Tesco is the largest food retailer in UK, operating around 2,318 stores worldwide. Tesco operates around 1,878 stores throughout the UK, and also operates stores in the rest of Europe and Asia. Tesco.com is a wholly-owned subsidiary offering a complete online service, including tescodirect.com and tesco.net. The company also offers a range of both online and offline personal finance services. Tesco is headquartered in Hertfordshire, UK. Its products and services include: Extra Superstore Metro Express Tesco.com Store offerings: Food Retail Non-Food Retail Petrol Stations Home Living Range Tesco Personal Finance: Life Insurance Pet Insurance Home Insurance Travel Insurance Motor Insurance Savings Accounts Personal Loans Secure Investment Bonds Online Mortgage Finder As well as operating in the UK, it has stores in the rest of Europe and Asia. It also provides online services through its subsidiary, Tesco.com. (Bradford and Duncan 2000, 65-78)
Global corporate strategy
The company made a profit of £2,029m in 2005 and continue to show increased sales revenue. This report will give a critical and insightful analysis of Tesco's current strategy in order to discover what makes them so successful. It will analyse the relevant theories of corporate strategy and review how they are used by Tesco's strategic management. (Bradford and Duncan 2000, 65-78)
Strategy - Theoretical Perspectivesa. Strategic management relates to the managerial decisions that deal with the long term performance of the corporation. It determines the overall vision and direction of the company. Before management can implement a strategic option it is essential they understand its suitability. Suitability relates to how appropriate the option is to the organisation, firstly they must consider their strategic position. A number of concepts have been devised by theorists and managers can use them to give insight to their current position. (Bradford and Duncan 2000, 65-78)
PESTEL - This is a technique that is generally used to assess the external factors on the business. By considering the political, economic, sociological, technological, legal and environmental factors it can help with understanding of the opportunities and threats that the environment poses. Together with a SWOT analysis the company can begin to identify how they could exploit the opportunities and avert threats. The problem with this technique is that it only assesses the current situation and does not consider how the environment may change in the future.
importer's Five Forces - This is a concept devised by Michael Porter, it is used to gain an understanding of the current state of the industry that the company is operating in. The five forces are; the threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products, bargaining powers of suppliers and the rivalry among current competitors. Following analysis using this technique, management will not have sufficient information to automatically generate a business strategy for the organisation. However, it will give a clear overview of the current market environment and give some direction to further ...