need to take decisions after considering all the relevant factors of the in terms of enhancing the efficiency and competitiveness of the organization (Muscalu, Iancu and Halmaghi, 2016).

In the case of M&S, there is clear lack of strategic management and strategic development in the organization and this mainly happen because management of the organization fails to establish the evaluation and control measures in the organization. Strategic evaluation is the most important process of the organization, as it includes the establishment of control mechanism at each and every stage of the strategic management process (Cravens and Piercy, 2006). Strategic evaluation is defined as the process in which strategies of the organization are evaluated against the actual events of the organization in terms of ensuring that things are working well. It further highlight the changes which needs to be conducted by the organization in their existing strategies’ and identify the weakness if present in the current system (Vollert, 2012).

Since 2007, M&S face the challenge to revive their two important businesses that are clothing and food, as both the organizations face the high competition from the fashionable and high street organizations (Davey, 2016). Since the year 2008, M&S suffered from the biggest fall in its clothing business, and new boss (Steve Rowe) make efforts to end its reliance in terms of heavy discounting. The fall of 8.9% in the clothing business and home sales was much bigger as expected by the analysis of the organization. All these things happened because of lack of effective strategic evaluation and control of the organization (The Guardian, 2016).

M&S operates in the retail sector, and in this context competition faced by the organizations is high and strong, which means, organization is facing intense rivalry from its competitors such as fashionable retailers and home ware stores. Competing retailers of clothing and home ware sector are Zara, John Lewis, TopShop, etc. Additionally, competitive retailing landscape of the UK is going through another transformation of online selling and purchasing. The sudden rise of online and catalogue shopping and those competitors which offer quality goods at affordable prices, and best store experience for the customers are the major factors which contributes in the failure of the organization.

M&S realize in 2016 that they need to develop the online platforms for their customers who also include sales from mobile phones and tablets. This strategy is adopted very lately by the organization, and till that time result in downfall of sale for the organization. However, after adopting this strategy organization witness the increase in sales (25% by mobiles and 85% by tablets) (Marks & Spencer, 2017). Further organization offer sparks membership club which gives personalized benefits to their customers, and this strategy of the organization also work in the favor of the organization. Organization which always adopts the strategy of offering the quality products which are value for money also to its customers, switch off on the low cost strategy for its clothing business.

The importance of evaluating the external environment is necessary at each and every stage of the organization, because factors related to these environments is still growing and it has significant influence on the ability of the organization. Another phenomenon which affects the business is the globalization and internationalization of the organizations, and the presence of this can be felt at any geographical or economic level. In terms of increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of the organization, decision must be taken by the management after conducting the required evaluation of external environment and also ensure whether existing strategies of the organization are relevant for the changes occurred in the external environment. It must be noted that, these dependencies are highlighted through the important external factors which mainly influence the activities of the organization.

Organization need to develop the open system between itself and its external environment in terms of understanding the relationship that influence each other. External environments affect the work of organizations in different manner such as market position, input supply, looming, trends, and new organizational and managerial changes. Factors of the external environment affects the organization and their functions such as rapid changes occurred because of the technology, economy, legislative, and social; Hurdles created by the strong competitors in terms of both, resources and customers; Difference occurred in different technologies, markets, and cultures. Therefore, it is said that management of the organization must be attentive in terms of changes occurred in the external environment, and also take efforts tenuous basis adopt these changes on continuous basis and mainly involves the adaptation of knowledge and information.

Another important factor which needs to be considered by the organization is the competitive analysis in terms of developing the competitors and new entrants also (Oster, 1999). Before developing the competitive strategy, it is important for the management of the organization to perform the competitive analysis in terms of managing the strategy development process and also ensure its effectiveness and success. Approach behind this is relatively simple in nature and instinctive also. Competitive analysis is the simplest process which analyzes the moves and directions of the competitors.

