Explore how your chosen organization manages to achieve global competitive advantage.
Introduction
The company chosen for this assignment is Marks and Spencer (M&S). Marks and
Spencer is known as a major British multinational retailer headquartered in London,
United Kingdom. The company has 700+ stores in United Kingdom and 350+ stores in
more than 40 countries. Marks and Spencer has achieved global competitive advantage in
the form of four components which are home country, supplier country, customer country
and partner country. We are, in this paper, going to discuss how it managed to achieve the
global competitive advantage.
Discussion
Marks and Spencer’s first store started as a market stall in Kirkgate Market in Leeds by
Michael Marks in 1884. The continuing success of the penny section push Michael Marks
to start a partnership with Tom Spencer in September of 1984. The standard on which the
new company was based was quality, value, service, innovation and trust. The main
business of Marks and Spencer was largely on the sale of food products but however
throughout 1920 to 1940 the company had extended into clothing with one of its utmost
well-liked product, the underwear (Cousins, 2013).
The attention was mostly maintained on the wear-ability and usefulness of the clothing
fabrics. This was mainly owing to a restricted finances. This was observed in the powerful
execution of the lingerie, menswear, and kids-wear although the women-wear section was
deliberated to be demanding. Marks and Spencer have benefited from global competitive
advantage mainly by applying Spulber’s “Star Analysis” framework. The “Star Analysis”
framework is basically used for gathering and processing data about global markets. There
are five components of “Star Analysis” which are home country, customer countries,
competitor countries, partner countries, and supplier countries (Kramer, 2011). For this
paper, except for competitor countries, all four components will be used to discern how
they assist the company in achieving global competitive advantage.
Home Country
Marks and Spencer has been in the retail business in the United Kingdom for over hundred
years. These numerous years hence contributed to their competitive advantages over their
counterparts in the business. They have established a loyal bond with their customers,
suppliers and employees over all these years. The consumers have associated Marks and
Spencer’s products as trustworthy and value for money. Also, being in UK for all these
years, allowed the company to benefit from a home advantage and hence knowing its
competitors up-front. It also allowed the company to have a better idea about what the are
