The Rise and Fall of Marks & Spencer: And How It Rose Again

By Judi Bevan

Book Overview

For decades Marks & Spencer was the most successful retailer in the world. Its clothes were a byword for affordable quality and its food halls pioneered ready-prepared meals. Then suddenly they were dowdy, the staff deserted in droves and the shares plummeted - but the annual results in April 2006 show that the company is on the mend. What went wrong and how have things improved? In new chapters covering the Philip Green bid and the Stuart Rose recovery plan, and covering the Christmas 2006 trading figures, Judi Bevan reveals all.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1861978987
• ISBN13: 9781861978981
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 1.0" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Inside look at the glory and misery of a great retail house

Marks & Spencer is more than a British retailer of smart fashions at good value; it has deep roots in the British psyche. Generations have worked for the company or its suppliers, taking pride in its successes and suffering through its troubles. Judi Bevan captures that story in this lively, compelling history, introducing you to all of its executives and primary players. The store changed over time as the founders and their descendants finally gave way to professional managers who viewed M & S as a vehicle for personal ambition rather than as a family institution. To be fair, the world was changing, but the push for profits at all costs betrayed the company's principles. Chairman Stuart Rose has revived the company's culture while helping it flourish in a modern competitive environment. Therein lies a tale that getAbstract warmly recommends.

The fortunes of an iconic British retailer that has some lessons for American firms

While Marks & Spencer is an iconic retailer in Britain and in many other countries around the world, they are unknown in the United States. While they made a disastrous purchase of Brooks Brothers, which they sold off for less than a third of their purchase price, they have stayed out of the United States. I found their story to be quite interesting, but then I am a bit of an Anglophile and made many business and personal trips to London and the Midlands during the 1990s. The firm began as a tiny store in the last quarter of the 19th Century and grew rapidly. The two founders both died young, and it was the founder's son, Simon Marks, who led the firm for 48 years and made it into what it became in the British culture. Of course, we must also include Israel Sieff, who was Simon's lifelong friend and a charismatic counterpart to Lord Simon's driven personality. The foundational principles of Marks & Spencer were product, people, and property. They had long term relations with their manufacturers and in many cases they bought everything the supplier could make in order to assure delivery, quality, and to sustain the British textile industry. The company also had a paternalistic and warm attitude towards its employees. They also bought the land on which their stores were built. The idea of freehold land is a much bigger deal in Britain than it is here in the United States where land is much more available and relatively cheap. After the founding families stopped running the company, the professional managers changed policies that soon got the company into difficulty and it began to decline. While there were short periods of recover, it was not until the current chairman, Stuart Rose, aimed at restoring the core principles of Marks & Spencer and their fortunes truly revived. Very good business biography and an interesting read. Why not take a look at a business that has been successful for more than a century and who operates in a very different way than most American businesses? Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI