We had more applications for September than the previous 50 plus Green Mondays, which speaks for the high level of interest in Plan A. With a packed house and a senior audience, including many of M&S’ direct competitors, Richard Gillies and Mike Barry combined insight with humour whilst providing some inspiring takeaways. Here’s a few of them;

• Quality target setting lies at the heart of the success of Plan A. 80 targets were added to the original 100 after 2 years, and at the 4 year milestone they are behind on and have suspended 1 target (biofuels).  This has created a lot of internal confidence in Plan A.
• It is clear that the Plan A team have been conscious not to get ahead of their stakeholders, be they customers or investors. Whilst some might argue that this has limited the ambition of individual targets, it has kept the programme “commercial”, which has retained the confidence of the Board.
• Following on from the point above, it is remarkable that Plan A is now contributing £70m per annum to profits – it points to the breadth of the programme. Plan A is an exhaustive programme, an accumulation of numerous initiatives, driven by both pragmatism and passion.  

After 4 years, Plan A can now be held up as a substantial commercial success, which is an important moment in the evolution of Sustainability strategies. Why, then, did they share their strategy with their competitors? They tell us that they want to go further, but they can only do that if the market moves with them.....