M&S sends every head-office worker into stores 7 days a year — shares up 345% in five
Under Stuart Machin, M&S rebuilt its culture around the shop floor: HQ staff work store days yearly, new joiners start in store — revenue hit £13B from £10.1B.
What was changed
Marks & Spencer, a national institution since its 1884 stall in Leeds' Kirkgate Market, spent years lurching from crisis to crisis. Steve Rowe's 2016 review found the business overly bureaucratic: complex structure and unclear accountability — 'behind the curve in digital', with underperforming food, inefficient supply chains and a store estate 'not fit for the future'. Chairman Archie Norman delivered the verdict in 2018: 'This business is on a burning platform.' Rowe laid foundations; the turnaround gained momentum when Stuart Machin took over as CEO in 2022 under Norman's chairmanship.
The lever examined here is culture. M&S's Closer to Customer program requires all colleagues at the Store Support Center — the former head office — to spend at least seven days every year working in store; in 2025 it was extended so new joiners now begin their careers in a store, for a few days up to a month. People Director Sarah Findlater spent three months running an M&S store herself to understand what store colleagues face. 'Culture is the key that unlocks the next phase of our transformation,' she says.
Machin describes the before-state bluntly: 'When I joined M&S six years ago, there was a very defensive culture and constructive feedback wasn't well received.' Now, he says, an issue triggers 'understanding what went wrong' rather than 'who is to blame'. His framing for the whole program: 'protect the magic of M&S and modernize the rest.'
The results have carried: the share price stood at 343p, up 345% over five years, on group revenue of £13 billion against £10.1 billion in 2020, and analyst Nick Bubb called M&S 'one of the winners of 2024', crediting its food halls, weekly-shop range and stronger multichannel clothing.
Why it worked
Decisions about stores were being made by people who never stood in one; mandated store days close that gap at the top.
New joiners starting in store hardwires the front-line perspective before desk habits form.
The blame-to-learning shift is deliberate — Machin says issues now trigger 'what went wrong', not 'who is to blame', so problems surface earlier.
Culture ran alongside, not instead of, the harder legs of the plan: store rotation, supply-chain modernization and data, on a strong balance sheet.
What can be applied
Culture change sticks when the center goes to the front line, not the other way round: mandate store time for every office worker and let new hires start where customers are.
Aftermath
Twelve-month share forecasts cited in the piece ran to a median of 447.5p, and Bubb judged M&S well placed to build on 2024 through food halls, the weekly shop and multichannel clothing. Findlater took her store lessons back to the Support Center: the point of the culture push is that 'only then can we truly understand the challenges and opportunities.'