In case of M&S, management of the organization also faces the threat from the high competition and new entrants, and this result in strategic issues for the organization (Morgan, 2015). Therefore, it is necessary for the organization to conduct the competitive analysis in terms of dealing with the competitors and their moves. It can be said that, this process is important in terms of strategic management also. It is not possible to frame any strategy without conducting this process. Through this strengths and weakness of the current competitors of the organization are analyzed, and on the basis of this evaluation required changes are conducted in the strategies. This evaluation provides both offensive strategies and defensive strategies in terms of identifying the opportunities and threats. In terms of any brand, the most important aim while analyzing competitors is to find the strength and weakness of the competitors, so that knowledgeable decisions can be made by brands in terms of their own marketing strategies. Further, it helps the brands to throw back the threats from their competition and avail any opportunity arises in the industry (Borodin and El-Yaniv, 2005).

Philosophical approach: Philosophical approach related to strategic management ensures the foundation for the effective and positive work environment, and also influence the approach of management towards the motivation. The manner in which management evaluates the external and internal environment of the business, and discusses the same with their employees will definitely affect their behavior and decisions. It must be noted that, level of manager in the organization influence the strategic philosophy of the organization. Formulations of strategies are considered as an art by the top level managers in comparison of the middle-and lower-level managers of the organization. Strategic management is determined as top-down approach, and it emphasize the strategic flexibility as opposed to strategic consistency. It can be said that, not even the single strategic philosophy is suggested as the best viewpoint for the strategic management approach. Additionally, there are numbers of possible explanations related these findings and in this context additional research is required. Recognizing the differences related to strategic philosophy wills definitely enhancing the efforts related to training and development at lower and middle level management (Parnell, 2005).

In terms of this literature review, method of qualitative research is used because it develops the understanding related to human and social science, and also elaborate the role of people in the whole scenario. This method of research is primarily explorative in nature, and it is also used in terms of getting the understanding of related reasons, opinions, and motivations. It mainly helps in identifying the issues or also helps in developing the ideas. This research method further helps in uncover trends in thoughts and opinions, and also dive deeper into the issue.

Literature Review

Methods discussion: In context of this paper, secondary method of research is used (journals, case studies, and books from pronounced authors), and this method is used because of following advantages:

Time and cost effective- Generally, time and cost required for primary research is high in comparison of the secondary methods of research. There is free availability of or very less amount is required to access the published data.

Extensiveness of data- Data published in annual reports of the organization and other published journals is very extensive in nature and it covers the large spectrums of issues. It is possible for the organization to filter that data and consider only required areas which are targeted.

Foundation of primary research- Data collected by author from secondary sources are generally based on the primary research and it clearly reflects the effectiveness of primary research, (Cooper, Schindler and Sun, 2006).

Data analysis methods: Data analysis of the secondary data is simple as compared to primary data analysis, as it only includes the analysis of secondary data collected by author of the paper. The main part of this analysis is the collection of data, and this area required the most attention of the author. It mainly includes the collection, review, and stated conclusions of the findings. Following are the few elements of the secondary data analysis-

• It mainly involves the selection of appropriate data for the project.
• Another important approach is the interpretation of secondary data.
• Cross-evaluation of the secondary data is also an important approach (Johnston, 2017).

Ethics- While completing this paper few ethical issues are encountered from starting to end of this paper. While conducting this research, the individuals whose data is used are not directly approached for their respective consents. In other words, it is possible that finders have objection on the manner in which their data is interpreted by the user. The main ethical issue mainly deals with the potential harm caused to individual subjects and issue related to consent. Secondary data mainly deals with the amount of identifying information within it, and in case such data does not involve any identifying information or completely unrelated to such information, then ethical issues in terms of such data are less concerned.

Another ethical issue is the responsibility of the users towards the researchers in terms of original data, which means, whether user required the permission of the researcher in terms of their data or whether there is any requirement to inform them about the plan related to interpretation of data (Tripathy, 2013).

Reliability and validity issue: Generally, there is no issue related to the reliability and validity of the secondary research. Secondary data usually have pre-established degree of validity and reliability and there is no need to re-examine the data by the user who is using that data. Secondary data mainly gives the foundation for the primary research which is collected to the primary data results and it is also helpful in the design of research.

