Management Past Structure Marks and Spencer used to be structured under a Functional or U-Form design which works by breaking the company into departments like operations, marketing, finance, human resources, and research and development. This design works well with smaller companies
but with bigger companies there is too much information for the top
manager to handle and deal with. This is exactly what happened to Marks and Spencer. In 1991, Sir Richard Greenbury took over Marks and Spencer for seven years and structured the company to fit the Functional design.
He made the company very aristocratic and rigid where by ?Head office knows best? (The Economist). This created an atmosphere where by the company focused on their products instead of focusing on their customers. Although Marks and Spencer grew and made huge profits within this time, in 1998 their profits fell very quickly and sharply.
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