Marks and Spencers has had a consistent record of success and profitability until recently when they were suddenly hit by falling sales. Marks and Spencers were totally unprepared for this and while they were developing new stores and expanding the business their competitors were strengthening.
             Because Marks and Spencers have been highly successful and competitive for so long their was no pressure to improve the business and now its competitors have overtaken and underlying problems have arisen, something needs to be done. The business needs a complete overhaul management needs to be streamlined, the business structure needs to be re-organised to make it more efficient and the marketing mix need to be changed to begin with.
             I shall research into Marks and Spencers mostly by going to their website and finding break-even charts, profit and loss accounts and financial results for recent years. I will also go into Marks and Spencer stores and ask for relevant information such as accounts, and I will look around stores to see if anything needs to be improved such as the layout and the appearance of the shop etc.
             I will look at Marks and Spencers product ranges and the style of its clothes to see if the quality is up to standard and the clothes are fashionable. I will look through the newspapers looking for the latest news and information and I will check newspapers websites such as ft.com for information on M&S in its archives. Once I have obtained enough information from a variety of sources I will read through my data and analyze it to decide how relevant it is to my question.
             I will then use the data to help me reach accurate recommendations on how to stop Marks and Spencers profits falling. The Financial summary shows useful information for the past 5 years from this you can see that profit has been increasing until 1999 when it sharply drops.
             Also you can see where the turnover is coming from so you can see which parts o...