November 2008: Cidermill delivers business finance learning events to Marks and Spencer

Marks and Spencer plc is one of the UK's leading retailers and its brand is recognised for quality throughout the UK and beyond. The company claims that 21 million people visit their stores each week. M&S sells stylish, high quality, great value clothing and home products, as well as outstanding quality food, responsibly sourced from around 2,000 suppliers globally.

Financial relationships with those suppliers are managed from a call centre in Salford, within sight of the famous Manchester United football stadium. The people working at the call centre, which is part of M&S Finance, are proud of the service they deliver to the company and its suppliers yet they sometimes feel distant from the retail front line.

Cidermill was asked to run a series of learning events to help M&S Finance teams realise they play a crucial role in the overall success of the company. During three 1-day events 72 people in small teams of four competed to run a simulated retail company. The simulation was based upon the latest 'retail' version of Apples & Oranges® from learning company Celemi.

At the end of each year every team created its own profit & loss account and a balance sheet. They managed cash flow throughout each year. And in the third year they had to manage a team of staff in a busy retail store. Just the thing to find out how difficult it can be to prioritise scarce resources! How well they managed their retail stores affected sales volumes so some serious competition was encouraged.

At the end of each event teams looked at real numbers from recent M&S financial reports and were asked to imagine running their own company for a year. What would they change? Where would they spend more/less? What might be the results? How could M&S Finance affect overall performance? This certainly engaged everyone!

Most of the participants had little previous financial knowledge and had probably never seen a balance sheet. Yet the reaction to the learning events was almost universally positive. Comments included:

• "Captivating - will recommend!"
• "This is best course I have been on at M&S in 6 years"
• "Extremely useful, I learned a lot."
• "Found the facilitators very helpful and [they] took time to ensure everybody understood everything."

Overall the events proved a very positive experience. For everyone the experience of understanding what drives their own business was enlightening. No longer do they feel like a remote back office. They can make a difference.

During the coming year M&S plan to put many more back office staff through the same learning experience.

If you want to know how Cidermill Consulting could help your people develop their business skills, contact Cidermill Consulting today. Either send us an email or call us on +44 (0)1386 840277

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