Marks and Spencer enters China Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Marks and Spencer enters China Case Solution

Introduction:

Marks and Spencer is a brand with a strong legacy and a story behind, which shares both good and bad experiences faced by the company. To start off with, initially the company was successful, however with time there were changes in the business sector as well as it was unable to use a procedure, which led to the lack of skilled employees as a result, the company’s brand image was affected.

Based on the annual report, its current position has improved, as they are focused on increasing their customer base, along with the increasing their opportunities of being successful overseas.Moreover, the way they focused on their CSR by making a plan for the development as well as for providing help to people, is something which is admirable.

M&S has high quality products as well as it has gained the loyalty of many customers.Moreover, their plan was based on one of their qualities, which is being a socially dependable brand.
One of the main objective of M&S is “to make high quality available to all”.The reason why this is a back to Plan A is because it does not emphasize on quality but, it addresses the natural issues and offers a beneficial decision for the clients.

It can be seen in the annual report of the company and in their “Key Lessons from the Plan a business case” that the method and the way they operate the business is based on their qualities, which are quality, esteem, development, trust, management.

1. Conduct a CAGE analysis, comparing the Chinese market to the U.K. market.

The CAGE Distance Framework analyzes Cultural, Administrative, Geographic and Economic similaritiesor differences between the countries, which the companies should address while creating global strategies. It can also be used to understand the trend of exchange or trade, capital, data, and individual’s streams.

The cultural Distance:

The cultural distance depends on language, religion, norms and ethics and most importantly the buying behavior of both the countries. If we talk about the Chinese culture, their language is different as compared to UK, as well as their religions followed in both countries are different.The main difference in comparing countries could be identified through their buying behaviors such as in China, people are brand conscious whereas, in the UK emphasize on the quality of the service as well as the convenience.

Cultural China United kingdom
Language Chinese English
Religion Buddhism Christian
Ethics Confucianism Christian Values
Buying Behavior Brand appeals, western goods with high quality Convenient location with high quality and service
Other Nationalistic Patriotic

The Administrative Distance:

China and U.K both follow different administrative structures in terms of currency as China’s currency is RMB and U.K’s currency is Pound. Moreover, China has mixed market (a market comprising both private and public markets)where as U.K has free market where the economy is based on the demand and supply with minimum control of government……………..