QUESTION ONE

Analyze and critically evaluate the underlying problems at M&S in the early 2000s.

Mark and Spencer is a world garment industry that faced several challenges in the early 2000s. As a result, the organization began experiencing a decline in profits and a lack of customer satisfaction. Three factors in the business environment led to these problems. They include:

Lack of using management technologies

Focusing on product orientation instead of customer orientation.

Lack of innovation, particularly in marketing the products.

Management is significant in a business as it entails coordinating activities to be conducted in a company. Thus, enterprises employ managers to take charge of the organization and help the business reach its operational and financial objectives. However, M & S used the traditional management model in the early 2000s. Currently, organizations are incorporating the use of technologies in management. These technologies are significant as they influence the management and communication in the business environment.

The first benefit of using management technology is that it enables an organization to manage resources effectively (Ahmed, 2020). The decline of profits in M& S might have resulted from the improper use of the organization's resources. If M & M&S had budgeting software, it would have appropriately allocated the resources and tracked spending and expenses. The second benefit is that management technology enhances communication within an organization. Technology enables organizations to have open communication channels; hence M&S could have easily communicated with all the stakeholders. As a result, the problem would have been easily solved when there was fast and open communication.

M&S was also more focused on customer orientation compared to customer orientation.

Product orientation refers to 'the orientation of the company's sole focus on products alone." It is similar to using a differentiation strategy. Thus, the organization puts effort into producing quality products and fixing them at the right place so that customers can differentiate them from those of the competitors. However, the business environment is becoming increasingly competitive, and the customers' needs change regularly. That is why the analysts at M&S were complaining that their competitors were using a low-cost strategy, which is why it declined customer satisfaction. A low-cost system entails lowering the cost of the products compared to competitors' to gain a competitive advantage. However, the problem at M&S is through customer orientation. The reason is that the strategy enables businesses to thrive as they consistently improve customer focus. It entails aligning the business's goals to the customers' goals. When the customers are satisfied with the products offered by a company, it increases their loyalty. Thus, M&S could not have complained about the strategies used by the competitors as they could have loyal customers.

M&S was also not innovative in marketing its products in the early 2000s. Being a garment organization, marketing could have played a significant role in educating people about their products and services. However, M&S could have been strategic in marketing their products. For instance, being a garment company, marketing segmentation is significant. Segmentation entails dividing the target markets into subsets based on their demography, priorities, needs, and everyday interests (Martin, 2011). It will help M&S in innovating strategic marketing ideas for their products. For example, when advertising kids' collections, they will determine the current fashion that kids adore and promote using kids' themes. Segmentation also helps to deliver better customer service. Thus it will also increase customer satisfaction.

Therefore, M&S experienced three significant problems in the early 2000s. These problems resulted from a lack of management technologies, focusing on product orientation, and lack of innovation, particularly in marketing. All these factors have been critically analyzed and discussed. The measures for solving the challenges have also been included in the discussion.

QUESTION TWO

Compare and critically evaluate the turnaround styles of Holmes and Rose. What type of changes were they trying to employ in nature and scope?

Both Holmes and Rose were elected as CEOs at Mark and Spencer Company. However, there is a variation...…business processes, and objectives to make a company more competitive." (Tapera, 2014). In the management style of Rose, he was precise on what he wanted to achieve. Therefore, he first outlined his short-term objectives. Objectives are significant as they give a business a sense of direction. Strategic management also increases operational efficiency. The reason is that strategic management enables an organization to channel and monitor operation. Because Rose knew the significance of efficient processes, he came with his colleague Steven to oversee operations at M & M&S. Thus; there were minimal organizational changes. Strategic management also increases market share and profitability. Rose was able to develop strategies that increased market share, such as closing down stores that were not profitable. The profits margin also increased significantly as a result of being strategic.

The fourth reason Rose was successful is that he was a proactive leader and not reactive. The former refers to responding to situations before they occur, while the latter controls a situation after. Holmes was a reactive leader. That is why he was making excuses after experiencing failure. However, there was no time Rose made any excuses meaning that he was fast at responding to situations before their occurrence. Proactive leadership also improves cost, so the implementation of strategic cost pricing was successful for Rose. He was also able to manage resources efficiently because of pro-activeness. Resources allocation is significant as it determines the operation of a business.

The final reason why Rose was successful was fostering creativity and innovation (Patel, 2017). The clothing department was not performing well because the manufactured products were not meeting the customers' expectations. Thus, Rose fostered creativity, and new clothes designs were manufactured fortnightly. As a result, the old customers returned, and they also managed to attract new customers. Innovation was also done in terms of marketing the products of the organization.

Therefore, Rose was successful because of his experience in business, leadership and strategic management, pro-activeness, and innovation.…