Following are the limitations related to this research paper:

• Documents may lack the authenticity- Secondary research data is less authentic in comparison of the primary research data, and there some other issues also such as part of the data might be missing and might be there is an issue to verify who actually wrote this document and whether this document is biased in nature of not.  
• Representativeness: Another issue related to this lack of representativeness, which means, there are chances that document or study fails to represent the wide number of organizations and there approach towards the strategic management. This problem mainly arises in the older documents. There are number of documents which failed to survive because they are not stored and other documents contain some areas which cannot be used in the current studies.

However, this paper still reflects the authenticity of the information used and also well described the research question.

Time plan: In terms of planning the time schedule of this paper, Gantt chart is used because this chart helps in visualizing the tasks. Following is the time plan of this paper:

Stages	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6
Topic Selection
Collection of data from secondary sources
Literature Review
Research Methodology Plan
Selection of the Appropriate Research Techniques
Data Analysis
Final Research Project

Conclusion:

After considering the above facts, it can be said that in the case of M&S, there is clear lack of strategic management and strategic development in the organization and this mainly happen because management of the organization fails to establish the evaluation and control measures in the organization. Strategic evaluation is the most important process of the organization, as it includes the establishment of control mechanism at each and every stage of the strategic management process. The manner in which management evaluates the external and internal environment of the business, and discusses the same with their employees will definitely affect their behavior and decisions. It must be noted that, level of manager in the organization influence the strategic philosophy of the organization.

References:

Ansoff, H.I. and McDonnell, E.J., 1990. Implanting strategic management (Vol. 2). New York: Prentice hall.

Ashill, N.J. and Jobber, D., 2014. The effects of the external environment on marketing decision-maker uncertainty. Journal of Marketing Management, 30(3-4), pp.268-294.

Bergen, M. and Peteraf, M.A., 2002. Competitor identification and competitor analysis: a broad?based managerial approach. Managerial and decision economics, 23(4?5), pp.157-169.

Borodin, A. and El-Yaniv, R., 2005. Online computation and competitive analysis. cambridge university press.

Cooper, D.R., Schindler, P.S. and Sun, J., 2006. Business research methods (Vol. 9). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Cravens, D.W. and Piercy, N., 2006. Strategic marketing (Vol. 7). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Davey, J. 2016. M&S reports worst clothing sales fall for a decade. Retrieved July 2016, from Reuters: https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-m-s-outlook-idUKKCN0ZN0EH.

Fleisher, C.S. and Bensoussan, B.E., 2003. Strategic and competitive analysis: methods and techniques for analyzing business competition (p. 457). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Johnston, M.P., 2017. Secondary data analysis: A method of which the time has come. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries, 3(3), pp.619-626.

Marks&Spencer, 2017. Annual Report 2017. Available at: https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/documents/reports-results-and-publications/annual-report-2017.pdf. Accessed on 1^st December 2018.

Morgan, E. 2015. ‘Plan A’: analysing business model innovation for sustainable consumption in mass-market clothes retailing. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 57. 73 – 98.

Muscalu, E., Iancu, D. and Halmaghi, E.E., 2016. The influence of the external environment on organizations. Journal of Defense Resources Management, 7(2).

Noe, R., Hollenbeck, J., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P., 2006. Human Resources Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage, Tenth Global Edition. McGraw-Hill Education.

Oster, S.M., 1999. Modern competitive analysis. OUP Catalogue.
Parnell, J. 2005. “Strategic philosophy and management level”, Management Decision, 43(2), pp.157-170.

Teece, D.J., Pisano, G. and Shuen, A., 1997. Dynamic capabilities and strategic management. Strategic management journal, 18(7), pp.509-533.

The Guardian, 2016. Marks & Spencer suffers biggest clothing sales fall in 10 years. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/07/marks-spencer-suffers-big-fall-in-clothing-sales. Accessed on 1^st December 2018.

Tripathy, J.P., 2013. Secondary data analysis: ethical issues and challenges. Iranian journal of public health, 42(12), p.1478.

Vollert, A., 2012. A stochastic control framework for real options in strategic evaluation. Springer Science & Business Media.