An Exploratory Study into Failure in Successful Organizations: The Case of Marks & Spencer

Abstract

Marks & Spencer (M&S) was one of the world’s great retailers, enjoying legendary and iconic status, being often held up as one of the best managed and admired businesses in the world. Its ‘fall from grace’ has been spectacular and dramatic and the company is currently fighting for its life. Based on extensive in‐depth interviews with company managers and utilizing a case‐study approach, this paper provides an exploratory study into failure at M&S and presents this in the context of the wider literature on organizational and managerial failure. It concludes that whilst external factors in the various trading environments affected the business, there were internal aspects of the crisis which exacerbated the situation and the problems.

Management perspectives on country of origin

“…However, the emergence and influence of fashion retail branding since the 1990s (see Barnes and Lea-Greenwood, 2006;Burns, 2012;Kumar and Steenkamp, 2007;Mellahi et al, 2002) has forced manufacturer brands to view fashion retail brands as key competitors to their own products and services. In the UK, this increased competition has been manifest in the emergence of indigenous new retail own-brands, such as Principles, Next and River Island, as well as from foreign fast fashion retailers such as Kookai, H&M, Zara, and Mango, (McColl and Moore, 2011).…”

A bridge between worlds: understanding network structure to understand change strategy

“…The threat-rigidity thesis postulates that when faced with significant threat, organizations may restrict information flow, engage in poor decision-making, and limit divergent views thereby essentially 'protecting' the organization from perceived attack (Staw et al 1981). Mellahi et al (2002) illustrate this case with examples from government and business showing that under a perceived threat organizations often create rigid hierarchical systems, centralize top-down decision-making, limit access to open communication, enact habituated/stereotyped responses, and stifle divergent views. The threat-rigidity thesis applied to the school setting in studies by Griffith (2004) and Rosenblatt (2004) generally supports this idea and also find a lack of flexibility in using existing knowledge.…”

Organisational rigidities and marketing theory: examining the US department store c.1910–1965

“…Necessary change can be blocked by those employees who seek to defend their own personal asset structures, and as a result, foreclose certain kinds of corporate strategies regardless of whether they are necessary (Mellahi et al, 2002). In this way, traditional department store companies largely retained the organising principles of independent downtown stores rather than adopting a centralised operating structure that would allow active pursuit of the opportunities posed by retail decentralisation.…”