Page 203 - (DK) The Business Book

WORKING WITH A VISION 201

to help meet targets. Browne caused clothes and stores began to look
more of a stir when BP launched old-fashioned. Consumers started
a new brand identity in 2000. The to shop elsewhere, but still M&S did
bright green Helios logo, named after not change course, despite a sudden
the sun god of ancient Greece, was drop in sales and profits. UK profits
accompanied by the slogan: “Beyond continued to tumble from a record
Petroleum”. It represented the high of $1.6 (£1) billion in 1997 to
company’s acknowledgement that it $232 (£146) million four years later,
needed to provide more, and smarter, and the share price dropped by two-
types of energy. It also sent a clear thirds. It was not until the emergency
message that the company was not appointment of CEO Stuart Rose in
complacent; it was prepared to 2004 to fend off a takeover that the
confront and adapt to difficult issues. BP’s Helios logo demonstrated its dramatic decline was halted.
However, after Browne left commitment to finding new types of However, the recovery did not
BP in 2007, the new CEO pursued energy sources. Company responses to last: M&S once again risked
10X changes, such as climate change,
a different strategy, and the complacency with a run of eight
need to be communicated to the market.
alternative energy business was successive quarters of falling
closed down. Any environmental clothing sales to 2013. In response,
credibility the company had built author Judi Bevan describes a the company announced it would
was lost when an oil well exploded traditional business environment invest in store revamps, logistics,
in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. with carpeted executive offices, and IT, and unveiled plans to turn
waiters with white gloves, and M&S into an international,
Conquering complacency staff rules governing punctuality, multichannel retailer, connecting
In the late 1990s, UK retailer Marks efficiency, and politeness. M&S did with customers through stores, the
& Spencer (M&S) took almost the not have a marketing department Internet, and mobile devices.
opposite stance to John Browne at and its executives believed it did not This is the challenge for all
BP. Board members largely ignored need to advertise. Stores did not organizations. Businesses must
the changing UK and global retail accept credit cards, and payment contend with accelerated change in
environments, and chose to focus on was possible only with cash or a highly competitive, multichannel,
internal issues. The company was M&S’s own charge card. global market, and guard against
hierarchical and employees were When rival retailers appeared complacency—or risk losing out to
expected to follow orders. In The with a more modern vision and fresh, competitors who are able to stay
Rise and Fall of Marks & Spencer, contemporary designs, M&S’s one step ahead. ■

Andy Grove Andrew (“Andy”) Stephen Grove before helping to found the Intel
was born in 1936 to a Jewish Corporation in 1968. He became
family in Budapest, Hungary, as its president in 1979, CEO in
András István Gróf. He hid from 1987, and was Chairman from
the Nazis during their occupation 1998 to 2005. He is credited with
of Hungary, survived the Siege of the company’s success; during
Budapest by the Soviet Red Army, his tenure as CEO, Intel’s stock
then fled to the US during the value rose by 2,400 percent,
uprising of 1956. Once there, he making it one of the world’s most
took the name Andrew Grove, valuable companies.
graduated first in his engineering A dedicated philanthropist,
class at college and then studied Grove has donated millions of
for a PhD in chemical engineering dollars to cancer and neuro-
at the University of California, degenerative disease research.
Berkeley. He relocated his parents He also serves on the board of
to San Francisco, and worked at overseers of the International
Fairchild Semiconductor (1963–67), Rescue Committee.