Business Stakeholders Marks and Spencers
Marks and Spencer’s is a huge national business that has made millions. It has 42 stores throughout the UK and there is only 1 in Peterborough. There are 66,000 employees in the UK alone and millions worldwide. It is a PLC, which means that anyone can buy shares in the company, however if some brought a single share they would earn about 10p per year. The owners are the people at the top of the business; they are in control of all of M;S, they have an overall say in what happens with decisions regarding the business.
They are interested in the business because they would be putting their own money into the business and if the business loses money then so do they. They will also get any profits that the business makes so if the business makes more money then so will the owners. There are different types of ownership and they are, soul traders, partnerships, group owners or the government but all of these types of owners have the same ambitions, to succeed as a business. The owners are the stakeholder that has the most influence on the business because it has a controlling say in everything to do with the business.
They started or brought the business and therefore can close the business down at any point that they choose. Owners often take the risk with their own money so if they become very motivated and dedicated towards making the business a success. However of 50% of small business start-ups end up in failure. The Employees do the everyday jobs that ensure that the business keeps running smoothly. They want a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work as well as job security to ensure financial safety for the foreseeable future. They may need training and they are entitled to a safe and comfortable working area.
The employees have the least important say in the business despite arguably the biggest jobs in the business keeping everything in working order. The responsibility of the employees is to ensure that the output is a good enough quality for the customers to stay satisfied. If employers keep employees happy and motivated then they will get a better quality work from them. The Customers these stakeholders are vital to a businesses success because if they have no customers then they will have no money coming in and therefore the business would fail.
The customers would by the products that the business make but if the products are cheaper elsewhere or better elsewhere then the customer may leave because another business does the job better. They want value for their money as well as quality products at reasonable prices. Businesses have to conduct market research to see whether the customers that they are aiming for will buy their products or the products won’t sell. If the business can successfully predict what the customers will do then it contributes hugely to success. Read about FedEx Stakeholders
The Suppliers sells the business raw materials, components or services. All businesses need suppliers so that they can produce their products, without supplies the business can’t make any money leaving the business in free-fall. The suppliers want regular orders because that means that they are themselves succeeding in what they are doing. The suppliers are an influential part of the business because the costs of the business are mainly the raw materials; if the quality of the raw materials is bad then the end product will be bad thus losing customers.
Business will buy the raw materials in bulk to get a bigger discount on them. The Government expect businesses to provide the right products and services that the economy needs to stay stable. The government also want the business to provide jobs for the public so that the economy stays stable again. Also if the business provides goods it allows the government to trade with the rest of the world thus boosting the economy. The government affect the overall profit because they collect taxes from every business after all the costs have been taken away from the businesses income.
They fund all businesses as well so they are entitled to tax profits (although nobody like tax). Conflicts of Stakeholders: There will be lots of conflicts of interest with the stakeholders. These are the main conflicts of interest: Between employer and employee- there are conflicts of interest between these two parties quite regularly because the employee wants more pay for less work and the employer wants more work for less pay to maximise profits. Because conflicts are quite common in this instance groups like the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) are put in place to help to solve them.
These conflicts can be easily resolved in a meeting between the two parties or it could need the ACAS because the problem couldn’t be solved in a simple meeting. Between shareholder and worker- there are conflicts of interest between these two stakeholders because the shareholder wants as much profit as possible but workers don’t want to work harder or more efficiently unless their pay or rewards reflect the hard work. These conflicts are harder to resolve than those between employer and employee because their views are harder to change however many of these conflicts are still solved by meetings.
Between Owners and Managers- there are conflicts between these two parties because both have different objectives to the other e. g. the owner may be so close to the business that they can’t see what the business needs to do to go forward whereas the manager can. These types of conflicts are easy to resolve as both are concerned with taking the business forward so it only takes a meeting to resolve this conflict. Marks and Spencer’s conflicts- Marks and Spencer’s like any business will have conflicts of interest. M and S have measure to try and restrict these conflicts.
The main way they try to do this is the Business Involvement Group (BIG), this is a group of people that are all employees voted for by fellow employees and this group tries to restrict the gap in communications between the owners and the employees via meetings. They have these groups for every store. Once the owners tried to change the breaks that the employees have form one 15min break in the morning, one 30min lunch and another 15min break in the afternoon to one 45 min lunch and a 15 min break in the afternoon.
Every store except form the Peterborough store agreed with this proposal. So the Peterborough BIG had a meeting with the owners and they managed to keep the original break. There was also a time when the business wanted to change the Christmas bonuses but again the Peterborough employees didn’t agree with the idea and once again the BIG managed to keep the old bonuses. Marks and Spencer’s manage to manage their conflicts of interest quite well because of the Business Involvement Group.
